Gerlach,+Jed

Jed Gerlach 9/9/10 Mr. Griffin Ib World History

**A.** **Plan of Investigation** The Purpose of this investigation is to examine the extent to which the White Revolution was a cause of the 1979 Iran Revolution. The main body of the investigation will provide a context of the White Revolution and its faults leading to the Iran Revolution of 1979. two sources used in this investigation, a section from //Modern Iran: Roots and Revolution// and //A history of the Modern Middle East// will be evaluated according to their origins, purpose, value and limitations. A conclusion will be reached based on the extent to which the White Revolution was a cause of the 1979 Iran Revolution. **B.** **Summary of Evidence** The White Revolution (1963) was combined six-point reform program created by the Shah of Iran. The original six-points of the White Revolution are: “1. Land Reform; 2. Sale of government owned factories to finance land reform; 3. A new election law including woman suffrage; 4. The nationalization of forests; 5. A national literacy corps, mainly for rural teaching; and 6. A plan to give workers a share of the industrial profits” (Keddie 145). The most important point of the White Revolution is the land reform. The first land reform attempted to modernize the land lord village owning system. The White Revolution was heavily influenced by the American government because of potential communist threat towards Iran. America supported Iran through loans like the $200 million loan for weapons, but not all money came from the Americans. Iran had just discovered their very large oil capacity which most of their funding had come from (Keddie). The Shah and John F. Kennedy had a strong alliance and America influenced most of the decisions made by the Shah. At a meeting between the Shah and JFK (13 April 1962), discussing the importance of anti-communism and a plan to support the common man, the Shah seemed to be a puppet to JFK agreeing with all points made (document 6 Hunt). This theme of the Shah being a puppet for America carried on for a decade. The Iranian people despised the Shah for being a tool for America. Ayatollah Khomeini, who later leads the Iran Revolution (1978), compares the Shah to an American dog for taking loans in return for limited rights in a sermon in the city of Qum. He also discusses how the White Revolution is ignoring the lower class while also becoming slaves for America (document 8 Hunt). The anti-American message Ayatollah is spreading has a severe impact later when the Iran Revolution occurs. The White Revolution effectively improved the GNP of Iran, but around 40% of Iranians were paid by the hour in cash. The land reform failed to improve this lower class quality of life because they did not have cultivating rights because they owned no land or villages. The land reform was unequal, even for villagers who owned the same amount of land. Some villagers received a good amount of land, some received less and others received nothing. The second phase of the land reform also failed to support lower class peasants. The goal of this phase was to cover every peasant with a percentage of land, but based on the amount of land and the population growth in the last decade, the majority did not receive enough land to cultivate. Large corporations began to dominate the economy of Iran buying out land from peasants, leaving most unemployed because these corporations used machinery instead of human labor (Cleveland). By 1977 the economy was failing because these large agribusiness corporations bought out most of the peasants land, but were not as productive as human labored farms. The government took over most of these corporations because of this (Hunt). The Shah was not only buying out these corporations, but he was also importing billions of dollars of foreign goods. This includes weapons, computers, food and other technology. He wanted Iran to become a super power so badly that he ignored the necessities of the lower class. This caused a huge amount of immigration to cities, also leading to an economical depression. The most affected class was the nomads. The government sought to move them into slums because being a nomad was not modern. The nationalization forests point of the White Revolution basically took away their land to move, forcing them into slums and poverty. The nomad tribes could no longer live off of herds of sheep because large corporations, led by the government, used American-style factory techniques to slaughter the sheep (Keddie). By 1977 the Iran government was failing. The economy was in a depression, most peasants were unemployed living in slums and the Shah was diagnosed with cancer. America saw the mess Iran was in and decided to seek a new leader. Shapour Bakhtiar claimed power for around two months until Ayatollah Khomeini had created a new clergy annexing control of the Iranian Government. The new clergy seized power serving those only dedicated to anti-westernization and “by early 1983 the Islamic Revolutionary Party had destroyed all rival political organizations and monopolized control of the state” (Hunt 339).

**C.** **Evaluation of Sources** **Keddie, Nikki R. "Royal Dictatorship: 1953-1977." //Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution//. Yale UP, 2006. Print.** The author of //Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution//, published in 2003, is Nikki R. Keddie, an American Iranian professor who retired after teaching 35 years at the University of California of Los Angeles. The purpose of this text to explain and analyze the roots and results of the revolutions that occurred in modern Iran; the purpose of the chapter is to give an overview of the problems faced by the current shah of Iran from 1953 to 1977. The value of this chapter is the detailed explanation of the White Revolution, especially the land reform, and how it affected the monarchy of Iran in the early 1960’s. It also gives other reasons for the fall of the shah other then the White Revolution, like the influence America had on Iran. One limitation of this text is an Iranian wrote it. This can be a problem because Keddie may ignore the actual affect other countries actually had on Iran.

The Origin of this source, the section on the Iranian Revolution in the book //A History of the Modern Middle East//, is that it was published in 2008 by author William L. Cleveland. The purpose of the entire text is to give a history of the modern Middle East. The section I studied was “Reform from Above: The White Revolution and it Effects”. The purpose of this section is to layout the reforms of the White Revolution and explains how those affected the proletariat and the economy of Iran. The value of this text is that it gives a great explanation of the White Revolution and analyzes the results. Later in the text it also has gives causes of the Iranian Revolution.
 * Cleveland, William L, and Martin Bunton, //A History of the Modern Middle East//. 4th ed. N.p.: Westview Press, 2008.**

**D.** **Analysis** The idea of the White Revolution was to westernize Iran ridding the country of the religious influence creating a more modern society. “[The plan] was clearly going in very different directions from those envisaged by the original architect of land reform, Agriculture Minister Hasan Arsanjani” (Keddie 149), which was one of economic depression, mass migration of unemployed peasants to cities and a large influence from American corporations (Cleveland). The Shah was blinded by his goal of becoming a “top 5 super power for the 20th century” (Hunt 378), ignoring his society’s need for religion and financial government support. Because of this a revolutionary clergy movement was created by Ayatollah Khomeini, one that concentrated on Islamic religion (Hunt). Ayatollah was able to gather all demographics to have one common goal which was to bring down the Shah and the SAVAK. Although Ayatollah was a Shi’ite, “Sunni Minorities approached him with their requests, as did also the leftist groups” (Keddie 196). Before the Iran Revolution of 1979 Iran’s lower class resented the Shah greatly. The lack of attention from the Shah created this resentment and the lower class sought guidance from Ayatollah and the rest of the Clergy. By the late 1960’s and 70’s the lower class had generally been forced, not by force but financially, into slums or cities possibly working at a factory, but a lot of the population was unemployed (Cleveland). The land reform from the White Revolution clearly did not work as intended which is one of the main reasons the Iran Revolution occurred. Another reason for the Iran Revolution was because of the American influence on Iran. America supported Iran to stop the communist influence coming from Russia and China. The White Revolution plan carried out based on the needs of American business men creating a huge transformation from local small farms to giant industrial factories led by huge corporations. The lower class also resented all corporations in Iran because they were buying all the farm property and not employing people because most of the operation was run by machinery (Keddie). **E.** **Conclusion** Based on my investigation I have concluded that the White Revolution was a direct cause of the Iran Revolution of 1979. The Shah’s inability to support the common man caused unemployment and depression. The unstable economy and lack of religion led to the annexation of the Iran Government by Ayatollah Khomeini. The policies in the White Revolution led to the fall of the Shah and his government.

Works Cited Cleveland, William L, and Martin Bunton. “The Iranian Revolution and the Resurgence of Islam.” //A History of the Modern Middle East//. 4th ed. N.p.: Westview Press, 2008. N. pag. //Google Book Search//. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. Hunt, Michael H. //Crises in the U.S. Foreign Policy//. N.p.: Yale University Press, 1996. Print. “Iranian Revolution (1979).” //Encyclopedia of Mordern Middle East and North Africa//. Ed. Phillip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Referance USA, 2004. //Gale Virtual Reference Library//. Web. 19 Dec. 2010. Keddie, Nikki R. //Modern Iran: Rots and Results of Revolution//. 2nd ed. N.p.: Yale University Press, 2003. Print. President John F. Kennedy and Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi meeting in Washington, 13 April 1962. 13 Apr. 1962. MS 6. Crisis in U.S. Foreign Policy.