Iranian Revolution

  • Reza Shah Pahlavi Proclaimed As King

  • He was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion

  • Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became the king instead

  • martial law ordered as riots follow the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

  • Anti Shah Protest started = the country’s economy crippled

  • Shah left the country after turmoil, leaving Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar to take over.

  • revolutionary forces under Khomeini seize power after his return to the country (He had gone into exile after arrest in 1963)

  • referendum approved the establishment of an Islamic republic with Khomeini in de facto control.

  • prominent Iranians executed

  • Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran and held sixty-six occupants hostage, demanding the return of the shah from the U.S. After the shah’s death in 1980 in Egypt, an agreement was negotiated that freed the hostages on 20 January 1981

  • Khomeini became absolute ruler for life (Supreme leader)

  • Mohammad Reza Pahlavi died.

  • The war broke out Iran and Iraq