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20 History-Shattering Times Subjects Overthrew their Monarchies

Steve August 15, 2019 27 min

Place de la Concorde - French Revolution — Execution of Louis XVI, engraved by Isidore Stanislas Helman after Charles Monnet (c. 1794). Wikimedia Commons.

1. The overthrow of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the abolition of the Iranian monarchy, and the nation’s transition into a theocratic Islamic republic has influenced the politics of the Middle East ever since

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran (c. before 1979). Wikimedia Commons.

First becoming a constitutional monarchy in 1906, continuing a longstanding tradition of Iranian kingdoms throughout history, despite reverting towards autocracy between 1925 and 1941 the Iranian National Assembly successfully reasserted its authority and restored parliamentary democracy. However, after the National Assembly voted to nationalize the oil industry, British and American intelligence agencies orchestrated a coup in 1953 against Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and reaffirmed an autocratic monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Becoming a one-party state governed by executive unilateralism, by the late-1970s the domestic situation in Iran was febrile.

Leaving the country to seek medical treatment for terminal cancer on January 16, 1979, within days the Shah’s government had collapsed as a result of the Second Iranian Revolution. Instituting by force a provisional government, who voted on February 11 to abolish the monarchy, a referendum was held on April 1 to determine the future of the nation. Voting in favor of a theocratic-republican constitution, in December Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was appointed Supreme Leader – the same month Prince Shahriar Shafiq was assassinated in Paris ending hopes for a counter-revolution – and the following year the Islamic Republic of Iran was formally promulgated.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

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“The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy”, John Cannon and Ralph Griffiths, Oxford University Press (1988)

“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution”, Jack Censer and Lynn Hunt, Pennsylvania State University Press (2001)

“The French Revolution and the Birth of Modernity”, Ferenc Feher, University of California Press (1990)

“France Under the Bourbon Restoration, 1814-1830”, Frederick Artz, Harvard University Press (1931)

“The July Monarchy: A Political History of France, 1830-1848”, Hugh A.C. Collingham, Longman Publishing (1988)

“Toward the New Spain: The Spanish Revolution of 1868 and the First Republic”, Joseph A. Brandt, University of Chicago Press (1932)

“Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825-1891”, Roderick J. Barman, Stanford University Press (1999)

“Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii”, James L. Haley, St. Martin’s Press (2014)