An outline, era by era

Iranian Revolution (1979); Iran-Iraq War; Gulf War (1991)

20th Century · 1914 – 2000

The Iranian Revolution of 1978 and 1979 overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, ended a monarchy that had lasted for many centuries, and created the Islamic Republic of Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It brought together religious, liberal, leftist and merchant opposition to a government that many Iranians saw as authoritarian and dependent on foreign support.

In September 1980 neighbouring Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran. The Iran-Iraq War lasted until August 1988 and ended without clear victory, after enormous losses on both sides. In August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait. A coalition authorised by the United Nations and led by the United States drove Iraqi forces out in the Gulf War of January and February 1991. Together these events reshaped the politics of the Persian Gulf and the wider Middle East.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The 1953 coup against Mossadegh

    Event

    What happened

    In 1951 Iran's parliament votes to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and Mohammad Mossadegh becomes prime minister. In August 1953 a coup, planned by British and American intelligence services with Iranian army officers, removes him from office. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had briefly left the country, returns to power.

    The rest is history

    Over the next 25 years the Shah ruled with growing authority, backed by the army and the secret police, SAVAK. Many Iranians came to link him with foreign interference, and this memory fed the opposition of 1978. The United States formally acknowledged its part in the coup only decades later. In 2013 the CIA released documents confirming its role.

    Sources

    1. BookAbrahamian, Ervand. Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982.
    2. BookGasiorowski, Mark J., and Malcolm Byrne, eds. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004.

  2. The White Revolution and Khomeini's exile

    Event

    What happened

    In 1963 the Shah launches the White Revolution, a programme of land reform, women's suffrage and literacy drives. Ruhollah Khomeini, a senior cleric in Qom, denounces it and the Shah's ties to the West. After riots in June 1963 he is arrested, and in 1964 he is sent into exile, eventually settling in Najaf in Iraq.

    The rest is history

    From exile Khomeini developed his theory of rule by an Islamic jurist, delivered in lectures in Najaf in 1970. Cassette tapes of his sermons circulated in Iran. In 1978 he moved to France, from where he guided the revolution. His ideas gave the movement its most influential religious leadership.

    Sources

    1. BookAbrahamian, Ervand. A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
    2. BookKeddie, Nikki R. Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

  3. Protests and the fall of the Shah, 1978 to 1979

    Event

    What happened

    Protests begin in January 1978 in Qom and spread through mourning ceremonies held every forty days for those killed. On 8 September 1978, known as Black Friday, troops fire on demonstrators in Tehran. Strikes, including in the oil industry, paralyse the country. The Shah leaves Iran on 16 January 1979, and Khomeini returns on 1 February.

    The rest is history

    The army declared neutrality on 11 February 1979 and the government of Shapour Bakhtiar collapsed. A referendum in late March 1979 approved an Islamic Republic. A new constitution adopted in December 1979 gave a leading role to the supreme leader, Khomeini. Secular and leftist allies were gradually pushed aside in the following years.

    Sources

    1. BookAbrahamian, Ervand. A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
    2. BookKurzman, Charles. The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.

  4. The hostage crisis at the US embassy

    Event

    What happened

    On 4 November 1979 a group of students seizes the American embassy in Tehran, soon after the Shah is admitted to the United States for medical treatment. They hold 52 Americans for 444 days. The United States breaks relations and imposes sanctions, and an attempted rescue in April 1980 fails.

    The rest is history

    Khomeini endorsed the seizure, and it strengthened the radical wing of the new government. The hostages were released on 20 January 1981 under the Algiers Accords, minutes after Ronald Reagan took office. Diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States have never been fully restored.

    Sources

    1. BookFarber, David. Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

  5. Iraq invades Iran, 1980

    Event

    What happened

    On 22 September 1980 Iraqi forces attack Iran along a broad front. Saddam Hussein had recently cancelled the 1975 Algiers Agreement on the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Iraq also feared that revolutionary Islam would stir its own Shia majority. Iran, weakened by the purge of its officer corps, loses ground at first, but halts the advance.

    The rest is history

    By 1982 Iran had retaken most of its territory, including Khorramshahr. Iran then carried the war into Iraq, and the conflict became a long struggle of attrition. It involved human-wave attacks, missile strikes on cities, the tanker war in the Gulf and Iraq's use of chemical weapons. Many other states supplied one side or the other.

    Sources

    1. BookRazoux, Pierre. The Iran-Iraq War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.
    2. BookHiro, Dilip. The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict. London: Grafton, 1989.

  6. The ceasefire of 1988

    Event

    What happened

    After the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner on 3 July 1988 and Iraq won a series of offensives, Iran accepts UN Security Council Resolution 598. Khomeini describes this as like drinking poison. A ceasefire takes effect on 20 August 1988.

    The rest is history

    The war left both countries heavily damaged, with casualties often estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Borders returned essentially to where they began. Iraq emerged with a large army and heavy debts, including to Kuwait and Gulf states, which helped set the stage for the next crisis. Khomeini died in June 1989.

    Sources

    1. BookKarsh, Efraim. The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988. Oxford: Osprey, 2002.
    2. PrimaryUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 598. Resolution calling for a ceasefire between Iran and Iraq, 20 July 1987.

  7. Iraq invades Kuwait, August 1990

    Event

    What happened

    On 2 August 1990 Iraqi forces invade and quickly occupy Kuwait. Iraq accuses Kuwait of overproducing oil and of slant drilling, and presses claims over debts and territory. The UN Security Council demands withdrawal in Resolution 660 and imposes sanctions. Iraq annexes Kuwait on 8 August.

    The rest is history

    Saudi Arabia asked for foreign troops, and a large coalition assembled. On 29 November 1990 Resolution 678 authorised force if Iraq did not withdraw by 15 January 1991. Many Arab states joined the coalition, though others opposed it. The crisis ended the post-Cold War honeymoon in the region's politics.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 660. Resolution condemning the invasion of Kuwait, 2 August 1990.
    2. BookFreedman, Lawrence, and Efraim Karsh. The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

  8. Operation Desert Storm, 1991

    Event

    What happened

    On 17 January 1991 coalition aircraft begin a long air campaign against Iraq. A ground offensive starts on 24 February, and Kuwait is liberated within about four days. A ceasefire is announced on 28 February.

    The rest is history

    Iraq accepted terms in Resolution 687, including the removal of weapons of mass destruction and continued sanctions. Uprisings by Shia in the south and Kurds in the north were crushed, and no-fly zones followed. Saddam Hussein stayed in power until the invasion of 2003.

    Sources

    1. BookFreedman, Lawrence, and Efraim Karsh. The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
    2. PrimaryUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 687. Ceasefire terms for Iraq, 3 April 1991.

  9. Children with plastic keys to paradise

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that during the Iran-Iraq War, Iranian boys were sent across minefields wearing plastic keys around their necks, said to open the gates of paradise for martyrs.

    The rest is history

    Part of this rests on fact. Iran did use volunteers from the Basij, including teenage boys and some younger ones, in mass assaults, and martyrdom was highly honoured in official culture. Keys were given out and were symbols of martyrdom, though accounts of their exact use differ and some details are repeated without firm evidence. Scholars stress that the number and ages of the youngest volunteers are still disputed.

    Sources

    1. BookRazoux, Pierre. The Iran-Iraq War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.
    2. BookGieling, Saskia. Religion and War in Revolutionary Iran. London: I.B. Tauris, 1999.

  10. The Gulf War was fought only for oil

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A common saying is that the Gulf War was simply a war for oil, with no other reason for the coalition to act.

    The rest is history

    Oil mattered greatly. Iraq and Kuwait together held a large share of world reserves, and Iraq threatened Saudi Arabia's neighbourhood. But the coalition also acted on the principle of defending a member state of the UN against annexation, and Resolution 660 and 678 reflected broad international agreement. Historians generally see several motives together: oil, regional balance, and the rules of the post-Cold War order. Weight given to each is still debated.

    Sources

    1. BookFreedman, Lawrence, and Efraim Karsh. The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

  11. The Shah's departure as a Western plot

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Some tell it that the revolution was engineered abroad, and that foreign powers deliberately removed the Shah and installed Khomeini.

    The rest is history

    This belief circulates in Iran and elsewhere and has been voiced by both supporters and opponents of the Shah. Historians do not find evidence for it. Studies of the period show a broad domestic movement, with strikes, mass demonstrations and economic grievances. Western governments were in fact divided and caught by surprise, and the speed of the collapse was a shock even to observers inside Iran.

    Sources

    1. BookKurzman, Charles. The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
    2. BookAbrahamian, Ervand. Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982.

  12. Saddam and the Babylon legacy

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is sometimes said that Saddam Hussein presented himself as the heir of Nebuchadnezzar and of Saladin, linking his wars to ancient glory.

    The rest is history

    This is documented. Saddam Hussein promoted Mesopotamian heritage, funded the partial reconstruction of Babylon in the 1980s, and put his name on bricks as Nebuchadnezzar had. He also compared his struggles to Saladin's, who was born in Tikrit like him. Such imagery served the Iraqi state's propaganda during the wars with Iran and Kuwait.

    Sources

    1. BookBaram, Amatzia. Culture, History and Ideology in the Formation of Ba'thist Iraq, 1968-89. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

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