# @itsaihistory on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DWCOb_hjt4B
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/61744552-itsaihistory-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/e08e9cd32c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-03-18T17:50:54.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Parker Gordon (@itsaihistory) — https://gondola.cc/itsaihistory

## Caption

🇮🇷 Iran: Before the Ayatollah | Part II

What you’re seeing:
The rise and fall of Reza Shah Pahlavi. In 1925, an ambitious general seized power and rebuilt Iran from the ground up. He financed the Trans-Iranian Railroad entirely with Iranian tax revenue, founded the University of Tehran in 1934, made education compulsory, and renamed the country from Persia to Iran. But he ruled as a dictator who denied the Iranian people any share in political life.

Where is this?
Tehran, the Alborz Mountains, the Zagros Mountains (Paltak Pass near Kermanshah), the Abadan oil refinery in southwestern Iran, and the port waters off Abadan.

Why did this happen?
When World War II began, Reza Shah declared Iran neutral. But nearly half of Iran’s trade was with Germany by 1941. Iran’s oil fields supplied fuel for the Royal Navy, and Britain could not risk losing the Abadan refinery. On August 25, 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded.

What happened next?
The invasion lasted six days. Soviet tanks rolled through Tabriz. The Royal Navy sank Iranian warships at Abadan. At Paltak Pass, an Iranian cavalry patrol charged a British column and forced it back in one of the few Iranian victories. Around 800 Iranian soldiers were killed. On August 29, Reza Shah ordered his military to stand down.

Outcome:
On September 16, 1941, the British demanded Reza Shah’s removal. He abdicated and went into exile, leaving his 21-year-old son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as the new Shah. Reza Shah died in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1944. He never returned to Iran.

Notes:
Farsi dialogue is reconstructed using modern Persian pronunciation.

Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), “Iran During World War II.” Grey Art Museum / New York University (NYU). “Foreign News: Iran’s Oil,” TIME Magazine, June 4, 1951.

Special thanks to Kyle Furey of Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic for editorial feedback on this piece.

Colorized archival photographs are sourced from Public Domain images via Wikimedia Commons.

🎥 All visuals are original AI-assisted recreations produced by itsaihistory for educational and documentary purposes.

#itsaihistory #history #reels #iran #persia

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history, itsaihistory, persia, reels, iran

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