Relying heavily on American support amidst the Cold War, he remained the Shah of Iran for 26 years, keeping the country from swaying towards the influence of the Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union.

However, as ideological tensions persisted between Pahlavi and Khomeini, anti-government demonstrations began in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included communism, socialism, and Islamism.

[8][9][10] In August 1978, the deaths of about 400 people in the Cinema Rex fire due to arson by Islamic militants—claimed by the opposition as having been orchestrated by Pahlavi's SAVAK—served as a catalyst for a popular revolutionary movement across Iran,[11][12] and large-scale strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country for the remainder of that year.

[28] In addition to declaring the destruction of Israel as a core objective,[29][30] post-revolutionary Iran aimed to undermine the influence of Sunni leaders in the region by supporting Shi'ite political ascendancy and exporting Khomeinist doctrines abroad.

[45] Other factors include the underestimation of Khomeini's Islamist movement by both the Shah's reign—who considered them a minor threat compared to the Marxists and Islamic socialists[46][47][48]—and by the secularist opponents of the government—who thought the Khomeinists could be sidelined.

On 20 March 1890, the long-standing Iranian monarch Nasir al-Din Shah granted a concession to British Major G. F. Talbot for a full monopoly over the production, sale, and export of tobacco for 50 years.

Insecurity and chaos that were created after the Constitutional Revolution led to the rise of General Reza Khan, the commander of the elite Persian Cossack Brigade who seized power in a coup d'état in February 1921.

The British considered an armed invasion, but U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided on a coup after being refused American military support by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who sympathized with nationalist movements like Mosaddegh's and had nothing but contempt for old-style imperialists like those who ran the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

In this interim period of "disaffected calm,"[75] the budding Iranian revival began to undermine the idea of Westernization as progress that was the basis of the Shah's secular reign, and to form the ideology of the 1979 revolution: Jalal Al-e-Ahmad's idea of Gharbzadegi—that Western culture was a plague or an intoxication to be eliminated;[76] Ali Shariati's vision of Islam as the one true liberator of the Third World from oppressive colonialism, neo-colonialism, and capitalism;[77] and Morteza Motahhari's popularized retellings of the Shia faith all spread and gained listeners, readers and supporters.

[88] Khomeini worked to unite this opposition behind him (except for the unwanted 'atheistic Marxists'),[8][89] focusing on the socio-economic problems of the Shah's government (corruption and unequal income and development),[8][90] while avoiding specifics among the public that might divide the factions[91]—particularly his plan for clerical rule, which he believed most Iranians had become prejudiced against as a result of propaganda campaign by Western imperialists.

"[95] The oil boom of the 1970s produced an "alarming" increase in inflation, waste and an "accelerating gap" between the rich and poor, the city and the country,[96] along with the presence of tens of thousands of unpopular skilled foreign workers.

[115] Encouraged by Khomeini (who declared that the blood of martyrs must water the "tree of Islam"),[107] radicals pressured the mosques and moderate clergy to commemorate the deaths of the students, and used the occasion to generate protests.

[126] As a sign of easing of government restrictions, three prominent opposition leaders from the secular National Front—Karim Sanjabi, Shapour Bakhtiar, and Dariush Forouhar—were allowed to pen an open letter to the Shah demanding that he reign according to the constitution of Iran.

[136] After forcing the resignation of the presiding judges in an attempt to hamper the investigation, the new government finally executed Hossein Talakhzadeh for "setting the fire on the Shah's orders," despite his insistence that he did it on his own accord as an ultimate sacrifice for the revolutionary cause.

The United States would then help assemble a coalition of pro-Western military officers, middle class professionals, and moderate clergy, with Khomeini installed as a Gandhi-like spiritual leader.

[143] The final collapse of the provisional non-Islamist government came at 2 pm on 11 February when the Supreme Military Council declared itself "neutral in the current political disputes... in order to prevent further disorder and bloodshed.

For example, "the combination of martial law with its curfew hours and the closing down of shops and workplaces, together with the cold of the fall and winter months resulted in the centers of political discussion often being within the home.

Following the events of the revolution, Marxist guerrillas and federalist parties revolted in some regions comprising Khuzistan, Kurdistan and Gonbad-e Qabus, which resulted in fighting between them and revolutionary forces.

Critics complained that "vote-rigging, violence against undesirable candidates and the dissemination of false information" was used to "produce an assembly overwhelmingly dominated by clergy, all took active roles during the revolution and loyal to Khomeini.

The occupation was also intended as leverage to demand the return of the Shah to stand trial in exchange for the hostages, and depose Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, who they believed was plotting to normalize relations with the U.S.

[236] Between January 1980 and June 1981, when Bani-Sadr was impeached, at least 900 executions took place,[237] for everything from drug and sexual offenses to "corruption on earth", from plotting counter-revolution and spying for Israel to membership in opposition groups.

[241][242] These dissidents were sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Courts during show trials in more than eighty-five cities across the country on charges of spreading "corruption on Earth" (ifsad-fi-alarz), "espionage", "terrorism", or "enmity against Allah" (Moharebeh).

Hussein was confident that with Iraq's armed forces being well-equipped with new technology and with high morale would enjoy a decisive strategic advantage against an Iranian military that had recently had much of its command officers purged following the revolution.

[280] The Islamic Republic of Iran experienced difficult relations with some Western countries, especially the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the Eastern Bloc nations led by the Soviet Union.

[287] Relations between the two countries improved after Vladimir Putin took office in 2000 and increasingly warmer in recent years following an international backlash over the annexation of Crimea in 2014 which led to sanctions by the Western powers.

[Note 8] For some it was "the most significant, hopeful and profound event in the entirety of contemporary Islamic history",[301] while other Iranians believe that the revolution was a time when "for a few years we all lost our minds",[302] and which "promised us heaven, but... created a hell on earth.

Sextus Empiricus asserts in his Outlines of Scepticism (written c. 200 CE) that the laws of the Parthian Empire were tolerant towards homosexual behaviour, and Persian men were known to "indulge in intercourse with males."

(1:152)[331] These ancient practices continued into the Islamic period of Iran, with one scholar noting how "...homosexuality and homoerotic expressions were tolerated in numerous public places, from monasteries and seminaries to taverns, military camps, bathhouses and coffee houses.

[333] During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a faux same-sex wedding occurred between two young men with ties to the royal court, which became a source of shame and outrage for some citizens and was utilized by Islamists as further evidence of the "immoral" monarchy.

[332]: 161 When Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, he called for homosexuals to be "exterminated",[334] and one of his first political actions was to institute imprisonment, corporal punishment, and the death penalty for any sexual acts outside traditional Islamic heterosexual marriage.