WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.319 Okay, so if I pitched you a screenplay, a story 00:00:03.319 --> 00:00:06.299 about a man who starts his life as an orphaned 00:00:06.299 --> 00:00:10.099 village boy, literally a stable hand, joins the 00:00:10.099 --> 00:00:12.539 military as a teenager with absolutely nothing 00:00:12.539 --> 00:00:15.939 to his name, leads a coup, crowns himself king, 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:19.440 then builds a modern nation state from the ashes 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:22.160 of a medieval empire, and then ends his life 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.719 in exile while his country is invaded by world 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:27.399 powers. You'd probably tell me to tone it down. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:30.039 I'd say it's too much. It breaks the suspension 00:00:30.039 --> 00:00:32.579 of disbelief. It sounds like a novel. It does. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:34.740 But that's the thing. That is the reality of 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:36.960 the 20th century in the Middle East. Yeah. History 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:39.299 was moving at warp speed. Yeah. And the figure 00:00:39.299 --> 00:00:43.250 we're diving into today, Reza Shah Pahlavi. He's 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:45.409 basically the engine of that speed. Exactly. 00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:47.450 We are looking at the founder of the Pahlavi 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:49.770 dynasty, the man who took Persia, a name that 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:51.329 in the West, you know, you think of rugs and 00:00:51.329 --> 00:00:53.770 cats and ancient poetry. Right. Very romanticized. 00:00:53.990 --> 00:00:56.969 And he just violently rebranded it as Iran. And 00:00:56.969 --> 00:00:58.950 this isn't just a biography deep dive. This is 00:00:58.950 --> 00:01:01.210 really a case study in forced modernization. 00:01:01.549 --> 00:01:04.569 And forced is the key word there, isn't it? Our 00:01:04.569 --> 00:01:08.010 mission today is to try and understand how one 00:01:08.010 --> 00:01:12.349 man really single handedly dragged a country. 00:01:12.810 --> 00:01:15.549 into the modern era we're talking railways universities 00:01:15.549 --> 00:01:19.230 a centralized army all the hardware all the hardware 00:01:19.230 --> 00:01:21.989 while at the same time ruling with an iron fist 00:01:21.989 --> 00:01:24.890 that crushed descent completely alienated the 00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:27.730 clergy and you could argue set the stage for 00:01:27.730 --> 00:01:29.769 the revolution that would topple his own son 00:01:29.769 --> 00:01:33.000 decades later We have a huge stack of source 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:34.340 material to get through today. I mean, we're 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:37.959 talking declassified diplomatic cables, biographies 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:40.400 of his ministers, even eyewitness accounts of 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:42.719 his temper. Oh, yes. And, of course, the historical 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:45.819 records of that chaotic post -WWI era. So we're 00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:48.680 going to cover the rise, the reforms, that brutal 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:51.079 clash with the religious establishment, and the 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:53.319 geopolitical tragedy of his fall. And we have 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:55.319 to navigate the contradictions because, I mean, 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:57.120 depending on who you read, he's either the father 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.260 of modern Iran, who saved the country from just 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:01.969 falling apart. The great state. Or he's a brutal 00:02:01.969 --> 00:02:04.670 oriental despot who looted the nation and completely 00:02:04.670 --> 00:02:07.409 trampled on its soul. The sources are very, very 00:02:07.409 --> 00:02:10.659 divided. It's a story with beatings and shrines, 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:13.680 secret mummies, international espionage. So let's 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:15.939 get into it. Let's start with the soldier from 00:02:15.939 --> 00:02:19.400 Sabadku. Because usually when we talk about Shahs, 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:21.860 you know, we picture palaces and silk. That is 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:24.199 not where Reza starts. Not even remotely. He 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:27.319 was born in 1878 in Lasht, which is a village 00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:30.259 in Sabadku County, Mazandaran province. So up 00:02:30.259 --> 00:02:32.900 in the north? Exactly. The north of Iran. It's 00:02:32.900 --> 00:02:36.400 rugged, mountainous terrain. And his start in 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.900 life was, well, it was catastrophic. His father, 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.639 Abbas Ali, died when Reza was only eight months 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:46.280 old. Wow. An infant fatherless in a society where 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:48.580 family and tribe are everything for protection. 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:51.490 It's the worst possible start. And his mother, 00:02:51.610 --> 00:02:54.169 Nusha Farin, she was in a really desperate situation. 00:02:54.229 --> 00:02:56.349 She was actually an immigrant from the Caucasus, 00:02:56.370 --> 00:02:59.870 either Georgia or Yerevan, territory that Persia 00:02:59.870 --> 00:03:02.169 had lost to Russia. So she had no local family 00:03:02.169 --> 00:03:04.430 network to fall back on. None. She was destitute. 00:03:04.530 --> 00:03:06.490 She had to flee the mountains and take the infant 00:03:06.490 --> 00:03:09.229 Reza to Tehran. And there's this harrowing account 00:03:09.229 --> 00:03:11.370 of them crossing a freezing mountain pass where 00:03:11.370 --> 00:03:12.889 she literally thought the baby was going to freeze 00:03:12.889 --> 00:03:15.229 to death in her arms. That really sets the stakes 00:03:15.229 --> 00:03:17.069 for his character, doesn't it? He's a survivor 00:03:17.069 --> 00:03:20.280 from day one. He absolutely is. ends up living 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:22.919 with an uncle. But he's not getting a royal education 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:25.460 or anything like that. He's tree smart. And there's 00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:27.319 a detail that I think really grounds his whole 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:30.740 rags to riches story. Something about working 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:33.759 for a diplomat. Yes. In 1903, when he was around 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:36.599 25 years old, records suggest he was working 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:40.520 as a guard and basically a domestic servant for 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:43.699 the Dutch consul general. I just want to pause 00:03:43.699 --> 00:03:45.919 on that for a second. The man who would later 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:48.439 demand to be addressed as your imperial majesty 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:51.560 and light of the Aryans was once opening doors 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:54.099 and polishing boots for a Dutch diplomat. It 00:03:54.099 --> 00:03:56.439 shows the sheer vertical climb he made. He was 00:03:56.439 --> 00:03:59.060 completely self -made. And his ticket out of 00:03:59.060 --> 00:04:01.039 that life, out of poverty, was the military. 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:03.560 He joined the Persian Cossack Brigade when he 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:06.039 was just 14. OK, so we need to clarify what that 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:08.479 was, because Cossack sounds very Russian. It 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.039 was. It was an elite cavalry unit that was modeled 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:13.340 on the Russian Cossacks. And for a long time, 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:15.240 it was actually commanded. by Russian officers, 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:17.579 even though it served the Persian Shah. So it 00:04:17.579 --> 00:04:19.759 was basically the only disciplined, effective 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:21.899 fighting force in the whole country. It was the 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:23.759 only one that mattered. Yeah. And unlike the 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:26.439 rest of Qajar society, which was, you know, deeply 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:28.300 nepotistic, your last name got you your job, 00:04:28.540 --> 00:04:31.779 the brigade had a real streak of meritocracy. 00:04:32.220 --> 00:04:35.139 If you were tough, if you could shoot, you moved 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:38.000 up. And Reza was tough. Oh, he was tough. He 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:40.000 was known for his proficiency with the Maxim 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.360 machine gun. He was a machine gunner. And he 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.470 rose strictly on merit. Private, gunnery sergeant, 00:04:45.470 --> 00:04:48.110 lieutenant, all the way to brigadier general 00:04:48.110 --> 00:04:51.269 by 1921. He didn't buy these ranks. He earned 00:04:51.269 --> 00:04:53.329 them in the dust and the mud, fighting tribal 00:04:53.329 --> 00:04:56.009 bandits and securing roads. But we have to set 00:04:56.009 --> 00:04:58.029 the scene for what Persia looked like around 00:04:58.029 --> 00:05:00.550 1920. Because if you're imagining a functioning 00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:02.509 country, you're just wrong. It was a complete 00:05:02.509 --> 00:05:05.449 disaster zone. Disaster might be an understatement. 00:05:05.449 --> 00:05:07.569 I mean, post -World War I, Persia was a vacuum. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:10.019 The central government in Tehran was a fiction. 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:13.639 The Qajar kings were weak, often off vacationing 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:15.879 in Europe, while the country literally fell apart. 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:17.899 And you had the great powers just carving it 00:05:17.899 --> 00:05:20.300 up. Exactly. You had the British in the south 00:05:20.300 --> 00:05:22.439 effectively controlling the oil fields in the 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:24.939 Persian Gulf. You had the Soviets in the north 00:05:24.939 --> 00:05:28.060 occupying Gilan province and actually setting 00:05:28.060 --> 00:05:31.319 up a Persian socialist Soviet republic. This 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:34.370 is the great game in action. The country was 00:05:34.370 --> 00:05:36.850 just a battlefield for Britain and Russia. It 00:05:36.850 --> 00:05:39.850 was on the brink of total disintegration. Bandits 00:05:39.850 --> 00:05:42.529 controlled the roads. There was famine, chaos. 00:05:43.230 --> 00:05:45.730 And Riz Khan, looking at all this through the 00:05:45.730 --> 00:05:47.829 eyes of a nationalist soldier, he realized that 00:05:47.829 --> 00:05:50.970 if someone didn't grab the wheel, Persia would 00:05:50.970 --> 00:05:53.509 just cease to exist as a sovereign state. It 00:05:53.509 --> 00:05:55.509 would be partitioned for good. Which brings us 00:05:55.509 --> 00:06:00.170 then to February 1921, the coup. Yes. Looking 00:06:00.170 --> 00:06:02.509 at the logistics of this, it wasn't some mass 00:06:02.509 --> 00:06:05.310 uprising. It was a surgical military operation. 00:06:05.649 --> 00:06:07.509 It was surprisingly small, really. Reza Khan 00:06:07.509 --> 00:06:09.930 leads about, what, 3 ,000 to 4 ,000 Cossacks 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:12.829 from Khwazbin. That's about 150 kilometers west 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:14.829 of Tehran. And they just marched on the capital. 00:06:15.029 --> 00:06:16.529 And he had a political partner in this, right? 00:06:16.569 --> 00:06:18.629 He wasn't alone. He joined forces with a pro 00:06:18.629 --> 00:06:21.310 -British journalist named Zia Uldin Tabatabey. 00:06:21.709 --> 00:06:23.970 The idea was that Zia would handle the politics 00:06:23.970 --> 00:06:26.610 and Reza would provide the muscle. But the actual 00:06:26.610 --> 00:06:29.589 taking of the city. There's this incredible detail 00:06:29.589 --> 00:06:32.930 about the commander at the gates. Ah, yes. General 00:06:32.930 --> 00:06:35.910 Mahmoud Mir Jalali. He was the artillery commander 00:06:35.910 --> 00:06:39.149 in charge of defending Tehran. His orders were 00:06:39.149 --> 00:06:41.629 to fire on Reza's approaching troops. Which could 00:06:41.629 --> 00:06:43.550 have ended the coup right there. Absolutely. 00:06:43.550 --> 00:06:46.089 A few rounds of heavy artillery into those columns 00:06:46.089 --> 00:06:49.410 and it's over. But he didn't fire. He just disobeyed 00:06:49.410 --> 00:06:51.709 orders. He disobeyed. He opened the gates. And 00:06:51.709 --> 00:06:54.189 then in this moment of just pure theater, he 00:06:54.189 --> 00:06:56.850 fired his cannons. But he aimed them over the 00:06:56.850 --> 00:07:00.149 Golestan Palace. He fired blanks or warning shots 00:07:00.149 --> 00:07:02.550 just to make noise. And a psychological warfare. 00:07:02.850 --> 00:07:05.550 Completely. He wanted the young king, Ahmad Shah 00:07:05.550 --> 00:07:07.949 Kajar, to hear the boom and think, it's over. 00:07:08.110 --> 00:07:10.670 The army is here. And it worked. It worked perfectly. 00:07:10.750 --> 00:07:12.689 The king was terrified and surrendered immediately. 00:07:12.970 --> 00:07:15.970 The coup was practically bloodless. But this 00:07:15.970 --> 00:07:18.870 brings us to the British question, because you 00:07:18.870 --> 00:07:21.329 can't talk about 1921 without talking about General 00:07:21.329 --> 00:07:23.860 Edmund the Tiny Ironside. Right. The British 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:26.240 commander in the region. Yeah. There's always 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:28.620 this narrative that Reza Shah was basically a 00:07:28.620 --> 00:07:30.680 British puppet because Ironside gave him the 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:33.339 green light. It's more nuanced than that. Ironside 00:07:33.339 --> 00:07:35.639 definitely identified Reza Khan as the most capable, 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:39.000 the most ruthless officer in the brigade. He 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:41.040 wrote in his diaries that he believed a strong 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.399 military dictator was the only thing that could 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:45.720 save the country. And crucially, save British 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:48.540 interests by stopping the Bolsheviks from spreading 00:07:48.540 --> 00:07:51.500 south. That was the main goal. Stop the Soviets. 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:53.759 The British provided ammunition. They helped 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.300 with pay for the troops. So they facilitated 00:07:56.300 --> 00:07:58.459 it, yes. But calling him a puppet misses the 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:01.079 point. I think so. It ignores his own agency. 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.660 He used the British to get to Tehran, but his 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:06.500 ultimate goal was Iranian sovereignty. He wanted 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:08.300 the British out just as much as he wanted the 00:08:08.300 --> 00:08:10.699 Russians out. He was a nationalist who took help 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:13.519 where he could get it. So he takes power. He 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:15.920 becomes the commander -in -chief, or Sardar Saipa, 00:08:16.019 --> 00:08:20.180 then minister of war. He's consolidating. And 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:22.439 this is where he shows he's not just a grunt 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.519 with a machine gun. He outmaneuvers Zia, the 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:28.920 politician, within months. Oh, completely. Zia 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.339 thought Reza would be his silent enforcer, his 00:08:31.339 --> 00:08:33.620 muscle. Right. You stay in the barracks, I'll 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:36.340 run the government. And instead, Reza forced 00:08:36.340 --> 00:08:39.259 Zia into exile and took the prime ministership 00:08:39.259 --> 00:08:42.720 for himself by 1923. He was systematically gathering 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:45.840 all the livers of power into his own hands. And 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:47.840 this is the plot twist that I think surprises 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:50.639 most people. Reza Khan didn't initially want 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:52.559 to be a king. He actually wanted to be a president. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:54.899 This is one of the great what -ifs of history, 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.320 isn't it? He was looking right next door at Turkey. 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:01.279 He saw Mustafa Kemal Ataturk dismantling the 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.840 Ottoman Empire and building a modern secular 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:06.620 republic. And he admired Ataturk immensely. He 00:09:06.620 --> 00:09:08.580 saw that as the model. He wanted to do the same 00:09:08.580 --> 00:09:11.120 thing, create a republic of Iran. So what happened? 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:13.860 Why do we get a Pahlavi dynasty instead of a 00:09:13.860 --> 00:09:16.480 republic of Iran in 1925? Who stopped it? Well, 00:09:16.539 --> 00:09:19.100 the irony here is just incredible. The two main 00:09:19.100 --> 00:09:21.500 forces that stopped the republic were the British. 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:23.600 Who preferred the stability of monarchies? Sure. 00:09:23.740 --> 00:09:26.639 The clergy, the Shia religious establishment. 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:28.980 Wait, the mullahs wanted a king? They were absolutely 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:31.559 terrified of the word republic. They saw what 00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:34.720 Ataturk was doing in Turkey, abolishing the caliphate, 00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:37.899 secularizing the law, and they equated republic 00:09:37.899 --> 00:09:41.519 with... They thought a shah would be traditional, 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:43.759 a protector of the faith. They thought a king 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:45.860 was a known quantity. They could work with a 00:09:45.860 --> 00:09:49.120 king. So they lobbied hard against a republic. 00:09:49.690 --> 00:09:51.830 and for Reza to take the throne. Talk about a 00:09:51.830 --> 00:09:54.250 monumental miscalculation. They practically begged 00:09:54.250 --> 00:09:56.149 him to put on the crown, thinking he'd be this 00:09:56.149 --> 00:09:57.990 traditionalist. And of course, he turned out 00:09:57.990 --> 00:10:00.470 to be the most secularizing anti -clerical ruler 00:10:00.470 --> 00:10:03.850 in the country's history. Wow. So in 1925, the 00:10:03.850 --> 00:10:06.710 Majlis, the parliament, officially deposes the 00:10:06.710 --> 00:10:09.730 Qajar dynasty and votes Reza Khan as the new 00:10:09.730 --> 00:10:12.409 Shah. And he chooses the name Pahlavi, which 00:10:12.409 --> 00:10:14.730 is an ancient Persian language, to link himself 00:10:14.730 --> 00:10:17.789 and his new dynasty to the pre -Islamic, you 00:10:17.789 --> 00:10:20.710 know, imperial glory of Persia. So 1925, the 00:10:20.710 --> 00:10:23.429 coronation, he sits on the peacock throne. Now 00:10:23.429 --> 00:10:26.029 we enter the era of his rule. And historians 00:10:26.029 --> 00:10:28.669 usually split this into two very distinct periods, 00:10:28.929 --> 00:10:31.470 right? Yes, the two periods. The first half. 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:35.740 From about 1925 to 1933 is seen as the period 00:10:35.740 --> 00:10:38.480 of the great cabinet. He surrounded himself with 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.179 these brilliant Western educated reformers. These 00:10:41.179 --> 00:10:44.100 weren't yes men. Not at all. Men like Abdul Hussain 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:46.879 Tamirtash, his court minister, and Ali Akbar 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:49.379 Davar, who was the architect of the entire modern 00:10:49.379 --> 00:10:52.559 judicial system. They were the brains. They drafted 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:54.980 the laws, designed the institutions, formulated 00:10:54.980 --> 00:10:57.720 the plans. It was, if you can imagine, a kind 00:10:57.720 --> 00:10:59.860 of collaborative dictatorship. But then something 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:03.200 changes. The second half, from 1933 to 1941, 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:06.580 gets much darker. It does. That's when the paranoia 00:11:06.580 --> 00:11:08.580 really sets in. He starts seeing plots everywhere. 00:11:08.740 --> 00:11:11.059 He becomes convinced his ministers are conspiring 00:11:11.059 --> 00:11:13.080 against him with foreign powers. And what happens 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:15.399 to those brilliant men like Timurtaş and Devar? 00:11:15.659 --> 00:11:18.179 Timurtaş dies in prison, almost certainly murdered 00:11:18.179 --> 00:11:21.080 on the Shah's orders. Devar, fearing the Shah's 00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:22.639 wrath and seeing what happened to his friend, 00:11:22.779 --> 00:11:25.220 commits suicide. So he ends up ruling alone. 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:27.700 Completely alone, trusting no one, surrounded 00:11:27.700 --> 00:11:29.899 by terrified sycophants who would never dare 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:31.960 to question him. It becomes a one -man show. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:34.940 But throughout both of these periods, the drive 00:11:34.940 --> 00:11:38.559 for modernization is just relentless. Let's talk 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:41.870 infrastructure. The Trans -Iranian Railway. This 00:11:41.870 --> 00:11:43.950 is a project that European engineers had said 00:11:43.950 --> 00:11:46.529 was basically impossible. It was a monumental 00:11:46.529 --> 00:11:50.710 engineering feat. We're talking 3 ,392 kilometers. 00:11:51.090 --> 00:11:52.950 Yeah. They had to cross the Alborz Mountains 00:11:52.950 --> 00:11:54.909 in the north and the Zagros Mountains in the 00:11:54.909 --> 00:11:57.590 south. I mean, hundreds of tunnels and bridges 00:11:57.590 --> 00:11:59.629 through some of the most difficult terrain on 00:11:59.629 --> 00:12:02.049 Earth. Connecting the Caspian Sea all the way 00:12:02.049 --> 00:12:04.470 down to the Persian Gulf. Right. But the funding 00:12:04.470 --> 00:12:07.669 of it is the real story. Reza Shah had one rule. 00:12:08.169 --> 00:12:11.490 No foreign loans. He'd seen how the Qajars sold 00:12:11.490 --> 00:12:13.789 off the country's assets to pay their debts to 00:12:13.789 --> 00:12:15.610 Europe. So how do you pay for the most expensive 00:12:15.610 --> 00:12:17.669 project in the country's history without a loan? 00:12:17.889 --> 00:12:20.730 You squeeze your own population. He instituted 00:12:20.730 --> 00:12:23.929 a massive new tax on two things, sugar and tea. 00:12:24.250 --> 00:12:26.529 The two things every single Iranian, no matter 00:12:26.529 --> 00:12:29.070 how poor, consumes all day, every day. Exactly. 00:12:29.210 --> 00:12:31.529 It was a brutally regressive tax. It hit the 00:12:31.529 --> 00:12:33.929 peasantry the hardest. He literally built the 00:12:33.929 --> 00:12:36.070 railway on the caffeine and sugar habits of the 00:12:36.070 --> 00:12:38.629 poor. It's brutal economics, but it worked. It 00:12:38.629 --> 00:12:41.210 worked. The railway was fully paid for by domestic 00:12:41.210 --> 00:12:44.320 revenue, which was unprecedented. No foreign 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:46.440 debt. Critics, though, always pointed out the 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:48.919 route. It went north -south. Yes, and that was 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:51.419 a huge point of contention. A commercial railway, 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:55.000 logically, should have gone east -west, you know, 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.720 to connect Iran to Turkey and India for trade. 00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:00.679 But the north -south route... It looks suspiciously 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:02.659 like a military supply line for the British. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.379 A way to get troops and material from the ports 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:07.700 in the Gulf up to the Soviet border. But Reza 00:13:07.700 --> 00:13:10.480 Shah defended it. He defended it as a tool for 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:13.730 internal unity. He could now move the army rapidly 00:13:13.730 --> 00:13:16.769 from Tehran to the rebellious tribes in the south 00:13:16.769 --> 00:13:19.529 or the north. For him, it was always about control. 00:13:19.750 --> 00:13:21.870 And alongside the hardware, he's updating the 00:13:21.870 --> 00:13:24.649 country's software, the financial system. Bank 00:13:24.649 --> 00:13:27.649 Meli, the National Bank of Iran. This is huge. 00:13:27.909 --> 00:13:30.769 Before this, the Imperial Bank of Persia, which 00:13:30.769 --> 00:13:32.870 is a British institution. Has British Bank printed 00:13:32.870 --> 00:13:36.809 Iran's money? Yes. Can you imagine the national 00:13:36.809 --> 00:13:40.470 humiliation of having a foreign private bank 00:13:40.470 --> 00:13:44.190 controlling your currency? Reza Shah broke that 00:13:44.190 --> 00:13:46.669 monopoly, created a central bank and assorted 00:13:46.669 --> 00:13:48.809 financial sovereignty for the first time. And 00:13:48.809 --> 00:13:51.549 then education, the University of Tehran. The 00:13:51.549 --> 00:13:54.450 first modern secular university in the country's 00:13:54.450 --> 00:13:57.990 history. He wanted to create a new class of technocrats, 00:13:57.990 --> 00:14:01.309 engineers, doctors, lawyers who... didn't go 00:14:01.309 --> 00:14:03.889 through the religious madrasas. He wanted them 00:14:03.889 --> 00:14:06.470 loyal to the state, not the clergy. Which brings 00:14:06.470 --> 00:14:09.769 us to 1935 and this decision that seems to have 00:14:09.769 --> 00:14:12.529 confused the entire world at the time. He asks 00:14:12.529 --> 00:14:14.830 everyone to stop calling the country Persia. 00:14:14.889 --> 00:14:17.570 The name change, yes. So in the West, the country 00:14:17.570 --> 00:14:19.929 was always known as Persia. But internally, among 00:14:19.929 --> 00:14:21.490 the people themselves, they had always called 00:14:21.490 --> 00:14:24.350 their land Iran. And Persia is specific, isn't 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:26.549 it? It's very specific. It refers to the farthest 00:14:26.549 --> 00:14:28.450 province, the homeland of the ethnic Persians. 00:14:29.019 --> 00:14:30.899 But the country is a mosaic of different peoples. 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:35.019 Kurds, Azeris, Baluchis, Lurs, Arabs. So Iran 00:14:35.019 --> 00:14:37.299 was a more inclusive term. That was the idea. 00:14:38.139 --> 00:14:41.879 Iran means land of the Aryans. He wanted a name 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:44.240 that unified all these disparate tribes under 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:48.200 one ancient pre -Islamic identity. It was a nation 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:50.809 -building exercise. We are not just Persians 00:14:50.809 --> 00:14:54.149 or Kurds. We are all Iranians. But this nation 00:14:54.149 --> 00:14:57.070 building had a very, very sharp edge. You can't 00:14:57.070 --> 00:14:59.590 modernize a deeply traditional religious society 00:14:59.590 --> 00:15:02.350 overnight without breaking some bones. And this 00:15:02.350 --> 00:15:04.309 is where we get to what you could call his war 00:15:04.309 --> 00:15:07.009 on tradition. This is really the defining conflict 00:15:07.009 --> 00:15:10.049 of his entire reign. Reza Shah believed, to his 00:15:10.049 --> 00:15:12.389 core, that the clergy were the anchor holding 00:15:12.389 --> 00:15:14.659 the ship of state back. He didn't just want to 00:15:14.659 --> 00:15:16.840 separate church and state. He wanted to completely 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:19.120 subjugate the church to the state. So he starts 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:21.379 chipping away at their power piece by piece. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:24.799 He bans private religious schools. He nationalizes 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:28.039 the religious endowments. These were vast tracts 00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:30.539 of land owned by shrines and mosques that generated 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:32.980 huge income for the mullahs. So he's taking away 00:15:32.980 --> 00:15:35.279 their money. He seizes it and says, we're using 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:37.840 this to fund state schools and hospitals. He 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:39.860 hits them directly in the wallet. And then he 00:15:39.860 --> 00:15:41.799 hits them in the courtroom. Devar's judicial 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:45.179 reforms. They replace Sharia law with the civil 00:15:45.179 --> 00:15:47.299 code modeled on the French and Swiss systems. 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:50.159 Suddenly, the mullahs aren't the judges anymore. 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:52.539 They lose their social authority, their role 00:15:52.539 --> 00:15:54.740 as arbiters of daily life. But for the average 00:15:54.740 --> 00:15:57.120 person, the most shocking change was visual. 00:15:57.340 --> 00:15:59.700 It was the dress codes. The uniformity of dress 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:02.470 law. He forced men to abandon their traditional 00:16:02.470 --> 00:16:05.370 tribal robes and turbans and wear Western -style 00:16:05.370 --> 00:16:08.769 suits and the Pahlavi hat, a cylindrical brimmed 00:16:08.769 --> 00:16:11.169 hat. Which seems like a minor thing to us now, 00:16:11.429 --> 00:16:14.909 but for a devout Muslim man, a brim is a serious 00:16:14.909 --> 00:16:17.549 problem. It is. You can't touch your forehead 00:16:17.549 --> 00:16:19.330 to the ground during prayer if you're wearing 00:16:19.330 --> 00:16:22.169 a brimmed hat. Many people saw it as a deliberate, 00:16:22.350 --> 00:16:24.629 calculated attack on their ability to practice 00:16:24.629 --> 00:16:26.850 their faith. And then the real earthquake, the 00:16:26.850 --> 00:16:30.440 unveiling. Kashf -e Hijab, 1936. He banned the 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:32.720 shador and all forms of headscarves for women. 00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:34.759 And it wasn't a choice. It was a government mandate. 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:36.899 This is one of the most controversial policies 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:39.299 in modern Iranian history. Because it's so contradictory. 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:43.019 It is. On one hand, it forcibly liberated women 00:16:43.019 --> 00:16:45.399 from seclusion. They could go to university. 00:16:45.419 --> 00:16:47.940 They could enter the workforce. For a certain 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:51.120 class of urban, Western -oriented women, this 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:53.700 was freedom. But for the vast majority of traditional 00:16:53.700 --> 00:16:56.639 women. It was a profound trauma. Police were 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.659 ordered to patrol the streets and physically 00:16:58.659 --> 00:17:02.500 rip veils off of women. There are countless stories 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:05.799 of women who didn't leave their homes for years, 00:17:06.019 --> 00:17:09.059 literally years, because they couldn't bear the 00:17:09.059 --> 00:17:11.539 shame and humiliation of going out uncovered. 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:14.640 It created this massive psychological rift between 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:17.099 the state and the people. There is one specific 00:17:17.099 --> 00:17:20.269 incident that just perfectly. captures the violence 00:17:20.269 --> 00:17:23.130 of this conflict the incident at the shrine in 00:17:23.130 --> 00:17:25.349 kum we have to walk through this because it plays 00:17:25.349 --> 00:17:28.329 out like a scene from a movie it was march 1928 00:17:28.329 --> 00:17:31.589 during the nowruz the new year holidays reza 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:34.630 shah's wife the queen went on a pilgrimage to 00:17:34.630 --> 00:17:37.049 the fatima masuma shrine in kum is one of the 00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:39.069 holiest sites in shia islam okay she was in a 00:17:39.069 --> 00:17:40.829 special gallery and apparently her veil slipped 00:17:40.829 --> 00:17:43.230 or she wasn't covered properly according to the 00:17:43.230 --> 00:17:45.529 very strict standards the clerics there and a 00:17:45.529 --> 00:17:47.650 cleric actually calls her out on it in public 00:17:48.170 --> 00:17:50.369 A preacher shouted at her from the pulpit, incited 00:17:50.369 --> 00:17:53.069 the crowd, criticized her for exposing her face. 00:17:53.250 --> 00:17:56.369 The queen was humiliated and terrified. Word 00:17:56.369 --> 00:17:59.029 got back to Tehran very, very quickly. Now, most 00:17:59.029 --> 00:18:02.450 kings would send a letter or have the guy arrested 00:18:02.450 --> 00:18:05.970 later, quietly. Not Reza Shah. He got into his 00:18:05.970 --> 00:18:08.190 car with a detachment of his guard. He drove 00:18:08.190 --> 00:18:11.569 to Qom himself. He marched into the shrine. And 00:18:11.569 --> 00:18:14.390 this is critical. He didn't take his boots off. 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:17.180 Which is a massive desecration of a holy space. 00:18:17.500 --> 00:18:19.900 It's a calculated insult. He walked in with his 00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:22.039 military boots and his riding crop. And he finds 00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:23.940 the cleric. He found the cleric who insulted 00:18:23.940 --> 00:18:26.660 the queen, and he personally beat him. He whipped 00:18:26.660 --> 00:18:28.079 him and kicked him in front of all the other 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:30.180 pilgrims. He had him dragged out and arrested. 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:33.819 The image of the Shah in military boots beating 00:18:33.819 --> 00:18:36.720 a mullah inside a holy shrine, that must have 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:38.839 shattered every remaining taboo. It signaled 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:41.240 that there was no sanctuary. The Shah was the 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:44.180 supreme power. Even God's house was not off limits 00:18:44.180 --> 00:18:46.660 to his authority. But that violence only escalated, 00:18:46.700 --> 00:18:49.539 didn't it? We have to mention the Goharshad Mosque 00:18:49.539 --> 00:18:52.819 Rebellion in 1935. This was the popular backlash 00:18:52.819 --> 00:18:55.819 to the dress codes. In Mashhad, another holy 00:18:55.819 --> 00:18:59.619 city, huge crowds gathered in the Goharshad Mosque 00:18:59.619 --> 00:19:02.579 to protest the Pahlavi Hat and government corruption. 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:05.839 They locked themselves in, thinking the Shah 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:08.299 wouldn't dare attack such a sacred site. They 00:19:08.299 --> 00:19:10.619 were wrong. They were tragically wrong. He sent 00:19:10.619 --> 00:19:13.019 in the army. Troops broke down the doors and 00:19:13.019 --> 00:19:15.200 opened fire with machine guns on the protesters 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:18.599 inside the shrine. A massacre. A massacre. The 00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:21.759 official death toll was in the dozens, but eyewitnesses 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:24.059 said it was hundreds. The bodies were loaded 00:19:24.059 --> 00:19:26.240 onto trucks at night and buried in secret mass 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:29.720 graves. It proved, beyond any doubt, that this 00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:31.900 modernization would be implemented at the barrel 00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:34.680 of a gun. So he has the clergy against him. He 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:36.859 has many of the tribes against him because he 00:19:36.859 --> 00:19:39.519 disarmed them and crushed their power. But he 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:41.539 believes he's building a strong, independent 00:19:41.539 --> 00:19:44.119 state that can finally stand up to the world 00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:46.880 powers. Which brings us to his foreign policy. 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:49.779 Reza Shah spent his entire career trying to balance 00:19:49.779 --> 00:19:52.119 the two great predators, the British and the 00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:56.160 Russians. He hated them both. In 1932, he famously 00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:58.819 canceled the Darcy oil concession. He literally 00:19:58.819 --> 00:20:01.680 threw the document into a fireplace during a 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:03.920 cabinet meeting. A bit of theater. A lot of theater. 00:20:04.059 --> 00:20:06.240 He wanted to demand a better deal from the British. 00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:09.160 He got a slight increase in royalties from about 00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:12.380 16 percent to 20 or 21 percent. But he realized 00:20:12.380 --> 00:20:14.480 he couldn't fight them alone. He needed a friend. 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:17.920 He needed a third power. And in the 1930s, the 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:20.359 rising power that had no colonial history in 00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:23.720 Iran that seemed like a viable alternative was 00:20:23.720 --> 00:20:26.200 Germany. This is where it gets really dark. The 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:28.339 Nazi connection. It wasn't just about trade, 00:20:28.440 --> 00:20:30.900 although Germany did become Iran's biggest trading 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:34.619 partner by the late 30s. It was it was an ideological 00:20:34.619 --> 00:20:37.859 seduction. The Nazis launched a massive propaganda 00:20:37.859 --> 00:20:40.740 campaign targeting Iranians. Playing up the Aryan 00:20:40.740 --> 00:20:43.380 myth. Exactly. The shared Aryan heritage. They 00:20:43.380 --> 00:20:45.539 sent that library, didn't they? They did. Hitler 00:20:45.539 --> 00:20:49.460 sent a library of 7 ,500 books to Tehran, many 00:20:49.460 --> 00:20:51.599 of them focused on eugenics and racial theory, 00:20:51.779 --> 00:20:54.400 all designed to prove that Iranians and Germans 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:57.920 were, you know, long -lost racial cousins. And 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:01.000 they made it official. The Nuremberg Laws. which 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.759 stripped rights from non -Aryans, officially 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:06.779 exempted Iranians. They were declared pure -blooded 00:21:06.779 --> 00:21:09.099 Aryans. Can you imagine the psychological impact 00:21:09.099 --> 00:21:10.900 of that? You've been treated like dirt by the 00:21:10.900 --> 00:21:13.599 British and Russians for a century, called natives. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:16.240 And then the most powerful military machine in 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:18.920 Europe tells you, actually, you are our equals. 00:21:19.059 --> 00:21:21.480 You are part of the master race. It was a massive 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:24.900 ego boost. And I think it blinded Reza Shah to 00:21:24.900 --> 00:21:27.500 the reality of the situation. He filled his ministries 00:21:27.500 --> 00:21:29.220 with German advisors. He thought he was being 00:21:29.220 --> 00:21:31.299 clever. playing the British against the Germans. 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:34.259 But then June 1941 happened, Hitler invades the 00:21:34.259 --> 00:21:37.420 Soviet Union, and suddenly the entire geopolitical 00:21:37.420 --> 00:21:40.500 map just flips upside down. Overnight, his two 00:21:40.500 --> 00:21:43.339 mortal enemies, Britain and the Soviet Union, 00:21:43.380 --> 00:21:46.059 become allies against Hitler. And they look at 00:21:46.059 --> 00:21:47.900 the map and they realize they have a huge problem. 00:21:48.180 --> 00:21:50.740 How do the British and Americans get supplies 00:21:50.740 --> 00:21:53.259 to the Soviets to keep them in the war? The Arctic 00:21:53.259 --> 00:21:55.559 route. is too dangerous. They're old bayou boats. 00:21:55.700 --> 00:21:59.599 Yeah. So the only safe, reliable land route is 00:21:59.599 --> 00:22:02.339 through Iran. Using his railway. Using his brand 00:22:02.339 --> 00:22:04.880 new trans -Iranian railway. It became the bridge 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:07.440 of victory. They needed that railway. And they 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:10.140 were terrified of the thousands of German nationals 00:22:10.140 --> 00:22:12.579 working in Tehran. They issued an ultimatum. 00:22:12.579 --> 00:22:15.799 Kick out the Germans. And Reza Shah. He stalled. 00:22:15.940 --> 00:22:17.940 He declared neutrality. He tried to play for 00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:20.519 time. He completely miscalculated. He thought 00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:22.599 the Germans might still win the war or that the 00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:24.980 British and Soviets were bluffing. August 25th, 00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:27.960 1941. They were not bluffing. A coordinated surprise 00:22:27.960 --> 00:22:30.359 invasion. The Soviets crossed the border from 00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:32.299 the north. The British invaded from the south 00:22:32.299 --> 00:22:34.559 and the west. And this is the moment of truth 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:37.200 for Reza Shah's entire life's work. He had spent 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:39.819 20 years in the nation's treasure building a 00:22:39.819 --> 00:22:42.940 modern army. He bought tanks, planes, artillery. 00:22:43.240 --> 00:22:45.200 This was supposed to be the force. that defended 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:47.180 Iran's sovereignty. And it collapsed in about 00:22:47.180 --> 00:22:49.559 three days. Three days, the whole thing. A total 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:52.539 humiliating collapse. The generals were either 00:22:52.539 --> 00:22:56.359 incompetent or compromised. The conscripted soldiers 00:22:56.359 --> 00:22:59.519 had no morale. I mean, why would they die for 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:02.579 a Shah who taxed their tea and beat their mullahs? 00:23:02.619 --> 00:23:05.460 They deserted en masse. There's a scene from 00:23:05.460 --> 00:23:08.099 the palace during the invasion that's just heartbreaking 00:23:08.099 --> 00:23:11.079 and terrifying. The Cain incident. This is the 00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:14.829 end. Reza Shah has summoned his commanders. He's 00:23:14.829 --> 00:23:16.990 found out that the army has just dissolved and 00:23:16.990 --> 00:23:19.369 that they're preparing to surrender Tehran without 00:23:19.369 --> 00:23:21.430 a fight. He's meeting with General Nakhchavan, 00:23:21.650 --> 00:23:23.730 his minister of war. The man responsible for 00:23:23.730 --> 00:23:25.789 the defense of the nation. And Reza Shah just 00:23:25.789 --> 00:23:28.069 loses control. He starts screaming. He physically 00:23:28.069 --> 00:23:30.490 attacks the general. He beats him with his heavy 00:23:30.490 --> 00:23:32.990 walking cane over and over again. And he rips 00:23:32.990 --> 00:23:35.069 the epaulets off his uniform with his own hands. 00:23:35.309 --> 00:23:38.109 He ordered him to be dragged away and court -martialed 00:23:38.109 --> 00:23:40.390 for treason. It's the rage of a man watching 00:23:40.390 --> 00:23:43.150 his entire legacy turn to dust in front of his 00:23:43.150 --> 00:23:45.970 eyes. He realized in that moment that the modern 00:23:45.970 --> 00:23:48.809 army was a facade. It looked good on parade. 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:52.460 But it had no soul, no will to fight. So the 00:23:52.460 --> 00:23:54.880 Allies are marching on Tehran. The British and 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:58.799 Soviets send a final message. Abdicate or we 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:01.119 will abolish the monarchy entirely and occupy 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:03.920 the country. They wanted him gone. He was too 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:06.180 close to the Germans, too stubborn, too unpredictable. 00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:09.900 And Reza Shah realized that if he stayed, the 00:24:09.900 --> 00:24:12.140 Pahlavi dynasty would end with him after just 00:24:12.140 --> 00:24:14.799 16 years. So to save the throne for his son, 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:17.960 Muhammad Reza. He agreed to step down. On September 00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:21.160 16th, 1941, he signs the abdication papers. And 00:24:21.160 --> 00:24:23.960 then comes the final humiliation of exile. The 00:24:23.960 --> 00:24:25.539 British took him into custody. They didn't even 00:24:25.539 --> 00:24:27.180 let him choose where he would go. They put him 00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:28.940 on a ship. He thought he was going to India. 00:24:29.380 --> 00:24:31.900 Then, mid -journey, they told him, no, you're 00:24:31.900 --> 00:24:34.779 going to Mauritius. A tiny island in the middle 00:24:34.779 --> 00:24:37.000 of the Indian Ocean. Then they moved him to Durban 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:40.539 in South Africa. Then to Johannesburg. He spent 00:24:40.539 --> 00:24:42.900 his final years as a broken man, staring at the 00:24:42.900 --> 00:24:45.559 ocean thousands of miles from the mountains of 00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:48.339 Savadku where he was born. He died in Johannesburg 00:24:48.339 --> 00:24:51.319 in 1944. But the controversies didn't die with 00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:54.000 him. We have to talk about the wealth, because 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.440 this is a man who started as a private with nothing. 00:24:56.980 --> 00:24:59.700 When he left Iran, what did he have? He was, 00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:02.720 by all accounts, the richest man in Iran. He 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:04.819 had personally acquired over 3 million acres 00:25:04.819 --> 00:25:08.000 of prime agricultural land. He had millions of 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:10.240 pounds sterling in foreign bank accounts. How 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:12.559 does one acquire 3 million acres? Well, often 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:15.460 through forced sales and confiscations. If he 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:17.569 liked a piece of property, the owner would receive 00:25:17.569 --> 00:25:19.990 an offer they couldn't possibly refuse. Literally. 00:25:20.230 --> 00:25:22.410 So critics call it a massive land grab. They 00:25:22.410 --> 00:25:24.910 call it looting the nation. His defenders say 00:25:24.910 --> 00:25:26.950 he was consolidating the land to develop modern, 00:25:26.970 --> 00:25:29.910 large -scale agriculture, but the optics, at 00:25:29.910 --> 00:25:31.970 the very least, were terrible. And his story 00:25:31.970 --> 00:25:35.529 has one final, truly bizarre chapter. The Wandering 00:25:35.529 --> 00:25:37.750 Body. It's like a ghost story. It really is. 00:25:37.809 --> 00:25:40.450 His body was embalmed in Egypt, then brought 00:25:40.450 --> 00:25:43.390 back to Iran years after his death and buried 00:25:43.390 --> 00:25:46.789 in this grand, towering mausoleum near Tehran. 00:25:46.930 --> 00:25:49.349 It became a site of pilgrimage for royalists. 00:25:49.549 --> 00:25:53.349 Then comes 1979, the Islamic Revolution, and 00:25:53.349 --> 00:25:55.730 the new regime hates everything Reza Shah stood 00:25:55.730 --> 00:25:58.990 for. Ayatollah Qalqali, the infamous hanging 00:25:58.990 --> 00:26:02.200 judge, led a mob to the mausoleum. They used 00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:04.400 jackhammers and dynamite. They completely leveled 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:06.059 the structure. They wanted to erase him from 00:26:06.059 --> 00:26:08.299 the earth. And for decades, everyone just assumed 00:26:08.299 --> 00:26:10.460 the body had been destroyed or lost in the rubble. 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:13.960 Until 2018. Until 2018. Construction workers 00:26:13.960 --> 00:26:16.059 were digging at the site of the former mausoleum, 00:26:16.059 --> 00:26:18.900 expanding a nearby shrine. An excavator hit something 00:26:18.900 --> 00:26:21.220 hard. They uncovered a concrete sarcophagus. 00:26:21.299 --> 00:26:24.339 And inside was a mummified body, remarkably well 00:26:24.339 --> 00:26:26.579 preserved. No. Wearing the same military coat 00:26:26.579 --> 00:26:29.019 and boots that Reza Shah was buried in. He literally 00:26:29.019 --> 00:26:32.339 resurfaced from the grave. He did. And it happened 00:26:32.339 --> 00:26:35.019 at this moment when many Iranians were frustrated 00:26:35.019 --> 00:26:37.680 with the economic situation and the strict religious 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:40.819 rules. Suddenly, you had video circulating on 00:26:40.819 --> 00:26:44.059 social media of crowds chanting, Reza Shah, bless 00:26:44.059 --> 00:26:46.640 your soul. The man who beat the clerics was being 00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:49.220 cheered 40 years after the clerics took over. 00:26:49.420 --> 00:26:51.299 It just shows you that history is never dead. 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:54.619 It's not even past. His legacy is still the central 00:26:54.619 --> 00:26:57.700 debate in Iranian identity. So let's try to synthesize 00:26:57.700 --> 00:27:00.039 this. If we look at the final ledger of his life, 00:27:00.180 --> 00:27:02.740 what do we see? On one side, you absolutely have 00:27:02.740 --> 00:27:05.839 the state builder. Before him, Iran was a geographical 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:08.519 expression. It was a failed state. He built the 00:27:08.519 --> 00:27:10.579 roads, the schools, the army, the factories. 00:27:10.740 --> 00:27:13.519 He forged the modern nation state of Iran. He 00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:16.119 preserved its territorial integrity when it very 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:17.839 easily could have been sliced up and absorbed 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:19.660 by its neighbors. And on the other side of the 00:27:19.660 --> 00:27:23.339 ledger, you have the authoritarian, the despot. 00:27:23.690 --> 00:27:26.529 He destroyed political freedom. He crushed the 00:27:26.529 --> 00:27:28.869 nascent democracy that was forming in the Magsleys. 00:27:28.890 --> 00:27:31.710 And he alienated the religious masses so deeply 00:27:31.710 --> 00:27:34.210 that they eventually rose up in a massive revolution 00:27:34.210 --> 00:27:37.119 and overthrew his son. He proved that you can 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:39.099 build factories, but if you don't build trust 00:27:39.099 --> 00:27:41.299 with your people, the foundation is weak. It's 00:27:41.299 --> 00:27:43.779 the classic tragedy of modernization from above, 00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:46.019 isn't it? He treated the country like a barracks. 00:27:46.019 --> 00:27:48.039 He gave orders and he expected the nation to 00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:50.279 just march in lockstep. But a country isn't a 00:27:50.279 --> 00:27:52.900 regiment. Exactly. And I think that's the provocative 00:27:52.900 --> 00:27:54.960 thought we need to leave you with. Just look 00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:57.759 at the outcome. He tried to force secularism 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:00.900 on Iran by ripping veils off of women. And 40 00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:04.279 years later, the backlash to his policies. created 00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:06.980 a state that forces veils onto women. It's a 00:28:06.980 --> 00:28:09.359 pendulum that swung to the other extreme. It 00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:12.400 raises that fundamental question. Can you force 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:14.900 a civilization to change its core identity overnight? 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:18.200 Or does that intense pressure just create an 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:20.930 even bigger explosion down the line? That is 00:28:20.930 --> 00:28:22.849 the question. For everyone listening, I highly 00:28:22.849 --> 00:28:25.430 recommend you look up the photos of the Trans 00:28:25.430 --> 00:28:28.130 -Iranian railway construction. It's just epic. 00:28:28.369 --> 00:28:30.450 And look up the photos from the unveiling. You 00:28:30.450 --> 00:28:32.769 can see the fear and the defiance in the faces 00:28:32.769 --> 00:28:35.269 of the people. The visual history tells the story 00:28:35.269 --> 00:28:37.329 better than we ever could. Thanks for joining 00:28:37.329 --> 00:28:39.930 us on this deep dive into the soldier from Savadku. 00:28:40.190 --> 00:28:42.730 What a wild ride. We'll see you on the next one.