IRAN IN THE 20TH CENTURY

In history, Iran is remembered for the ancient glory of the Persian Empire. When we think of Iran,

we often think of Ancient Persia.

Find this chart on the top of your handout.

HIGHLIGHT the row that describes the Qajars.

IRAN’s ECONOMY: Foreign Concessions at the Turn of the Century

Read all of page 1.

IRAN’s ECONOMY: Foreign Concessions at the Turn of the Century

Find this paragraph in the left column of page 1.

HIGHLIGHT these two sentences in the middle, starting with “The shah’s desire” and ending with

“Iran’s economy”.

On the first page of your handout:

WRITE: “Foreign Concessions – Late 1800s-Early 1900s”

somewhere.

Fore

ign

Conc

essi

ons –

Lat

e 18

00s-

Early

190

0sIRAN’s ECONOMY: Foreign Concessions at the

Turn of the Century

IRAN’s ECONOMY: Foreign Concessions at the Turn of the Century

Find these two paragraphs in the left column on page 1.

HIGHLIGHT this first sentence.

DRAW AN ARROW from the above sentence to this paragraph. Mark it

as important (highlight – put a star).

The Qajar government became widely unpopular because of these concessions, in particular…

• The D’arcy oil concession – set the stage for the British to receive the majority (84%) of profits from Iran’s oil

Read this paragraph at the bottom of the right column on

page 1.

Find this section on page 2.

WRITE: “the diversity of Iranian society”

alongside it.

HIGHLIGHT three influential groups in

Iran’s society.

WRITE: “ulama” as the Persian word for clergy

Page 2 describes the CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION OF 1906-1911.

Read the entire page and note the following details:• “Protestors demanded a constitution and a parliament

(the Persian word for parliament is Majlis).”• “The constitution defined the rights of Iranian citizens.”• “The constitution designated Twelver Shi’ism (one of

the two main branches of Shi’a Islam) as the official religion of Iran and gave a committee of learned clerics the power to review legislation to ensure that it did not contradict the fundamental principles of Shi’ism.”

Page 2 describes how popular protests during the Constitution Revolution led to the limiting of the power

of the shah and the institution of a constitutional

monarchy.

WRITE: “institution of constitutional monarchy” somewhere on this page.

Find this section on page 2.The 1st paragraph

describes democratic ideals.

Make note of these diverse aspects of the

Constitutional Revolution.

The last paragraph describes Islamism.