1/35
Looks like no tags are added yet.
Name | Mastery | Learn | Test | Matching | Spaced |
---|
No study sessions yet.
Persians
Iran used to be called Persia
Iranians are not arabs, they are persians; they do not like to be put in the same category just because they both originate from the middle east
Originate in Zagros mountains; population mostly lives in mountains
Iran is geopolitically self contained, difficult to traverse/control, and made up of multiple different ethnicities with Persians making up the majority 61%
Nationalization of oil industry
Partnership with Great Britain
GB in Iran struck a deal to dig for oil; the British had the much better deal (GB helps to pull oil out of the ground and gets the majority profit).
1908; first oil field in mid east (Iran)
AIOC: anglo Iranian oil company, changes name in 1954 to British Petroleum
Mossadegh
Elected and wanted to nationalize the oil industry and remove GB, results in Gb losing its investment
Leads to Operation Ajax
Mohammad Mossadegh
First ever democratically elected; 1953
Very popular! Cover of Times Magazine as man of the year
Attempts to nationalize AIOC and remove GB from Iran
Operation Ajax (1953)
Eisenhower sends Kermet Roosevelt to be CIA leader of Coup of Mossadegh = Operation Ajax
GB comes to US under Eisenhower and says Mossadengh is a communist to try and get the US to invade and do a coup so GB can control oil again.GB tried the same thing to
US under Truman; he said no and the US would not invade a democracy
However Eisenhowever says he will
Has large budget for this which was given to Roosevelt by the US government who gets money from taxpayers…
Stage 1: Propaganda; US starts propaganda campaign saying Mossadegh was communist (people believed this because Mossadegh had just nationalized oil industry)
Stage 2: Shah denounces; US supports and backs Reza Shah and convinces him to go for leader, military partially sides with him and believes mossadegh is a communist; Shah signed decree discrediting/denouncing Mossadegh from office
Stage 3: Pay mobs; the CIA hires mobs which leads to street fights and 300 casualties
Stage 4: Shah is back: American backed general takes control as Shah, Mossadegh steps down and Reza Shah takes his place, gave foreigners contracts to have access to oil in Iran
Shah became a brutal dictator
Many americans still don't know about this
US overthrows democratically elected leader and puts dictator in place
Kermit Roosevelt
CIA agent that led Operation Ajax
Blowback from Ajax
Hostage Crisis
Ayatollah rises to power
Creates islamist theocracy
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
US backed general that denounced Mossadegh and gained power of Iran through US
Extremely violent and brutal ruler
Friendly with US; good for women, westernize, wear jeans
Takes money for himself
Iranians don't benefit from oil
Industrialization was beneficial in some ways but also produced social inequalities
Dictator
Viewed as successful and did more coups of democratic leaders (until 1979)
US biggest ally in middle east; US sold Iran its first nuclear technology and now say Iran cant have them
Savak
Secret police of Reza shah
oppressive
Basij
Recruited young boys/teens as martyrs and sent them into war on the front lines barely armed (Iraqi soldiers wouldn’t shoot at little boys with no weapons running at them).
Keys to heaven; little kids were given a key when they went to war and it was advertised that they would go to heaven for becoming a martyr
Iran shias; first ever to do suicide bombings
Human waves; children on front, second lines of soldiers would shoot/take weapons
Effective but terrible
Iranian Revolution (1979)
Shah is overthrown during revolution, forced into exile
He is given refuge in the US (Jimmy Carter was president); he originally said no, but was pressured because the shah apparently had cancer
Iranians upset by this because they think the US will back the Shah again and put him back into power
Shah leaving Iran opens a power vacuum…
Iran Hostage Crisis (1979)
Happened because the shah was in the US
Iranians overtook the US embassy in Iran and held the workers there for 444 days
Hostages were never killed/tortured
Held to ensure the US would not back the Shah again
Ayatollah Khomeini
Khomeini = first -> Khameini = current
Came to power post Iranian revolution
Ayatollah is a title; Iran/Islamist
Nothing happens in Iran without approval of ayatollah, total control
Iran is currently a radical theocracy
Iran could have been stable democracy today if US had not overthrown democracy
Women lost rights; education, clothing, jobs, veiled
Islamist theocracy (iran)
Current state of Iran
Extremely unstable; islamist president using the religion to justify actions
There is a president but he does nothing; ayatollah has all power
Quran is basis of law (interpretation)
Role of women
Shah (pre 1979); women had lots of rights; Shah was big of westernization so women were educated, could wear whatever, had jobs, and pretty much all rights
Ayatollah (post 1979); severely oppressed; veiled, no longer educated, no jobs, very heavy restrictions
Opinions; some women protest who want change and liberation; some want to return to conservative values
Arabs
Iraq
Differs from persians
Kurds
Ethnic group that makes up 10% of Iran
Iraq has 3 major ethnic groups; sunnis, shiites, and kurds are the other
Minority
non arab ethnic group; fighting for autocracy within Iraq for years and have begun attacking Iraqi targets; Iran also had population of kurds and did not give them self rule, yet helped the kurds in Iraq
Saddam Hussein
Sunni leader of majority Shia Iraq country
Hated; executed because he used chemical weapons against his people
Under him, iraq invaded iran and kuwait
Why did Iraq invade Iran?
Iran is unstable, Hussein (appointed to power) wanted to take advantage of this
Iran is primarily Shia; Iraq has 3 major ethnic groups (Kurds, sunni arabs (hussein), and shia arabs); Hussein is afraid of Shia uprising because it was destabilize his country
Oil; waterways, territory
What were the global sides of the war?
Iraq is aggressor but Arab nations secretly support Iraq; Sunni countries worried that Shias in Iran would create threat to Shias
US sided w/ Iraq and gave Hussein weapons; because Iran HATES US, so US cant let them win
Key events of Iraq/Iran War
Iran encourages Shiites in Iraq ro rise up against Hussein (basij)
Iraq initial blitz failed, Hussein poor leadership
Oil field destroyed; hussein used chemical weapons
US accidentally shot down Iranian civilian plane IR655 (1988); all passengers died
Ceasefire in 1988 organized by the UN
No territory change post war; 1 million casualties
Iran/Iraq War
Iraq invades Iran, extremely brutal war
Persian Gulf
Major gulf/water way
Good for exporting oil
Shatt al-Arab waterway
Fought over territory between Iraq/Iran
Iraq's only access to water (to persian gulf)
Bottleneck point
Near major oil mines
First Gulf War (1991)
Iraq agrees to withdraw troops from Iran and share shatt al arab waterway; ends the Iran/Iraq war
2 years post war (1990) Hussein invaded Kuwait; many arabs sided with Kuwait, fellow Sunni nation
US and allies engaged in military action to restore nation of Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded in a dispute over land and oil reserves
Saddam (Iraq) attacked Kuwait; UN called for withdraw from Kuwait and Iraq refused declaring it was annexing Kuwait
UN passed resolution 661; trade/financial sanctions of Iraq cutting Iraq off from marketing world
Under George H.W. Bush (1924) US organized coalition of countries to help Kuwait
Operation Desert Storm; offensive campaign to get Iraq out of Kuwait; defeated within 100 hours
President George HW Bush (Sr)
Should the US remove Hussein?
He said no; it would go against UN mandate, the way we want to present ourselves internationally; some administration disagreed and wanted to remove Hussein
speech
Operation Desert Storm
For the first time, US troops land on Saudi Arab soil to prepare for attack on Iraq
Iraq (Hussein) used foreigners as “human shields”
US and allies initiated Operation desert storm; Iraq defeated in 100 hours
Iraq set oil fields on fire in Kuwait as they retreated
sanctions; weapons inspectors
Post war, Hussein was forced to comply with UN weapons inspectors to ensure that he was not making mass amounts of nuclear and chemical weapons
Periodically he would comply, then throw inspectors out
Iraq War (2003-2011)
Post 9/11; US invades Afghanistan
US citizens were told Hussein had links to Osama Bin Laden and that he was harboring large amounts of WMD
Rest of the world did not approve of this, meaning US makes unilateral decision (wrong one)
US and allies attacked Iraq, claiming that is had WMD
George W Bush (jr) as president; rehired some of his fathers administration who believed they needed to take out Hussein
Post 9/11; US terrified of threat of WMD, believed Hussein was harboring them, US tried to form coalition but UN said no
US and British coalition invaded Iraq; ended Hussein dictatorship; US did not leave Iraq immediately because it had no gov/leader
US started to isolate the Sunni; internal issues
Significance of Iraq War
Rise of ISIS: Bush (Sr) quote; all his fears came true (occupied Iraq for period)
You have to be cautious when deciding to invade countries
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Part of Iraq war
US invasion plan of Iraq
Initial invasion was success but sectarian violence flared without a stable government, lack of security opened up a power vacuum
President George W Bush (Jr)
Agreed to invade Iraq; something his father was strongly against
WMD (weapons of mass destruction)
Biological weapons (disease)
Chemical weapons (gas)
Nuclear weapons
Believed that Hussein was harboring large amounts of WMD (why US invaded Iraq), however this supposed stockpile was never found
Iraqi sectarian civil war (2006-2008)
US trying to allow Iraq to set up a democracy (good for Shias who are majority population), results in whole country falling apart
Majority shias want democracy; tension between Shia, Sunni, and Kurds
ISIS filled instability/power vacuum (took over huge sections of Iraq)
Rise of ISIS (how it formed)
Iraqi military officers decide they do not want sunnis in military so make it very difficult for them to participate and get other jobs
Most people in ISI are former Iraqi Sunnis who are angry about not having position in government
2007/2008 Iraq Civil War
Grew out of power vacuum from US invasion in 2003
Iraq, under US supervision, implements democracy, leading to Shia control of Iraq
Disaffected Iraqi Sunnis, who had been leading government and military officials
Had been allied with Al Qaeda; but since they targeted fellow Muslims, Al Qaeda declared them too violent
Withdrawal of US troops in Iraq and chaos of Syria leads to opportunity
Rise of ISIS (Arab spring)
2010; pro democracy movement to rid mid east countries of dictators that have been there for a long time
Tunisia, then egypt, then libia, then Syria
Syria falls into civil war; Iraq/Syria unstable = power vacuum
ISIS
= Islamic State of Iraq & Syria
Islamist group; terrorist, goal is to create caliphate (sunni) and restore the islamic empire
Sold oil on black market for funding; controlled cities
Not as much a threat now