Iran

Iran Research Paper

 An ancient country located in southwes tern Asia, Iran has been invaded time and time again by foreign powers. One of the many invasions occurred about 224 A.D, when the Persians, led by Aradashir, overthrew the Parthians. Aradashir found the Sassanid Empire, which ruled for over 400 years. During the ruling of the Sassanid Dynasty, Iranian art expanded, as well as the country's cities, irrigations system and roads. The most important invasions in Iran were by the Muslim Arabs on the Persian Sassanid Empire in the mid-600's (Ansari 408). This invasion still to this day has had a lasting effect on Iranian culture. After the time of the Arab invasion the Caliphs, religious leaders, governed the country for over 200 years; because of this invasion, the Islamic faith was spread throughout Iran during those 200 years of ruling.

Iran experienced a Constitutional Revolution from 1905-1911, which expressed the absolute rule of the monarch. During the same time period, Englishman William Knox D'Arcy found oil in southwestern Iran, and in 1908 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was created, which eventually turned into Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935. The findings of oil led to strong relationships between the Iranians and the British. After the Constitutional Revolution, Reza Shah Pahlavi ruled Iran as the king from 1925 to 1941 (Ansari 404). During Pahlavi's rule, he used revenues from Iran's oil exports to modernize the country and promote economic and social development. Pahlavi also used revenues to finance many new businesses and industries. When the ruler died, his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took over.

In 1979 during Mohammad's rule, he was overthrown by revolutionaries under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Muslim religious leader. The revolutionaries changed Iran's government from a constitutional monarchy to an Islamic republic, which developed policies to control all areas of people's lives. An important change that took place during the time of the Constitutional Revolution was the creation of three branches of government in Iran: executive, legislative, and judicial. The change led by the revolutionaries resulted in severe economic problems for the nation and created strained relationships between Iran and western countries. After the revolution in 1979, the revolutionaries created a Constitution that focused mostly of the teaching of Islam and required that the nation's supreme leader is the faqih, a scholar in Islamic law. The first faqih was Khomeini, this position led him to extreme power and placed him above all other government officials. Khomeini ruled until his death in 1989, when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who to this day is known as the Spiritual Guide of Iran, followed his ruling.

 Independence is one main factor that Iran has struggled to achieve. The Iranians were ruled by many different groups of people through out their history, which led to many different rulers with many different views. For example, in the mid-1000's, the Seljuk Turks, in 1730's Nadir Shah became king, in 1804 the Russians invaded Iran (Ansari 406). Each leader of every controlling group was concerned more about how to take the most out of the land; they just took over rather than keeping the way or life and religion as it had been.

To this day, Iran is still the field of war between countries with unsettled arguments. For example, during World War I, Iran became a battleground even though the nation remained neutral. But during the war, Russian, Turkish, German and British armies all fought on Iran's land, trying to get access to the oil that they had always wanted (Ansari 406). Iran needed to work on how to help the people of Iran as well as make them happy, but instead each leader wanted to be known for taking over the world, which never worked out the way they so thoughtfully planned. During Iran's Revolution in 1978, all the people wanted was their voices to be heard as well as mobilizing groups of poor population. An effect that did not help the poor was the economic inflation of about 30% on basic food items (Kazemi 88-9). Iran's change in policies have led the people to be able to express their opinion to the reformers. In the era of Abbas Mirza, this practical political leader brought in Western advisers as well as sent students abroad, to have an opportunity to experience the advanced world, which enabled the view of life in Iran in many ways different than what was known before as the usual. (Keddie 187).

 Communication for Iran was something that the government had to keep a watchful eye out on. Yes, they were in contact with other countries but was it for the right reasons? Ever since William Know D'Arcy found oil in Iran, countries that do not have oil as a resource wanted to become friends and allies with Iran to share the wealth as well as to make sure that they have some tie to Iran's resources. Iran's international communication with other countries has led the nation to the success it has today, in the twenty first century; Iranians have thoughtfully figured out how to contribute to other countries as well as to know who is in the foreign policy system for the right reasons. Iran is not a country with the perfect communication, but the people have definitely been successful with starting relationships with other countries that the Iran nation can trust as well as know will be helpful in making Iran successful. They could have done a better job on supporting other countries and not changing their mind on which side they would be supporting. During World War II, once again Iran was neutral, but all their allies wanted to use the Trans-Iranian Railways to ship their supplies from the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union; however, this time the ruler Reza Shah refused to cooperate, and then British and Soviet troops invaded Iran in 1941 and forced Reza Shah to give up the throne. This is an example of Iran not being 100% truthful with their supporting countries.

 Iran today is a country that still is centered around the faith of Islam as well as under the idea of a faqih. The country faced serious economic and political problems when looking at oil exports that were reduced because of the drop in oil production in Middle Eastern oil, which resulted from the major boom of selling rates on oil in 1908. Recent tensions were in view between Iran and the United States of America, when the United States accused Iran of supporting terrorism as well as seeking development in nuclear weapons, which Iran denied, declaring that the nuclear activities are for producing electric power, then United Nations atomic inspectors began visiting Iran, forcing Iran to suspend its collection of uranium (Ansari 406b). This is another example of how Iran needs to make sure they are speaking the truth when talking to their allies about their current activities. To this day, foreign governments have also promoted exports, investments, construction of infrastructure, and banking by their arms and agricultural equipment in Iran (Keddie 276). One main factor that Iran needs to focus on is the employment condition of poor migrants. The Iranian economic situation did worsen in the months immediately following the 1978 Revolution, which is now striking the lifestyle of Iran today (Kazemi 115-7). All social classes need to work together to help Iran become a successful society in the future.

Work Cited Ansari, Ali M. "Iran." // The World Book Encyclopedia //. Vol. 10. Chicago: World Book, 2008. 398-407. Print. Kazemi, Farhad. // Poverty and Revolution in Iran //. New York: New York UP, 1980. Print. Keddie, Nikki R., and Yann Richard. // Roots of Revolution: an Interpretive History of Modern Iran //. New Haven: Yale UP, 1981. Print. Wilber, Donald N. // Persepolis //. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1969. Print.