A COLD WAR

Mossadegh started to take over the AIOC offices and appointed a French-educated engineer as the managing director of the new National Iranian Oil Company. The AOIC refused to allow Iran to transport their oil in British tankers. It turns into an epic showdown. The British started planning to have Mossadegh removed from power. Meanwhile the United States got more and more involved.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of the 20th century, Iranians really liked Americans, mostly due to the fact that their experiences with them (up until that time) had been mostly positive, unlike the British and the Russians. And the Americans were, in 1951, still trying to convince the British to play fair with the Iranians. If only that attitude has lasted. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the assassination of Razmara, Mossadegh’s oil committee voted unanimously to nationalise the AIOC. Iran went crazy for Mossadegh. It was Mossa-Mania. The British were furious and tried to appoint a new Prime Minister, the latest in the line of “guys they were sure could get the job done”. It backfired. Massively. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The increasing tensions in Iran, driven in part by British imperialism, leads to the formation of a religious terror group called Fedayeen-i-Islam, the first of its kind. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1949 the Iranian Majlis put forward a bill to revoke the British oil concession. This, combined with worker riots in Abadan, prompted the British to take action. Meanwhile, Mossadegh forms a new political party, The National Front, and General Ali Razmara, who had been one of General Schwarzkopf's most trusted officers, is made PM at the “suggestion” of the British. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Reza makes himself Shah, Mossadegh is livid. He refuses to agree to it. Then he turns down multiple senior positions in the Shah's cabinet. He ends up retiring from public life at age 45, gets imprisoned, and tries to commit suicide. He returns when the Shah is forced to abdicate, but an attempted assassination on the new Shah makes the political situation in Iran even worse. And a flamboyant American soldier arrives to help build a brutal paramilitary police force - General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Sr.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mossadegh had two non-negotiables that drove his political game. First, he was a die-hard believer in the rule of law, which put him on a collision course with autocrats like Reza Shah. Second, he was all about Iranian self-rule, making him Public Enemy No. 1 for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. He wasn't just against them; he was their kryptonite.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dive into the turbulent history of oil in Iran, where George Reynolds, a self-taught geologist funded by Aussie entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy, battled smallpox, bandits, and desert heat to uncover the largest oil field ever found. Reynolds' discovery catapulted Iran into the global energy arena, but not without exploitation and strife. D'Arcy and the Scots invested heavily in what became the Anglo-Persian Oil Company—later BP—creating a colonial empire in Abadan that funneled wealth away from Iranians. Winston Churchill recognized the geopolitical prize, leading the British government to buy a majority stake in the company. Despite internal revolutions, worker strikes, and the rise of nationalist figures like Mohammad Mossadegh, the relationship between Iran and Britain remained fraught, embedded in a complex web of financial and political interests. From world wars to the overthrow of regimes, the story of Iranian oil is a saga of ambition, betrayal, and raw power.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re talking about Reza Shah, a soldier who rose to power from a humble background, pulled of a British-engineered coup, and effectively ruled Iran from 1921 - 1941.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iran's first attempt at democracy ended when the British and the Russians decided amongst themselves to divide up Iran in 1907 and supported the new Shah's desire to crush the parliament. But the Iranians fought on, exiled the Shah and replaced him with his 11 year old son. Then they hired an American banker to clean up corruption. The British and Russians didn't like that, so they had him thrown out as well.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices