Speaker 1: Al Zone media, what's illegal, my US invasions of several
Speaker 1: countries actually that have been happening recently, and also my
Speaker 1: entire life.
Speaker 2: I'm Robert Evans. This is Behind the Bastards, a podcast
Speaker 2: about bad people, the worst in all of history, several
Speaker 2: of whom are currently in the Trump administration, where they
Speaker 2: have recently orchestrated what is already ramping up to be
Speaker 2: a bloody war with Iran. We're covering what's happening in
Speaker 2: an ongoing basis on our daily news podcast. It could
Speaker 2: happen here, but you know that's not what we do
Speaker 2: overt Behind the Bastards. You know, we're not breaking news here.
Speaker 2: Our specialty is like pieces of shit, and that makes us,
Speaker 2: i think, well suited to talk about why is stuff
Speaker 2: like why is the Western world's relationship with Iran? What
Speaker 2: it is?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: How did all of this shit start? Like what was
Speaker 2: going on that kind of led to the present situation?
Speaker 2: And if you want to tell that story, you have
Speaker 2: to start with the seventeen hundreds and the eighteen hundreds
Speaker 2: in the period of like particularly what's called the Great Game,
Speaker 2: which is, you know, kind of this thing that happens
Speaker 2: at the height of British and Russian imperialism, and you
Speaker 2: have to talk about the Shaw, the very first Shah
Speaker 2: of Iran, because it's the Shaws of Iran that lead
Speaker 2: us to the current regime in Iran, and that lead
Speaker 2: us to a lot of things about the current conflict
Speaker 2: and like why it's taken on the dimensions that it's
Speaker 2: taken on. So in order to talk about all of this,
Speaker 2: we're bringing on my buddy and doctor Kavejoda also podcaster,
Speaker 2: much more impressive than doctor. I should have led with
Speaker 2: podcaster Kava I'm sorry, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: And musician, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: And musician many things. You're a multi till apology.
Speaker 4: The key is to be bad at all of them.
Speaker 4: That's the key to doing this right. If you want
Speaker 4: to do more, that's a polycraft, not mess.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you want to you want to know what
Speaker 3: you are good at?
Speaker 4: Though?
Speaker 5: What what am I good at?
Speaker 3: Being my friend it's.
Speaker 5: My best job.
Speaker 2: Also being a doctor and a podcast.
Speaker 4: I'm good at one of those three things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm hoping it's doctor.
Speaker 4: That's that's the one that's especially sort of the one
Speaker 4: good at. The rest is you're going to find out
Speaker 4: listener and viewer not as much, but you know, give
Speaker 4: it my darnedest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean this is obviously like what's going
Speaker 2: on right now the United States is doing. I mean,
Speaker 2: we we've just killed a school full of little girls,
Speaker 2: like a lot of really ugly stuff. But if you
Speaker 2: want to like the story of like why did the
Speaker 2: US start fucking around with Iran? Like why why is
Speaker 2: the current Iranian regime the way it is, that all
Speaker 2: starts well before the US gets involved, right, that that
Speaker 2: starts with you know, like most of our imperial ambitions,
Speaker 2: we cribbed off the notes of the Brits and the
Speaker 2: Russians from like a century or so ago, and it's
Speaker 2: those imperial powers who made sure that Iran wound up
Speaker 2: with a shah in the first place, which is why
Speaker 2: you know, we have a revolution, because the Shaws rule
Speaker 2: so badly that they inspire revolution, which brings us the Ayahtolas.
Speaker 2: And all of these are our stories in and of themselves.
Speaker 2: But this week we're going to be talking about like
Speaker 2: the first Shah of Iran, of the Palavi dynasty, right,
Speaker 2: Like that's where we're obviously Iran had previous shaws, but
Speaker 2: we're talking about like the dad of the guy who
Speaker 2: got exiled when the current government of Iran took over,
Speaker 2: And how much do you know about the first about
Speaker 2: Reza Khan, like the first of that line of shaws.
Speaker 4: That's so first of all, the thank you for having
Speaker 4: me back on first of all.
Speaker 2: Second, oh shit, I talked right over that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm so happy.
Speaker 4: No, I'm so happy that you're covering this topic because
Speaker 4: you're exactly right. There is a long history of involvement
Speaker 4: of Western powers, and as an American, the American powers,
Speaker 4: you know, really explicitly in nineteen fifty three, as we're
Speaker 4: gonna I'm sure talk about that really set off a
Speaker 4: chain of events that led us to where we are now.
Speaker 4: And you know, you could argue did a lot of
Speaker 4: damage and destabilize the region. So what bothers me the
Speaker 4: most is that it's a story that most people in
Speaker 4: the United States.
Speaker 5: Do not know.
Speaker 4: They don't know the real reason why people in Iran
Speaker 4: may have taken over that embassy back in seventy nine.
Speaker 4: You don't really know some of the anger, the anti
Speaker 4: American feeling that happened at that time, because before that
Speaker 4: there was great relations you know, for a while between
Speaker 4: the two countries. So I think it's a really important story.
Speaker 4: I do know more or less the basics of it.
Speaker 4: I never was that interested in the Shaws because, like
Speaker 4: I'm just the concept of a monarchy just rubs me
Speaker 4: the wrong way. In general, it seems like a terrible idea.
Speaker 5: I'm not into it.
Speaker 4: But there are these characters in there, which I'm sure
Speaker 4: we're going to talk about, like Moza Deech, who are
Speaker 4: really interesting people. And there is a story here that
Speaker 4: really explains a lot about what's happening here. The reson
Speaker 4: his son Mohammed Reza Khan and now his son who's
Speaker 4: now a player, and what's happening currently the news. So
Speaker 4: it is, it is, It's something I know a little
Speaker 4: bit about. But part part of the thing is like
Speaker 4: when you grow up Iranian and your parents came over
Speaker 4: after the revolution. A lot of these parents are very
Speaker 4: politically savvy, well read, studied, We're politically active, but getting
Speaker 4: a lot of information from them was hard about what
Speaker 4: happened during the revolution, not just because everyone has only
Speaker 4: their side of it, but because Irani's get so upset
Speaker 4: about it. It would just be like, did that bastard
Speaker 4: did this, and that son of a bitch did this,
Speaker 4: and then you're like, you're losing the story here with this,
Speaker 4: and you can't really get the story from your family.
Speaker 4: So it is nice to I think we're going to
Speaker 4: go into more depth about what actually happened now.
Speaker 2: And I get that in part. I think because if
Speaker 2: I had to, if I got exiled and had to
Speaker 2: explain overseas like a bunch of the different infighting around
Speaker 2: leftist movements, or like a bunch of the different right
Speaker 2: wing grifters who got us here, I would probably just
Speaker 2: wind up cursing, like right after a while, right, and
Speaker 2: this son of a bitch and this piece of shit.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, you have to really work to be and
Speaker 2: I want to clarify we're not even getting past We're
Speaker 2: only gonna up to nineteen forty one in these episodes.
Speaker 2: I wanted to do both shows at once, but there's
Speaker 2: so much behind how the British and the Russians like
Speaker 2: maneuver the situation that leads to this dynasty into being,
Speaker 2: and how the oil situation gets started that you have
Speaker 2: to really talk to. So we will come back and
Speaker 2: we will do the sequel to these episodes, which we'll
Speaker 2: talk more about Mozada as well. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: about him some of these episodes, but he's like it
Speaker 2: becomes the prime Minister, I think at fifty one, so
Speaker 2: that's even a little past the era we're talking about.
Speaker 2: But this, this is really important because this is what
Speaker 2: sets this is what starts like everything into motion that
Speaker 2: we're seeing, unfortunately come to very like a very bloody
Speaker 2: head right now. Right, So we're going to start these
Speaker 2: episodes talking about a period of time. This is going
Speaker 2: to be kind of over to the to the US.
Speaker 2: This is like happening in like the Civil War reconstruction era, right,
Speaker 2: and in Europe that's also a time of great change
Speaker 2: and of war. You know, not only is Europe industrializing
Speaker 2: rapidly in the eighteen seventies, Germans beat France in eighteen
Speaker 2: seventy in the Franco Prussian War, and the British Empire,
Speaker 2: you know, is kind of watching this. They're seeing Germany
Speaker 2: become a major world power because Germany becomes a country
Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy one as the result of that war,
Speaker 2: and very suddenly France isn't the primary land power in
Speaker 2: Western Europe. Anymore. Germany is and so Britain, which had
Speaker 2: primarily been worried about France previously, has two growing and
Speaker 2: major concerns in this period after eighteen seventy. One is
Speaker 2: that you've got this Kaiser and he seems really interested
Speaker 2: in expanding Germany's military capacity, right, And the Brits are
Speaker 2: kind of fine with the fact that Germany's got the
Speaker 2: most powerful army in Europe. You're like, Uprussians can have
Speaker 2: your big army, right that that's fine as long as
Speaker 2: they stay on the continent. But once you start building boats,
Speaker 2: that's when the Brits are not happy with you. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: no one else is allowed to have a navy. That's
Speaker 2: really the British Empire's primary like foreign policy during this period,
Speaker 2: vise of the Europe is like other people want boats?
Speaker 2: Wait a second, like, hold the fuck up?
Speaker 5: Can I can?
Speaker 4: I also make a quick note, I love the way
Speaker 4: when you say the Germans. I don't know if you've
Speaker 4: been meant to do this. You slipped into cid Germans.
Speaker 5: Germans. It's very good.
Speaker 2: And there's a beautiful, beautiful case of a small town
Speaker 2: German Man who went to New York City recently and
Speaker 2: had some salsa verde on a taco and is suing
Speaker 2: because like the spice like destroyed his body and like said,
Speaker 2: like for days made him ill. It was like New
Speaker 2: York City Salsa Verde. I was just thinking, motherfucker, I
Speaker 2: canned some Barbera CoA last week that could wipe out
Speaker 2: all of Germany. If that's if that's really the level
Speaker 2: of spice tolerance over there. I know this guy's just
Speaker 2: a hay seed grifter from a small town. Sorry, my
Speaker 2: German friends, I know you can handle spices.
Speaker 4: No, no, listen. We had a whole series of commercials
Speaker 4: in the eighties, remember where they're like pace made in
Speaker 4: New York.
Speaker 5: City, New York City, got a road New.
Speaker 2: York City salsa.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: It was like a whole fairy offensive to me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't think it would be allowed to have salsa.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So anyway, Yeah, so the Brits are looking at the
Speaker 2: at the Germans start to expand their navy and they're like,
Speaker 2: well fuck, Like if Britannia doesn't rule the waves, like
Speaker 2: what do we really have right? We can't the home
Speaker 2: islands are in danger if we can't keep if we
Speaker 2: can't keep control of the sea. So that's one of
Speaker 2: Great Britain's major concerns in this period. The other thing
Speaker 2: that's really freaking them out is India, right, protecting India.
Speaker 2: That is the jewel in the British Empire's crown. It's
Speaker 2: their most valuable possession, right and the Germans are nowhere
Speaker 2: near India, thank god. But over the course of the
Speaker 2: nineteenth century, Imperial Russia starts expanding troublingly close to India.
Speaker 2: Right like they start, there's a couple of different fits
Speaker 2: and starts where the Russians will you know, expand their
Speaker 2: territory and they keep getting closer to the British raj
Speaker 2: I want to quote from the article a very British
Speaker 2: Coup in the World Policy Journal by Sharen Brisik, quote,
Speaker 2: the British watch nervously is the distance between the Russian
Speaker 2: Empire and India, too, thousand miles at the beginning of
Speaker 2: the nineteenth century, shrank so much that by centuries end,
Speaker 2: as the Russian Empire expanded eastward at the amazing average
Speaker 2: of fifty five square miles per day, as little as
Speaker 2: twenty miles separated the two empires in Central Asia's premieres
Speaker 2: squeeze between these expanding powers was Persia, described by George
Speaker 2: Nathan Curzon, one time Viceroy of India and subsequent Foreign Secretary,
Speaker 2: as one of the pieces on a chessboard upon which
Speaker 2: is being played out a game for the domination of
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 4: We're real proud of being upon, real proud of that one.
Speaker 2: Great thanks for calling us pieces on a chessboard.
Speaker 5: Fantastic.
Speaker 2: Purson Is We're talking about him a lot in these episodes.
Speaker 2: I should do an episode on just him. He's one
Speaker 2: of these, like when we talk about British imperialists, he
Speaker 2: is like one of the imperialists of imperialists in the
Speaker 2: British Empire's history. And this is why Curzon's comment is
Speaker 2: why participants came to call this struggle in what's often
Speaker 2: I referred to as like the Near East right between
Speaker 2: Russia and Great Britain, as the Great Game.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: This is a diplomatic, propagandistic, and sometimes military struggle between
Speaker 2: the British and Russian empires over Central Asia. One part
Speaker 2: of the Great Game is that the Great Britain invades
Speaker 2: and occupies Afghanistan for a while. Doesn't work well, right,
Speaker 2: But that's part of why that happens, right, is it's
Speaker 2: part of the stupid game they're playing with the Russians,
Speaker 2: and it's all in the name of keeping India safe.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: They don't want Russia to get Afghanistan and they don't
Speaker 2: want Russia to get.
Speaker 5: Persia, right. Perfect.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The actual name the Great Game, I think comes
Speaker 2: in eighteen forty, is the invention of a British spy
Speaker 2: named Arthur Connolly who was corresponding with a colleague in Kandahar, Afghanistan,
Speaker 2: and wrote, you've a great game, a noble game before you.
Speaker 2: Now obviously again everyone dies, like a lot of the
Speaker 2: British Expeditionary Force dies, So I don't know how great
Speaker 2: a game they thought that was. By the end there,
Speaker 2: this is the thing.
Speaker 4: This is the thing that bothers me. I don't know
Speaker 4: much about this time period, so this is really interesting
Speaker 4: to hear. I do know a little bit more about
Speaker 4: the coup, as we mentioned that you'll get to at
Speaker 4: some point in the future. In One nauseating fact about
Speaker 4: that is the callous nature in which these like British
Speaker 4: and American spies and propagandists, how they talk about it afterwards,
Speaker 4: like how much fun it was to overlay great game.
Speaker 5: It was a game.
Speaker 4: It's so much fun, and they were good at it
Speaker 4: and we won. It's just the it drives me a baddie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, then the millions of people's lives, and I take
Speaker 2: some satisfaction that. Connolly in eighteen forty writes his colleague,
Speaker 2: you have a great game, a noble game before you
Speaker 2: in eighteen forty two, like the shattered remnants of the
Speaker 2: army that had marched into the first angle Tic Couple
Speaker 2: during the First Anglo Afghan War, like flee because you know,
Speaker 2: they get massacred, like very badly. So at least a
Speaker 2: lot of times these guys got shot, but not nearly
Speaker 2: an often enough cava, that is to be, not nearly
Speaker 2: often enough.
Speaker 5: It's a recurring theme.
Speaker 2: A lot of people get shot this story, but not
Speaker 2: the right ones. Generally, usually some teenagers who got drafted
Speaker 2: from farms.
Speaker 5: So always the kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, before that term was invented, the great Game,
Speaker 2: the Russians did have one of their own. They called
Speaker 2: it the Tournament of Shadows, which is objectively cooler, Like
Speaker 2: that is a cooler name.
Speaker 4: That sounds like a fantasy novel that I would probably read.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a tournament of shadows. Right, it's a great name
Speaker 2: for like a prestige TV show, right, that will really
Speaker 2: disappoint you in maybe like the seventh season, and it's
Speaker 2: gonna get weird. Yeah. So for the British again, the
Speaker 2: whole goal of this stupid game is to protect their
Speaker 2: territory in India. And the whole name of the game
Speaker 2: for the Russians was for the Tzar, each subsequent zar
Speaker 2: to prove himself a good ruler. And the main thing
Speaker 2: you had to do as Tzar to be a good
Speaker 2: ruler is expand the borders of the empire. That's why
Speaker 2: people forget this because of how weak Russia seems entering
Speaker 2: World War One and is. But through the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 2: again fifty five miles a day, the Russian Empire expands
Speaker 2: over the course of like years. It's crazy how fast
Speaker 2: this I mean. And you look at the size of
Speaker 2: the Russian Empire at its maximum extent, it's not that weird.
Speaker 2: So the Brits have a hard line of how close
Speaker 2: they want anyone, any European power to get to the
Speaker 2: Raj and the Russians feel like we have to expand constantly,
Speaker 2: and it ultimately Persia winds up standing in between both empires.
Speaker 2: So in Persia in seventeen eighty five, you're gonna help
Speaker 2: me with the pronunciation here. I think it's the the
Speaker 2: Quahar dynasty or Qajar dynasty.
Speaker 4: Qaj j Ar.
Speaker 5: I think it's Kajar Kajar.
Speaker 4: I think it's an actual j I'm going to preface
Speaker 4: this by apologizing to how many of our actual Iranian
Speaker 4: listeners you have that my Parsi is only nominally better
Speaker 4: than Roberts. I mean, it's better, but not as good
Speaker 4: as yours. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was born
Speaker 4: in Indiana. You're lucky I speak English much less Farcia.
Speaker 4: So just so sorry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Qujar dynasty took power seventeen eighty five, and
Speaker 2: they are the descendants of Turkomen from Central Asia and
Speaker 2: aren't seen as authentically Persian by a lot of people, right, Like,
Speaker 2: authentically they're not seen is belonging in what's called Persia,
Speaker 2: right because there's a lot of different ethnic groups there. Now,
Speaker 2: because the first Kajar king doesn't have like a really
Speaker 2: solid hold on power, he decides he has to put
Speaker 2: on a show in order to convince everyone he belongs
Speaker 2: in the job, right. You know, a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't think I should be in Tehran at all. I
Speaker 2: have to really like make everyone believe i'm legitimately like
Speaker 2: God wants me here, right. And so this first Kujar
Speaker 2: king is Fathali Shah and he's known his nickname is
Speaker 2: the super procreant because he has a lot of kids.
Speaker 3: But by the way, and just just so it's if
Speaker 3: it's not obvious, the word shaw translates to like emperor, ruler, king, right,
Speaker 3: just in case people weren't aware of that. Somebody asked
Speaker 3: me that question like a few years ago, and I
Speaker 3: was like, that's what I mean.
Speaker 4: So just a case.
Speaker 2: And it often in these names it will come as
Speaker 2: like a last name, but that is his title, right,
Speaker 2: He's fath Aly Shah, is faf Al is the Shah. Right,
Speaker 2: Reza Khan will become Resis Shah like when he becomes
Speaker 2: the Shah.
Speaker 5: And he gave the name Paula Vi.
Speaker 4: They because it was like the I think it was
Speaker 4: like the ancient Lang written word Persian.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, things like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll talk about that because that's that's important
Speaker 2: to this. There's a lot of ethnic groups in Persia
Speaker 2: at the time, and he's only really the sha is
Speaker 2: only going to be really interested in one right, and
Speaker 2: that's kind of a big part of like what occurs
Speaker 2: in his reign. But so the first Kajar king is
Speaker 2: known as the super procreant because he's he's fucking constantly.
Speaker 2: And that's also why the throne of the Shahs of
Speaker 2: Iran gets its name, because it's called the peacock Throne.
Speaker 2: Now for an explanation of why it's called the peacock Throne,
Speaker 2: I'm going to quote from a Boss Milani, the author
Speaker 2: of a book called the Sha Here's how they describe it.
Speaker 2: That superb and barbarous devon of enamel and precious stones,
Speaker 2: with its airbesque designs wrought of twenty six thousand gyms
Speaker 2: brought back from India as spoils of war. It uses
Speaker 2: bright red rubies, deep blue sapphires, and verdant greened emeralds,
Speaker 2: and is flanked by two golden snakes, each peering from
Speaker 2: one side. In the beginning, the peacock Throne was called
Speaker 2: the sun Throne. Its name was changed because the Shah,
Speaker 2: who had close to one thousand wives of quote diverse
Speaker 2: origin had a favorite concubine. This concubine was named Taboo,
Speaker 2: and that name literally means peacock in Persian. And so
Speaker 2: this throne the sun throne. They fuck on it the
Speaker 2: night they get married, and he starts calling it the
Speaker 2: peacock throne because he has sex with this lady whose
Speaker 2: name is peacock on it. That's why it's the peacock throne. Hey, guys,
Speaker 2: I just want to clarify. This is one explanation I
Speaker 2: found in one book for why it's called the peacock throne.
Speaker 2: And this represents like a popular story more than it
Speaker 2: does kind of the literal truth, because you know, there's
Speaker 2: peacocks carved into the throne. There's some I think I've
Speaker 2: heard some other stories as to like why it's called that, right,
Speaker 2: and Iran is called the peacock Kingdom or Perge is
Speaker 2: called the pincock Kingdom at around this time too. This
Speaker 2: should be viewed as kind of a story that a
Speaker 2: lot of people told as to why the throne got
Speaker 2: its name, as opposed to like the absolute reason. Pretty
Speaker 2: cool name for a story for a throne's name.
Speaker 5: Actually, that is pretty.
Speaker 4: That is real game of Thrones. E that is very game.
Speaker 2: I like it better than the Iron Throne. It's a
Speaker 2: nicer story than a bunch of swords getting a meltzed
Speaker 2: together a fun night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the Peacock Throne sounds better. The reality of these
Speaker 4: thousand women actually being into this guy pretty low, probably
Speaker 4: not great, so it makes it a little bit less
Speaker 4: charming for me.
Speaker 5: But yeah, yeah, it's a great name.
Speaker 2: When you think about Yeah, the relationship dynamics, it's less fun,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's probably more comfortable than the Iron Throne.
Speaker 4: Way better than the Iron Throne.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't want to have sex on the Iron Throne,
Speaker 2: like you'd get like tetanus pretty badly, I think. I
Speaker 2: don't think wester Ros has vaccines for that.
Speaker 4: And it's really cold, I think to be I think
Speaker 4: if you were naked, I think it would be really cold.
Speaker 4: I mean, there are things to hold on to, which
Speaker 4: is nice.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of a lot of grips. That's a
Speaker 2: good side.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of bricks.
Speaker 3: Did either of you watch the Night of a Seven
Speaker 3: Kingdoms Game of Thrones show.
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 4: It's my first time venturing back into the world of
Speaker 4: west ROAs since the original series.
Speaker 3: Do I need to watch it? What's the vibe?
Speaker 4: It's fun, it's good. I mean, it's a much lighter
Speaker 4: I think they kind of read the room and they're like,
Speaker 4: people don't want so much rape and incest and all that,
Speaker 4: and they kind of like they tried to mix it
Speaker 4: up a little bit, a little bit less castration in
Speaker 4: this one, which is a big plus for me.
Speaker 5: I was trying.
Speaker 2: We could talk about this for hours. We were talking
Speaker 2: about the.
Speaker 3: Sorry sorry, sorry, my friend, my friends are here, We're
Speaker 3: going to talk about game of Throws.
Speaker 4: I could totally do that for like an hour, because
Speaker 4: sat speaking, I have a lot of thoughts about it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, oh yeah, solidly an hour. So we've got
Speaker 2: this new king. He's incredibly horny, famously horny, so horny
Speaker 2: that the throne is named for his horniness, which is
Speaker 2: again the coolest anyone will be in these episodes.
Speaker 4: Sorry, guys.
Speaker 2: From there, it's all downhill from the peacock throne getting named.
Speaker 2: One of fath Ali Shah's most consequent little decisions was
Speaker 2: that he signs a treaty in eighteen twenty eight that
Speaker 2: gives a big chunk of Persia away to the Russian
Speaker 2: Czar in exchange for protection. Persia is not a strong country.
Speaker 2: It doesn't really have a functional military. Like the military
Speaker 2: is kind of capable of keeping like the people from
Speaker 2: rebelling against the Shah, but it can't defend the country
Speaker 2: from other countries, right, And a lot of critics complain
Speaker 2: that this eighteen twenty eight treaty makes Persia a virtual
Speaker 2: satrap of the Tzar. Right, basically, Persia's just like a
Speaker 2: satellite state of the Russian Empire now, and so subsequent
Speaker 2: rulers in the Shaw's line would veer towards the British
Speaker 2: whenever they get worried that like the Russians are getting
Speaker 2: too much power, and part because they're getting criticized by
Speaker 2: the people, Like the people are pissed that, like you're
Speaker 2: giving everything away to the Russians. So they'd be like, well,
Speaker 2: maybe i'll make friends with the British and then you know,
Speaker 2: the Russians will have to kind of fight for my
Speaker 2: affection with the British and maybe we can gain a
Speaker 2: little more power that way.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: Really, with the Shah and their success, they just are
Speaker 2: getting bribes from both these sides, right, and they're getting
Speaker 2: a shitload of bribes from the British, who are gained
Speaker 2: more and more power over the Persian Court over the
Speaker 2: course of the eighteen hundreds, basically by being like, hey,
Speaker 2: those Russians, I don't think they're going to stop at
Speaker 2: the stuff they got in that treaty. But you know,
Speaker 2: we've got British guns, and we've got we can send
Speaker 2: some suppoies over from the colonies, and you know, we
Speaker 2: can really keep an eye on your back fellow. You
Speaker 2: know if you just give us this little bit of
Speaker 2: some mineral rights here and there, that just build a
Speaker 2: factory here and then you know, expose these these raw materials.
Speaker 2: You never regret your dealings with the British Empire. That's
Speaker 2: kind of what's going on over like the seventy year period.
Speaker 5: You like G, we like G.
Speaker 4: There's no harms that could come out of this relationship.
Speaker 2: Ever, two groups of people who like tea could never
Speaker 2: hob one another.
Speaker 5: You will say.
Speaker 4: Actually, fun fact, Iran is known famously for its tea consumption,
Speaker 4: like an insane amount of tea consumption. But we were
Speaker 4: the old school coffee like all we used to be
Speaker 4: all about coffee. I blame the British for becoming a
Speaker 4: tea country, which is in my mind something I'm not
Speaker 4: proud of. I want to go back to being a
Speaker 4: coffee country. I don't want to be a tea country.
Speaker 2: He must return.
Speaker 5: God, it really bothers me, I know, I know.
Speaker 2: No, because because Syria, the Syrians are really like kicking
Speaker 2: y'all's asses in the coffee department.
Speaker 5: Right, Oh, no, we lost our coffee.
Speaker 4: Must return, I know. Well, they have hipster coffee shops
Speaker 4: now in Iran. You can go to Iran. They'll do
Speaker 4: like the the hipster latte sort of art and stuff.
Speaker 5: They have that.
Speaker 4: But I mean, we used to it used to be
Speaker 4: like our thing, one of our things.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah. So the situation going on between these British
Speaker 2: agents and these Russian agents all competing with these various
Speaker 2: shaws is complicated by the fact that this isn't just
Speaker 2: a contest for influence between England and Russia. Within the
Speaker 2: British Empire, there are two sets of competing envoys that
Speaker 2: are in Persia and are fighting with each other as
Speaker 2: well as with the Russians. One set of British envoys
Speaker 2: are answering to the Foreign Office back in London, and
Speaker 2: another set are sent by the government of the British
Speaker 2: Raujian Calcutta and these guys, so they're like representing British
Speaker 2: India in Persia, and they have this huge office on
Speaker 2: the Gulf coast in a place called Boucher. And here's
Speaker 2: Sharen Brysak describing, like the ministry from Calcutta. The Government
Speaker 2: of India preferred a highly decentralized Persian regime that means weak.
Speaker 2: So from the outset, successive residents, including Major supercy Cox
Speaker 2: and Lieutenant Colonel A. T. Wilson, cultivated ties with nearby Shakedoms. Kurzon,
Speaker 2: an eventual Viceroy of India, visiting in eighteen eighty nine,
Speaker 2: spotted the Union jack fluttering from the summit of the
Speaker 2: residency flag staff and wrote that it was no vain
Speaker 2: symbol of British ascendancy. The British resident is to this
Speaker 2: hour the umpire to whom all parties appeal, having at
Speaker 2: his command an effective naval force imposed it will he
Speaker 2: may be entitled the uncrowned King of the Persian Gulf.
Speaker 2: So basically Kurzon realizes that like, because we've like we're
Speaker 2: running the show by eighteen eighty nine in Persia outside
Speaker 2: of the areas the Russians have like literally taken over
Speaker 2: by treaty. We are governing the country in all but name,
Speaker 2: because we have all of the weapons here, right, That's
Speaker 2: what he's bragging about.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you do.
Speaker 4: That to show that really well. And it's weird, like
Speaker 4: you you like get into that British character. It's not
Speaker 4: just the voice, it's the you. You can get that
Speaker 4: entitlement like.
Speaker 2: You're channeling, you channel it.
Speaker 5: It's yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 2: So the Shah benefits from having a close relationship with
Speaker 2: Great Britain because British naval power is effectively his as
Speaker 2: long as he does whatever they asked, right. As one
Speaker 2: such envoy wrote of the Shaw quote, he and his
Speaker 2: Prime Minister were worried by the Russian threat to Persian independence.
Speaker 2: They believed or hoped that by giving the British a
Speaker 2: large economic stake in the country, they would become committed
Speaker 2: to defending that independence. Basically, if we make it, if
Speaker 2: Great Britain feels like we're an important part of their
Speaker 2: security and economic apparatus, they won't let us get taken
Speaker 2: over by the Russians right now. The Russians, meanwhile, are
Speaker 2: stoking unrest within Persia, often by bribing or otherwise encouraging
Speaker 2: Shia clergy to preach against foreign involvement, basically to be like, hey,
Speaker 2: these Brits are taken over your country, guys, and they're heathens,
Speaker 2: you know, Like aren't you should be angrier about this?
Speaker 2: Why is the Shaw letting them get away with that?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: So, the Russians are operating a very effective propaganda. Like
Speaker 2: it's propaganda, but it's also accurate. Great Britain is running
Speaker 2: things in Persia that is pretty messed up. Now the
Speaker 2: Russians also want to run things in Persia. They're not
Speaker 2: any like better people here, really, but like this is
Speaker 2: how they're choosing to kind of like it's actually kind
Speaker 2: of similar to what Iran does in Iraq when the
Speaker 2: US invades with Shia clergy and like Baghdad. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 2: where they're they're realizing, like this group of people are
Speaker 2: particularly unhappy with the foreign power that's occupying the territory.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to like basically fund them to build
Speaker 2: support for insurrections and like rebel movements within the country.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we learn how to play the Great game.
Speaker 2: Learn playing the Great Game. Yeah, yeah right, Unfortunately, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's never been that great a game and always
Speaker 2: gets a lot more people killed than anything else. So
Speaker 2: these like Russian propaganda, like instruments and whatnot within Persia,
Speaker 2: these attempts to stroke unrest within the clergy succeed in
Speaker 2: getting the Shot to cancel a number of projects, including
Speaker 2: a railway project that he'd taken on that was support
Speaker 2: by British interests. However, they failed to stop a British
Speaker 2: agent from creating the Imperial Bank of Persia. In fact,
Speaker 2: the Russians are so jealous of the British Imperial Bank
Speaker 2: that they create a bank of their own in Persia,
Speaker 2: subsidized by the Tsarist state, where the Imperial Bank was
Speaker 2: actually a functional banking institution that you could trust. That
Speaker 2: was the upside of it is the British do know
Speaker 2: how to run a bank that doesn't like go bust
Speaker 2: every ten seconds. The Russians are not as good about
Speaker 2: running like a legitimate bank, and the Russian Bank of
Speaker 2: Persia its primary purpose is to bribe the Shah's top officials,
Speaker 2: like it's not a real bank for people to use,
Speaker 2: it's a bank to issue loans to members of the governments.
Speaker 2: That they do what the Tzar wants them to do.
Speaker 2: So basically, what you've got here is great Britain's holding
Speaker 2: kind of the whole country hostage by running the bank
Speaker 2: that the people who have money use, and the Tzar
Speaker 2: is influencing shit within the country by using the bank
Speaker 2: that he's created to bribe government officials. So this is
Speaker 2: what we've got going on here.
Speaker 4: This is like where the sort of Archie being courted
Speaker 4: by Betty I think and Veronica, where they're two people
Speaker 4: are fighting for Iran is like nice. This is like
Speaker 4: so far, yeah, not so bad, but I also know
Speaker 4: that it just it gets worse and worse, So like
Speaker 4: right now, it's almost kind of cute.
Speaker 2: It's gonna get worse than banks. Yeah, it's gonna get
Speaker 2: a lot worse than banks. So Russia's fortunes in the
Speaker 2: area EBB and flow on a daily basis, and they
Speaker 2: depended largely in the attitude of the reigning sha. For example,
Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy nine, Naser al Din, who's the show
Speaker 2: at the time, visited Czar Alexander the Second in Russia.
Speaker 2: Alexander the Second, intent on staging a good show for
Speaker 2: his neighbor, ensured that the Shaw was wowed by a
Speaker 2: mass presentation of Cossacks. The elite cavalry unit who had Cossacks.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're also like an ethnic group, right, but
Speaker 2: they primarily known as like a military unit or a
Speaker 2: series of military units. They'd started out for a long time,
Speaker 2: had been enemies of the Tsar, right like Cossacks had
Speaker 2: fought the Tsars for a very there had been a
Speaker 2: rebellion not all that long ago, and they had been
Speaker 2: converted over time into the Tsar's red right hand. And
Speaker 2: we're going to talk a little bit more about that.
Speaker 2: But first, my red right hand these sponsors of our podcast,
Speaker 2: and we're back, yay. So I want to quote from
Speaker 2: an article and seeing in world news about the evolution
Speaker 2: of the Cossacks within Russia. During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and
Speaker 2: sixteenth centuries, the Cossacks fought for the Russian crown in
Speaker 2: regional wars against the Russian people, garnering a reputation as
Speaker 2: the Tsar's henchmen. Acting on behalf of the Russian Empire,
Speaker 2: the Cossacks carried out pagrams or massacres of the Jews
Speaker 2: in nineteenth century Russia. The Cossacks go from these people
Speaker 2: who were these like nomadic horse warriors and didn't want
Speaker 2: to be governed to the government being like, but what
Speaker 2: if we give you money in exchange for murdering anyone
Speaker 2: who stands up against the czar? And the Cossacks eventually
Speaker 2: are fine with this, right, and they do a lot
Speaker 2: of there's a lot of genocide done by the Cossacks
Speaker 2: on behalf of the Russian Empire in this period, right,
Speaker 2: Like these pegroms are very ugly. There's there's one that
Speaker 2: kills something like a million people in the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 2: like seven hundred thousand or something like that. Pretty hideous stuff. Now,
Speaker 2: there had been a Cossack rebellion led by a dude
Speaker 2: named Pugachev in the late eighteenth century, and in general,
Speaker 2: any expert on Russian history would have told you that
Speaker 2: a powerful, autonomous cadra of warriors with zero accountability sometimes
Speaker 2: rebel against It's not always a good idea for the
Speaker 2: government right to have like this group of warriors that
Speaker 2: you can't really tell what to do. Yes, it seems
Speaker 2: like idea, right, And the Cossacks had always been a
Speaker 2: double edged sword, even for the czars. But Naser al Din,
Speaker 2: the Shah at the time sees all these Russian Cossacks
Speaker 2: and he's like, these guys look cool as hell. I
Speaker 2: want some Cossacks. And so he founds his own Persian
Speaker 2: Cossack legion. This is kind of in the late eighteen
Speaker 2: or the yeah, the late eighteen hundreds. He founds the
Speaker 2: Persian Cossack Brigade. I had not known there were Persian Cossacks.
Speaker 2: I thought that was just like a because like Cossacks
Speaker 2: are like from like Ukraine is where a lot of
Speaker 2: like Cossacks origidate from. So the fact that there's a
Speaker 2: Persian Cossack brigade is kind of wild.
Speaker 4: We think we will take any concept and then we'll
Speaker 4: take it to an extreme. That's sort of what we
Speaker 4: do as a people culturally. If you've been to Los Angeles,
Speaker 4: you'll see that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But this Kajar dynasty, what's interesting about is I know
Speaker 4: very little about it other than the way they are presented.
Speaker 4: The narrative is that they were just an incompetent, ridiculous
Speaker 4: group of like people who are only interested in, you know,
Speaker 4: pro creating and spent wasting money on things. And Naser
Speaker 4: el Din is like the one name I recognize as
Speaker 4: like the epitome of that that this is the most wasteful,
Speaker 4: terrible Dinoshras saying something for all the other dynasties that
Speaker 4: have been around and went on.
Speaker 2: And it's important to note that they are this terrible
Speaker 2: because they're all from the entire time this dynasty exists,
Speaker 2: they're not. They're always puppets of two different competing powers, right,
Speaker 2: Like they're never like from the beginning, any of these
Speaker 2: For one thing, anyone who might be a decent ruler
Speaker 2: is not going to be allowed by the Russians or
Speaker 2: the Brits to do fuck all, right, so they're going
Speaker 2: to make sure that guy never gets close to power
Speaker 2: in the first place, because they're orchestrating who is in power,
Speaker 2: and they're doing that based on their own interest, not
Speaker 2: what's good for Persia and.
Speaker 4: Not time and time again, this is the story. This
Speaker 4: is how it's laid out from time time thereon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And obviously like these individual shaws and their officials
Speaker 2: suck too. These are all really corrupt bad people. But
Speaker 2: they're corrupt bad people who are being bribed by someone,
Speaker 2: and that is completely dominating the course of politics in
Speaker 2: Persia during this period of time. And it's not entirely
Speaker 2: on the regime, right, like these two foreign powers have
Speaker 2: a lot to do with it. So the Czar Alexander
Speaker 2: the Second had had the Shaw over and impressed him
Speaker 2: with these Cossacks because he wanted something like this to happen.
Speaker 2: He wants Persia to have a Cossack brigade because the
Speaker 2: point of having Cossacks is that they're supposed to directly
Speaker 2: support the ruler, like these are your I've had a rebellion.
Speaker 2: I need someone to go in and massacre them. That's
Speaker 2: why you have an elite group of horse guards like
Speaker 2: the Cossacks. And so the Shaw is buying these Cossacks
Speaker 2: thinking like, shit, this will help me anytime there's unrest,
Speaker 2: I'll be able to have these guys just murder my enemies.
Speaker 2: And Persia does in fact pay handsomely to equip, train,
Speaker 2: and maintain a brigade. And this brigade is pretty much,
Speaker 2: for a lot of this period, the only effective military
Speaker 2: unit Persia has, and it's led by Russian officers. Right,
Speaker 2: the Russians are kind of subsidizing this effort, and they're
Speaker 2: sending their own military officers who report directly to Russia's
Speaker 2: Minister of War So if you're Russia, what you've done
Speaker 2: as soon as the sha Ah starts adopt this idea,
Speaker 2: starts hiring Cossacks, You've ensured the Shaw's bodyguard unit basically
Speaker 2: is in controlled by your guys. That's a big win
Speaker 2: if you're Russia in this period, right.
Speaker 4: No, I think this is it's so interesting to learn
Speaker 4: about this. I'd heard about the Cossack Brigade and yeah,
Speaker 4: a little bit of the connection to the Polavi family.
Speaker 5: But it's a big don't. Yes, I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't entirely understand, Like the constant. Is it like
Speaker 4: the Hessian soldiers that were in America that came over
Speaker 4: from Germany, Like they're kind of a mercenary force or
Speaker 4: is it more of like a yes, but it's a
Speaker 4: formal like oh, what are the bad guys in Dune?
Speaker 4: The member like the one, they're.
Speaker 2: More like kind of more startokar. Well, the because Cossacks
Speaker 2: are there is like kind of an ethnic group like
Speaker 2: these are basically these start out as like tribal groups
Speaker 2: of where Cossacks come from. Is you know how through
Speaker 2: most of human history you have like your settled civilizations
Speaker 2: and then these groups of like nomads on horses who
Speaker 2: periodically take over everything. Right, Well, Cossacks are one of
Speaker 2: those groups of people. They just happen to be around
Speaker 2: at the time that the modern world comes into being,
Speaker 2: and so they're those guys. But instead of like bows
Speaker 2: and arrows, they've got like rifles and eventually machine guns.
Speaker 2: And as a general rule in this period of time,
Speaker 2: if you're going to brutalize a protest, you're going to
Speaker 2: use guys on horseback, because horses are really good at
Speaker 2: breaking up mobs. It's very scary to be charged by
Speaker 2: a bunch of guys with sabers on horseback. And that's
Speaker 2: the real the Russian Cossacks, that's what they do. These
Speaker 2: are the guys you send in when these villagers are rebelling,
Speaker 2: kill them, or we've decided we're going to ethnically cleanse
Speaker 2: this area of this group of people, send in the Cossacks,
Speaker 2: right and once the Shah gets his Cossacks, that's what
Speaker 2: they're going to be used for, is brutalizing peasants to
Speaker 2: scare them away from doing disorder. Right now, they're not
Speaker 2: much good for much else. They're supposed to be bodyguards
Speaker 2: to In eighteen ninety six, Nasa is a assassinated while
Speaker 2: at a shrine, and his Cossack bodyguards failed to protect him.
Speaker 2: As a general rule, they're not great at that part
Speaker 2: of the job.
Speaker 5: We don't protect, we hurt.
Speaker 2: Oh no, all it cuts tot. Was that a hit people?
Speaker 4: We're a more offensive thing, less defense.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But once you've got these guys, you've got this unit
Speaker 2: of powerful horse guards that are close to the Shah,
Speaker 2: they're going to remain a powerful force in Persian politics,
Speaker 2: which by the turn of the century, once the nineteen
Speaker 2: hundred start going, are in a chaotic place, to say
Speaker 2: the least. Sharen Breysak describes the country during this time
Speaker 2: as a playground of Russian and British spies. Tehran is
Speaker 2: very much the way Berlin is going to be during
Speaker 2: the height of the Cold War. Right, It's this city
Speaker 2: where all like spooks from all over the world are
Speaker 2: coming and executing plots as part of these different great
Speaker 2: power games. And neither Russia or Great Britain trusted the
Speaker 2: local state security forces as far as they could throw them,
Speaker 2: so they brought in their own troops to protect their
Speaker 2: own agents in the country. The Russians brought in their
Speaker 2: own Cossack guards right, or used Persian Cossack guards which
Speaker 2: were led by Russians right, whereas British consuls in the
Speaker 2: country brought sapois in Bengal lancers from India to protect
Speaker 2: their guys. At the start of the twentieth century, Russia
Speaker 2: and England had reached an accord which Brysac writes was
Speaker 2: settled without informing, much less consulting the leaders of Persia.
Speaker 2: They split the country up into three spheres of influence.
Speaker 2: The British control southeast Persia, Russia runs the north, and
Speaker 2: the Southwest is like a neutral zone where they're both
Speaker 2: allowed to do like certain things as long as they
Speaker 2: don't like cross other certain lines. And again no one
Speaker 2: asks anyone in the Persian government about this. They're not consulted.
Speaker 2: Their consent does not matter. Russia's chunk of Persia is
Speaker 2: most valuable during this period of time. They seem to
Speaker 2: get off better like the best of this treaty, right,
Speaker 2: because they get the chunk of Persia with the largest cities,
Speaker 2: including Tehran. But here's the thing. In nineteen oh one,
Speaker 2: when this agreement gets kind of inked, neither power is
Speaker 2: really interested in Persia's oil fields. There's not a lot
Speaker 2: that's known about them. We'd only really figured out there
Speaker 2: were oil deposits in southwest Persia in like eighteen ninety two.
Speaker 2: That gets discovered thanks to the work of a French
Speaker 2: archaeologist whose findings are brought to This French guy who's
Speaker 2: digging for evidence of earlier societies finds oil and he
Speaker 2: his findings get sent on to the Commissioner General of Persia,
Speaker 2: so an actual Persian government official, and this says a
Speaker 2: lot about who was bribing the Commissioner General of Persia.
Speaker 2: He goes straight to Sir Henry Drummond Wolf, who's a
Speaker 2: Conservative parliamentarian in London, and he says, hey, we found
Speaker 2: oil in our country. I figured i'd go to London first,
Speaker 2: and Wolf introduces the Persian Commissioner to a guy named
Speaker 2: William Knox D'Arcy. I assume he's an actual descendant of
Speaker 2: mister Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.
Speaker 5: Much less lovable.
Speaker 2: Honestly, he probably is, because William Knox Darcy is a
Speaker 2: millionaire who's gotten rich speculating on gold in Australia. He
Speaker 2: sounds like that guy's kid or something.
Speaker 3: Still blows my mind. That mister Darcy's also Tom Loan
Speaker 3: scams from Succession Blows by Subsession.
Speaker 4: I don't know that show.
Speaker 2: But they're apparently doing a new Pride and Prejudice and
Speaker 2: it looks like, I.
Speaker 4: Know, women love mister Darcy, and I don't entirely understand.
Speaker 3: Why I love mister Darcy.
Speaker 2: They love that scene where he like she brushes his
Speaker 2: hand and he like twitches like crazy, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: big scene. So William Darcy gets introduced to the Persian Commissioner,
Speaker 2: and you know this guy loves speculating, so he decides
Speaker 2: he's going to branch out in oil speculation as well.
Speaker 2: In nineteen oh one, he offers the rulers of Iran
Speaker 2: twenty thousand British pounds and sixteen percent of annual profits
Speaker 2: gained from exploding their oil reserves. This draws little initial
Speaker 2: outrage within Persia, as regular people have a lot bigger
Speaker 2: fish to fry, right, and nobody's thinking about oil as
Speaker 2: a huge industry. Yet it's nineteen oh one. The number
Speaker 2: of people who have like used gasoline for anything is
Speaker 2: very small. The vast majority it's horses are walking for
Speaker 2: most people, right, and trains are a thing obviously. So yeah,
Speaker 2: you've got this guy Darcy who gets involved and he
Speaker 2: basically bribes the rulers of Iran with twenty pounds and
Speaker 2: a chunk of annual profits to exploit as much oil
Speaker 2: as he can find there. And nobody cares because oil
Speaker 2: is not worth all that much yet. In fact, Darcy
Speaker 2: nearly bankrupts himself paying for the deal and trying to
Speaker 2: build the infrastructure to start taking Persian oil to market
Speaker 2: because there's nothing there. Nobody's been digging or ext like,
Speaker 2: nobody's been drilling or anything. He has to do all
Speaker 2: of that, like from the ground up. It's very costly
Speaker 2: and even a very rich dude like Darcy can't bankroll
Speaker 2: the project on his own, so he partners with a
Speaker 2: company called Burma Oil, which is, despite the name, based
Speaker 2: in Glasgow, and Burma Oil has the capital necessary to
Speaker 2: make Darcy's rooms reality. So Darcy's now in business with
Speaker 2: this Glasgow based company, starting to build oil wells and
Speaker 2: whatnot and drill in Persia. And at the time, this
Speaker 2: is one of a bunch of innumerable deals by which
Speaker 2: Persia's natural resources are being sold off for the benefit
Speaker 2: of foreigners. This is not just happening with oil. Everything
Speaker 2: valuable in the country is being sold to Russia or Germany,
Speaker 2: right like, that's the way it's working for everything. So
Speaker 2: regular people in the country know they're being fleeced. They
Speaker 2: are not unaware of that. There's actually a very because
Speaker 2: the press is starting to become an increasingly significant thing
Speaker 2: in this period of time, and literacy is fairly high
Speaker 2: in the cities. Regular people are very aware that they're
Speaker 2: being robbed by both the British and the Russians, and
Speaker 2: that their leaders are selling the country out for what
Speaker 2: amounts to middling bribes. The current rulers the dynasty had
Speaker 2: their origins in a tribe of Turkomen warriors who served
Speaker 2: as the bulk of the Safavid military, and the Qajars
Speaker 2: had a Russian branch, which, again, because these are Turkubin people,
Speaker 2: this is all very compplicated ethnic stuff. But the ruling
Speaker 2: dynasty in Persia at the time are Turkomen, which means
Speaker 2: they have Russian cousins who are nobility in the Russian Empire,
Speaker 2: which means the Shahs of Persia are related to the Tsar,
Speaker 2: which endears them to the Tsar. Right, they're not directly
Speaker 2: related to the Czar, but they're directly related to other
Speaker 2: royals within the Tsar's empire, right, and this so a
Speaker 2: lot That's part of why a lot of people don't
Speaker 2: trust them, right, is they're both stooges of the British,
Speaker 2: and well, you don't you're not really like at least
Speaker 2: a lot of Persians feel like you're not really Persian.
Speaker 2: You're more Russian. Unlike, you're much more aligned with the
Speaker 2: Russian government. So there's a lot of reasons why people
Speaker 2: are getting increasingly pissed off at their rulers at this
Speaker 2: period of time. They're selling off the entire country, and
Speaker 2: they're doing it as if they're agents of other countries. Right,
Speaker 2: That's increasingly how this dynasty is seen. As shariir Kia
Speaker 2: wrote in an article for the National Council of Resistance
Speaker 2: on Iran or in CRI, the Quajar crisis, influenced by
Speaker 2: Russia and Britain, had led Iran the financial ruin and
Speaker 2: a political crisis. They were weak against foreign influence and
Speaker 2: oppressive of citizens. So by nineteen oh five people are sick.
Speaker 2: They are fed up with this shitty ass dynasty and
Speaker 2: the king is because Nasar had gotten assassinated, and his
Speaker 2: successor by this point is aging and ill, and there's
Speaker 2: enough unrest with elites in the capital that they form
Speaker 2: a parliament. Right, there's this like national assembly formed in
Speaker 2: Persia called the Mazles, as the result of a lot
Speaker 2: of work by a lot of different activists within the country,
Speaker 2: a lot of differently very brave people who want the
Speaker 2: government that the people of the country deserve, that will
Speaker 2: actually functionally govern and modernize the country and won't be
Speaker 2: taken advantage of as hideously as the Shas regime had.
Speaker 2: And the Mazles draft a constitution which was approved regretfully
Speaker 2: by the Shah right before he died, and the Shaws
Speaker 2: kind of in this position of like, if I don't
Speaker 2: approve this, it's it's allow this bit of democracy or
Speaker 2: have a rebellion, right, That's that's the dire situation he
Speaker 2: sees himself in. So once this parliament gets going and
Speaker 2: starts passing a constitution, the Russians are like, well, we
Speaker 2: can't have this. These guys aren't working for our best interests.
Speaker 2: They're working for their own best interest. That's not great.
Speaker 2: So they immediately set to work pushing their allies in
Speaker 2: the Shia clergy to sabotage this new experiment and functional
Speaker 2: self governance. Historian Ruhola Ramazani writes that they quote destroyed
Speaker 2: the foundations of this new government twice in about four years. Right,
Speaker 2: So the Majlis keep trying to install functional parliamentary governments,
Speaker 2: and these clerics and other agents of the Russians that
Speaker 2: are working with in Persian society keep sabotaging these efforts
Speaker 2: because they don't want this to happen.
Speaker 4: And this is the same thing. This is the same
Speaker 4: thing that happens with the National Front later.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 4: Yeah, same sort of dynamics they use to play against
Speaker 4: the second more secular elements, the religious elements. They use
Speaker 4: them the same exact manner. God, Yes, in such an
Speaker 4: easy playbook.
Speaker 2: It's always so, it's really frustrating when you lay it
Speaker 2: all out like this. So in nineteen oh eight, Russian
Speaker 2: interests install a new shaw on the throne Mohammad Ali Shah,
Speaker 2: and he celebrates his newfound power by imprisoning his own
Speaker 2: prime minister, who had been semi democratically elected by the Mashli.
Speaker 2: Per Sheren Brysac's article with a loan underwritten by the
Speaker 2: Russian Bank and with his own crown jewels of security,
Speaker 2: the Shah hired rioters to storm the Mazle's. When the
Speaker 2: assembly successfully resisted, the Russian Officered Persian Cossack brigade moved
Speaker 2: rapidly to dissolve parliament and to impose martial law. The
Speaker 2: Cossacks shelled the parliament building, igniting a blaze that destroyed
Speaker 2: its records and killed eight people. The Russian commander proclaimed
Speaker 2: himself military Governor of Tehran. That's fucking nuts. So the
Speaker 2: new Shah hires rioters and the parliament fights off the rioters,
Speaker 2: so they have to blow up the building with our
Speaker 2: It's fucking nuts. It's insane and obviously very sad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the the Masli's. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 4: if you know this, but like, so there are parliaments,
Speaker 4: because I know that. I always thought they're like a
Speaker 4: senate or something, but I don't entirely understand they were
Speaker 4: like the parliamentary force.
Speaker 2: It's partly like I don't think any of these are
Speaker 2: like quite perfect term, but it's like a national assembly
Speaker 2: type deal, right, Like it's a semi democratic body basically.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, okay, but doesn't translate perfectly to senators and
Speaker 4: senate and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Not I mean, it's kind of its own like thing.
Speaker 2: Like I think the word literally means like like a
Speaker 2: place to sit basically, and it comes out of tribal councils.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's like a it's a it's a type
Speaker 2: of parliament basically, it's that's that's close enough for our purposes. Right,
Speaker 2: So the Russians have massacred a bunch of people and
Speaker 2: shelled the parliament building and installed Asian military commander as
Speaker 2: governor of Tehran, and this is not popular. In fact,
Speaker 2: it inspires a mass uprising. And this is one of
Speaker 2: these beautiful moments where regular people in Tehran and in
Speaker 2: the areas outside of it are so fucking pissed off
Speaker 2: at what the Russians have done that all of these different,
Speaker 2: normally normally opposed political groups unite together in resistance of
Speaker 2: Russian domination. And there's this mass uprising that pushes the
Speaker 2: Cossack guards out of the capital, and Muhammad Ali Shah
Speaker 2: becomes one of the shortest reigned shaws in history. He
Speaker 2: is not around much longer now because feudalism is a
Speaker 2: really bad system at the best of times. He is
Speaker 2: succeeded by his son, Ahmed, when Ahmed is twelve years old.
Speaker 2: The reason why this is generally seen as good by
Speaker 2: the power that's backing this succession, the British, is that
Speaker 2: Ahmed is too young to rule on his own. That
Speaker 2: means he needs a regent, and the regent who gets
Speaker 2: picked to rule in his stead is a very close
Speaker 2: friend of British Foreign Secretary Nathan Kurzon. So we have
Speaker 2: gone from haha. The Russians took over and basically this
Speaker 2: mass movement forces them out of power and forces the
Speaker 2: shot to abdicate. But then the guy who takes over
Speaker 2: is a stooge for the British government again, right, it's this.
Speaker 2: They can't get out of this, you know.
Speaker 4: And in the movie, the regent is played by Ben Kingsley.
Speaker 4: That's exactly who plays that that character. He's half Indian,
Speaker 4: half white to my understanding, and he has played an
Speaker 4: Iranian in like four movies and.
Speaker 5: They're never good.
Speaker 4: They're never good characters, never No.
Speaker 2: So what you've got now is a fucking regent who's
Speaker 2: running things in Tehran and everybody's tired because they've just
Speaker 2: thrown the Russians out and the British are kind of
Speaker 2: come in as the winners, and this this round of
Speaker 2: blows in the Great Game and shit like this. The
Speaker 2: fact that Great Britain kind of sits back while Russia
Speaker 2: commits a bunch of horrible war crimes and then winds
Speaker 2: up in charge is why England. Part of why they
Speaker 2: get their reputation being perfidious Albion is everyone's like, how
Speaker 2: the fuck did you wind up winning? Wait a second,
Speaker 2: like we were fighting them, how are how did you win?
Speaker 5: What the fuck?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: That's that's that's that's the way the British place stuff
Speaker 2: per time.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, one reason why you had this popular uprising against
Speaker 2: the Russians and why like the Mazles are able to
Speaker 2: gain and maintain a degree of power is that regular
Speaker 2: Persians are fairly well informed about what's happening in their
Speaker 2: country or starting to be in this period, because especially
Speaker 2: once the Majlis come like into power, Persia has a
Speaker 2: shockingly free press. During this whole period of time, from
Speaker 2: like the about this point in the story forward up
Speaker 2: until we get the last dynasty of Shaws, there's like
Speaker 2: a really vibrant media ecosystem, particularly in Tehran. The first
Speaker 2: Mazles had put an end to the stifling controlled the
Speaker 2: erastocracy had exerted on media, and so even when the
Speaker 2: Persian people lacked the power to stop Great Britain or
Speaker 2: Russian from doing something, they at least knew that they
Speaker 2: were being fucked right. That's an important dimension of the
Speaker 2: story is that people are not in the dark because
Speaker 2: there's a pretty good media at the time, which I
Speaker 2: was also unaware of. So folks are especially aware of
Speaker 2: the rampant corruption within the Shaws Court. Public opinion of
Speaker 2: it is so negative that the regent's foreign minister sends
Speaker 2: men out to find him a disinterested American expert to
Speaker 2: come to Tehran and fix the Persian economy. Now, that
Speaker 2: fact alone should give you an idea of the very
Speaker 2: different regard Americans were held in during this time. That
Speaker 2: like foreigners who are meddling in still other foreign countries
Speaker 2: economic system are like, we need someone reliable, trustworthy and
Speaker 2: unbiased to fix this economy. Let's find it American. The
Speaker 2: fact that that's the way things work back then is crazy.
Speaker 4: It is wild, But I will say, you know, until
Speaker 4: the whole nineteen fifty three coup, like the there was
Speaker 4: a real there was and then afterwards, you know, if
Speaker 4: you talk to your rank and file Iranian now they
Speaker 4: do and they have for many years now loved Americans.
Speaker 4: But before this they used to have a lot of
Speaker 4: contempt for the British. They used to have a lot
Speaker 4: contemp for the Russians, and they used to always sort
Speaker 4: of know that they are meddling. But there was like
Speaker 4: a real warm spot for Americans because of the Americans
Speaker 4: that would come over and help them with the finance stuff.
Speaker 4: Mcluskey Afrigat's name, But like there's a there's a few, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: So then there was a real like, you know, warmth.
Speaker 2: And this guy, this guy isn't bad at his job.
Speaker 2: I don't think. His name is W. Morgan Schuster. He's
Speaker 2: a middle aged lawyer who had worked and he'd been
Speaker 2: like a customs guy after the US had taken Cuba
Speaker 2: from the Spanish, and he basically rebuilt the tax system
Speaker 2: for the Philippines after the United States took over the Philippines. H.
Speaker 2: Schuster is the first American that I'm aware of who
Speaker 2: has a significant political impact in the Persian government, and
Speaker 2: his experience couldn't have been more different. From the Americans
Speaker 2: who would follow. For one thing, Shuster seems to have
Speaker 2: been genuinely welcome and desired by many Persians because the
Speaker 2: economy is completely fucked up right, and he's as popular
Speaker 2: with like the local people as much as he is
Speaker 2: hated by European expats living in Tehran, who rightly see
Speaker 2: his crusade for financial solvency as something that's going to
Speaker 2: cut into their graft. Because Shuster actually wants the Iranian
Speaker 2: people to have a functional economy, and when he realizes
Speaker 2: they're being robbed blind, he's pissed about it. He's like, well,
Speaker 2: they're never going to have like you're never going to
Speaker 2: have a happy country with a good economy if you
Speaker 2: rob them blind like this. If the goal is for
Speaker 2: the like the Persia to be a functional country, you're
Speaker 2: screwing them. In nineteen eleven, Shuster, who's now the Treasury Secretary,
Speaker 2: sparks outrage with the Russians when he confiscates the home
Speaker 2: of the former Shaw's brother, who was a Russian citizen.
Speaker 2: Shuster was in the right by any rational observation. The
Speaker 2: exiled Shaw's brother had not been paying taxes for years,
Speaker 2: but the British and the Russians file formal complaints against
Speaker 2: this guy with the Mazles, who ignore the complaint to
Speaker 2: their peril. The Czar sends his army in and he
Speaker 2: shells Tehran, killing many pro independence liberals and clergy members.
Speaker 2: They shell the capital and kill a bunch of people
Speaker 2: because this guy Shuster takes one dude's house for not
Speaker 2: paying taxes. The Russian army also shlls Shia holy sites
Speaker 2: as the British look on but avoid direct intervention themselves.
Speaker 2: On Christmas Day nineteen eleven, Shuster is forced to leave Persia.
Speaker 2: He goes back to the United States and he writes
Speaker 2: a book called The Strangling of Persia, which is all
Speaker 2: about how European powers are robbing the country blind and
Speaker 2: murdering any chance of it having a functional government. Like he's,
Speaker 2: as far as I can tell, he seems to genuinely
Speaker 2: be like offended on behalf of the Persian people.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there are I mean, in this whole story
Speaker 4: of all these terrible people, Like it's there's not a
Speaker 4: lot of heroes, but there were a couple on the
Speaker 4: end they were I mean nice guys. Yeah, yeah, there
Speaker 4: was a couple yeah, yeah, right at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, most of them couldn't affect things in a
Speaker 4: positive way. But there were a couple of Americans that
Speaker 4: did try to do the right thing.
Speaker 2: They tried to do the right thing, like the Spike
Speaker 2: Lee movie. And you know what else is like a
Speaker 2: Spike Lee movie.
Speaker 4: It's these It's probably and you know, I'm a good
Speaker 4: test taker. I learned that in medical school. Probably the
Speaker 4: ads and services that are going to be presented in
Speaker 4: these commercials bingo manga and we're back.
Speaker 2: So while all this is going on, and while Persia
Speaker 2: is both finding itself split between British and Russian influence
Speaker 2: and fighting for its own autonomy, a boy was born
Speaker 2: and starts growing into a man. His name was Reza
Speaker 2: Khan Mirpanji, and he came into the world on March fifteenth,
Speaker 2: eighteen seventy eight, in a town called Alasht in the
Speaker 2: province of Mazandaran. His father, Abbasali, was a Persian man
Speaker 2: and a major in the army. His mother, nush Afarin,
Speaker 2: had immigrated from either Georgia or part of Armenia. Both
Speaker 2: were owned by the Russian Empire at that point, but
Speaker 2: she's Caucasian like literally from the Caucuses region. We don't
Speaker 2: know exactly where she's from, because paperwork is in anybody's
Speaker 2: strong suit. But Reza from the beginning is like an
Speaker 2: example of how mixed Persia is at this point in time. Right,
Speaker 2: he is himself mixed, and that's interesting because he is
Speaker 2: not going to govern in that way. Res's dad is
Speaker 2: a war hero, but he's the kind of war hero
Speaker 2: who dies when his son is eight months old. After this,
Speaker 2: Nush moves the family to Tehran to live with her brother.
Speaker 2: When she remarries in eighteen seventy nine, Res is a
Speaker 2: year old and she abandons him to start a new
Speaker 2: family and leaves her firstborn son in the care of
Speaker 2: her uncle. This is not a wildly uncommon thing for
Speaker 2: a lot of people to do at the time all
Speaker 2: over the world. I've read a bunch of stories like this,
Speaker 2: but it is pretty fucked up, right. She's basically like,
Speaker 2: I gotta try with a new family kid. Sorry, here's
Speaker 2: an uncle you know, hopefully he'll take care of you.
Speaker 4: Explains a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my goodness, it's not great.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: From what little detail we get about his early life,
Speaker 2: we can conclude that Resa's family saw him as an
Speaker 2: opportunity to increase their fortunes in little else. In eighteen
Speaker 2: eighty two, his uncle sent him off to live with
Speaker 2: a family friend who was a rare Persian officer in
Speaker 2: the Cossack Brigade. This helped him get entrance to the
Speaker 2: Cossack Brigade when he's well, not an adult. It's unclear
Speaker 2: exactly how old Resa is when he joins the military.
Speaker 2: I've heard both fourteen and sixteen, and either is really plausible.
Speaker 2: You can get a hint of why by looking at
Speaker 2: this nineteen oh nine photo of a unit from the
Speaker 2: brigade and look at the differing ages of those soldiers,
Speaker 2: because one of those things much that is clearly in
Speaker 2: like their fifties, and there's like a nine year old
Speaker 2: people who look like kids.
Speaker 5: Straight up. Boy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that seems to have medals, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 4: There's a story there.
Speaker 5: I'd like to hear.
Speaker 2: Nine year old kills has killed a lot of men.
Speaker 5: He's seen some things.
Speaker 2: He's a hard nine. So Rezzo was illiterate as a
Speaker 2: young man. He had basically no formal education, and his
Speaker 2: first job in the Cossacks was as a stable boy.
Speaker 2: He was, however, tall and handsome and extremely charismatic. He
Speaker 2: is very good at making the right friends, which assures
Speaker 2: that he eventually rises to have a cushy job guarding
Speaker 2: the Dutch console General. He does fight in a couple
Speaker 2: of wars. He's a good soldier. He's particularly good with
Speaker 2: the machine gun, and he becomes like his unit's machine gunner.
Speaker 2: They call him machine gun Reza. That's his nickname, which
Speaker 2: is pretty cool.
Speaker 5: Tang clan, so right right.
Speaker 2: He rose rapidly through the ranks, and by the nineteen
Speaker 2: teens he's one of the highest dranking officers in the
Speaker 2: Cossack Brigade.
Speaker 5: Shari A.
Speaker 2: Kiah writes that he was also quote known for his
Speaker 2: role as a leader of religious bands and as a
Speaker 2: community enforcer in religious ceremonies. In her article, Sharen Brysac
Speaker 2: ads he earned a reputation of being a fireman, someone
Speaker 2: who was sent to quell disturbances or round up thieves.
Speaker 2: So basically, this guy's kind of stupid, but he's well
Speaker 2: liked by his peers, which are the most functional military
Speaker 2: unit in the country. And he's also he's also kind
Speaker 2: of like known as being a religious hardliner, like he's
Speaker 2: in very good with the clerics. He spends a lot
Speaker 2: of time like making sure other people are doing the
Speaker 2: things they're supposed to do, like religiously in his community,
Speaker 2: so that the clerics like him, and he just generally
Speaker 2: he's the guy who if people are breaking the rules,
Speaker 2: he'll kick their asses. Like that's that's who this heavy is,
Speaker 2: and that's the reputation. He's the heavy, right, he's the
Speaker 2: tough that you send in r So basically he was
Speaker 2: cooked up in a lab to become a we Western
Speaker 2: back dictator. Right, all that was needed was the proper impetus.
Speaker 2: And this brings us back to William Darcy and the
Speaker 2: question of Iran's fast oil reserves. Anglo Persian oil. The
Speaker 2: company Darcy eventually establishes enjoyed a monopoly on Persian crude
Speaker 2: oil for years, but it's not until nineteen fourteen that
Speaker 2: the world gets a good look at just how big
Speaker 2: a deal this is going to be, because in the
Speaker 2: lead up to World War One, Great Britain is hungry
Speaker 2: for any advantage they can get over the rising power
Speaker 2: of Imperial Germany. I talked about that at the start
Speaker 2: of the episode. Right, Germany's building a fleet that can
Speaker 2: compete with the British Royal Navy, and so Great Britain
Speaker 2: needs an advantage. This enters into the picture Admiral Sir
Speaker 2: John Fisher. He was described by the press and in
Speaker 2: his time as Britain's primary naval oil maniac. This means
Speaker 2: he was the first admiral with power in Britain to
Speaker 2: be like, we should switch to oil from coal. Right,
Speaker 2: that's a good idea to become an oil based navy.
Speaker 2: There's benefits to doing this, right. Your ships can go
Speaker 2: further on oil than they can on coal without needing
Speaker 2: to refuel. They can go faster. There's a number of
Speaker 2: like logistical benefits to eventually doing this, but it's a
Speaker 2: hideous cost. When you're thinking of the whole moving the
Speaker 2: whole navy over, you're spending a shitload of money. And
Speaker 2: there's not a lot of oil exploitation yet right either,
Speaker 2: So Great Britain doesn't necessarily have it on oil to exploit.
Speaker 2: Darcy seeks out and befriends the admiral in nineteen oh
Speaker 2: three at a Bohemian spa where Fisher engaged in his
Speaker 2: main pleasure outside of being an oil maniac, which was dancing.
Speaker 2: So Darcy basically is that something or is it legitimately dancing.
Speaker 2: I think he's just a dancer, and I think Darcy
Speaker 2: befriends him dancing at this spa saw and they've begun buddies. Yeah,
Speaker 2: straight buddies.
Speaker 3: I'm sure I've been to a lot of spas. Don't
Speaker 3: remember or anything about dancing, just saying.
Speaker 2: A lot of dancing at spas. They were different back then.
Speaker 4: So let's be real. That sounds pretty fun, like a
Speaker 4: spa where you just like relax in the hot tub,
Speaker 4: dance a dance.
Speaker 2: I think that's what dirty dancing is pretty much about.
Speaker 5: Right. It's a dance spot, it's a dance spot.
Speaker 2: So there's a dirty dancing scenario, right, that's very integral
Speaker 2: to this story.
Speaker 3: And he had the time of his life, Yeah.
Speaker 4: At the time of his life, and Darcy's this is
Speaker 4: Darcy And I'm sorry, who's a person again that he
Speaker 4: is recording.
Speaker 3: His Admiral Fisher.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Admiral Fisher, Admiral Fisher, the oil maniac.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And in nineteen oh four, after he and Darcy become friends,
Speaker 2: Fisher becomes the first Sea Lord, which is a real
Speaker 2: job in the British military.
Speaker 5: Higher oil maniac to sea lord. That's not bad, that's right.
Speaker 2: He's the first sea lord. That's crazy. I thought was
Speaker 2: a job for aquaman.
Speaker 3: But okayaking l Ron Hubbard, it's the commander.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Fisher keeps on talking up this idea, and by
Speaker 2: nineteen eleven or so, Winston Churchill has come around and
Speaker 2: Churchill is like, we need to switch the navy over
Speaker 2: to oil, right, And so Darcy has by nineteen eleven
Speaker 2: successfully gotten this idea that primarily financially benefits him because
Speaker 2: he bought access to all of Persia's oil into the
Speaker 2: halls of British power. In nineteen fourteen, the House of
Speaker 2: Commons supports a proposal to switch the Navy over to oil.
Speaker 2: Per an article in The Fair Observer, the goal was
Speaker 2: to ensure energy security for Great Britain, where the Royal
Speaker 2: Navy switched from coal to oil to compete against the
Speaker 2: fast rising German navy. After World War One broke out,
Speaker 2: Persia remained neutral but supplied oil to Britain. In fact,
Speaker 2: Persian oil arguably led to Allied victory. The conversion of
Speaker 2: the British fleet to oil gave them advantages over the
Speaker 2: German fleet powered by a coal greater range and speed
Speaker 2: and greater refueling and keeping with their imperial tradition, Britain
Speaker 2: paid a pittance to Persia for oil. So that's fucked
Speaker 2: It plays a role in their victory. I wouldn't say
Speaker 2: it led to it because but it's certainly not an
Speaker 2: insignificant factor in the efficacy of the British fleet. The
Speaker 2: fact that they've switched over to oil and again Great
Speaker 2: Britain is fucking Persia. They're bribing the Shaw. The Persian
Speaker 2: people are getting very little for their resources.
Speaker 4: Again, something real the pattern that will play out many
Speaker 4: for a long time.
Speaker 2: This is fucked up, but the real fuckery is still
Speaker 2: to come. During the war World War one, Persian territory
Speaker 2: is a battleground between Ottoman forces and Russian and British forces, right,
Speaker 2: and Russian and British are on the same side this time,
Speaker 2: so they go from competing to being on the same side.
Speaker 2: But they're fighting the Ottomans in parts of Persia right now.
Speaker 2: The realities of the war massively disrupt agriculture in Persia
Speaker 2: because farmers are constantating dudes fight over their fields and
Speaker 2: shell them so they can't grow as much food. And
Speaker 2: also all of you have three different armies in the area.
Speaker 2: They're not growing their own food, they're confiscating it from
Speaker 2: the people who live there to feed their own soldiers.
Speaker 2: So people in Persia start to starve in huge numbers,
Speaker 2: as Zara at A Latti and Majide Imani write in
Speaker 2: an article for Third World Quarterly. Ain Old Sultana, a
Speaker 2: well known o An Iranian chronicler, wrote in a newspaper
Speaker 2: entry of nineteenth April nineteen seventeen that famine and hunger
Speaker 2: prevail in all parts of Iran. Muslims and people of
Speaker 2: all faiths are dying and kum in the center of Iran.
Speaker 2: Currently fifty die each day. In Hammadan, thirty thousand have
Speaker 2: registered as destitute and this heart renting description. He further
Speaker 2: stated that people in Tehron were taking sheep's blood from
Speaker 2: the slaughterhouse to feed themselves in their children. In fact,
Speaker 2: several Iranian newspaper reports in nineteen seventeen to nineteen nineteen
Speaker 2: highlighted the occupying forces attempts to seize food and grains
Speaker 2: and block people's access to food. So no one really
Speaker 2: debates that what happens next is a human engineered or
Speaker 2: at least a human influenced famine. Right, is this intentional
Speaker 2: or is this just a byproduct of armies being armies? Right,
Speaker 2: there's debate over that, but it's caused by the fact
Speaker 2: that these foreign forces are in the country right now.
Speaker 2: There is a huge debate as to who is more
Speaker 2: at fault. Given the similarities between the Great Persian Famine
Speaker 2: and the Bengal Famine of nineteen forty three, a lot
Speaker 2: of people understand and blame the British From that same
Speaker 2: paper quote highlighting the role of the occupying powers and
Speaker 2: the Great Persian Famine, Some scholars have pointed to the
Speaker 2: issue of oil capitalism during the twentieth century the financial
Speaker 2: policies adopted by Britain, For instance, their refusal to pay
Speaker 2: oil revenues to Iran in the middle of the Great
Speaker 2: Persian Famine indicates their lack of concern for ron starving people.
Speaker 2: For the occupying powers, Iran was mainly a strategic military asset.
Speaker 2: The dominant consequence was a lack of access to food
Speaker 2: among large parts of the population and what a Martsian
Speaker 2: called entitlement failure. Thus, besides natural factors, pandemics, sociohistorical context,
Speaker 2: and the incapability of the central government. The Great Persian
Speaker 2: Famine was also caused by the occupying forces that pursued
Speaker 2: the war at the expense of the lives of many Iranians.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of people involved in this catastrophe again,
Speaker 2: as well as some stuff that is just happening at
Speaker 2: the time. There's disease which is still related to the war,
Speaker 2: and there's some environmental concerns. It's important I emphasized that
Speaker 2: the Russians are also hugely involved here too. At the
Speaker 2: early stages of the Russian Civil War. Once that kicks off,
Speaker 2: various Russian forces start seizing like housing materials, roofing and
Speaker 2: firewood and other basic supplies for their bases. And these
Speaker 2: are things that thousands of Persians need to keep their
Speaker 2: homes habitable. And like one hundred thousand Persians are made
Speaker 2: effectively homeless just by this. Ten thousand villages are abandoned,
Speaker 2: largely because Russian forces are seizing everything that makes them habitable.
Speaker 2: Ten thousand villages abandoned.
Speaker 4: I'm just I've never heard. I'm sure there's a listener
Speaker 4: right now, some auntie who's going to be yelling at
Speaker 4: me right now because I didn't know this, But I
Speaker 4: never I never knew about this.
Speaker 2: Oh wait till you hear the scale of this disaster.
Speaker 2: So British diplomat Herold Dickolson wrote, quote, Persia had been
Speaker 2: exposed to violations and suffering not endured by any other
Speaker 2: neutral country and World War One, and it's hard to
Speaker 2: argue with that point. Eight to ten million people, roughly
Speaker 2: half the pre war population of Persia perish in the
Speaker 2: Great Persian Famine.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: About forty percent of the pre war population die over
Speaker 2: the course of like World War One up to like
Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: As a result of all this, Hey, guys, I just
Speaker 2: want to let you know, the Great Persian Famine is
Speaker 2: vastly understudied, and there's a wide range of scholarly disagreement
Speaker 2: over the death toll. At the time and for a
Speaker 2: very long time, contemporary reporting suggested two to two and
Speaker 2: a half million dead was a very reasonable, you know range,
Speaker 2: But there's also scholars who are arguing with that more
Speaker 2: like eight to ten million is very likely. So this
Speaker 2: is not a kind of thing where because of sort
Speaker 2: of the paucity of the scholarship on this at the moment,
Speaker 2: I don't feel comfortable saying like one is definitely right.
Speaker 2: I do kind of tend just on other because of
Speaker 2: other famines i've read about, to lean towards the larger numbers,
Speaker 2: but we don't really know perfectly. I did not realize
Speaker 2: the scale of this. We don't talk about this because
Speaker 2: it's a very complicated famine. It's not as simple as
Speaker 2: just Russia or Great Britain starved iron. There were a
Speaker 2: lot of factors, including some environmental ones and aspects of
Speaker 2: local government. But like Russia and Great Britain and the
Speaker 2: Ottomans play huge role in why eight to ten million,
Speaker 2: half a fucking Persian nearly starves to death and nobody
Speaker 2: talks about it anymore.
Speaker 5: It's not yeah, wow.
Speaker 4: I have to say, I really appreciate this is a
Speaker 4: total This is the kind of thing I'm supposed to
Speaker 4: say at the end when we're off air. But I
Speaker 4: really appreciate how you synthesize all this information. This is
Speaker 4: not easy.
Speaker 5: There's so many.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2: I know I've left stuff out, and obviously, like we're
Speaker 2: only going up to like nineteen forty one, but like
Speaker 2: this is like when we're we're looking at the hideous,
Speaker 2: the heinous death toll of US actions already in Iran.
Speaker 2: It's also important to just like know like this is
Speaker 2: the latest in a long string of of just like
Speaker 2: the horrific human concept quinses to imperialists fucking around in
Speaker 2: that part of the world. It's all bad stuff. So
Speaker 2: it is not until nineteen twenty one that Britain and
Speaker 2: Russia fully withdraw their forces from Persia, given that the
Speaker 2: Tsarisk or largely given that the Tsarisk government had collapsed
Speaker 2: by this point, leading to civil war in Russia throughout
Speaker 2: most of the worst of the famine. Educated Persians blame
Speaker 2: the British for it, because they saw the British as
Speaker 2: being the controlling power in their lives. And there's an element,
Speaker 2: a sizeable degree to which this is fair. The British,
Speaker 2: for their own part, are less concerned with Persia for
Speaker 2: its own sake and more worried about something else, which
Speaker 2: is that the Bolsheviks are now in charge of a
Speaker 2: lot of Russia. They're fighting a civil war for control
Speaker 2: of what had been the Russian Empire, and it sure
Speaker 2: does look like Persia might become communists too, and that
Speaker 2: is going to tee up Part two. Gom it well,
Speaker 2: how do you feeling.
Speaker 5: I can't wait. I want to hear it now.
Speaker 2: Oh well, you'll hear it in the second. You'll hear it,
Speaker 2: yes a minute, but first let's hear your pluggables.
Speaker 4: So my podcast is called The House of Pod. It
Speaker 4: is a medical science podcast. It is a look at
Speaker 4: the world of science and health through an approachable manner.
Speaker 5: We've tried to make.
Speaker 4: Things as fun and as less scary, if if that's
Speaker 4: a word that I can use. Them do a terrible
Speaker 4: job explaining my show. You think after five years of
Speaker 4: doing this, I'd be much better at it. I'm not.
Speaker 4: But the show is actually fun. If you like this show,
Speaker 4: you're gonna like the podcast The House of Pod because
Speaker 4: we also take a look at medical grifters, and we
Speaker 4: look at all kinds of different medical malarchy that's out there,
Speaker 4: try and present you the science in a way that
Speaker 4: is I think honest and nuanced and clear. So I
Speaker 4: think you will enjoy it. You should listen to it,
Speaker 4: and you will hear some episodes with both of these
Speaker 4: lovely people on that podcast, The House of Pod.
Speaker 5: You can find it anywhere you find podcasts.
Speaker 2: All right, excellent, Well, listen to the House of Pod.
Speaker 2: And you know, do something nice in your own house
Speaker 2: or not. I don't control your life, neither do you?
Speaker 2: Probably wall did any of us? Are we all just
Speaker 2: flocks them floating through cosmic debris?
Speaker 3: Yes, goodbye, maybe, but I'm definitely in control here bye.
Speaker 3: Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 3: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website Coolzonemedia
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Speaker 3: dot com slash at behind the Bastards. We love about
Speaker 3: forty percent of you, statistically speaking,