Summary Of All The Shah's Men

Iran has a long history of rebelling against interferences from foreign invaders. They refuse to bend to the will of others who they deem unfit. “All the Shah’s Men” by Stephen Kinzer explores how Iran’s political system formed through outside influences, leaders, and the people of Iran.
First of all, Iran throughout history has had issues with intervention from other countries, especially in regards to religion. When Arabs took control over Iran, they infused the Islamic faith into Iranian society. Zoroastrianism was the primary faith at the time and Iranians found a way assimilate and to merge previously held ideas with Islam, creating what is now known as Shiite. Iran with its strong heritage wanted to keep their democratic ideals such as having social justice and fair
leadership (Kinzer 18-19). These ideas stem from Zoroastrianism which claims that each leader must have farr which is described as a “divine blessing” that gives them the right to lead (Kinzer 20). Iran was able to appear submissive to the Arab conquerors while still rebelling.
Furthermore, we see this democracy in Iran’s history of political figures.
In the late 1800s, Nasir al-Din Shah a member of the Qajar dynasty, lived a life of luxury, having many wives, jewels, and eunuchs (Kinzer 30). To support his expensive lifestyle, he sold concessions to foreigners for his own benefit which angered many of his people (Kinzer 31). Tension reached the boiling point when the Shah sold the Tobacco industry in 1891 for £15000 to the British Imperial Tobacco Company. Tobacco was huge part of Iranian culture since many used and farmed it. Iranians would now have to sell their tobacco yields to the British and also buy from only their shops (Kinzer 32). The lead to protests of tobacco which is known as the Tobacco Revolt of 1891. This and the antigovernment protests showed that Iranians would not stand idly by when there were unfit leaders in power. People were tired of unfair Qajer punishments and selfish leaders; finally in the early 1900s Muzzaffar Shah decided to allow the people to have a parliament (Kinzer 34). The Majilis were formed with democratic principles and were given true power to create laws (Kinzer 35). This allowed Iranian people to have a bigger voice in
politics.
In addition, Iran also had Britain taking control over them through its ownership of the AIOC. Muzzaffar Shah sold the rights to Iran’s natural gas to a British man, D’Arcy, which allowed him to later strike oil in 1908 in Abadan (Kinzer 33). The AIOC came to be because of D’Arcy’s concessions and Iran saw little of the enormous profit. In 1933, Reza Shah negotiated terms to give Iran more of the wealth and better working conditions in exchange for elongating the concessions 32 more years. Unfortunately AIOC did stay true to their word, which lead to the oil refinery strike in 1946 (Kinzer 51-52). Mossadegh was the first democratic elected Prime Minister in Iran who was an opponent of the oil company. He was part of the Majilis which allowed him speak out against British control (Kinzer 58). In 1951, Mossadegh wanted the nationalization of AIOC but failed to come up with an agreement. To put pressure on Britain, foreign countries stopped purchasing AIOC oil, forcing it to evacuate employees for possible shut down (Kinzer 97). Mossadegh was the type of strong leader that Iranians valued for his effort to stop outside forces from taking advantage of Iran.
In conclusion, Kinzer displays examples of how democracy made its way into Iran. Iranian politics have advanced a long way due to the influence of conquers, political figures, and the Iranians themselves.