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History of the Resistance Part 1: Iran, Russia and Britain, and the emergence of Resistance, 1850s – 1941:

The history of the current day struggle of the people of Iran for self-determination and freedom from oppression traces its roots back to the 1800s.  

Clinging to the remnants of the once great Persian empire, which claimed a 3,500 year civilisation, with powerful and renowned leaders such as Cyrus and Xerxes, the tail-end of the 400-year-old Qajar dynasty was awash with weak and despotic claimants to the throne, happy to take the crown from whoever.

This coincided with the growth of Russian and British imperialism, with both of those countries setting their sights on the rich Middle Eastern region.   Their paths were inextricably linked and had a major impact on the evolution of Iran, as the geo-political ambitions of Russia and Britain provided support for various despotic rulers in decline, when much of the world was surging towards greater recognition of human rights, including a push towards democracy and gender equality.

From the 1850s-1890s the British and Russians were giving money to despots inside Iran and in return requisitioning land and being given lucrative contracts for resources inside the country. They even made an agreement between themselves that Russia could have their influence unchallenged in Northern Iran, while the British would take the Southern part of the country, with a buffer state in between. Happy days!

However, this went a step too far when in 1890 the then Shah sold the concession for the whole of the tobacco industry to a British major for a pittance.   This ignited and united the country and, for the first time, the Iranian people rose up for their rights, denouncing the Shah’s action and calling for a boycott of the tobacco industry. The women came out in force, urging their men to stay firm and keep to the boycott.   The mullahs also sided with the people and encouraged the boycott from the mosques.   The Shah had to back down and cancel the concession.   

This gave the people their first taste of being able to stand effectively against the Shah and have a say in the way their country was run, and they wanted more.

Many of the intellectuals and political activists organised into a movement, calling themselves the Mujahedin Constitutionales.   By 1906 they had put pressure on the Shah so much that he agreed to become a constitutional monarch and to the establishment of a democratically elected parliament, the Majlis.

This did not suit Russia and Britain, who put their rivalries aside and united to back another claimant to the Qajar dynasty and put their man on the throne.   In 1908 they brutally attacked the men and women who came out onto the streets together to protect their parliament and hundreds died.   The Majlis was effectively dismantled and the new Shah installed as a despot.

A big motivator for this action was that a significant oil find was made in Ahwaz (the Arab part of the Persian empire) in 1908, after William Darcy had in 1901 received a concession from the semi-autonomous Ahwaz authority, backed by the Shah, to explore and develop Ahwaz’s oil. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was formed in 1909 to exploit the oil reserves discovered in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere.   True democracy was the last thing the British wanted to get in their way.
But the dismantling of their first taste of democracy did not stop the people from continuing to push for independence.   Gender equality in particular, took great strides, with independent women journalists and publications, women’s clubs, schools and even universities to rival the men’s.

The Russian Revolution in 1917 changed the relationship between Russia and Britain.   In 1921 Russia started infiltrating further South and moving on to Tehran, but was stopped from reaching Tehran by an army led by a Cossack colonel, Reza Khan Pahlavi, spotted by the British as someone who might be a useful counter to the desperately weak Qajar despots.  

In 1925, with British urging, Reza Khan was persuaded that it was his patriotic duty to topple the weak Qajar Shah and establish himself as the first Shah of a new strong Pahlavi dynasty.   One of his first acts, again encouraged by the British, was to abolish the Ahwazi authority, which had given the Ahwazi Arabs significant autonomy and independence. Ahwaz was absorbed into Iran, making it much easier for Britain to take most of the oil revenue.  

While being encouraged to modernise along Western lines, Reza Shah was also persuaded to close down all the independent institutions, journals, schools, universities, clubs, in order to curb the people’s free expression and desire for a say in the country's running.

However, the writing was on the wall when Reza Shah became closely linked to Hitler’s Germany and in 1935 was persuaded to change the name of the country from Persia to Iran.   The basis for this was that the vast lands which had once been part of the Persian Empire were now much reduced and the Persian name for the majority of the remaining territory was Arya and Iran means ‘land of Aryans’, just up the Nazi street.   It is interesting to note that during the Second World War, Churchill got a concession to call Iran Persia again, as it could be too easily confused with Iraq.

By 1941 the Shah’s continuing affiliation with Nazi Germany led to Britain and Russia organising a coup, as a result of which Reza Pahlavi stood down in favour of his eighteen-year-old son, Mohammad Reza, who was installed as a constitutional monarch and the Majlis/parliament, re-opened.

(C) 2023 Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International by the Link for Freedom Foundation Committee