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Speaker 1: Al Zone media, what's illegal, my US invasions of several

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Speaker 1: countries actually that have been happening recently, and also my

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Speaker 1: entire life.

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Speaker 2: I'm Robert Evans. This is Behind the Bastards, a podcast

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Speaker 2: about bad people, the worst in all of history, several

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Speaker 2: of whom are currently in the Trump administration, where they

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Speaker 2: have recently orchestrated what is already ramping up to be

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Speaker 2: a bloody war with Iran. We're covering what's happening in

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Speaker 2: an ongoing basis on our daily news podcast. It could

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Speaker 2: happen here, but you know that's not what we do

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Speaker 2: overt Behind the Bastards. You know, we're not breaking news here.

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Speaker 2: Our specialty is like pieces of shit, and that makes us,

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Speaker 2: i think, well suited to talk about why is stuff

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Speaker 2: like why is the Western world's relationship with Iran? What

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Speaker 2: it is?

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Speaker 1: Like?

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Speaker 2: How did all of this shit start? Like what was

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Speaker 2: going on that kind of led to the present situation?

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Speaker 2: And if you want to tell that story, you have

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Speaker 2: to start with the seventeen hundreds and the eighteen hundreds

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Speaker 2: in the period of like particularly what's called the Great Game,

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Speaker 2: which is, you know, kind of this thing that happens

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Speaker 2: at the height of British and Russian imperialism, and you

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Speaker 2: have to talk about the Shaw, the very first Shah

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Speaker 2: of Iran, because it's the Shaws of Iran that lead

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Speaker 2: us to the current regime in Iran, and that lead

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Speaker 2: us to a lot of things about the current conflict

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Speaker 2: and like why it's taken on the dimensions that it's

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Speaker 2: taken on. So in order to talk about all of this,

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Speaker 2: we're bringing on my buddy and doctor Kavejoda also podcaster,

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Speaker 2: much more impressive than doctor. I should have led with

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Speaker 2: podcaster Kava I'm sorry, welcome to the show.

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Speaker 3: And musician, thank you so much.

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Speaker 2: And musician many things. You're a multi till apology.

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Speaker 4: The key is to be bad at all of them.

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Speaker 4: That's the key to doing this right. If you want

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Speaker 4: to do more, that's a polycraft, not mess.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, you want to you want to know what

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Speaker 3: you are good at?

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Speaker 4: Though?

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Speaker 5: What what am I good at?

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Speaker 3: Being my friend it's.

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Speaker 5: My best job.

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Speaker 2: Also being a doctor and a podcast.

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Speaker 4: I'm good at one of those three things.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm hoping it's doctor.

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Speaker 4: That's that's the one that's especially sort of the one

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Speaker 4: good at. The rest is you're going to find out

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Speaker 4: listener and viewer not as much, but you know, give

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Speaker 4: it my darnedest.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean this is obviously like what's going

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Speaker 2: on right now the United States is doing. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we we've just killed a school full of little girls,

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Speaker 2: like a lot of really ugly stuff. But if you

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Speaker 2: want to like the story of like why did the

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Speaker 2: US start fucking around with Iran? Like why why is

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Speaker 2: the current Iranian regime the way it is, that all

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Speaker 2: starts well before the US gets involved, right, that that

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Speaker 2: starts with you know, like most of our imperial ambitions,

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Speaker 2: we cribbed off the notes of the Brits and the

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Speaker 2: Russians from like a century or so ago, and it's

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Speaker 2: those imperial powers who made sure that Iran wound up

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Speaker 2: with a shah in the first place, which is why

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Speaker 2: you know, we have a revolution, because the Shaws rule

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Speaker 2: so badly that they inspire revolution, which brings us the Ayahtolas.

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Speaker 2: And all of these are our stories in and of themselves.

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Speaker 2: But this week we're going to be talking about like

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Speaker 2: the first Shah of Iran, of the Palavi dynasty, right,

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Speaker 2: Like that's where we're obviously Iran had previous shaws, but

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Speaker 2: we're talking about like the dad of the guy who

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Speaker 2: got exiled when the current government of Iran took over,

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Speaker 2: And how much do you know about the first about

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Speaker 2: Reza Khan, like the first of that line of shaws.

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Speaker 4: That's so first of all, the thank you for having

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Speaker 4: me back on first of all.

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Speaker 2: Second, oh shit, I talked right over that.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm so happy.

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Speaker 4: No, I'm so happy that you're covering this topic because

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Speaker 4: you're exactly right. There is a long history of involvement

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Speaker 4: of Western powers, and as an American, the American powers,

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Speaker 4: you know, really explicitly in nineteen fifty three, as we're

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Speaker 4: gonna I'm sure talk about that really set off a

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Speaker 4: chain of events that led us to where we are now.

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Speaker 4: And you know, you could argue did a lot of

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Speaker 4: damage and destabilize the region. So what bothers me the

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Speaker 4: most is that it's a story that most people in

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Speaker 4: the United States.

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Speaker 5: Do not know.

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Speaker 4: They don't know the real reason why people in Iran

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Speaker 4: may have taken over that embassy back in seventy nine.

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Speaker 4: You don't really know some of the anger, the anti

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Speaker 4: American feeling that happened at that time, because before that

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Speaker 4: there was great relations you know, for a while between

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Speaker 4: the two countries. So I think it's a really important story.

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Speaker 4: I do know more or less the basics of it.

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Speaker 4: I never was that interested in the Shaws because, like

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Speaker 4: I'm just the concept of a monarchy just rubs me

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Speaker 4: the wrong way. In general, it seems like a terrible idea.

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Speaker 5: I'm not into it.

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Speaker 4: But there are these characters in there, which I'm sure

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Speaker 4: we're going to talk about, like Moza Deech, who are

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Speaker 4: really interesting people. And there is a story here that

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Speaker 4: really explains a lot about what's happening here. The reson

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Speaker 4: his son Mohammed Reza Khan and now his son who's

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Speaker 4: now a player, and what's happening currently the news. So

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Speaker 4: it is, it is, It's something I know a little

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Speaker 4: bit about. But part part of the thing is like

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Speaker 4: when you grow up Iranian and your parents came over

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Speaker 4: after the revolution. A lot of these parents are very

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Speaker 4: politically savvy, well read, studied, We're politically active, but getting

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Speaker 4: a lot of information from them was hard about what

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Speaker 4: happened during the revolution, not just because everyone has only

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Speaker 4: their side of it, but because Irani's get so upset

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Speaker 4: about it. It would just be like, did that bastard

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Speaker 4: did this, and that son of a bitch did this,

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Speaker 4: and then you're like, you're losing the story here with this,

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Speaker 4: and you can't really get the story from your family.

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Speaker 4: So it is nice to I think we're going to

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Speaker 4: go into more depth about what actually happened now.

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Speaker 2: And I get that in part. I think because if

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Speaker 2: I had to, if I got exiled and had to

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Speaker 2: explain overseas like a bunch of the different infighting around

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Speaker 2: leftist movements, or like a bunch of the different right

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Speaker 2: wing grifters who got us here, I would probably just

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Speaker 2: wind up cursing, like right after a while, right, and

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Speaker 2: this son of a bitch and this piece of shit.

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Speaker 5: There's a lot of that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, you have to really work to be and

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Speaker 2: I want to clarify we're not even getting past We're

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Speaker 2: only gonna up to nineteen forty one in these episodes.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to do both shows at once, but there's

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Speaker 2: so much behind how the British and the Russians like

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Speaker 2: maneuver the situation that leads to this dynasty into being,

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Speaker 2: and how the oil situation gets started that you have

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Speaker 2: to really talk to. So we will come back and

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Speaker 2: we will do the sequel to these episodes, which we'll

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Speaker 2: talk more about Mozada as well. We're going to talk

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Speaker 2: about him some of these episodes, but he's like it

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Speaker 2: becomes the prime Minister, I think at fifty one, so

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Speaker 2: that's even a little past the era we're talking about.

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Speaker 2: But this, this is really important because this is what

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Speaker 2: sets this is what starts like everything into motion that

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Speaker 2: we're seeing, unfortunately come to very like a very bloody

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Speaker 2: head right now. Right, So we're going to start these

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Speaker 2: episodes talking about a period of time. This is going

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Speaker 2: to be kind of over to the to the US.

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Speaker 2: This is like happening in like the Civil War reconstruction era, right,

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Speaker 2: and in Europe that's also a time of great change

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Speaker 2: and of war. You know, not only is Europe industrializing

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Speaker 2: rapidly in the eighteen seventies, Germans beat France in eighteen

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Speaker 2: seventy in the Franco Prussian War, and the British Empire,

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Speaker 2: you know, is kind of watching this. They're seeing Germany

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Speaker 2: become a major world power because Germany becomes a country

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Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy one as the result of that war,

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Speaker 2: and very suddenly France isn't the primary land power in

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Speaker 2: Western Europe. Anymore. Germany is and so Britain, which had

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Speaker 2: primarily been worried about France previously, has two growing and

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Speaker 2: major concerns in this period after eighteen seventy. One is

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Speaker 2: that you've got this Kaiser and he seems really interested

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Speaker 2: in expanding Germany's military capacity, right, And the Brits are

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Speaker 2: kind of fine with the fact that Germany's got the

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Speaker 2: most powerful army in Europe. You're like, Uprussians can have

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Speaker 2: your big army, right that that's fine as long as

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Speaker 2: they stay on the continent. But once you start building boats,

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Speaker 2: that's when the Brits are not happy with you. Right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: no one else is allowed to have a navy. That's

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Speaker 2: really the British Empire's primary like foreign policy during this period,

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Speaker 2: vise of the Europe is like other people want boats?

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Speaker 2: Wait a second, like, hold the fuck up?

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Speaker 5: Can I can?

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Speaker 4: I also make a quick note, I love the way

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Speaker 4: when you say the Germans. I don't know if you've

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Speaker 4: been meant to do this. You slipped into cid Germans.

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Speaker 5: Germans. It's very good.

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Speaker 2: And there's a beautiful, beautiful case of a small town

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Speaker 2: German Man who went to New York City recently and

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Speaker 2: had some salsa verde on a taco and is suing

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Speaker 2: because like the spice like destroyed his body and like said,

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Speaker 2: like for days made him ill. It was like New

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Speaker 2: York City Salsa Verde. I was just thinking, motherfucker, I

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Speaker 2: canned some Barbera CoA last week that could wipe out

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Speaker 2: all of Germany. If that's if that's really the level

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Speaker 2: of spice tolerance over there. I know this guy's just

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Speaker 2: a hay seed grifter from a small town. Sorry, my

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Speaker 2: German friends, I know you can handle spices.

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Speaker 4: No, no, listen. We had a whole series of commercials

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Speaker 4: in the eighties, remember where they're like pace made in

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Speaker 4: New York.

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Speaker 5: City, New York City, got a road New.

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Speaker 2: York City salsa.

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Speaker 5: Yeah yeah.

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Speaker 2: It was like a whole fairy offensive to me. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I don't think it would be allowed to have salsa.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So anyway, Yeah, so the Brits are looking at the

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Speaker 2: at the Germans start to expand their navy and they're like,

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Speaker 2: well fuck, Like if Britannia doesn't rule the waves, like

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Speaker 2: what do we really have right? We can't the home

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Speaker 2: islands are in danger if we can't keep if we

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Speaker 2: can't keep control of the sea. So that's one of

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Speaker 2: Great Britain's major concerns in this period. The other thing

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Speaker 2: that's really freaking them out is India, right, protecting India.

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Speaker 2: That is the jewel in the British Empire's crown. It's

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Speaker 2: their most valuable possession, right and the Germans are nowhere

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Speaker 2: near India, thank god. But over the course of the

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Speaker 2: nineteenth century, Imperial Russia starts expanding troublingly close to India.

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Speaker 2: Right like they start, there's a couple of different fits

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Speaker 2: and starts where the Russians will you know, expand their

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Speaker 2: territory and they keep getting closer to the British raj

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Speaker 2: I want to quote from the article a very British

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Speaker 2: Coup in the World Policy Journal by Sharen Brisik, quote,

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Speaker 2: the British watch nervously is the distance between the Russian

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Speaker 2: Empire and India, too, thousand miles at the beginning of

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Speaker 2: the nineteenth century, shrank so much that by centuries end,

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Speaker 2: as the Russian Empire expanded eastward at the amazing average

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Speaker 2: of fifty five square miles per day, as little as

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Speaker 2: twenty miles separated the two empires in Central Asia's premieres

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Speaker 2: squeeze between these expanding powers was Persia, described by George

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Speaker 2: Nathan Curzon, one time Viceroy of India and subsequent Foreign Secretary,

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Speaker 2: as one of the pieces on a chessboard upon which

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Speaker 2: is being played out a game for the domination of

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Speaker 2: the world.

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Speaker 4: We're real proud of being upon, real proud of that one.

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Speaker 2: Great thanks for calling us pieces on a chessboard.

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Speaker 5: Fantastic.

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Speaker 2: Purson Is We're talking about him a lot in these episodes.

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Speaker 2: I should do an episode on just him. He's one

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Speaker 2: of these, like when we talk about British imperialists, he

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Speaker 2: is like one of the imperialists of imperialists in the

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Speaker 2: British Empire's history. And this is why Curzon's comment is

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Speaker 2: why participants came to call this struggle in what's often

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Speaker 2: I referred to as like the Near East right between

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Speaker 2: Russia and Great Britain, as the Great Game.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 2: This is a diplomatic, propagandistic, and sometimes military struggle between

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Speaker 2: the British and Russian empires over Central Asia. One part

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Speaker 2: of the Great Game is that the Great Britain invades

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Speaker 2: and occupies Afghanistan for a while. Doesn't work well, right,

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Speaker 2: But that's part of why that happens, right, is it's

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Speaker 2: part of the stupid game they're playing with the Russians,

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Speaker 2: and it's all in the name of keeping India safe.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 2: They don't want Russia to get Afghanistan and they don't

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Speaker 2: want Russia to get.

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Speaker 5: Persia, right. Perfect.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. The actual name the Great Game, I think comes

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Speaker 2: in eighteen forty, is the invention of a British spy

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Speaker 2: named Arthur Connolly who was corresponding with a colleague in Kandahar, Afghanistan,

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Speaker 2: and wrote, you've a great game, a noble game before you.

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Speaker 2: Now obviously again everyone dies, like a lot of the

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Speaker 2: British Expeditionary Force dies, So I don't know how great

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Speaker 2: a game they thought that was. By the end there,

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Speaker 2: this is the thing.

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Speaker 4: This is the thing that bothers me. I don't know

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Speaker 4: much about this time period, so this is really interesting

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Speaker 4: to hear. I do know a little bit more about

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Speaker 4: the coup, as we mentioned that you'll get to at

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Speaker 4: some point in the future. In One nauseating fact about

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Speaker 4: that is the callous nature in which these like British

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Speaker 4: and American spies and propagandists, how they talk about it afterwards,

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Speaker 4: like how much fun it was to overlay great game.

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Speaker 5: It was a game.

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Speaker 4: It's so much fun, and they were good at it

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Speaker 4: and we won. It's just the it drives me a baddie.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, then the millions of people's lives, and I take

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Speaker 2: some satisfaction that. Connolly in eighteen forty writes his colleague,

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Speaker 2: you have a great game, a noble game before you

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Speaker 2: in eighteen forty two, like the shattered remnants of the

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Speaker 2: army that had marched into the first angle Tic Couple

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Speaker 2: during the First Anglo Afghan War, like flee because you know,

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Speaker 2: they get massacred, like very badly. So at least a

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Speaker 2: lot of times these guys got shot, but not nearly

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Speaker 2: an often enough cava, that is to be, not nearly

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Speaker 2: often enough.

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Speaker 5: It's a recurring theme.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people get shot this story, but not

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Speaker 2: the right ones. Generally, usually some teenagers who got drafted

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Speaker 2: from farms.

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Speaker 5: So always the kids.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, before that term was invented, the great Game,

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Speaker 2: the Russians did have one of their own. They called

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Speaker 2: it the Tournament of Shadows, which is objectively cooler, Like

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Speaker 2: that is a cooler name.

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Speaker 4: That sounds like a fantasy novel that I would probably read.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, a tournament of shadows. Right, it's a great name

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Speaker 2: for like a prestige TV show, right, that will really

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Speaker 2: disappoint you in maybe like the seventh season, and it's

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Speaker 2: gonna get weird. Yeah. So for the British again, the

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Speaker 2: whole goal of this stupid game is to protect their

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Speaker 2: territory in India. And the whole name of the game

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Speaker 2: for the Russians was for the Tzar, each subsequent zar

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Speaker 2: to prove himself a good ruler. And the main thing

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Speaker 2: you had to do as Tzar to be a good

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Speaker 2: ruler is expand the borders of the empire. That's why

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Speaker 2: people forget this because of how weak Russia seems entering

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Speaker 2: World War One and is. But through the eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 2: again fifty five miles a day, the Russian Empire expands

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Speaker 2: over the course of like years. It's crazy how fast

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Speaker 2: this I mean. And you look at the size of

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Speaker 2: the Russian Empire at its maximum extent, it's not that weird.

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Speaker 2: So the Brits have a hard line of how close

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Speaker 2: they want anyone, any European power to get to the

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Speaker 2: Raj and the Russians feel like we have to expand constantly,

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Speaker 2: and it ultimately Persia winds up standing in between both empires.

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Speaker 2: So in Persia in seventeen eighty five, you're gonna help

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Speaker 2: me with the pronunciation here. I think it's the the

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Speaker 2: Quahar dynasty or Qajar dynasty.

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Speaker 4: Qaj j Ar.

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Speaker 5: I think it's Kajar Kajar.

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Speaker 4: I think it's an actual j I'm going to preface

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Speaker 4: this by apologizing to how many of our actual Iranian

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Speaker 4: listeners you have that my Parsi is only nominally better

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Speaker 4: than Roberts. I mean, it's better, but not as good

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Speaker 4: as yours. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was born

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Speaker 4: in Indiana. You're lucky I speak English much less Farcia.

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Speaker 4: So just so sorry.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the Qujar dynasty took power seventeen eighty five, and

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Speaker 2: they are the descendants of Turkomen from Central Asia and

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Speaker 2: aren't seen as authentically Persian by a lot of people, right, Like,

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Speaker 2: authentically they're not seen is belonging in what's called Persia,

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Speaker 2: right because there's a lot of different ethnic groups there. Now,

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Speaker 2: because the first Kajar king doesn't have like a really

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Speaker 2: solid hold on power, he decides he has to put

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Speaker 2: on a show in order to convince everyone he belongs

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Speaker 2: in the job, right. You know, a lot of people

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Speaker 2: don't think I should be in Tehran at all. I

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Speaker 2: have to really like make everyone believe i'm legitimately like

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Speaker 2: God wants me here, right. And so this first Kujar

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Speaker 2: king is Fathali Shah and he's known his nickname is

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Speaker 2: the super procreant because he has a lot of kids.

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Speaker 3: But by the way, and just just so it's if

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Speaker 3: it's not obvious, the word shaw translates to like emperor, ruler, king, right,

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Speaker 3: just in case people weren't aware of that. Somebody asked

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Speaker 3: me that question like a few years ago, and I

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Speaker 3: was like, that's what I mean.

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Speaker 4: So just a case.

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Speaker 2: And it often in these names it will come as

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Speaker 2: like a last name, but that is his title, right,

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Speaker 2: He's fath Aly Shah, is faf Al is the Shah. Right,

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Speaker 2: Reza Khan will become Resis Shah like when he becomes

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Speaker 2: the Shah.

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Speaker 5: And he gave the name Paula Vi.

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Speaker 4: They because it was like the I think it was

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Speaker 4: like the ancient Lang written word Persian.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, things like that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll talk about that because that's that's important

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Speaker 2: to this. There's a lot of ethnic groups in Persia

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Speaker 2: at the time, and he's only really the sha is

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Speaker 2: only going to be really interested in one right, and

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Speaker 2: that's kind of a big part of like what occurs

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Speaker 2: in his reign. But so the first Kajar king is

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Speaker 2: known as the super procreant because he's he's fucking constantly.

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Speaker 2: And that's also why the throne of the Shahs of

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Speaker 2: Iran gets its name, because it's called the peacock Throne.

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Speaker 2: Now for an explanation of why it's called the peacock Throne,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to quote from a Boss Milani, the author

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Speaker 2: of a book called the Sha Here's how they describe it.

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Speaker 2: That superb and barbarous devon of enamel and precious stones,

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Speaker 2: with its airbesque designs wrought of twenty six thousand gyms

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Speaker 2: brought back from India as spoils of war. It uses

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Speaker 2: bright red rubies, deep blue sapphires, and verdant greened emeralds,

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Speaker 2: and is flanked by two golden snakes, each peering from

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Speaker 2: one side. In the beginning, the peacock Throne was called

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Speaker 2: the sun Throne. Its name was changed because the Shah,

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Speaker 2: who had close to one thousand wives of quote diverse

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Speaker 2: origin had a favorite concubine. This concubine was named Taboo,

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Speaker 2: and that name literally means peacock in Persian. And so

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Speaker 2: this throne the sun throne. They fuck on it the

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Speaker 2: night they get married, and he starts calling it the

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Speaker 2: peacock throne because he has sex with this lady whose

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Speaker 2: name is peacock on it. That's why it's the peacock throne. Hey, guys,

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Speaker 2: I just want to clarify. This is one explanation I

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Speaker 2: found in one book for why it's called the peacock throne.

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Speaker 2: And this represents like a popular story more than it

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Speaker 2: does kind of the literal truth, because you know, there's

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Speaker 2: peacocks carved into the throne. There's some I think I've

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Speaker 2: heard some other stories as to like why it's called that, right,

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Speaker 2: and Iran is called the peacock Kingdom or Perge is

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Speaker 2: called the pincock Kingdom at around this time too. This

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Speaker 2: should be viewed as kind of a story that a

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Speaker 2: lot of people told as to why the throne got

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Speaker 2: its name, as opposed to like the absolute reason. Pretty

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Speaker 2: cool name for a story for a throne's name.

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Speaker 5: Actually, that is pretty.

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Speaker 4: That is real game of Thrones. E that is very game.

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Speaker 2: I like it better than the Iron Throne. It's a

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Speaker 2: nicer story than a bunch of swords getting a meltzed

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Speaker 2: together a fun night.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, the Peacock Throne sounds better. The reality of these

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Speaker 4: thousand women actually being into this guy pretty low, probably

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Speaker 4: not great, so it makes it a little bit less

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Speaker 4: charming for me.

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Speaker 5: But yeah, yeah, it's a great name.

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Speaker 2: When you think about Yeah, the relationship dynamics, it's less fun,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, it's probably more comfortable than the Iron Throne.

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Speaker 4: Way better than the Iron Throne.

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Speaker 2: You wouldn't want to have sex on the Iron Throne,

399
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Speaker 2: like you'd get like tetanus pretty badly, I think. I

400
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,040
Speaker 2: don't think wester Ros has vaccines for that.

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Speaker 4: And it's really cold, I think to be I think

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Speaker 4: if you were naked, I think it would be really cold.

403
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Speaker 4: I mean, there are things to hold on to, which

404
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Speaker 4: is nice.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of a lot of grips. That's a

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Speaker 2: good side.

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Speaker 5: There's a lot of bricks.

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Speaker 3: Did either of you watch the Night of a Seven

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Speaker 3: Kingdoms Game of Thrones show.

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Speaker 5: I did.

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Speaker 4: It's my first time venturing back into the world of

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00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,399
Speaker 4: west ROAs since the original series.

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Speaker 3: Do I need to watch it? What's the vibe?

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Speaker 4: It's fun, it's good. I mean, it's a much lighter

415
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Speaker 4: I think they kind of read the room and they're like,

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Speaker 4: people don't want so much rape and incest and all that,

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Speaker 4: and they kind of like they tried to mix it

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Speaker 4: up a little bit, a little bit less castration in

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Speaker 4: this one, which is a big plus for me.

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Speaker 5: I was trying.

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Speaker 2: We could talk about this for hours. We were talking

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Speaker 2: about the.

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Speaker 3: Sorry sorry, sorry, my friend, my friends are here, We're

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Speaker 3: going to talk about game of Throws.

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Speaker 4: I could totally do that for like an hour, because

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Speaker 4: sat speaking, I have a lot of thoughts about it.

427
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:06,680
Speaker 2: But yeah, oh yeah, solidly an hour. So we've got

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Speaker 2: this new king. He's incredibly horny, famously horny, so horny

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Speaker 2: that the throne is named for his horniness, which is

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Speaker 2: again the coolest anyone will be in these episodes.

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Speaker 4: Sorry, guys.

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Speaker 2: From there, it's all downhill from the peacock throne getting named.

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Speaker 2: One of fath Ali Shah's most consequent little decisions was

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Speaker 2: that he signs a treaty in eighteen twenty eight that

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Speaker 2: gives a big chunk of Persia away to the Russian

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Speaker 2: Czar in exchange for protection. Persia is not a strong country.

437
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:40,040
Speaker 2: It doesn't really have a functional military. Like the military

438
00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:43,120
Speaker 2: is kind of capable of keeping like the people from

439
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:47,160
Speaker 2: rebelling against the Shah, but it can't defend the country

440
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 2: from other countries, right, And a lot of critics complain

441
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:53,719
Speaker 2: that this eighteen twenty eight treaty makes Persia a virtual

442
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:57,239
Speaker 2: satrap of the Tzar. Right, basically, Persia's just like a

443
00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,560
Speaker 2: satellite state of the Russian Empire now, and so subsequent

444
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,360
Speaker 2: rulers in the Shaw's line would veer towards the British

445
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:07,480
Speaker 2: whenever they get worried that like the Russians are getting

446
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:09,960
Speaker 2: too much power, and part because they're getting criticized by

447
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,360
Speaker 2: the people, Like the people are pissed that, like you're

448
00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 2: giving everything away to the Russians. So they'd be like, well,

449
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:17,160
Speaker 2: maybe i'll make friends with the British and then you know,

450
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:19,960
Speaker 2: the Russians will have to kind of fight for my

451
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 2: affection with the British and maybe we can gain a

452
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:23,800
Speaker 2: little more power that way.

453
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:24,120
Speaker 5: Right.

454
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 2: Really, with the Shah and their success, they just are

455
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,400
Speaker 2: getting bribes from both these sides, right, and they're getting

456
00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:32,080
Speaker 2: a shitload of bribes from the British, who are gained

457
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:34,280
Speaker 2: more and more power over the Persian Court over the

458
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:37,160
Speaker 2: course of the eighteen hundreds, basically by being like, hey,

459
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:39,320
Speaker 2: those Russians, I don't think they're going to stop at

460
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 2: the stuff they got in that treaty. But you know,

461
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:44,800
Speaker 2: we've got British guns, and we've got we can send

462
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 2: some suppoies over from the colonies, and you know, we

463
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,199
Speaker 2: can really keep an eye on your back fellow. You

464
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,040
Speaker 2: know if you just give us this little bit of

465
00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,399
Speaker 2: some mineral rights here and there, that just build a

466
00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,600
Speaker 2: factory here and then you know, expose these these raw materials.

467
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 2: You never regret your dealings with the British Empire. That's

468
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 2: kind of what's going on over like the seventy year period.

469
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:07,679
Speaker 5: You like G, we like G.

470
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 4: There's no harms that could come out of this relationship.

471
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:13,560
Speaker 2: Ever, two groups of people who like tea could never

472
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 2: hob one another.

473
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 5: You will say.

474
00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 4: Actually, fun fact, Iran is known famously for its tea consumption,

475
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:24,160
Speaker 4: like an insane amount of tea consumption. But we were

476
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 4: the old school coffee like all we used to be

477
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 4: all about coffee. I blame the British for becoming a

478
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 4: tea country, which is in my mind something I'm not

479
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 4: proud of. I want to go back to being a

480
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:38,040
Speaker 4: coffee country. I don't want to be a tea country.

481
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 2: He must return.

482
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 5: God, it really bothers me, I know, I know.

483
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 2: No, because because Syria, the Syrians are really like kicking

484
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:46,359
Speaker 2: y'all's asses in the coffee department.

485
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:48,119
Speaker 5: Right, Oh, no, we lost our coffee.

486
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:51,399
Speaker 4: Must return, I know. Well, they have hipster coffee shops

487
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,119
Speaker 4: now in Iran. You can go to Iran. They'll do

488
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:55,959
Speaker 4: like the the hipster latte sort of art and stuff.

489
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 5: They have that.

490
00:23:57,359 --> 00:23:59,280
Speaker 4: But I mean, we used to it used to be

491
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 4: like our thing, one of our things.

492
00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 2: Right, yeah. So the situation going on between these British

493
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 2: agents and these Russian agents all competing with these various

494
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,199
Speaker 2: shaws is complicated by the fact that this isn't just

495
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 2: a contest for influence between England and Russia. Within the

496
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:18,479
Speaker 2: British Empire, there are two sets of competing envoys that

497
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 2: are in Persia and are fighting with each other as

498
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,719
Speaker 2: well as with the Russians. One set of British envoys

499
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 2: are answering to the Foreign Office back in London, and

500
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 2: another set are sent by the government of the British

501
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:35,440
Speaker 2: Raujian Calcutta and these guys, so they're like representing British

502
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 2: India in Persia, and they have this huge office on

503
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:42,280
Speaker 2: the Gulf coast in a place called Boucher. And here's

504
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:47,359
Speaker 2: Sharen Brysak describing, like the ministry from Calcutta. The Government

505
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:51,159
Speaker 2: of India preferred a highly decentralized Persian regime that means weak.

506
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 2: So from the outset, successive residents, including Major supercy Cox

507
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,879
Speaker 2: and Lieutenant Colonel A. T. Wilson, cultivated ties with nearby Shakedoms. Kurzon,

508
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,840
Speaker 2: an eventual Viceroy of India, visiting in eighteen eighty nine,

509
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 2: spotted the Union jack fluttering from the summit of the

510
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:08,240
Speaker 2: residency flag staff and wrote that it was no vain

511
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 2: symbol of British ascendancy. The British resident is to this

512
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 2: hour the umpire to whom all parties appeal, having at

513
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,679
Speaker 2: his command an effective naval force imposed it will he

514
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 2: may be entitled the uncrowned King of the Persian Gulf.

515
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 2: So basically Kurzon realizes that like, because we've like we're

516
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:29,719
Speaker 2: running the show by eighteen eighty nine in Persia outside

517
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,360
Speaker 2: of the areas the Russians have like literally taken over

518
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,680
Speaker 2: by treaty. We are governing the country in all but name,

519
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 2: because we have all of the weapons here, right, That's

520
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:38,879
Speaker 2: what he's bragging about.

521
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:41,360
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you do.

522
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,159
Speaker 4: That to show that really well. And it's weird, like

523
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 4: you you like get into that British character. It's not

524
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,639
Speaker 4: just the voice, it's the you. You can get that

525
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 4: entitlement like.

526
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 2: You're channeling, you channel it.

527
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:56,720
Speaker 5: It's yeah, brilliant.

528
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 2: So the Shah benefits from having a close relationship with

529
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 2: Great Britain because British naval power is effectively his as

530
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 2: long as he does whatever they asked, right. As one

531
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 2: such envoy wrote of the Shaw quote, he and his

532
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 2: Prime Minister were worried by the Russian threat to Persian independence.

533
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 2: They believed or hoped that by giving the British a

534
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,199
Speaker 2: large economic stake in the country, they would become committed

535
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,359
Speaker 2: to defending that independence. Basically, if we make it, if

536
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:25,760
Speaker 2: Great Britain feels like we're an important part of their

537
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 2: security and economic apparatus, they won't let us get taken

538
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:32,480
Speaker 2: over by the Russians right now. The Russians, meanwhile, are

539
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 2: stoking unrest within Persia, often by bribing or otherwise encouraging

540
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:40,920
Speaker 2: Shia clergy to preach against foreign involvement, basically to be like, hey,

541
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,919
Speaker 2: these Brits are taken over your country, guys, and they're heathens,

542
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 2: you know, Like aren't you should be angrier about this?

543
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 2: Why is the Shaw letting them get away with that?

544
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 5: Right?

545
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,520
Speaker 2: So, the Russians are operating a very effective propaganda. Like

546
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 2: it's propaganda, but it's also accurate. Great Britain is running

547
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 2: things in Persia that is pretty messed up. Now the

548
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 2: Russians also want to run things in Persia. They're not

549
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 2: any like better people here, really, but like this is

550
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 2: how they're choosing to kind of like it's actually kind

551
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 2: of similar to what Iran does in Iraq when the

552
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,760
Speaker 2: US invades with Shia clergy and like Baghdad. Interestingly enough,

553
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 2: where they're they're realizing, like this group of people are

554
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 2: particularly unhappy with the foreign power that's occupying the territory.

555
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:28,359
Speaker 2: So I'm going to like basically fund them to build

556
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,720
Speaker 2: support for insurrections and like rebel movements within the country.

557
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 5: Yeah, we learn how to play the Great game.

558
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 2: Learn playing the Great Game. Yeah, yeah right, Unfortunately, Yeah,

559
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 2: it's it's never been that great a game and always

560
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 2: gets a lot more people killed than anything else. So

561
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:52,200
Speaker 2: these like Russian propaganda, like instruments and whatnot within Persia,

562
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,159
Speaker 2: these attempts to stroke unrest within the clergy succeed in

563
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:57,679
Speaker 2: getting the Shot to cancel a number of projects, including

564
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 2: a railway project that he'd taken on that was support

565
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 2: by British interests. However, they failed to stop a British

566
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:08,680
Speaker 2: agent from creating the Imperial Bank of Persia. In fact,

567
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:11,400
Speaker 2: the Russians are so jealous of the British Imperial Bank

568
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,120
Speaker 2: that they create a bank of their own in Persia,

569
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:17,879
Speaker 2: subsidized by the Tsarist state, where the Imperial Bank was

570
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,199
Speaker 2: actually a functional banking institution that you could trust. That

571
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,439
Speaker 2: was the upside of it is the British do know

572
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 2: how to run a bank that doesn't like go bust

573
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:30,159
Speaker 2: every ten seconds. The Russians are not as good about

574
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 2: running like a legitimate bank, and the Russian Bank of

575
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 2: Persia its primary purpose is to bribe the Shah's top officials,

576
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 2: like it's not a real bank for people to use,

577
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 2: it's a bank to issue loans to members of the governments.

578
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 2: That they do what the Tzar wants them to do.

579
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 2: So basically, what you've got here is great Britain's holding

580
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 2: kind of the whole country hostage by running the bank

581
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 2: that the people who have money use, and the Tzar

582
00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 2: is influencing shit within the country by using the bank

583
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:04,600
Speaker 2: that he's created to bribe government officials. So this is

584
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 2: what we've got going on here.

585
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 4: This is like where the sort of Archie being courted

586
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 4: by Betty I think and Veronica, where they're two people

587
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 4: are fighting for Iran is like nice. This is like

588
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 4: so far, yeah, not so bad, but I also know

589
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 4: that it just it gets worse and worse, So like

590
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:27,000
Speaker 4: right now, it's almost kind of cute.

591
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 2: It's gonna get worse than banks. Yeah, it's gonna get

592
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:33,640
Speaker 2: a lot worse than banks. So Russia's fortunes in the

593
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 2: area EBB and flow on a daily basis, and they

594
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 2: depended largely in the attitude of the reigning sha. For example,

595
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,640
Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy nine, Naser al Din, who's the show

596
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 2: at the time, visited Czar Alexander the Second in Russia.

597
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 2: Alexander the Second, intent on staging a good show for

598
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 2: his neighbor, ensured that the Shaw was wowed by a

599
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 2: mass presentation of Cossacks. The elite cavalry unit who had Cossacks.

600
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 2: I mean, they're also like an ethnic group, right, but

601
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 2: they primarily known as like a military unit or a

602
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 2: series of military units. They'd started out for a long time,

603
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 2: had been enemies of the Tsar, right like Cossacks had

604
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,040
Speaker 2: fought the Tsars for a very there had been a

605
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 2: rebellion not all that long ago, and they had been

606
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,160
Speaker 2: converted over time into the Tsar's red right hand. And

607
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 2: we're going to talk a little bit more about that.

608
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 2: But first, my red right hand these sponsors of our podcast,

609
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 2: and we're back, yay. So I want to quote from

610
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 2: an article and seeing in world news about the evolution

611
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 2: of the Cossacks within Russia. During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and

612
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 2: sixteenth centuries, the Cossacks fought for the Russian crown in

613
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 2: regional wars against the Russian people, garnering a reputation as

614
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 2: the Tsar's henchmen. Acting on behalf of the Russian Empire,

615
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 2: the Cossacks carried out pagrams or massacres of the Jews

616
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 2: in nineteenth century Russia. The Cossacks go from these people

617
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 2: who were these like nomadic horse warriors and didn't want

618
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,000
Speaker 2: to be governed to the government being like, but what

619
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 2: if we give you money in exchange for murdering anyone

620
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 2: who stands up against the czar? And the Cossacks eventually

621
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 2: are fine with this, right, and they do a lot

622
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 2: of there's a lot of genocide done by the Cossacks

623
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 2: on behalf of the Russian Empire in this period, right,

624
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 2: Like these pegroms are very ugly. There's there's one that

625
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 2: kills something like a million people in the eighteen hundreds,

626
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 2: like seven hundred thousand or something like that. Pretty hideous stuff. Now,

627
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 2: there had been a Cossack rebellion led by a dude

628
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 2: named Pugachev in the late eighteenth century, and in general,

629
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 2: any expert on Russian history would have told you that

630
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 2: a powerful, autonomous cadra of warriors with zero accountability sometimes

631
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 2: rebel against It's not always a good idea for the

632
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 2: government right to have like this group of warriors that

633
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 2: you can't really tell what to do. Yes, it seems

634
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 2: like idea, right, And the Cossacks had always been a

635
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 2: double edged sword, even for the czars. But Naser al Din,

636
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 2: the Shah at the time sees all these Russian Cossacks

637
00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 2: and he's like, these guys look cool as hell. I

638
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 2: want some Cossacks. And so he founds his own Persian

639
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,360
Speaker 2: Cossack legion. This is kind of in the late eighteen

640
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 2: or the yeah, the late eighteen hundreds. He founds the

641
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 2: Persian Cossack Brigade. I had not known there were Persian Cossacks.

642
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 2: I thought that was just like a because like Cossacks

643
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 2: are like from like Ukraine is where a lot of

644
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 2: like Cossacks origidate from. So the fact that there's a

645
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 2: Persian Cossack brigade is kind of wild.

646
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 4: We think we will take any concept and then we'll

647
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 4: take it to an extreme. That's sort of what we

648
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 4: do as a people culturally. If you've been to Los Angeles,

649
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 4: you'll see that.

650
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 5: Yeah.

651
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 4: But this Kajar dynasty, what's interesting about is I know

652
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 4: very little about it other than the way they are presented.

653
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,200
Speaker 4: The narrative is that they were just an incompetent, ridiculous

654
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,280
Speaker 4: group of like people who are only interested in, you know,

655
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:52,719
Speaker 4: pro creating and spent wasting money on things. And Naser

656
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:56,120
Speaker 4: el Din is like the one name I recognize as

657
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 4: like the epitome of that that this is the most wasteful,

658
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 4: terrible Dinoshras saying something for all the other dynasties that

659
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 4: have been around and went on.

660
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:08,200
Speaker 2: And it's important to note that they are this terrible

661
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 2: because they're all from the entire time this dynasty exists,

662
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:16,240
Speaker 2: they're not. They're always puppets of two different competing powers, right,

663
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 2: Like they're never like from the beginning, any of these

664
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 2: For one thing, anyone who might be a decent ruler

665
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 2: is not going to be allowed by the Russians or

666
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 2: the Brits to do fuck all, right, so they're going

667
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 2: to make sure that guy never gets close to power

668
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 2: in the first place, because they're orchestrating who is in power,

669
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 2: and they're doing that based on their own interest, not

670
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 2: what's good for Persia and.

671
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 4: Not time and time again, this is the story. This

672
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 4: is how it's laid out from time time thereon.

673
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, And obviously like these individual shaws and their officials

674
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 2: suck too. These are all really corrupt bad people. But

675
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 2: they're corrupt bad people who are being bribed by someone,

676
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 2: and that is completely dominating the course of politics in

677
00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 2: Persia during this period of time. And it's not entirely

678
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 2: on the regime, right, like these two foreign powers have

679
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 2: a lot to do with it. So the Czar Alexander

680
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 2: the Second had had the Shaw over and impressed him

681
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,200
Speaker 2: with these Cossacks because he wanted something like this to happen.

682
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:15,880
Speaker 2: He wants Persia to have a Cossack brigade because the

683
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 2: point of having Cossacks is that they're supposed to directly

684
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 2: support the ruler, like these are your I've had a rebellion.

685
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 2: I need someone to go in and massacre them. That's

686
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 2: why you have an elite group of horse guards like

687
00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 2: the Cossacks. And so the Shaw is buying these Cossacks

688
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 2: thinking like, shit, this will help me anytime there's unrest,

689
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 2: I'll be able to have these guys just murder my enemies.

690
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 2: And Persia does in fact pay handsomely to equip, train,

691
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 2: and maintain a brigade. And this brigade is pretty much,

692
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 2: for a lot of this period, the only effective military

693
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 2: unit Persia has, and it's led by Russian officers. Right,

694
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 2: the Russians are kind of subsidizing this effort, and they're

695
00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 2: sending their own military officers who report directly to Russia's

696
00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 2: Minister of War So if you're Russia, what you've done

697
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 2: as soon as the sha Ah starts adopt this idea,

698
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:07,880
Speaker 2: starts hiring Cossacks, You've ensured the Shaw's bodyguard unit basically

699
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 2: is in controlled by your guys. That's a big win

700
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,200
Speaker 2: if you're Russia in this period, right.

701
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 4: No, I think this is it's so interesting to learn

702
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,000
Speaker 4: about this. I'd heard about the Cossack Brigade and yeah,

703
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,879
Speaker 4: a little bit of the connection to the Polavi family.

704
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 5: But it's a big don't. Yes, I don't.

705
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 4: I don't entirely understand, Like the constant. Is it like

706
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 4: the Hessian soldiers that were in America that came over

707
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 4: from Germany, Like they're kind of a mercenary force or

708
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,080
Speaker 4: is it more of like a yes, but it's a

709
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,959
Speaker 4: formal like oh, what are the bad guys in Dune?

710
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 4: The member like the one, they're.

711
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 2: More like kind of more startokar. Well, the because Cossacks

712
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,000
Speaker 2: are there is like kind of an ethnic group like

713
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 2: these are basically these start out as like tribal groups

714
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,239
Speaker 2: of where Cossacks come from. Is you know how through

715
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,800
Speaker 2: most of human history you have like your settled civilizations

716
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:01,719
Speaker 2: and then these groups of like nomads on horses who

717
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 2: periodically take over everything. Right, Well, Cossacks are one of

718
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,000
Speaker 2: those groups of people. They just happen to be around

719
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 2: at the time that the modern world comes into being,

720
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 2: and so they're those guys. But instead of like bows

721
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:16,840
Speaker 2: and arrows, they've got like rifles and eventually machine guns.

722
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:19,959
Speaker 2: And as a general rule in this period of time,

723
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 2: if you're going to brutalize a protest, you're going to

724
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 2: use guys on horseback, because horses are really good at

725
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:29,759
Speaker 2: breaking up mobs. It's very scary to be charged by

726
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:34,080
Speaker 2: a bunch of guys with sabers on horseback. And that's

727
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 2: the real the Russian Cossacks, that's what they do. These

728
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 2: are the guys you send in when these villagers are rebelling,

729
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 2: kill them, or we've decided we're going to ethnically cleanse

730
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 2: this area of this group of people, send in the Cossacks,

731
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 2: right and once the Shah gets his Cossacks, that's what

732
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,239
Speaker 2: they're going to be used for, is brutalizing peasants to

733
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:55,239
Speaker 2: scare them away from doing disorder. Right now, they're not

734
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 2: much good for much else. They're supposed to be bodyguards

735
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,919
Speaker 2: to In eighteen ninety six, Nasa is a assassinated while

736
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:03,839
Speaker 2: at a shrine, and his Cossack bodyguards failed to protect him.

737
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:06,399
Speaker 2: As a general rule, they're not great at that part

738
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 2: of the job.

739
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:09,319
Speaker 5: We don't protect, we hurt.

740
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:14,280
Speaker 2: Oh no, all it cuts tot. Was that a hit people?

741
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,360
Speaker 4: We're a more offensive thing, less defense.

742
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:18,440
Speaker 5: Yeah.

743
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:20,919
Speaker 2: But once you've got these guys, you've got this unit

744
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 2: of powerful horse guards that are close to the Shah,

745
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 2: they're going to remain a powerful force in Persian politics,

746
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,760
Speaker 2: which by the turn of the century, once the nineteen

747
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:31,879
Speaker 2: hundred start going, are in a chaotic place, to say

748
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 2: the least. Sharen Breysak describes the country during this time

749
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 2: as a playground of Russian and British spies. Tehran is

750
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:41,120
Speaker 2: very much the way Berlin is going to be during

751
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,360
Speaker 2: the height of the Cold War. Right, It's this city

752
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 2: where all like spooks from all over the world are

753
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:49,919
Speaker 2: coming and executing plots as part of these different great

754
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 2: power games. And neither Russia or Great Britain trusted the

755
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 2: local state security forces as far as they could throw them,

756
00:37:57,239 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 2: so they brought in their own troops to protect their

757
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 2: own agents in the country. The Russians brought in their

758
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,279
Speaker 2: own Cossack guards right, or used Persian Cossack guards which

759
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 2: were led by Russians right, whereas British consuls in the

760
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:12,280
Speaker 2: country brought sapois in Bengal lancers from India to protect

761
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 2: their guys. At the start of the twentieth century, Russia

762
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:18,279
Speaker 2: and England had reached an accord which Brysac writes was

763
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:23,280
Speaker 2: settled without informing, much less consulting the leaders of Persia.

764
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 2: They split the country up into three spheres of influence.

765
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 2: The British control southeast Persia, Russia runs the north, and

766
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 2: the Southwest is like a neutral zone where they're both

767
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 2: allowed to do like certain things as long as they

768
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:40,080
Speaker 2: don't like cross other certain lines. And again no one

769
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 2: asks anyone in the Persian government about this. They're not consulted.

770
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:48,279
Speaker 2: Their consent does not matter. Russia's chunk of Persia is

771
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 2: most valuable during this period of time. They seem to

772
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,480
Speaker 2: get off better like the best of this treaty, right,

773
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 2: because they get the chunk of Persia with the largest cities,

774
00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:00,960
Speaker 2: including Tehran. But here's the thing. In nineteen oh one,

775
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:04,120
Speaker 2: when this agreement gets kind of inked, neither power is

776
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 2: really interested in Persia's oil fields. There's not a lot

777
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 2: that's known about them. We'd only really figured out there

778
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,759
Speaker 2: were oil deposits in southwest Persia in like eighteen ninety two.

779
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:16,440
Speaker 2: That gets discovered thanks to the work of a French

780
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 2: archaeologist whose findings are brought to This French guy who's

781
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:24,880
Speaker 2: digging for evidence of earlier societies finds oil and he

782
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 2: his findings get sent on to the Commissioner General of Persia,

783
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 2: so an actual Persian government official, and this says a

784
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:33,840
Speaker 2: lot about who was bribing the Commissioner General of Persia.

785
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,320
Speaker 2: He goes straight to Sir Henry Drummond Wolf, who's a

786
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,920
Speaker 2: Conservative parliamentarian in London, and he says, hey, we found

787
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 2: oil in our country. I figured i'd go to London first,

788
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:47,479
Speaker 2: and Wolf introduces the Persian Commissioner to a guy named

789
00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 2: William Knox D'Arcy. I assume he's an actual descendant of

790
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 2: mister Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.

791
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 5: Much less lovable.

792
00:39:57,239 --> 00:40:00,719
Speaker 2: Honestly, he probably is, because William Knox Darcy is a

793
00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,680
Speaker 2: millionaire who's gotten rich speculating on gold in Australia. He

794
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:05,240
Speaker 2: sounds like that guy's kid or something.

795
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:08,439
Speaker 3: Still blows my mind. That mister Darcy's also Tom Loan

796
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 3: scams from Succession Blows by Subsession.

797
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 4: I don't know that show.

798
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,719
Speaker 2: But they're apparently doing a new Pride and Prejudice and

799
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:17,759
Speaker 2: it looks like, I.

800
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 4: Know, women love mister Darcy, and I don't entirely understand.

801
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:22,760
Speaker 3: Why I love mister Darcy.

802
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 2: They love that scene where he like she brushes his

803
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:29,840
Speaker 2: hand and he like twitches like crazy, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

804
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:35,880
Speaker 2: big scene. So William Darcy gets introduced to the Persian Commissioner,

805
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:39,520
Speaker 2: and you know this guy loves speculating, so he decides

806
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:41,920
Speaker 2: he's going to branch out in oil speculation as well.

807
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:44,400
Speaker 2: In nineteen oh one, he offers the rulers of Iran

808
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:48,280
Speaker 2: twenty thousand British pounds and sixteen percent of annual profits

809
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:52,520
Speaker 2: gained from exploding their oil reserves. This draws little initial

810
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 2: outrage within Persia, as regular people have a lot bigger

811
00:40:55,239 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 2: fish to fry, right, and nobody's thinking about oil as

812
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 2: a huge industry. Yet it's nineteen oh one. The number

813
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 2: of people who have like used gasoline for anything is

814
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:07,880
Speaker 2: very small. The vast majority it's horses are walking for

815
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:13,399
Speaker 2: most people, right, and trains are a thing obviously. So yeah,

816
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 2: you've got this guy Darcy who gets involved and he

817
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,919
Speaker 2: basically bribes the rulers of Iran with twenty pounds and

818
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:23,360
Speaker 2: a chunk of annual profits to exploit as much oil

819
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:25,879
Speaker 2: as he can find there. And nobody cares because oil

820
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 2: is not worth all that much yet. In fact, Darcy

821
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:31,400
Speaker 2: nearly bankrupts himself paying for the deal and trying to

822
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 2: build the infrastructure to start taking Persian oil to market

823
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:36,680
Speaker 2: because there's nothing there. Nobody's been digging or ext like,

824
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:38,719
Speaker 2: nobody's been drilling or anything. He has to do all

825
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 2: of that, like from the ground up. It's very costly

826
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 2: and even a very rich dude like Darcy can't bankroll

827
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 2: the project on his own, so he partners with a

828
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,840
Speaker 2: company called Burma Oil, which is, despite the name, based

829
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:55,440
Speaker 2: in Glasgow, and Burma Oil has the capital necessary to

830
00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 2: make Darcy's rooms reality. So Darcy's now in business with

831
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:01,719
Speaker 2: this Glasgow based company, starting to build oil wells and

832
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:06,600
Speaker 2: whatnot and drill in Persia. And at the time, this

833
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:09,319
Speaker 2: is one of a bunch of innumerable deals by which

834
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 2: Persia's natural resources are being sold off for the benefit

835
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:14,760
Speaker 2: of foreigners. This is not just happening with oil. Everything

836
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 2: valuable in the country is being sold to Russia or Germany,

837
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,719
Speaker 2: right like, that's the way it's working for everything. So

838
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:23,880
Speaker 2: regular people in the country know they're being fleeced. They

839
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 2: are not unaware of that. There's actually a very because

840
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 2: the press is starting to become an increasingly significant thing

841
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:33,279
Speaker 2: in this period of time, and literacy is fairly high

842
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 2: in the cities. Regular people are very aware that they're

843
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,160
Speaker 2: being robbed by both the British and the Russians, and

844
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 2: that their leaders are selling the country out for what

845
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 2: amounts to middling bribes. The current rulers the dynasty had

846
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 2: their origins in a tribe of Turkomen warriors who served

847
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 2: as the bulk of the Safavid military, and the Qajars

848
00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:59,120
Speaker 2: had a Russian branch, which, again, because these are Turkubin people,

849
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:03,920
Speaker 2: this is all very compplicated ethnic stuff. But the ruling

850
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:08,879
Speaker 2: dynasty in Persia at the time are Turkomen, which means

851
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 2: they have Russian cousins who are nobility in the Russian Empire,

852
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:17,160
Speaker 2: which means the Shahs of Persia are related to the Tsar,

853
00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:20,760
Speaker 2: which endears them to the Tsar. Right, they're not directly

854
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 2: related to the Czar, but they're directly related to other

855
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:27,320
Speaker 2: royals within the Tsar's empire, right, and this so a

856
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:28,759
Speaker 2: lot That's part of why a lot of people don't

857
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:31,440
Speaker 2: trust them, right, is they're both stooges of the British,

858
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:34,080
Speaker 2: and well, you don't you're not really like at least

859
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:35,960
Speaker 2: a lot of Persians feel like you're not really Persian.

860
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 2: You're more Russian. Unlike, you're much more aligned with the

861
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 2: Russian government. So there's a lot of reasons why people

862
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:45,160
Speaker 2: are getting increasingly pissed off at their rulers at this

863
00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:48,120
Speaker 2: period of time. They're selling off the entire country, and

864
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 2: they're doing it as if they're agents of other countries. Right,

865
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:55,479
Speaker 2: That's increasingly how this dynasty is seen. As shariir Kia

866
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 2: wrote in an article for the National Council of Resistance

867
00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 2: on Iran or in CRI, the Quajar crisis, influenced by

868
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:05,279
Speaker 2: Russia and Britain, had led Iran the financial ruin and

869
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,040
Speaker 2: a political crisis. They were weak against foreign influence and

870
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 2: oppressive of citizens. So by nineteen oh five people are sick.

871
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 2: They are fed up with this shitty ass dynasty and

872
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 2: the king is because Nasar had gotten assassinated, and his

873
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:24,080
Speaker 2: successor by this point is aging and ill, and there's

874
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 2: enough unrest with elites in the capital that they form

875
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,719
Speaker 2: a parliament. Right, there's this like national assembly formed in

876
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,399
Speaker 2: Persia called the Mazles, as the result of a lot

877
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 2: of work by a lot of different activists within the country,

878
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:41,400
Speaker 2: a lot of differently very brave people who want the

879
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:43,879
Speaker 2: government that the people of the country deserve, that will

880
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 2: actually functionally govern and modernize the country and won't be

881
00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:52,439
Speaker 2: taken advantage of as hideously as the Shas regime had.

882
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,879
Speaker 2: And the Mazles draft a constitution which was approved regretfully

883
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:59,440
Speaker 2: by the Shah right before he died, and the Shaws

884
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:01,320
Speaker 2: kind of in this position of like, if I don't

885
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:05,480
Speaker 2: approve this, it's it's allow this bit of democracy or

886
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:09,040
Speaker 2: have a rebellion, right, That's that's the dire situation he

887
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:13,279
Speaker 2: sees himself in. So once this parliament gets going and

888
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,400
Speaker 2: starts passing a constitution, the Russians are like, well, we

889
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:19,880
Speaker 2: can't have this. These guys aren't working for our best interests.

890
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 2: They're working for their own best interest. That's not great.

891
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:25,239
Speaker 2: So they immediately set to work pushing their allies in

892
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:28,800
Speaker 2: the Shia clergy to sabotage this new experiment and functional

893
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:33,440
Speaker 2: self governance. Historian Ruhola Ramazani writes that they quote destroyed

894
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:37,759
Speaker 2: the foundations of this new government twice in about four years. Right,

895
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 2: So the Majlis keep trying to install functional parliamentary governments,

896
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,480
Speaker 2: and these clerics and other agents of the Russians that

897
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,600
Speaker 2: are working with in Persian society keep sabotaging these efforts

898
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 2: because they don't want this to happen.

899
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 4: And this is the same thing. This is the same

900
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:56,200
Speaker 4: thing that happens with the National Front later.

901
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 5: Yep.

902
00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:59,360
Speaker 4: Yeah, same sort of dynamics they use to play against

903
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:03,279
Speaker 4: the second more secular elements, the religious elements. They use

904
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:05,759
Speaker 4: them the same exact manner. God, Yes, in such an

905
00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:06,680
Speaker 4: easy playbook.

906
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:11,880
Speaker 2: It's always so, it's really frustrating when you lay it

907
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:16,200
Speaker 2: all out like this. So in nineteen oh eight, Russian

908
00:46:16,239 --> 00:46:20,640
Speaker 2: interests install a new shaw on the throne Mohammad Ali Shah,

909
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 2: and he celebrates his newfound power by imprisoning his own

910
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 2: prime minister, who had been semi democratically elected by the Mashli.

911
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 2: Per Sheren Brysac's article with a loan underwritten by the

912
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:33,719
Speaker 2: Russian Bank and with his own crown jewels of security,

913
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,800
Speaker 2: the Shah hired rioters to storm the Mazle's. When the

914
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:41,000
Speaker 2: assembly successfully resisted, the Russian Officered Persian Cossack brigade moved

915
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:44,360
Speaker 2: rapidly to dissolve parliament and to impose martial law. The

916
00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 2: Cossacks shelled the parliament building, igniting a blaze that destroyed

917
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:51,360
Speaker 2: its records and killed eight people. The Russian commander proclaimed

918
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:56,319
Speaker 2: himself military Governor of Tehran. That's fucking nuts. So the

919
00:46:56,560 --> 00:47:01,280
Speaker 2: new Shah hires rioters and the parliament fights off the rioters,

920
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:03,200
Speaker 2: so they have to blow up the building with our

921
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:06,400
Speaker 2: It's fucking nuts. It's insane and obviously very sad.

922
00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:10,319
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the the Masli's. I mean, I don't know

923
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 4: if you know this, but like, so there are parliaments,

924
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 4: because I know that. I always thought they're like a

925
00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 4: senate or something, but I don't entirely understand they were

926
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 4: like the parliamentary force.

927
00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 2: It's partly like I don't think any of these are

928
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:24,719
Speaker 2: like quite perfect term, but it's like a national assembly

929
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 2: type deal, right, Like it's a semi democratic body basically.

930
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:35,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, okay, but doesn't translate perfectly to senators and

931
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 4: senate and that sort of thing.

932
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:39,000
Speaker 2: Not I mean, it's kind of its own like thing.

933
00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:41,200
Speaker 2: Like I think the word literally means like like a

934
00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:44,600
Speaker 2: place to sit basically, and it comes out of tribal councils.

935
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's like a it's a it's a type

936
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,160
Speaker 2: of parliament basically, it's that's that's close enough for our purposes. Right,

937
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:56,719
Speaker 2: So the Russians have massacred a bunch of people and

938
00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 2: shelled the parliament building and installed Asian military commander as

939
00:48:01,280 --> 00:48:04,080
Speaker 2: governor of Tehran, and this is not popular. In fact,

940
00:48:04,160 --> 00:48:07,080
Speaker 2: it inspires a mass uprising. And this is one of

941
00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:11,600
Speaker 2: these beautiful moments where regular people in Tehran and in

942
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:13,919
Speaker 2: the areas outside of it are so fucking pissed off

943
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:16,600
Speaker 2: at what the Russians have done that all of these different,

944
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 2: normally normally opposed political groups unite together in resistance of

945
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 2: Russian domination. And there's this mass uprising that pushes the

946
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:28,920
Speaker 2: Cossack guards out of the capital, and Muhammad Ali Shah

947
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 2: becomes one of the shortest reigned shaws in history. He

948
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:38,520
Speaker 2: is not around much longer now because feudalism is a

949
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:41,000
Speaker 2: really bad system at the best of times. He is

950
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:44,720
Speaker 2: succeeded by his son, Ahmed, when Ahmed is twelve years old.

951
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:47,919
Speaker 2: The reason why this is generally seen as good by

952
00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:52,000
Speaker 2: the power that's backing this succession, the British, is that

953
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 2: Ahmed is too young to rule on his own. That

954
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:57,919
Speaker 2: means he needs a regent, and the regent who gets

955
00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:00,400
Speaker 2: picked to rule in his stead is a very close

956
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:05,040
Speaker 2: friend of British Foreign Secretary Nathan Kurzon. So we have

957
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:09,560
Speaker 2: gone from haha. The Russians took over and basically this

958
00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:12,840
Speaker 2: mass movement forces them out of power and forces the

959
00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:16,319
Speaker 2: shot to abdicate. But then the guy who takes over

960
00:49:16,680 --> 00:49:19,880
Speaker 2: is a stooge for the British government again, right, it's this.

961
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:21,880
Speaker 2: They can't get out of this, you know.

962
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:25,920
Speaker 4: And in the movie, the regent is played by Ben Kingsley.

963
00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 4: That's exactly who plays that that character. He's half Indian,

964
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:34,640
Speaker 4: half white to my understanding, and he has played an

965
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,000
Speaker 4: Iranian in like four movies and.

966
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:39,760
Speaker 5: They're never good.

967
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:42,480
Speaker 4: They're never good characters, never No.

968
00:49:44,040 --> 00:49:48,240
Speaker 2: So what you've got now is a fucking regent who's

969
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:51,200
Speaker 2: running things in Tehran and everybody's tired because they've just

970
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:53,239
Speaker 2: thrown the Russians out and the British are kind of

971
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:57,040
Speaker 2: come in as the winners, and this this round of

972
00:49:57,080 --> 00:49:59,520
Speaker 2: blows in the Great Game and shit like this. The

973
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:02,280
Speaker 2: fact that Great Britain kind of sits back while Russia

974
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:04,440
Speaker 2: commits a bunch of horrible war crimes and then winds

975
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 2: up in charge is why England. Part of why they

976
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:09,799
Speaker 2: get their reputation being perfidious Albion is everyone's like, how

977
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:11,920
Speaker 2: the fuck did you wind up winning? Wait a second,

978
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:15,200
Speaker 2: like we were fighting them, how are how did you win?

979
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 5: What the fuck?

980
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 4: Like?

981
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:19,880
Speaker 2: That's that's that's that's the way the British place stuff

982
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:20,200
Speaker 2: per time.

983
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 5: Yeah.

984
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:25,440
Speaker 2: Now, one reason why you had this popular uprising against

985
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:28,839
Speaker 2: the Russians and why like the Mazles are able to

986
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:31,840
Speaker 2: gain and maintain a degree of power is that regular

987
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:34,880
Speaker 2: Persians are fairly well informed about what's happening in their

988
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:38,160
Speaker 2: country or starting to be in this period, because especially

989
00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 2: once the Majlis come like into power, Persia has a

990
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:45,279
Speaker 2: shockingly free press. During this whole period of time, from

991
00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:48,200
Speaker 2: like the about this point in the story forward up

992
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,680
Speaker 2: until we get the last dynasty of Shaws, there's like

993
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:57,320
Speaker 2: a really vibrant media ecosystem, particularly in Tehran. The first

994
00:50:57,360 --> 00:50:59,520
Speaker 2: Mazles had put an end to the stifling controlled the

995
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:03,239
Speaker 2: erastocracy had exerted on media, and so even when the

996
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,759
Speaker 2: Persian people lacked the power to stop Great Britain or

997
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:08,080
Speaker 2: Russian from doing something, they at least knew that they

998
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:10,320
Speaker 2: were being fucked right. That's an important dimension of the

999
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:12,720
Speaker 2: story is that people are not in the dark because

1000
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 2: there's a pretty good media at the time, which I

1001
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:20,040
Speaker 2: was also unaware of. So folks are especially aware of

1002
00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:23,440
Speaker 2: the rampant corruption within the Shaws Court. Public opinion of

1003
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,680
Speaker 2: it is so negative that the regent's foreign minister sends

1004
00:51:26,719 --> 00:51:30,440
Speaker 2: men out to find him a disinterested American expert to

1005
00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:34,200
Speaker 2: come to Tehran and fix the Persian economy. Now, that

1006
00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:36,160
Speaker 2: fact alone should give you an idea of the very

1007
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:39,319
Speaker 2: different regard Americans were held in during this time. That

1008
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:43,560
Speaker 2: like foreigners who are meddling in still other foreign countries

1009
00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:47,520
Speaker 2: economic system are like, we need someone reliable, trustworthy and

1010
00:51:47,920 --> 00:51:53,719
Speaker 2: unbiased to fix this economy. Let's find it American. The

1011
00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:58,040
Speaker 2: fact that that's the way things work back then is crazy.

1012
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:00,440
Speaker 4: It is wild, But I will say, you know, until

1013
00:52:00,640 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 4: the whole nineteen fifty three coup, like the there was

1014
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 4: a real there was and then afterwards, you know, if

1015
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 4: you talk to your rank and file Iranian now they

1016
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:13,799
Speaker 4: do and they have for many years now loved Americans.

1017
00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,759
Speaker 4: But before this they used to have a lot of

1018
00:52:17,800 --> 00:52:20,239
Speaker 4: contempt for the British. They used to have a lot

1019
00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:22,680
Speaker 4: contemp for the Russians, and they used to always sort

1020
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:24,520
Speaker 4: of know that they are meddling. But there was like

1021
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:27,760
Speaker 4: a real warm spot for Americans because of the Americans

1022
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:29,760
Speaker 4: that would come over and help them with the finance stuff.

1023
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:33,839
Speaker 4: Mcluskey Afrigat's name, But like there's a there's a few, yeah, yeah.

1024
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:36,760
Speaker 4: So then there was a real like, you know, warmth.

1025
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:39,879
Speaker 2: And this guy, this guy isn't bad at his job.

1026
00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:42,719
Speaker 2: I don't think. His name is W. Morgan Schuster. He's

1027
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:44,960
Speaker 2: a middle aged lawyer who had worked and he'd been

1028
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:47,880
Speaker 2: like a customs guy after the US had taken Cuba

1029
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:50,840
Speaker 2: from the Spanish, and he basically rebuilt the tax system

1030
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:54,680
Speaker 2: for the Philippines after the United States took over the Philippines. H.

1031
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:57,319
Speaker 2: Schuster is the first American that I'm aware of who

1032
00:52:57,360 --> 00:53:00,239
Speaker 2: has a significant political impact in the Persian government, and

1033
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:02,920
Speaker 2: his experience couldn't have been more different. From the Americans

1034
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 2: who would follow. For one thing, Shuster seems to have

1035
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:08,920
Speaker 2: been genuinely welcome and desired by many Persians because the

1036
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:13,040
Speaker 2: economy is completely fucked up right, and he's as popular

1037
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:15,200
Speaker 2: with like the local people as much as he is

1038
00:53:15,239 --> 00:53:18,839
Speaker 2: hated by European expats living in Tehran, who rightly see

1039
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:22,080
Speaker 2: his crusade for financial solvency as something that's going to

1040
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:25,520
Speaker 2: cut into their graft. Because Shuster actually wants the Iranian

1041
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:28,200
Speaker 2: people to have a functional economy, and when he realizes

1042
00:53:28,239 --> 00:53:31,440
Speaker 2: they're being robbed blind, he's pissed about it. He's like, well,

1043
00:53:31,719 --> 00:53:34,000
Speaker 2: they're never going to have like you're never going to

1044
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:36,840
Speaker 2: have a happy country with a good economy if you

1045
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 2: rob them blind like this. If the goal is for

1046
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 2: the like the Persia to be a functional country, you're

1047
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:46,359
Speaker 2: screwing them. In nineteen eleven, Shuster, who's now the Treasury Secretary,

1048
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:49,959
Speaker 2: sparks outrage with the Russians when he confiscates the home

1049
00:53:50,040 --> 00:53:52,920
Speaker 2: of the former Shaw's brother, who was a Russian citizen.

1050
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 2: Shuster was in the right by any rational observation. The

1051
00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:00,280
Speaker 2: exiled Shaw's brother had not been paying taxes for years,

1052
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:03,680
Speaker 2: but the British and the Russians file formal complaints against

1053
00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 2: this guy with the Mazles, who ignore the complaint to

1054
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:09,560
Speaker 2: their peril. The Czar sends his army in and he

1055
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:13,600
Speaker 2: shells Tehran, killing many pro independence liberals and clergy members.

1056
00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:17,280
Speaker 2: They shell the capital and kill a bunch of people

1057
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:21,040
Speaker 2: because this guy Shuster takes one dude's house for not

1058
00:54:21,080 --> 00:54:25,320
Speaker 2: paying taxes. The Russian army also shlls Shia holy sites

1059
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:28,759
Speaker 2: as the British look on but avoid direct intervention themselves.

1060
00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 2: On Christmas Day nineteen eleven, Shuster is forced to leave Persia.

1061
00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 2: He goes back to the United States and he writes

1062
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:38,040
Speaker 2: a book called The Strangling of Persia, which is all

1063
00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:41,040
Speaker 2: about how European powers are robbing the country blind and

1064
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:44,160
Speaker 2: murdering any chance of it having a functional government. Like he's,

1065
00:54:44,480 --> 00:54:46,360
Speaker 2: as far as I can tell, he seems to genuinely

1066
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:49,080
Speaker 2: be like offended on behalf of the Persian people.

1067
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there are I mean, in this whole story

1068
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:55,080
Speaker 4: of all these terrible people, Like it's there's not a

1069
00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 4: lot of heroes, but there were a couple on the

1070
00:54:57,719 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 4: end they were I mean nice guys. Yeah, yeah, there

1071
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 4: was a couple yeah, yeah, right at the end of

1072
00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:06,040
Speaker 4: the day, most of them couldn't affect things in a

1073
00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:08,120
Speaker 4: positive way. But there were a couple of Americans that

1074
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:10,120
Speaker 4: did try to do the right thing.

1075
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:13,080
Speaker 2: They tried to do the right thing, like the Spike

1076
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:14,759
Speaker 2: Lee movie. And you know what else is like a

1077
00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:15,880
Speaker 2: Spike Lee movie.

1078
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:21,520
Speaker 4: It's these It's probably and you know, I'm a good

1079
00:55:21,520 --> 00:55:23,960
Speaker 4: test taker. I learned that in medical school. Probably the

1080
00:55:23,960 --> 00:55:28,400
Speaker 4: ads and services that are going to be presented in

1081
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:39,800
Speaker 4: these commercials bingo manga and we're back.

1082
00:55:40,719 --> 00:55:44,000
Speaker 2: So while all this is going on, and while Persia

1083
00:55:44,040 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 2: is both finding itself split between British and Russian influence

1084
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:50,200
Speaker 2: and fighting for its own autonomy, a boy was born

1085
00:55:50,360 --> 00:55:53,760
Speaker 2: and starts growing into a man. His name was Reza

1086
00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:57,880
Speaker 2: Khan Mirpanji, and he came into the world on March fifteenth,

1087
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:00,960
Speaker 2: eighteen seventy eight, in a town called Alasht in the

1088
00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:05,359
Speaker 2: province of Mazandaran. His father, Abbasali, was a Persian man

1089
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:09,200
Speaker 2: and a major in the army. His mother, nush Afarin,

1090
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:13,080
Speaker 2: had immigrated from either Georgia or part of Armenia. Both

1091
00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:14,920
Speaker 2: were owned by the Russian Empire at that point, but

1092
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:19,759
Speaker 2: she's Caucasian like literally from the Caucuses region. We don't

1093
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:22,240
Speaker 2: know exactly where she's from, because paperwork is in anybody's

1094
00:56:22,200 --> 00:56:25,440
Speaker 2: strong suit. But Reza from the beginning is like an

1095
00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:28,560
Speaker 2: example of how mixed Persia is at this point in time. Right,

1096
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 2: he is himself mixed, and that's interesting because he is

1097
00:56:31,160 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 2: not going to govern in that way. Res's dad is

1098
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:36,720
Speaker 2: a war hero, but he's the kind of war hero

1099
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:40,399
Speaker 2: who dies when his son is eight months old. After this,

1100
00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:43,280
Speaker 2: Nush moves the family to Tehran to live with her brother.

1101
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:46,360
Speaker 2: When she remarries in eighteen seventy nine, Res is a

1102
00:56:46,440 --> 00:56:49,120
Speaker 2: year old and she abandons him to start a new

1103
00:56:49,160 --> 00:56:51,680
Speaker 2: family and leaves her firstborn son in the care of

1104
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:55,319
Speaker 2: her uncle. This is not a wildly uncommon thing for

1105
00:56:55,360 --> 00:56:57,480
Speaker 2: a lot of people to do at the time all

1106
00:56:57,520 --> 00:56:59,880
Speaker 2: over the world. I've read a bunch of stories like this,

1107
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:03,040
Speaker 2: but it is pretty fucked up, right. She's basically like,

1108
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:06,000
Speaker 2: I gotta try with a new family kid. Sorry, here's

1109
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:08,520
Speaker 2: an uncle you know, hopefully he'll take care of you.

1110
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:09,799
Speaker 4: Explains a lot.

1111
00:57:10,400 --> 00:57:12,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, my goodness, it's not great.

1112
00:57:12,800 --> 00:57:12,960
Speaker 5: Now.

1113
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,759
Speaker 2: From what little detail we get about his early life,

1114
00:57:15,760 --> 00:57:18,080
Speaker 2: we can conclude that Resa's family saw him as an

1115
00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:21,480
Speaker 2: opportunity to increase their fortunes in little else. In eighteen

1116
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:23,440
Speaker 2: eighty two, his uncle sent him off to live with

1117
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:26,240
Speaker 2: a family friend who was a rare Persian officer in

1118
00:57:26,280 --> 00:57:30,240
Speaker 2: the Cossack Brigade. This helped him get entrance to the

1119
00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:34,120
Speaker 2: Cossack Brigade when he's well, not an adult. It's unclear

1120
00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:37,080
Speaker 2: exactly how old Resa is when he joins the military.

1121
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:41,840
Speaker 2: I've heard both fourteen and sixteen, and either is really plausible.

1122
00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:44,560
Speaker 2: You can get a hint of why by looking at

1123
00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:47,000
Speaker 2: this nineteen oh nine photo of a unit from the

1124
00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:51,920
Speaker 2: brigade and look at the differing ages of those soldiers,

1125
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:56,840
Speaker 2: because one of those things much that is clearly in

1126
00:57:56,960 --> 00:57:59,479
Speaker 2: like their fifties, and there's like a nine year old

1127
00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:03,240
Speaker 2: people who look like kids.

1128
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:05,440
Speaker 5: Straight up. Boy.

1129
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:08,919
Speaker 4: Yeah, that seems to have medals, which is pretty cool.

1130
00:58:09,040 --> 00:58:09,880
Speaker 4: There's a story there.

1131
00:58:09,880 --> 00:58:10,360
Speaker 5: I'd like to hear.

1132
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:12,880
Speaker 2: Nine year old kills has killed a lot of men.

1133
00:58:13,720 --> 00:58:14,720
Speaker 5: He's seen some things.

1134
00:58:15,240 --> 00:58:20,800
Speaker 2: He's a hard nine. So Rezzo was illiterate as a

1135
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:23,440
Speaker 2: young man. He had basically no formal education, and his

1136
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,200
Speaker 2: first job in the Cossacks was as a stable boy.

1137
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:30,440
Speaker 2: He was, however, tall and handsome and extremely charismatic. He

1138
00:58:30,520 --> 00:58:33,720
Speaker 2: is very good at making the right friends, which assures

1139
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:36,480
Speaker 2: that he eventually rises to have a cushy job guarding

1140
00:58:36,520 --> 00:58:40,280
Speaker 2: the Dutch console General. He does fight in a couple

1141
00:58:40,240 --> 00:58:42,960
Speaker 2: of wars. He's a good soldier. He's particularly good with

1142
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:46,560
Speaker 2: the machine gun, and he becomes like his unit's machine gunner.

1143
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:49,680
Speaker 2: They call him machine gun Reza. That's his nickname, which

1144
00:58:49,760 --> 00:58:50,800
Speaker 2: is pretty cool.

1145
00:58:51,560 --> 00:58:54,240
Speaker 5: Tang clan, so right right.

1146
00:58:55,320 --> 00:58:58,560
Speaker 2: He rose rapidly through the ranks, and by the nineteen

1147
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:01,000
Speaker 2: teens he's one of the highest dranking officers in the

1148
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:01,920
Speaker 2: Cossack Brigade.

1149
00:59:02,280 --> 00:59:02,720
Speaker 5: Shari A.

1150
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 2: Kiah writes that he was also quote known for his

1151
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:07,600
Speaker 2: role as a leader of religious bands and as a

1152
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:12,200
Speaker 2: community enforcer in religious ceremonies. In her article, Sharen Brysac

1153
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:15,160
Speaker 2: ads he earned a reputation of being a fireman, someone

1154
00:59:15,200 --> 00:59:17,840
Speaker 2: who was sent to quell disturbances or round up thieves.

1155
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:21,520
Speaker 2: So basically, this guy's kind of stupid, but he's well

1156
00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:24,760
Speaker 2: liked by his peers, which are the most functional military

1157
00:59:24,800 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 2: unit in the country. And he's also he's also kind

1158
00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:31,840
Speaker 2: of like known as being a religious hardliner, like he's

1159
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:33,880
Speaker 2: in very good with the clerics. He spends a lot

1160
00:59:33,880 --> 00:59:37,560
Speaker 2: of time like making sure other people are doing the

1161
00:59:37,560 --> 00:59:41,040
Speaker 2: things they're supposed to do, like religiously in his community,

1162
00:59:41,320 --> 00:59:44,240
Speaker 2: so that the clerics like him, and he just generally

1163
00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:47,520
Speaker 2: he's the guy who if people are breaking the rules,

1164
00:59:47,560 --> 00:59:51,240
Speaker 2: he'll kick their asses. Like that's that's who this heavy is,

1165
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:53,840
Speaker 2: and that's the reputation. He's the heavy, right, he's the

1166
00:59:53,880 --> 00:59:58,400
Speaker 2: tough that you send in r So basically he was

1167
00:59:58,440 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 2: cooked up in a lab to become a we Western

1168
01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:03,440
Speaker 2: back dictator. Right, all that was needed was the proper impetus.

1169
01:00:04,120 --> 01:00:07,120
Speaker 2: And this brings us back to William Darcy and the

1170
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:11,640
Speaker 2: question of Iran's fast oil reserves. Anglo Persian oil. The

1171
01:00:11,680 --> 01:00:16,680
Speaker 2: company Darcy eventually establishes enjoyed a monopoly on Persian crude

1172
01:00:16,680 --> 01:00:19,440
Speaker 2: oil for years, but it's not until nineteen fourteen that

1173
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:22,400
Speaker 2: the world gets a good look at just how big

1174
01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:24,760
Speaker 2: a deal this is going to be, because in the

1175
01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:27,520
Speaker 2: lead up to World War One, Great Britain is hungry

1176
01:00:27,560 --> 01:00:30,120
Speaker 2: for any advantage they can get over the rising power

1177
01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:32,360
Speaker 2: of Imperial Germany. I talked about that at the start

1178
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:35,880
Speaker 2: of the episode. Right, Germany's building a fleet that can

1179
01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:39,680
Speaker 2: compete with the British Royal Navy, and so Great Britain

1180
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:44,000
Speaker 2: needs an advantage. This enters into the picture Admiral Sir

1181
01:00:44,080 --> 01:00:47,440
Speaker 2: John Fisher. He was described by the press and in

1182
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 2: his time as Britain's primary naval oil maniac. This means

1183
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:54,520
Speaker 2: he was the first admiral with power in Britain to

1184
01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:57,919
Speaker 2: be like, we should switch to oil from coal. Right,

1185
01:00:58,040 --> 01:01:01,520
Speaker 2: that's a good idea to become an oil based navy.

1186
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 2: There's benefits to doing this, right. Your ships can go

1187
01:01:04,360 --> 01:01:07,120
Speaker 2: further on oil than they can on coal without needing

1188
01:01:07,120 --> 01:01:09,400
Speaker 2: to refuel. They can go faster. There's a number of

1189
01:01:09,400 --> 01:01:12,400
Speaker 2: like logistical benefits to eventually doing this, but it's a

1190
01:01:12,480 --> 01:01:15,280
Speaker 2: hideous cost. When you're thinking of the whole moving the

1191
01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:18,200
Speaker 2: whole navy over, you're spending a shitload of money. And

1192
01:01:18,280 --> 01:01:21,080
Speaker 2: there's not a lot of oil exploitation yet right either,

1193
01:01:21,120 --> 01:01:24,400
Speaker 2: So Great Britain doesn't necessarily have it on oil to exploit.

1194
01:01:25,200 --> 01:01:28,080
Speaker 2: Darcy seeks out and befriends the admiral in nineteen oh

1195
01:01:28,080 --> 01:01:31,280
Speaker 2: three at a Bohemian spa where Fisher engaged in his

1196
01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:34,320
Speaker 2: main pleasure outside of being an oil maniac, which was dancing.

1197
01:01:34,680 --> 01:01:39,120
Speaker 2: So Darcy basically is that something or is it legitimately dancing.

1198
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:41,520
Speaker 2: I think he's just a dancer, and I think Darcy

1199
01:01:41,600 --> 01:01:45,880
Speaker 2: befriends him dancing at this spa saw and they've begun buddies. Yeah,

1200
01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:46,520
Speaker 2: straight buddies.

1201
01:01:46,560 --> 01:01:48,919
Speaker 3: I'm sure I've been to a lot of spas. Don't

1202
01:01:48,960 --> 01:01:51,360
Speaker 3: remember or anything about dancing, just saying.

1203
01:01:51,160 --> 01:01:53,520
Speaker 2: A lot of dancing at spas. They were different back then.

1204
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:56,920
Speaker 4: So let's be real. That sounds pretty fun, like a

1205
01:01:56,960 --> 01:01:59,280
Speaker 4: spa where you just like relax in the hot tub,

1206
01:01:59,640 --> 01:02:00,560
Speaker 4: dance a dance.

1207
01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:05,320
Speaker 2: I think that's what dirty dancing is pretty much about.

1208
01:02:05,520 --> 01:02:07,720
Speaker 5: Right. It's a dance spot, it's a dance spot.

1209
01:02:08,560 --> 01:02:11,480
Speaker 2: So there's a dirty dancing scenario, right, that's very integral

1210
01:02:11,560 --> 01:02:13,440
Speaker 2: to this story.

1211
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:16,040
Speaker 3: And he had the time of his life, Yeah.

1212
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:19,440
Speaker 4: At the time of his life, and Darcy's this is

1213
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:22,439
Speaker 4: Darcy And I'm sorry, who's a person again that he

1214
01:02:22,760 --> 01:02:23,960
Speaker 4: is recording.

1215
01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:25,160
Speaker 3: His Admiral Fisher.

1216
01:02:25,240 --> 01:02:28,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, Admiral Fisher, Admiral Fisher, the oil maniac.

1217
01:02:28,320 --> 01:02:28,640
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1218
01:02:28,760 --> 01:02:31,360
Speaker 2: And in nineteen oh four, after he and Darcy become friends,

1219
01:02:31,400 --> 01:02:34,320
Speaker 2: Fisher becomes the first Sea Lord, which is a real

1220
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:35,680
Speaker 2: job in the British military.

1221
01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:38,600
Speaker 5: Higher oil maniac to sea lord. That's not bad, that's right.

1222
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:41,440
Speaker 2: He's the first sea lord. That's crazy. I thought was

1223
01:02:41,480 --> 01:02:42,560
Speaker 2: a job for aquaman.

1224
01:02:42,680 --> 01:02:47,360
Speaker 3: But okayaking l Ron Hubbard, it's the commander.

1225
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:48,600
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1226
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:52,320
Speaker 2: So Fisher keeps on talking up this idea, and by

1227
01:02:52,960 --> 01:02:55,640
Speaker 2: nineteen eleven or so, Winston Churchill has come around and

1228
01:02:55,760 --> 01:02:58,120
Speaker 2: Churchill is like, we need to switch the navy over

1229
01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:01,320
Speaker 2: to oil, right, And so Darcy has by nineteen eleven

1230
01:03:01,360 --> 01:03:05,800
Speaker 2: successfully gotten this idea that primarily financially benefits him because

1231
01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:08,400
Speaker 2: he bought access to all of Persia's oil into the

1232
01:03:08,400 --> 01:03:11,080
Speaker 2: halls of British power. In nineteen fourteen, the House of

1233
01:03:11,120 --> 01:03:14,520
Speaker 2: Commons supports a proposal to switch the Navy over to oil.

1234
01:03:14,840 --> 01:03:17,240
Speaker 2: Per an article in The Fair Observer, the goal was

1235
01:03:17,280 --> 01:03:19,760
Speaker 2: to ensure energy security for Great Britain, where the Royal

1236
01:03:19,880 --> 01:03:22,200
Speaker 2: Navy switched from coal to oil to compete against the

1237
01:03:22,200 --> 01:03:25,280
Speaker 2: fast rising German navy. After World War One broke out,

1238
01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:28,360
Speaker 2: Persia remained neutral but supplied oil to Britain. In fact,

1239
01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:31,960
Speaker 2: Persian oil arguably led to Allied victory. The conversion of

1240
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:34,480
Speaker 2: the British fleet to oil gave them advantages over the

1241
01:03:34,520 --> 01:03:37,520
Speaker 2: German fleet powered by a coal greater range and speed

1242
01:03:37,560 --> 01:03:40,920
Speaker 2: and greater refueling and keeping with their imperial tradition, Britain

1243
01:03:40,960 --> 01:03:44,240
Speaker 2: paid a pittance to Persia for oil. So that's fucked

1244
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:47,880
Speaker 2: It plays a role in their victory. I wouldn't say

1245
01:03:47,880 --> 01:03:50,080
Speaker 2: it led to it because but it's certainly not an

1246
01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:53,880
Speaker 2: insignificant factor in the efficacy of the British fleet. The

1247
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:56,800
Speaker 2: fact that they've switched over to oil and again Great

1248
01:03:56,840 --> 01:04:00,880
Speaker 2: Britain is fucking Persia. They're bribing the Shaw. The Persian

1249
01:04:00,920 --> 01:04:03,400
Speaker 2: people are getting very little for their resources.

1250
01:04:03,720 --> 01:04:07,439
Speaker 4: Again, something real the pattern that will play out many

1251
01:04:07,560 --> 01:04:08,760
Speaker 4: for a long time.

1252
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:12,080
Speaker 2: This is fucked up, but the real fuckery is still

1253
01:04:12,120 --> 01:04:15,280
Speaker 2: to come. During the war World War one, Persian territory

1254
01:04:15,360 --> 01:04:19,240
Speaker 2: is a battleground between Ottoman forces and Russian and British forces, right,

1255
01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:22,080
Speaker 2: and Russian and British are on the same side this time,

1256
01:04:22,120 --> 01:04:25,000
Speaker 2: so they go from competing to being on the same side.

1257
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:28,040
Speaker 2: But they're fighting the Ottomans in parts of Persia right now.

1258
01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:32,200
Speaker 2: The realities of the war massively disrupt agriculture in Persia

1259
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:35,480
Speaker 2: because farmers are constantating dudes fight over their fields and

1260
01:04:35,520 --> 01:04:38,000
Speaker 2: shell them so they can't grow as much food. And

1261
01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:42,080
Speaker 2: also all of you have three different armies in the area.

1262
01:04:42,200 --> 01:04:45,920
Speaker 2: They're not growing their own food, they're confiscating it from

1263
01:04:45,920 --> 01:04:48,680
Speaker 2: the people who live there to feed their own soldiers.

1264
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:52,200
Speaker 2: So people in Persia start to starve in huge numbers,

1265
01:04:52,440 --> 01:04:55,320
Speaker 2: as Zara at A Latti and Majide Imani write in

1266
01:04:55,360 --> 01:04:59,640
Speaker 2: an article for Third World Quarterly. Ain Old Sultana, a

1267
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:02,120
Speaker 2: well known o An Iranian chronicler, wrote in a newspaper

1268
01:05:02,200 --> 01:05:05,240
Speaker 2: entry of nineteenth April nineteen seventeen that famine and hunger

1269
01:05:05,320 --> 01:05:08,080
Speaker 2: prevail in all parts of Iran. Muslims and people of

1270
01:05:08,120 --> 01:05:10,640
Speaker 2: all faiths are dying and kum in the center of Iran.

1271
01:05:10,720 --> 01:05:14,080
Speaker 2: Currently fifty die each day. In Hammadan, thirty thousand have

1272
01:05:14,160 --> 01:05:17,280
Speaker 2: registered as destitute and this heart renting description. He further

1273
01:05:17,320 --> 01:05:20,000
Speaker 2: stated that people in Tehron were taking sheep's blood from

1274
01:05:20,000 --> 01:05:23,240
Speaker 2: the slaughterhouse to feed themselves in their children. In fact,

1275
01:05:23,320 --> 01:05:26,720
Speaker 2: several Iranian newspaper reports in nineteen seventeen to nineteen nineteen

1276
01:05:26,920 --> 01:05:30,280
Speaker 2: highlighted the occupying forces attempts to seize food and grains

1277
01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:34,040
Speaker 2: and block people's access to food. So no one really

1278
01:05:34,040 --> 01:05:37,880
Speaker 2: debates that what happens next is a human engineered or

1279
01:05:37,920 --> 01:05:41,560
Speaker 2: at least a human influenced famine. Right, is this intentional

1280
01:05:41,680 --> 01:05:44,320
Speaker 2: or is this just a byproduct of armies being armies? Right,

1281
01:05:44,320 --> 01:05:47,439
Speaker 2: there's debate over that, but it's caused by the fact

1282
01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:50,720
Speaker 2: that these foreign forces are in the country right now.

1283
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:53,160
Speaker 2: There is a huge debate as to who is more

1284
01:05:53,200 --> 01:05:56,760
Speaker 2: at fault. Given the similarities between the Great Persian Famine

1285
01:05:56,760 --> 01:05:58,880
Speaker 2: and the Bengal Famine of nineteen forty three, a lot

1286
01:05:58,920 --> 01:06:01,479
Speaker 2: of people understand and blame the British From that same

1287
01:06:01,520 --> 01:06:04,840
Speaker 2: paper quote highlighting the role of the occupying powers and

1288
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:07,680
Speaker 2: the Great Persian Famine, Some scholars have pointed to the

1289
01:06:07,680 --> 01:06:10,960
Speaker 2: issue of oil capitalism during the twentieth century the financial

1290
01:06:10,960 --> 01:06:13,760
Speaker 2: policies adopted by Britain, For instance, their refusal to pay

1291
01:06:13,760 --> 01:06:15,880
Speaker 2: oil revenues to Iran in the middle of the Great

1292
01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:19,760
Speaker 2: Persian Famine indicates their lack of concern for ron starving people.

1293
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:23,400
Speaker 2: For the occupying powers, Iran was mainly a strategic military asset.

1294
01:06:23,640 --> 01:06:26,000
Speaker 2: The dominant consequence was a lack of access to food

1295
01:06:26,040 --> 01:06:28,960
Speaker 2: among large parts of the population and what a Martsian

1296
01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:35,200
Speaker 2: called entitlement failure. Thus, besides natural factors, pandemics, sociohistorical context,

1297
01:06:35,200 --> 01:06:38,000
Speaker 2: and the incapability of the central government. The Great Persian

1298
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:40,880
Speaker 2: Famine was also caused by the occupying forces that pursued

1299
01:06:40,880 --> 01:06:43,240
Speaker 2: the war at the expense of the lives of many Iranians.

1300
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:46,919
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of people involved in this catastrophe again,

1301
01:06:46,960 --> 01:06:49,320
Speaker 2: as well as some stuff that is just happening at

1302
01:06:49,320 --> 01:06:51,880
Speaker 2: the time. There's disease which is still related to the war,

1303
01:06:51,920 --> 01:06:55,080
Speaker 2: and there's some environmental concerns. It's important I emphasized that

1304
01:06:55,280 --> 01:06:58,000
Speaker 2: the Russians are also hugely involved here too. At the

1305
01:06:58,040 --> 01:07:01,040
Speaker 2: early stages of the Russian Civil War. Once that kicks off,

1306
01:07:01,440 --> 01:07:05,480
Speaker 2: various Russian forces start seizing like housing materials, roofing and

1307
01:07:05,560 --> 01:07:09,720
Speaker 2: firewood and other basic supplies for their bases. And these

1308
01:07:09,760 --> 01:07:12,200
Speaker 2: are things that thousands of Persians need to keep their

1309
01:07:12,240 --> 01:07:15,160
Speaker 2: homes habitable. And like one hundred thousand Persians are made

1310
01:07:15,160 --> 01:07:19,200
Speaker 2: effectively homeless just by this. Ten thousand villages are abandoned,

1311
01:07:19,280 --> 01:07:23,280
Speaker 2: largely because Russian forces are seizing everything that makes them habitable.

1312
01:07:23,600 --> 01:07:25,640
Speaker 2: Ten thousand villages abandoned.

1313
01:07:26,520 --> 01:07:29,320
Speaker 4: I'm just I've never heard. I'm sure there's a listener

1314
01:07:29,400 --> 01:07:32,720
Speaker 4: right now, some auntie who's going to be yelling at

1315
01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:34,480
Speaker 4: me right now because I didn't know this, But I

1316
01:07:34,600 --> 01:07:36,360
Speaker 4: never I never knew about this.

1317
01:07:36,520 --> 01:07:41,040
Speaker 2: Oh wait till you hear the scale of this disaster.

1318
01:07:41,520 --> 01:07:44,920
Speaker 2: So British diplomat Herold Dickolson wrote, quote, Persia had been

1319
01:07:44,920 --> 01:07:48,280
Speaker 2: exposed to violations and suffering not endured by any other

1320
01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:51,160
Speaker 2: neutral country and World War One, and it's hard to

1321
01:07:51,240 --> 01:07:54,720
Speaker 2: argue with that point. Eight to ten million people, roughly

1322
01:07:54,760 --> 01:07:57,840
Speaker 2: half the pre war population of Persia perish in the

1323
01:07:57,840 --> 01:07:59,120
Speaker 2: Great Persian Famine.

1324
01:07:59,280 --> 01:07:59,600
Speaker 5: Wow.

1325
01:08:00,520 --> 01:08:04,200
Speaker 2: About forty percent of the pre war population die over

1326
01:08:04,240 --> 01:08:06,200
Speaker 2: the course of like World War One up to like

1327
01:08:06,320 --> 01:08:07,080
Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen.

1328
01:08:07,480 --> 01:08:07,760
Speaker 4: Wow.

1329
01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:11,160
Speaker 2: As a result of all this, Hey, guys, I just

1330
01:08:11,160 --> 01:08:13,600
Speaker 2: want to let you know, the Great Persian Famine is

1331
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:17,560
Speaker 2: vastly understudied, and there's a wide range of scholarly disagreement

1332
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:20,640
Speaker 2: over the death toll. At the time and for a

1333
01:08:20,680 --> 01:08:23,360
Speaker 2: very long time, contemporary reporting suggested two to two and

1334
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:28,120
Speaker 2: a half million dead was a very reasonable, you know range,

1335
01:08:28,160 --> 01:08:31,960
Speaker 2: But there's also scholars who are arguing with that more

1336
01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:34,680
Speaker 2: like eight to ten million is very likely. So this

1337
01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:37,360
Speaker 2: is not a kind of thing where because of sort

1338
01:08:37,360 --> 01:08:40,120
Speaker 2: of the paucity of the scholarship on this at the moment,

1339
01:08:40,160 --> 01:08:43,280
Speaker 2: I don't feel comfortable saying like one is definitely right.

1340
01:08:43,400 --> 01:08:45,600
Speaker 2: I do kind of tend just on other because of

1341
01:08:45,600 --> 01:08:48,280
Speaker 2: other famines i've read about, to lean towards the larger numbers,

1342
01:08:48,520 --> 01:08:52,839
Speaker 2: but we don't really know perfectly. I did not realize

1343
01:08:52,880 --> 01:08:55,519
Speaker 2: the scale of this. We don't talk about this because

1344
01:08:55,560 --> 01:08:58,360
Speaker 2: it's a very complicated famine. It's not as simple as

1345
01:08:58,680 --> 01:09:02,040
Speaker 2: just Russia or Great Britain starved iron. There were a

1346
01:09:02,120 --> 01:09:05,559
Speaker 2: lot of factors, including some environmental ones and aspects of

1347
01:09:05,600 --> 01:09:08,880
Speaker 2: local government. But like Russia and Great Britain and the

1348
01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:12,080
Speaker 2: Ottomans play huge role in why eight to ten million,

1349
01:09:12,439 --> 01:09:15,519
Speaker 2: half a fucking Persian nearly starves to death and nobody

1350
01:09:15,520 --> 01:09:16,639
Speaker 2: talks about it anymore.

1351
01:09:18,200 --> 01:09:21,080
Speaker 5: It's not yeah, wow.

1352
01:09:21,920 --> 01:09:25,600
Speaker 4: I have to say, I really appreciate this is a

1353
01:09:25,600 --> 01:09:27,320
Speaker 4: total This is the kind of thing I'm supposed to

1354
01:09:27,320 --> 01:09:28,880
Speaker 4: say at the end when we're off air. But I

1355
01:09:28,960 --> 01:09:33,560
Speaker 4: really appreciate how you synthesize all this information. This is

1356
01:09:33,600 --> 01:09:34,120
Speaker 4: not easy.

1357
01:09:34,160 --> 01:09:34,960
Speaker 5: There's so many.

1358
01:09:36,479 --> 01:09:38,160
Speaker 4: It's a lot of stuff.

1359
01:09:38,520 --> 01:09:40,880
Speaker 2: I know I've left stuff out, and obviously, like we're

1360
01:09:40,880 --> 01:09:44,080
Speaker 2: only going up to like nineteen forty one, but like

1361
01:09:44,160 --> 01:09:46,759
Speaker 2: this is like when we're we're looking at the hideous,

1362
01:09:46,760 --> 01:09:49,639
Speaker 2: the heinous death toll of US actions already in Iran.

1363
01:09:51,200 --> 01:09:54,280
Speaker 2: It's also important to just like know like this is

1364
01:09:54,360 --> 01:09:58,439
Speaker 2: the latest in a long string of of just like

1365
01:09:58,600 --> 01:10:01,920
Speaker 2: the horrific human concept quinses to imperialists fucking around in

1366
01:10:01,920 --> 01:10:05,840
Speaker 2: that part of the world. It's all bad stuff. So

1367
01:10:06,560 --> 01:10:08,880
Speaker 2: it is not until nineteen twenty one that Britain and

1368
01:10:08,960 --> 01:10:12,640
Speaker 2: Russia fully withdraw their forces from Persia, given that the

1369
01:10:12,680 --> 01:10:16,120
Speaker 2: Tsarisk or largely given that the Tsarisk government had collapsed

1370
01:10:16,160 --> 01:10:19,000
Speaker 2: by this point, leading to civil war in Russia throughout

1371
01:10:19,120 --> 01:10:22,000
Speaker 2: most of the worst of the famine. Educated Persians blame

1372
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:24,080
Speaker 2: the British for it, because they saw the British as

1373
01:10:24,080 --> 01:10:26,759
Speaker 2: being the controlling power in their lives. And there's an element,

1374
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:30,599
Speaker 2: a sizeable degree to which this is fair. The British,

1375
01:10:30,680 --> 01:10:32,880
Speaker 2: for their own part, are less concerned with Persia for

1376
01:10:32,960 --> 01:10:36,000
Speaker 2: its own sake and more worried about something else, which

1377
01:10:36,080 --> 01:10:39,240
Speaker 2: is that the Bolsheviks are now in charge of a

1378
01:10:39,240 --> 01:10:42,080
Speaker 2: lot of Russia. They're fighting a civil war for control

1379
01:10:42,240 --> 01:10:45,800
Speaker 2: of what had been the Russian Empire, and it sure

1380
01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:50,000
Speaker 2: does look like Persia might become communists too, and that

1381
01:10:50,680 --> 01:10:52,760
Speaker 2: is going to tee up Part two. Gom it well,

1382
01:10:52,840 --> 01:10:53,439
Speaker 2: how do you feeling.

1383
01:10:54,600 --> 01:10:56,559
Speaker 5: I can't wait. I want to hear it now.

1384
01:10:57,400 --> 01:10:59,200
Speaker 2: Oh well, you'll hear it in the second. You'll hear it,

1385
01:10:59,280 --> 01:11:03,320
Speaker 2: yes a minute, but first let's hear your pluggables.

1386
01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:06,960
Speaker 4: So my podcast is called The House of Pod. It

1387
01:11:07,120 --> 01:11:11,920
Speaker 4: is a medical science podcast. It is a look at

1388
01:11:12,040 --> 01:11:16,280
Speaker 4: the world of science and health through an approachable manner.

1389
01:11:16,560 --> 01:11:17,439
Speaker 5: We've tried to make.

1390
01:11:17,320 --> 01:11:22,599
Speaker 4: Things as fun and as less scary, if if that's

1391
01:11:22,600 --> 01:11:24,000
Speaker 4: a word that I can use. Them do a terrible

1392
01:11:24,080 --> 01:11:26,280
Speaker 4: job explaining my show. You think after five years of

1393
01:11:26,320 --> 01:11:28,120
Speaker 4: doing this, I'd be much better at it. I'm not.

1394
01:11:28,560 --> 01:11:31,439
Speaker 4: But the show is actually fun. If you like this show,

1395
01:11:31,720 --> 01:11:34,559
Speaker 4: you're gonna like the podcast The House of Pod because

1396
01:11:34,560 --> 01:11:37,639
Speaker 4: we also take a look at medical grifters, and we

1397
01:11:37,680 --> 01:11:40,800
Speaker 4: look at all kinds of different medical malarchy that's out there,

1398
01:11:41,040 --> 01:11:42,880
Speaker 4: try and present you the science in a way that

1399
01:11:43,120 --> 01:11:48,600
Speaker 4: is I think honest and nuanced and clear. So I

1400
01:11:48,640 --> 01:11:50,640
Speaker 4: think you will enjoy it. You should listen to it,

1401
01:11:50,720 --> 01:11:52,960
Speaker 4: and you will hear some episodes with both of these

1402
01:11:53,000 --> 01:11:55,599
Speaker 4: lovely people on that podcast, The House of Pod.

1403
01:11:55,640 --> 01:11:58,000
Speaker 5: You can find it anywhere you find podcasts.

1404
01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:01,960
Speaker 2: All right, excellent, Well, listen to the House of Pod.

1405
01:12:02,240 --> 01:12:06,559
Speaker 2: And you know, do something nice in your own house

1406
01:12:07,560 --> 01:12:10,920
Speaker 2: or not. I don't control your life, neither do you?

1407
01:12:10,960 --> 01:12:13,920
Speaker 2: Probably wall did any of us? Are we all just

1408
01:12:14,000 --> 01:12:17,440
Speaker 2: flocks them floating through cosmic debris?

1409
01:12:18,080 --> 01:12:24,640
Speaker 3: Yes, goodbye, maybe, but I'm definitely in control here bye.

1410
01:12:25,240 --> 01:12:27,840
Speaker 3: Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media.

1411
01:12:27,960 --> 01:12:31,200
Speaker 3: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website Coolzonemedia

1412
01:12:31,200 --> 01:12:33,880
Speaker 3: dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

1413
01:12:33,920 --> 01:12:37,840
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Full video

1414
01:12:37,840 --> 01:12:40,559
Speaker 3: episodes that Behind the Bastards are now streaming on Netflix,

1415
01:12:40,640 --> 01:12:43,719
Speaker 3: dropping every Tuesday and Thursday. Kit remind me on Netflix

1416
01:12:43,800 --> 01:12:46,519
Speaker 3: you don't miss an episode. For clips in our older

1417
01:12:46,520 --> 01:12:50,160
Speaker 3: episode catalog, continue to subscribe to our YouTube channel YouTube

1418
01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:54,120
Speaker 3: dot com slash at behind the Bastards. We love about

1419
01:12:54,160 --> 01:12:56,200
Speaker 3: forty percent of you, statistically speaking,