In the summer of 1941, Iran was officially neutral in World War II. But on August 25th, at around 4 a. m. , that neutrality was shattered.
British forces crossed the Shatt al-Arab river and entered southwestern Iran, while British and Australian troops advanced from the west and south. From the north, Soviet forces poured in from the Caucasus and Central Asia. The operation was called Countenance. For the Iranians, the attack came as a complete surprise.
Their army was ill-prepared and collapsed within days. Soon British and Soviet troops met near Qazvin and literally shook hands. Iran was now occupied, despite its declaration of neutrality. Shah Reza Pahlavi was forced to abdicate, and his young, inexperienced son, Mohammad Reza, was placed on the throne.
The British took control of the oil-rich southwest, while the Soviet Union occupied the north. Both powers used the strategically vital Trans-Iranian Railway. The invasion didn’t happen in a vacuum. Before the war, Iran had grown closer to Nazi Germany, largely because the Shah needed German trade and technical expertise for his modernization projects.
Germany had become Iran’s largest trading partner, and hundreds of German engineers and advisers were working in the country. The Shah distrusted Britain and the Soviet Union far more. He remembered how both powers had historically carved up Persia into spheres of influence. In 1828, Persia had lost vast territories to Russia.
In 1907, Russia and Britain had secretly divided the country between them. German influence, on the other hand, had always been purely economic. British involvement in Iran went deep. British companies held monopolies, and after oil was discovered, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company extracted enormous profits.
The British even helped Reza Pahlavi seize power in the 1920s. But as he began to rule more autocratically, cracking down on minorities and sidelining parliament, his popularity plummeted. He also drew inspiration from fascist regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan. By 1941, the Allies were alarmed by German influence in Iran.
They demanded that the Shah expel all German citizens. When he refused, they invaded. The occupation achieved its objectives: Iran cut ties with Germany, and the Persian Corridor became a vital supply route for sending American and British arms to the Soviet Union. In 1942, the British and Soviets promised to withdraw their troops within six months after the war’s end.
They repeated this pledge at the Tehran Conference in 1943. But after Germany’s defeat, the promise slipped away. Stalin believed Iran could be kept within the Soviet sphere. The Soviets supported separatist movements, and in November 1945, pro-communist Iranians in the province of Azerbaijan proclaimed the Azerbaijan People’s Government.
In January 1946, Iranian Kurdish nationalists set up the Republic of Mahabad. When Iranian troops tried to restore control, Soviet forces blocked them. The new American president, Harry Truman, warned Stalin to keep his word. The U.
S. increased military aid to Iran and pressured the Soviets through the United Nations Security Council. Finally, in the spring of 1946, Soviet troops withdrew, but only after Iran offered them a lucrative oil concession in the north. Once the Soviets were gone, Iran quickly crushed the separatist governments.
And the oil deal collapsed: in 1947, the Iranian parliament overwhelmingly rejected it. The Communist Party was banned in 1949. Stalin was the loser. The British kept their grip on the oil industry, while the United States gained increasing influence.
Some historians call this Iran crisis the first true conflict of the Cold War. For Iran itself, the war was mostly trauma. Decades of struggling for independence had ended in another foreign occupation. The presence of troops and heavy Allied demands wrecked the economy.
A devastating famine struck in 1942 and 1943, killing an estimated four million people. But the occupation also opened the door to change. The young Shah feared he would share his father’s fate. Parliament gained new freedom, and political parties and newspapers flourished.
In 1951, a nationalist named Mohammad Mossadegh became prime minister and nationalized the oil industry. That choice would have enormous consequences. In 1953, the United States orchestrated a coup against him, removing Mossadegh and strengthening the Shah’s power, a decision that would eventually help fuel the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s.
