All The Shahs Men and Iranian History essays

All The Shah's Men and Iranian History essays The national history of Iran is one marked by turmoil and conflict, due mostly in part to foreign influences. As the country grappled for self-rule under the leadership of Mossadegh, Britain, and America each tried to intervene with different motives. In the aftermath of World War Two and the rise of American power coinciding with British imperial collapse, a country with such a valuable resource, oil, was sure not to be overlooked. However, the time for American imperialism had passed. The intervention of America and Britain in Iran was based on entirely different motives, some of which the world had never seen. In the end, America as a superpower emerged in an unusual way basing intervention not on the future of the oil, but the threat of communism. The events of the 1950s had brought new ideas, motives, and actions to the table. British dominance in Iran is a history of exploitation and control. In the early 19th century, the leaders of the country sold their rights of land to different countries, mainly Russia and Britain, because of greed and want of jewels. When all was said and done, the British controlled almost all aspects of the country except for the military. When oil was finally found, the British built a huge monopoly over the resource. This was a last ditch effort to remain a world power as their empire collapsed. They mistreated the workers and gained more and more profit as all the Iranians fell into severe poverty. The British manipulated the leaders through threats and stifled the Iranian voice by taking the record books out of their hands and cheating them out of a lot of money. They thought the Iranians were ignorant people who were only benefiting from British control. The White Man's Burden logic came into play as Britain said: "it was British skill and effort which discovered th e oil and organized markets so that they Iranians could find profit" (88). In reality, "all of Iran's misery, corruption, an...