Iran

Oxford IB History Ch. 6.5 - Iran

a. explain how Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi modernized and Westernized Iran - give specific examples! why did he do this? how did different groups benefit or suffer under the reforms? how did the people of Iran respond?
He modernized Iran through his White Revolution, which he had massive land reforms giving land to peasants, Nationalizing and Privatizing specific companies and forests in Iran and also social reforms which gave women rights making them equal to men. He did this in order to make Iran become a power in the Middle East, this also got investors and foreign interest from the West.The Tuddeh and Mossadegh were banned and assassinations were put into place. Iran essentially became a politically party which benefited the middle and upper class but the lower classes were hurt and could not keep up, having to migrate to other places were living standards were just as bad. Politically Iran was happy with the modernized Iran, however socially people were upset with his choices and wanted a new leader in charge Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini because they felt that Reza Sha had had plagued Iran by Westernizing it. Business's went under because the government promoted by foreign goods rather than the domestic ones, and also the government never anticipated the modernizing to the extent of which the goods were sent to them.

b. impact of Western influence - again, how did different groups respond? what benefits and drawbacks were there?
The British refused to give profits or pay taxes to the Iranian government for using the oil, which caused the Iranians to kick the British out because this, which affected all groups because of the boycotting of oil after this. The US promised aid, money, weapons and training to the Iranian government on the permise that they didn't become involved with any other country expect for the US. The government was happy with this but not everyone was because of the modernizing that the US was employing, this would ultimately lead to the banning of the Tuddeh party because of its afflictions with communism.

c. White Revolution - explain who led the revolution; why did they revolt? who in society were their supporters? did they have outside help? how successful were they? why were they successful (or not)?
The Shah led the revolution, this was in order to reform the country and make it stand out as a powerful nation. Shah's political parties peasant farms and wealthier farmers because they were not forced to give up land due to the money that they had they didn't have to get land. Western influence. It was successful in reforming the nation and giving the land out and equal opportunities to them to run politically. However the poor became more poor and could not had no living standards and were forced to constantly immigrate.

d. nature of society - explain:
i. religious issues- Replaced the calendar with the Shahanshah which was a Islamic one but didn't hold true to the Muslim countries calendar that started with hegira. This lead to people being pissed off because they didn't want to change their calendar because it was to confusing and didn't fit their society.
ii. gender issues- Shah had women not were their veils, allowed them to become educated, hold high jobs such as judges, vote and be voted in and also they were able to divorce and keep the children. This goes into more of the cultural values since there was a paradigm shift of cultural tradition system.
iii. cultural issues - Shah wanted to change and make a remembrance day, that was dedicated to the Pre-Islamic background of Iran, which infuriated people, who only wanted to be associated with their islamic background.
iv. health care - health care was increased and reach out to everyone.
vi. education - education was increased, doubling within ten years, then more further education was provided to the people.
vii. what else? - Political issues, the people didn't have a say who was in power since Iran became a SPS so once the news paper article was put in place denouncing Khomeini, Shah had to be removed and they did this putting the Khomeini in power and he placed a prime Minster in power one whom he thought could help run the country better.

e. 1979 Revolution - explain who led the revolution; why did they revolt? who in society were their supporters? did they have outside help? how successful were they? why were they successful (or not)?

IRL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12488908
News Story
BBC
Talks about the whole Arab-Israeli crisis. We've learned about Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon's conflicts with Israeli, this adds more incite to the middle east crisis especially 60 years after the independence of Israeli.
It adds value because we just learned about Egypt nationalizing the Suez Canal, now we see Iran using the canal to send battleships towards the way of Israeli though they are only heading to Syria. Though it adds more to the tensions between the middle east because of the growing nuclear fears and now arming Syria.
Limitations of the document are hard to see, though there a Anglo-Israeli relations they don't seem to affect the article at all in making one sided.