SHIA & MODERN IRAN EMPIRE: A victim of superpower's ambitions
Dmitri, Kessel. The Rise and Fall of the Shah of Iran. Iran. Photograph. Time Magazine. Web.
<http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1872024_1826082,00.html>.
However, Iran still continued to be controlled by powerful Western forces and was never able to escape that influence. After his father, also Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Reza Shah abdicated in 1953 through a CIA organized military coup, the U.S. ascended the throne as his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as the next Prime Minister. During his regime, democracy disappeared. At this point, Americans were taking full advantage of the Iran’s oil supply after claiming that they had “saved” Iran by appointing another Prime minister. In fact, Americans were in charge of 60% of Iran’s oil industry (Mohammad). This led to another 25 years of foreign influence and killed thousands of Iranians. Ultimately, Iran’s key economic resource that had previously helped it gain more power within the spheres of influences in the world also was manipulated by super powers. In other words, Iran once again proved that it was not powerful enough to match the powers of Western countries that were eager to dominate it.