Iran: Petroleum and Politics – Part One

   It began in 1908, when British oil geologists discovered a giant oil field under what was once Persia and by 1914 had arranged for British investors to own 51 percent of an Anglo-Iranian Company that was beginning to exploit the return on their investment in the Middle East.

   As was the Imperial custom, the British Lords of Parliament renamed their latest investment "The British Petroleum Company" in 1914 - keeping with the actual fact of the matter that the Iranians had little to say about managing this company or enjoying its inestimable profits.   The Brits were accustomed to doing this all around the Globe; in Africa, in India, in Indochina, in Canada and elsewhere.

   If it were not for a small group of intractable colonists in North America. you and I would be subjects of the Queen of England today.

   In 1954, a popular Iranian politician by the name of Mohammad Mosaddegh was chosen by his party to be Prime Minister. He promoted several liberal governmental changes, among them nationalization of the Petroleum Industry in Iran.

   This did not sit well with the United Kingdom, nor with American President Eisenhower.

   I’ll repeat a rehash about Americans held captive, and how the CIA helped bring about a coup that sent Mosaddegh to prison and returned Iran to once again being a monarchy.

   In Part II, I will explore the ramifications thereof that caused Iran to become a theocracy under the Ayatollahs and how the Shah became a despot, greatly despised by the Iranian people and finally, why Iranians chant “Death to America.” That’s next week.

-Phil Richardson, Storyteller and Observer of the Human Condition.