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Pahlavi Dynasty: Iran under Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah (1925–1979)

The Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979): Reza Shah’s state building, oil nationalisation and the 1953 coup, the White Revolution and the 1979 revolution.

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Reza Shah and the founding of the Pahlavi dynasty

The Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979 under two monarchs, Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza Shah. Reza Khan, an officer of the Persian Cossack Brigade, took part in the 1921 coup, became minister of war and then prime minister, and was named shah by a constituent assembly in December 1925 after the Majles deposed the Qajars.

Reza Shah built a centralised state: a conscript army, a modern bureaucracy, secular law codes, the University of Tehran (1934) and the Trans-Iranian Railway (completed 1938). From 1935 the government asked foreign states to use the name Iran rather than Persia, and in 1936 it banned the veil in public. His rule was also authoritarian: the press and parliament were controlled, nomadic tribes were forcibly settled and opponents were imprisoned. After British and Soviet forces invaded in 1941, he abdicated in favour of his son.

Mohammad Reza Shah: oil, coup and the White Revolution

The 1940s brought a more open political scene. In 1951 the Majles, driven by the National Front of Mohammad Mosaddegh, nationalised the British-controlled oil industry, and Mosaddegh became prime minister. In August 1953 Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup organised by the CIA and British intelligence together with Iranian royalists, army officers and other domestic opponents; the CIA acknowledged its role in documents released in 2013, while historians still debate the relative weight of foreign and Iranian actors.

From 1963 the Shah’s White Revolution introduced land reform, votes for women and a Literacy Corps. Supporters credit the era with rapid growth, especially after the 1973 oil price boom, expanded education and new opportunities for women. Critics point to one-man rule, the SAVAK security service, which Amnesty International and other human-rights groups accused of torturing political prisoners, the single Rastakhiz party created in 1975, inequality and the alienation of religious and secular opponents alike.

The end of the Pahlavi monarchy

Mass protests in 1978 united clerics led by the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, students, bazaar merchants, workers and leftist and liberal groups. The Shah left Iran on 16 January 1979, the monarchy collapsed on 11 February, and a referendum that spring established the Islamic Republic. Mohammad Reza Shah died in exile in Cairo in July 1980. The Pahlavi era remains one of the most debated periods in Iranian history, judged very differently by different Iranians.

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Frequently asked questions

How did the Pahlavi dynasty start?

Reza Khan, a Cossack Brigade officer, took part in the February 1921 coup, rose to prime minister, and after the Majles deposed the Qajars in October 1925 a constituent assembly proclaimed him shah in December 1925.

Why did the Pahlavi dynasty fall?

Historians point to several causes: political repression and the closing of legal opposition, uneven economic growth and inflation after the oil boom, resentment of foreign influence, and the ability of a broad coalition under Khomeini’s leadership to mobilise mass protest in 1978. Their relative importance is debated.

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