Table of Contents
Togglewhat is the Islamic Revolution of 1979?
In Iran, Muhammad Mosadek came to power in 1951 through the democratic process. He became the Prime-Minister of Iran. Iranian people were strongly opposing the Britisher neo-colonialism. Britishers were controlling the crude oil industry of Iran by then. After assuming power, Prime Minister Muhammad Mosadek had nationalized the oil industry and expelled British officials from Iran. It infuriated the British government. So, with the help of the USA, Britain had toppled the Mosadek government in 1952 and enthroned the Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty.
Thus the economic and political power of Iran was now indirectly controlled by the USA. The CIA of the USA was responsible for setting up the intelligence service ‘Sawak’ of Iran. Similarly, it was also responsible to provide training to police and intelligence services. During the same period, a cold war was intensified between the USA and USSR.
In this cold war, the USA used Iran against communist Russia. In the Indian sub-continent, Pakistan was also an ally of the USA. Shah Pahlavi came to power in 1953. Shah started to become more and more unpopular as he was only protecting the interest of the USA and ignoring Iranian interests. By 1977, the discontentment against Shah started to emerge in an organised way. As the Shah dynasty started to use muscle power to quell the organized protest, the discontent directed against the USA.
During the same period, Ayatollah Khomeini, a religious leader, was in political asylum in France. He was instigating and giving direction to the discontentment of the Iranian people. During the political agitation, the police fired on the political rally. This had ignited the political flare. So, in January 1979, the Shah of Iran left Iran and took political asylum or shelter in the USA. So, the Iranian people had invited Ayatollah Khomeini and he was grandly welcomed in Iran.
American President Mr. Carter could not control the situation in Iran. It led to his defeat in the Presidential election of 1980. Then Mr. Ronald-Regon became President of the USA. But the relation between the USA and Iran further deteriorated. So, the USA supported Iraq to defeat the Iranian Revolution of 1979. For this, the USA instigated the Iran-Iraq War, which continued for the next 10 years.
To conclude, the Islamic Revolution of 1979 had altered the historical narrative of the Middle East.
