 
With an ancient history, Iran is currently
one of the most influential countries in the world.
The hegemony of the Middle East is currently disputed with its always Sunni rival,
Saudi Arabia. But as a matter of fact,
it is not the first time that the Persians seek to maintain supremacy
in the region. In this video, we will talk about
the history of the Shia country from the remembered Safavid Empire.
Are you interested in knowing this story?
Alright, then stay until the end of the video.
 
Since we will cover the most recent history of the Persian country,
we must go back to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The territory of Iran was dominated by the decaying
Timurid Dynasty, a descendant of the Mongol Empire
and which established hegemony in the region since 1370.
On the other hand, in the current Azerbaijan
a new dynasty was being forged,
the Safavid, coming from the Safaviyya tariqa,
which had been founded since the beginning of the fourteenth century.
Around 1500,
a charismatic sheikh known as Ismail I emerges,
whose skills as a spiritual guide began to move people.
Ismail, managed to assemble an army
with which it quickly took control of the territory
of the current Azerbaijan, as well as the Dagestan.
It should be noted that, at that time,
most of the population was organized based
on Turkic nomadic tribes who were persuaded
by the revolutionary preaching of the Safavids, who mixed
extremist Shiism with ancient Turkish traditions.
With this, Ismail was proclaimed as the first Shah
of the Safavid dynasty, which when gaining strength
would quickly spread through the territory of Persia,
where the Timurids were already divided
and unable to defend their territory.
By 1524, the year of the death of Ismail I,
the empire had already spread throughout Iran and Azerbaijan,
as well as parts of Iraq, Turkey, Georgia,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
And as expected, before the rise of a new empire,
the neighboring powers would soon react.
The rival of the Safavids?, the Ottoman Empire,
who had control of much of the Middle East.
The reason, both territorial and religious,
because while the Ottomans were the cradle of Sunni Islam,
the Persians were Shiite Islam cradle.
The first war between the two empires would take place between
1532 and 1555,
in which the remembered Suleiman the Magnificent is imposed
on the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I,
after the capture of Baghdad. Outcome?,
the Ottomans gain sovereignty over Iraq, Kurdistan
and Armenia, while the Persians manage to preserve the pre-war North-West border.
the pre-war North-West border.
Probably the cusp of this dynasty occurred during the government
of Abbas I the Great, which managed to expand
the territory, reconquering part of the Caucasus
after defeating the Uzbeks.
It also manages to subdue the Arabs of Mesopotamia,
recapturing Baghdad. However,
after his death in 1629,
there would be no further expansion. Intermittent conflicts
between Ottomans and Persians continued, but one
of great magnitude would not explode until 1623,
after which it is possible to delimit the borders between both powers,
distributing the Caucasus
and passing Mesopotamia under Ottoman ultimate sovereignty.
This would be ratified with the Treaty of Zuhab.
Like every empire that reaches its peak,
the Safavid Empire would go into decline
at the beginning of the eighteenth century. New emerging powers
in the region such as Russia under the government of Peter the Great
sought expansion, which would result
in the Russian-Persian War, in which the Russians
manage to conquer part of Azerbaijan.
Another factor of the decline was the internal rebellions
that include that of the Pashtun Mir Magmud Hotaki,
who manages to free the territory of present-day Afghanistan,
even taking control
of the entire Persian territory at a certain time,
while the Savavids were attacked by the Russians.
But the final thrust of the safavids would occur
with the ascent of a new dynasty, the Afsarid
native of Jorasán, to the control of Nader Shah.
This leader, sometimes described as the Persian Napoleon,
took advantage of the instability of the region and the weakness
of the Safavid Shah to gain influence and recruit followers,
using of course, a spiritual religious discourse.
But Nader would not be able to take full control
after the Turkish-Persian War of 1739,
in which, given the weakness of the Shah Tahmasp II,
he is deposed by the new Asfarid leader,
who manages to expel the Ottomans and restore control
over part of the Caucasus.
With this, Nader proclaims himself as the new Shah,
beginning the period of the Afsárida Dynasty.
However, this dynasty would last shortly.
Nader was able to get more victories
against the Afghan Hotaki dynasty
as well as an invasion of the Mogol Empire in India,
from which they obtained a great loot
that helped the country's economic growth.
However, he became an increasingly despotic ruler,
which led to his murder in 1747.
After his death, Afghans become independent again, this time
forming the Durrani Empire
led by the leader Ahmed Sah Durrani.
On the other hand, one of Nader's generals, Karim Jan,
founded a new dynasty, known as the Zand,
which would take much of Iranian and Caucasus territory.
However, the Jorasan region remained under Afsarid sovereignty.
Karim Han would establish relations with Great Britain,
allowing him to open certain trading posts in southern Iran.
While Karim Jan would succeed in giving prosperity
and peace to the Persians, at his death in 1779,
a new civil war would erupt in the face of the controversy of his succession.
This coincides with the rise of a new dynasty,
Kayar which was seated
in the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea.
And like every dynasty that begins to gain influence,
this was in the hands of a notable leader,
Aga Muhammad Kan.
The great peculiarity, this was not
a Persian dynasty, but a turkish one.
This ruler would be able to gather certain troops
and gain successful campaigns in Azerbaijan,
Fars, Jorasan and the Caucasus.
Given the instability of the Zand and the Afsárida,
Aga Muhammad was getting more influence
until he restored Persian unity.
Of course, at the cost of extreme violence
in which any dissent would be eradicated,
as was the case of a genocide of Christians in Georgia.
In Jorasán he seized power after the capture,
torture and murder of Shah Roj, grandson of Nader,
ending the Afsarid dynasty.
The Zand on the other hand showed greater resistance,
although they would also fall after two wars towards 1789.
However, the official coronation of Aga Muhammad would not occur
until 1794, in which he was proclaimed as ¨Shahanshah¨ (King of Kings)
It should be noted that this would be the first ruler to move
the capital to Tehran. With this, the beginning of
the Qajar dynasty is sealed, as well
as the disappearance of the Afsárida and Zand,
who could not maintain the permanent cohesion of the Persians.
During this period, the Persians continued to face
their two greatest rivals, The Ottoman Empire and Russia.
Stresses the expedition of Catherine the Great (1796),
where the Russians attacked Georgia and would have taken
the Caucasus had it not been for the death of the empress,
which was followed by the withdrawal of Russian troops.
The Persians would face the Russians again around 1804,
once again for the territories of the Caucasus.
Although the Persian troops surpassed the Russians,
they could not contain their advance and ended up recognizing
Russian sovereignty over Azerbaijan,
Dagestan and Georgia, all stipulated
in the Treaty of Gulistan. Soon after,
conflicts with the Ottomans would be defined
in a last war in 1821,
over disputes in the Kurdish border areas.
As the Ottomans were simultaneously fighting
in the war of independence of Greece,
the war would end quickly and after the Treaty of Erzurum,
finally the peace between both states is sealed
without significant changes in their borders.
So if the Persians can no longer expand in the west,
then now they try in the east.
The Qajar dynasty would set eyes on
the Afghan city of Herat, which had historically been part of Persia,
but that Afghans took advantage of civil wars to take it.
For this reason, they would try to besiege it in 1837,
but in the face of Afghan resistance, the Persians would eventually withdraw.
A new attempt to take the city was made in 1856.
However, this time the Afghans, who had become a British protectorate,
had the support of the United Kingdom,
who led the campaign from the British East India Company,
managing to expel the Persians definitely.
That's right, no one messes with the British business interests.
As you can imagine, after so many defeats,
Persia was almost bankrupt and the central government
had lost influence. However
with the coming to power of Nassereddin Shah,
trade and industry were strengthened,
educational and economic reforms were carried out
and the influence of Shiite clerics was reduced.
Result?, a resurgence of Persia.
Also noteworthy, that with 49 years his government
was one of the longest in the history of Persia.
This would end at the end of the nineteenth century,
leaving a modernized country and for the first time
with the introduction of western technologies and customs.
During his government, sovereignty over
the Balochistan region was also reaffirmed.
The Persians would not take up arms until World War I,
during the Persia Campaign in which they were dragged
to defend their territory against conflicts
between the Ottomans against Russians and British
over the Azerbaijan region, of which a fraction was a part of Iran.
This campaign resulted in the withdrawal of the Russians
after the Bolshevik revolution and the Ottomans
after the armistice of Mudros, after having lost
on almost all their fronts. The unbeaten British
took the opportunity to reaffirm their exploitation rights
for the newly discovered oil through the Anglo-Persian agreement,
in which the Qajar would assign the rights
to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company
for the free extraction of Iranian dinosaur juice.
As you can imagine, the political weakness
shown by Shah Ahmad Qajar created a popular dissatisfaction
that would end in a coup in 1921
by Minister of War Reza Savad-Koohi.
Before the instability, Ahmad would be exiled in France
towards 1923, with what Reza would take the power
officially from 1925,
proclaiming itself as Reza Shah.
The Qajar dynasty was over,
and for the first time
the country was named as the Imperial State of Iran.
The reign of Reza Shah, which meant the beginning of
the Pahlaví Dynasty as a parliamentary monarchy,
was characterized by an attempt to maintain neutrality,
signing non-aggression pacts with Turkey,
Iran and Afghanistan. Although on the other hand,
it reduced the benefits to the British concessionaires
and promoted the modernization of the country
with German capitals.
For this reason, with the outbreak of World War II,
the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invade Iran
to secure oil fields and supply of Soviet forces.
This ended in the abdication of Reza Shah
in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi.
The new king would now sympathize with the allies.
By ending at the victorious side of the war,
Iran was able to maintain the sovereignty of its territory,
although it would be marked under Western influence.
This was reflected in the fact that the shah would approve
an economic development plan financed
by the Anglo-Iranian Company.
However, a new character enters the scene,
Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq.
Let's remember now that Iran is a parliamentary monarchy,
so the Shah did not rule alone.
By gaining popular livelihood, Mosaddeq would manage
to nationalize oil.
Immediate reaction of the United States
and the United Kingdom?, to finance a coup d'etat in 1953
orchestrated by the CIA, which caused Mosaddeq to resign,
turning Iran into an absolute monarchy,
in which all political parties dissolve
and power is concentrated in the Shah,
who began an authoritarian regime always aligned
with the policies of the United States.
With this, Iran would go through the most westernized
stage of its history, which included the exile of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of Shiism.
As you can imagine, this caused a great social dissatisfaction
that ended in the remembered Iranian Islamic Revolution
of 1979, which included
the taking of hostages by the staff of the US embassy.
This revolution ended with the exile of Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahleví, who when he resigned
left the pass free for the cheered Ayatollah Khomeini
to return and take over the government,
which went on to become
an anti-Western Islamic Theocratic Republic
led by the spiritual leader of Shi´ism.
The new regime would face the war between Iran and Iraq
over territorial disputes in the region surrounding
the Shatt Al-Arab River.
This bloody war in which hundreds of thousands of people died,
ends in a ceasefire in which both sides
claim victory: Iraq fails to annex Iranian territories,
and Iran fails in its attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
The end of the war in 1988
coincides with the executions of Iranian political prisoners,
in which it is estimated that up to 30 thousand
dissidents were executed.
Yes, it is not that the new regime has been
a paradise of freedom of expression. For this reason and the continued
anti-Westernism of Iran, in 2002 President George Bush
included Iran in the so-called axis of evil,
pointing to the Persian country as a repressive state
that supports terrorism.
In spite of everything, the truth is that Iran
has been forged as a hegemonic power in the Middle East,
whose main antagonist in the region is Saudi Arabia,
an ally of the United States.
Tensions with the West were increased with the Iranian nuclear program,
in which the United States is suspicious of
the development of weapons of mass destruction
in the Persian country. These grow
even further after Iranian support for the Syrian government
during the Syrian Civil War. Of course, Bashar-Al Asad
also professes the Shiite branch of Islam.
The latest enhancement of tensions between Iran and the United States
came with the recent assassination of Iranian General
Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad caused
by a US drone attack ordered by President Donald Trump.
In response, the supreme leader Ali Jamenei
has threatened a terrible revenge.
uhmmm is it just me, or this plot sounds familiar?
Hey, hi Franz Ferdinand!
And what do you think? Do you think that this event
can unleash a bloody war as some media predict?
Did the Persian people do well to opt for this anti-Western policy?
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Until next time!
 
 
