In brief. Reza Khan, an army officer, rose to power after a coup in 1921, became shah in 1925 and ruled until the Allied occupation of 1941 forced him to abdicate. His reign shaped modern Iran's institutions and also its politics of control.
At the start of the 1920s Iran was weak. The Qajar dynasty, in power since the late 18th century, controlled little of the country outside the capital. Provincial leaders and tribal chiefs held real power, and Britain and Russia had long influenced the state’s finances and policy.
From officer to shah
In February 1921, Reza Khan, a commander in the Cossack Brigade, marched on Tehran with his troops. The coup brought a government in which he soon became the most important figure. He served as minister of war and then, from 1923, as prime minister. In 1925 the Majlis, the parliament, voted to end Qajar rule, and in 1926 he was crowned as Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.
The parliament that ended the Qajar dynasty and recognised Reza Khan as shah did so under pressure from the army he controlled.
A centralising state
His rule was about making the state stronger. A national army with conscription replaced the patchwork of local forces. Tribal leaders were disarmed or removed, and some groups were forced to settle, with hardship for many. The government built roads and, in 1938, finished the Trans-Iranian Railway between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. New schools, a modern judicial system and, in 1934, the University of Tehran were created. The role of the clergy in law and education was reduced.
The capital changed too. Streets were widened, government buildings in a mixture of Persian and European styles went up, and many old structures were demolished.
Historians describe the project as authoritarian modernisation: a state-led attempt, often admired by supporters, to build a national economy and identity, carried out with limited consultation and few freedoms.
The cost of control
Parliament lost its independence and the press was censored. Political opponents were imprisoned or exiled, and the left was banned. The 1930s dress laws, described in a separate article, show how the state reached into everyday life. The shah also gained great personal wealth through land purchases.
Foreign powers and the end
In the 1930s Reza Shah increased trade with Germany, which Britain and the Soviet Union saw as a risk. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the two powers occupied Iran in August to secure supply routes and oil. In September, Reza Shah abdicated in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza, and left the country. He died in exile in South Africa in 1944.
That ending, and the questions it raised about independence, shaped the next decades.
Notes and sources
- Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
- Abbas Amanat, Iran: A Modern History (Yale University Press, 2017).
- Nikki R. Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2003).
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