This particular decision later provided the pretext for a Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, to ensure the safe passage of U.S war material to the Soviet Union through Iran. The Allies forced Reza Shah to abdicate, placing his young son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi on the throne. Though Iran at that time was under foreign occupation and was crippled by war-time inflation and politically fragmented, however, paradoxically the war and occupation had brought a greater degree of economic activity, freedom of press and political openness than had been possible ever before. Many political parties were formed in this period. The young Mohammad Pahlavi did not wield the absolute authority of his father and this strengthened the conservative clerical factions, which had wilted under his father’s programme of
This particular decision later provided the pretext for a Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, to ensure the safe passage of U.S war material to the Soviet Union through Iran. The Allies forced Reza Shah to abdicate, placing his young son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi on the throne. Though Iran at that time was under foreign occupation and was crippled by war-time inflation and politically fragmented, however, paradoxically the war and occupation had brought a greater degree of economic activity, freedom of press and political openness than had been possible ever before. Many political parties were formed in this period. The young Mohammad Pahlavi did not wield the absolute authority of his father and this strengthened the conservative clerical factions, which had wilted under his father’s programme of