British-Iranian Relations And The Political Evolution Of Iran (1941- 1953)

From the allied armies occupied Iran and forced Reza Shah to give up his throne in1941, to the coup overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh Government and Pahlavi Shah returned to his power in1953, Iran was in a transition stage from totalitarian politics breakdown to reconstruction. Iran was faced with extremely complicated international and domestic condition. In domestic point, the occupation of Anglo-Soviet and concession of Reza Shah released domestic long-term restrained political power, and raised numerous political forces, these elements lead to a complicated situation with multielement, coexistence of parliamentarism, party politics and monarchy. Internationally, after Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran, Iran was thrown into international political stage and Britain, America and Soviet launched a furious competition in Iran which became a hotbed of the Cold War. The interference of the big powers not only intensified Iranian political turbulence but also awakened Iranian public nationalist sentiment, so Iranian nationalist demanded the adjustment of long-term Anglo-Iran relationship leaded by Britain which leaded to the outbreak of Anglo-Iranian oil crisis. In1953, Britain and America launched coup and overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh Government, but America replaced Britain in Iranian traditional advantages.This article plans to start from the year of1941to1953Iranian domestic political development and grasp this period Anglo-Iranian relationship evolution, as well as explore reasons of the outbreak of Anglo-Iranian oil crisis and even relationship breakdown between the two countries, thus make readers have a better understanding of international and domestic situation during this special historical period. The full text is divided into three sections:The first section mainly introduces the general situation of Iranian politics and Anglo-Iranian relationship before1941. Since modern times, Iran was always the main competition battlefield between countries like Britain and Russia due to its important geographic position and even gradually fell into Britain-Russia semi-colony at the end of the19th century, when all parts like national policy, economy and army were controlled by Britain and Russia and the Anglo-Iranian relationship was completely leaded by Britain at present. After Reza Shah acceded his throne, he started carry out modernized innovation and devoted himself to change Iran into a centralized modern nationalist country. During his reign, Iran gradually got rid of the control of Britain and the relationship between Iran and Britain tended to ordinary.The second section mainly analyses Iranian politics and Anglo-Iranian relationship during the year of1941to1949. In1941, Britain and Soviet dispatched troops to Iran, which had vital meaning no matter to Iranian domestic politics or Anglo-Iranian relationship. During this period, Iran had an unrest society and numerous political forces competed extremely, which brought a multi-political pattern of the coexistence of parliamentarism, party government and monarchy. The competition among Britain, America and Soviet in Iran awake Iranian modernized nationalism, so the nationalist demanded to adjust the relationship between Iran to other big countries. On the other hand, after occupation, Britain recovered the power of initiative of the relationship between Britain and Iran, directly stepped into Iranian policy and military once again and attempted change the south of Iran into his own influence region, which undoubtedly conflicts with the appeals of Iranian nationalists, so the relationship between Britain and Iran came out crisis inevitably.The third section mainly introduces Anglo-Iranian oil crisis. Iranian government and Anglo-Iranian Oil Company opened a negotiation in terms of oil concession issue, while the reached supplement agreements failed to meat Iranian requirements, so the Iranian nationalists appealed oil nationalization and therefore the Anglo-Iranian oil crisis broke out. During several years crisis, they were at loggerheads and lunched sharp confrontation in every field. After failing to defeat Iran in many ways, Britain, associated with America, overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh Government and ended the longstanding Anglo-Iranian crisis by coup in1953, but since then the relationship between these two countries started to fade.