As we all know, ancient Greece was the origin of European civilization, then the ancient Roman Empire, and finally the turn of the Germanic people, the ancestors of modern Western Europeans. In this long history of the evolution of civilization, there is one country that has always accompanied Europe, watching the rise and fall of civilization from generation to generation, but standing tall, that is, Persia.
The name 'Persia' was actually given to the ancient Greeks, who always considered themselves Iranians. The word Iranian means Aryan, and because of the Nazis, Aryan became a negative word. So, everyone called this country Iran.
Around 3000 BC, the Persians established their own civilization. Their main enemy was the Assyrians, who fought endlessly for more than two thousand years. It was not until 553 BC that Cyrus II finally unified Persia and established the Achaemenid dynasty, which was the first Persian Empire as ancient Greece called it.
Ancient Egypt and ancient Babylon were both conquered by the Persian Empire. When ancient Greece faced the Persian Empire, it could only barely defend itself. For most of the time, many ancient Greek city-states had to submit to Persia in exchange for peace.
In terms of the degree of civilization evolution, the Persian Empire was the most advanced country at that time, and when the Chinese civilization was still in the tribal alliance, they already had a unified empire. In terms of iron, cavalry, etc., the Persians were ahead of other civilizations.
However, this lead was temporary, and after the rise of Macedonia, it not only conquered Persia, but also reduced it to a symbol of backwardness and barbarism. After the Western Han Dynasty opened up the Silk Road, Persia became a transit point for trade between the East and the West, from which it gained great wealth.
During the Tang Dynasty, the Persian Sassanid Dynasty was in crisis of annihilation, and the heir Belus traveled thousands of miles to the Tang Dynasty for help, Emperor Taizong refused, in order to comfort Belus, Emperor Taizong set up a Persian governorate in Central Asia (present-day Afghanistan), with Belus as the governor, and the following year he was crowned king of Persia, and five years later Belus died in Chang'an.
China has twenty-four histories, and the complexity of Persian history is no less complex than that of China. Foreign conquerors and native powers ruled the plateau in turn, constantly staging plays of dynastic changes. Until the Arabs Islamized the place, and finally the Ottomans brought Iran into modern society.
Russia and Britain had ambitions for Persia, and from the 18th century until world war II, the two powers encroached on part of Persia's territory and each cultivated its own sphere of influence there. During the First World War, the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Persia, was very weak, causing great dissatisfaction among all strata of society.
In 1925, the British-backed officer Reza Khan overthrew the original Qajar dynasty and established the Pahlavi dynasty. In 1935, Reza Khan officially changed the name of the country to Iran. The Pahlavi dynasty was pro-British and highly secularized, surpassing many modern Islamic states.
For thousands of years, Persia has stood against European civilization and is the object of barbarism. The use of the real name of Iran is to cut off with Persia and facilitate integration into the international community. On the other hand, the doctrine of racial superiority prevailed in Europe at that time, and the Aryan race was elevated to a very high status. Aryan originally originated in the Iranian plateau, and using this name is more conducive to good relations with Germany.
Since the Pahlavi dynasty was pro-British, why did it have to get closer to the Nazis? For simple reasons, Pahlavi wanted to develop his own economy and military and get rid of the interference of the great powers. Although britain has supported Iran, it does not want to see Iran strong.
The Nazis took advantage of this contradiction and gave Iran a lot of aid. In this way, the Nazis could get Iran's oil supply and, more importantly, weaken Britain's influence in Iran. If Iran can be pulled into the Nazi chariot, it is ideal.
Reza Khan believed that both Iran and Germany were noble Aryans, and that with German support, Iran could become a world power again. However, Iran was located between British India and the Soviet Union, so how could Britain and the Soviet Union tolerate Iran becoming their enemies?
Under such contradictions, Iran ushered in World War II. In most cases, Iran does not appear to have participated in World War II, but in fact, Britain and the Soviet Union launched military strikes against Iran to prevent iran from falling to Germany. It was only four days of military operations that attracted little attention from the world.
On August 5, 1941, the Red Army entered northern Iran. At the same time, Commonwealth troops sent troops to occupy southern Iran. On 25 and 28 August, the British easily crushed the resistance of the Iranian army, and the hundreds of thousands of troops that Reza Khan had worked so hard to build were completely ineffective. The king had to announce his abdication and hand over the throne to his son Pahlavi. Iran completely turned to its allies and severed ties with the Nazis.
This led to the Tehran Conference, which was one of Iran's major contributions to World War II. On the other hand, a considerable part of the aid supplies of the United States and Britain were transported to the Soviet Union through Iran, which is of great significance to the Soviet Union's insistence on the war against Germany.
After World War II, the Pahlavi dynasty maintained good relations with the United States and Britain until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and Iran became a sworn enemy of the United States. This is also caused by the policy of the United States for decades to continuously grab The interests of Iranian oil, regardless of the interests and voices of the Iranian people. This kind of unilateral foreign policy should provoke good reflection.
[References: Persians, Old Book of Tang, etc.]