A hundred years ago, after World War I, the British took out the usual "partition" method, and more than ten countries suddenly emerged on the vast Arabian Peninsula, most of which were smaller coastal countries. Surrounded by a number of small countries, Saudi Arabia, with an area of more than two million square kilometers, has become the giant of the Arab world, and across the Persian Gulf, there is a large Arab country facing it, which is now the most eye-catching Iran in the world.
Speaking of Iran, the first Persian Empire in the history of the world to span three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa is of course mentioned. At the height of the Persian Empire, the territory stretched from the Pamir Plateau in the east to the Balkan Peninsula in the west, to the Caucasus Mountains in the north and to Ethiopia in northeast Africa in the south, with a territory area of more than 7 million square kilometers and a population of nearly 20 million.
"The former glory of the Persian Empire is in stark contrast to the decline of the present, and Iran's pursuit of a revival of power is bound to produce strong nationalism, and strong nationalism can easily lead to extreme ideologies and blind xenophobia."
Iran has a long history, even from the Persian Empire to the present more than 2500 years, a long history of this ancient country through many dynasties, the capital has been changing with the progress of the times. Today's Tehran is the 32nd capital in Iran's history, and it is rare for a country to move its capital so frequently in the world.
Why did Iran finally choose its capital in a "remote area" of Tehran? It all starts with its history.
In 334 BC, the declining Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great, and Persia entered a period of "Hellenisticization". For more than five hundred years, Persia successively experienced the Seleucid Kingdom and the Sabbath Dynasty, until 226 AD, when the Persians established the Sassanid Dynasty and achieved the second unification in history, so it was called the "Second Persian Empire".
The Sassanid Empire coexisted with the Roman Empire for more than 400 years, ruling until the invasion of the Arab Empire, with the firuzabad region of present-day Iran as its capital. During the Sassanid period, this area of Tehran was known as the "Rai", and according to ancient Persian scriptures, it was the 12th holy site created by Ahura Mazda.
Living in a remote area, Rai was an obscure village until the 7th century AD, when it gradually developed into a town. In 641 AD, during the Arab invasion, the Rai became the "yidi" that resisted the invasion. The Arabs captured Rye and destroyed the town, which was rebuilt and developed and became a bustling town.
After the conquest, Persia became part of the Arab Empire, Arabic replaced Persian, Islam replaced Zoroastrianism, mosques were built everywhere, and Persia began to "Islamize". Since then, there have been dazzling dynastic changes in Persian lands, during which the Samanid and Seljuk empires had Bukhara and Isfahan as their capitals, respectively.
After the Mongols arrived, Hulagu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, occupied Persia in 1260, and in the invasion and massacre of the Mongols, the ill-fated Rai was destroyed and abandoned. In the 14th century, the Timurid Empire controlled Iran, and its capital was Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan.
At the beginning of the 16th century, a Shiite community was active in northwestern Persia, which overthrew its rule in 1502 and established the Safavid Dynasty, taking advantage of the turmoil of the Aries Dynasty. The persian dynasty that ruled Iran was the fourth dynasty in history to completely unify Eastern and Western Iran.
In addition, the Safavid dynasty, which has existed for more than 200 years, is also the first dynasty in Iranian history to use Shia Islam as the state religion, which played an important role in Shiite domination of Iran. This period was a transition period from the Middle Ages to modern Iran, with the Safavid dynasty having Tabriz, Qazven and Isfahan as its capitals, while Tehran remained in obscurity on the northern frontier.
It will eventually become the capital
In the 18th century, the then Afshar dynasty had Mashhad as its capital, and the zand dynasty moved its capital to Shiraz. In 1792 and 1796, the Zander dynasty and the Afshar dynasty were destroyed by the Qajar dynasty. In 1779, the capital of the Qajar dynasty was established in Tehran, a city that had been dormant for more than two thousand years, and finally became the capital for the first time.
For more than 100 years, from the Qajar dynasty to the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran became the object of contention among the great powers. In 1801, Tsarist Russia "annexed" Georgia and seized large areas of Persian territory, and Britain also launched three wars, forcing Persia to pay reparations and recognize the independence of Afghanistan. Seeing that Britain and Russia wanted to divide Persia to the end, the United States, France, and Austria and other powers flocked to force Iran to sign a series of unequal treaties.
In 1907, Britain and Russia agreed to divide the sphere of influence in Iran, with the northern region of the capital Tehran under Russian control, the southern part of the British, and the middle being a "buffer zone". At this point, similar to the Asian countries of the same period, Iran, although still nominally independent, was in fact in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial state.
After World War I, the fallen British Empire had no time to look east, and the nascent Soviet Russia had no time to look south. In 1921, Reza Khan took the opportunity to launch a military coup to establish the Pahlavi dynasty. After Reza Khan came to power, he naturally alienated Britain and Russia, which had long been bored, and began to make friends with the United States, which was newly involved in the Middle East, and changed the name of the country to Iran in 1935.
From the 1920s to the 1930s, Tehran was built almost from scratch under the rule of Shaalisa Khan of Iran, and ancient buildings such as the Gulestan Imperial Palace, Tupuhane Square, castles, and fortresses that were "not in line with the development of urban modernization" were systematically demolished, and modern buildings with Iranian characteristics such as the National Bank, the Police Headquarters, the Telegraph Office, and the Military Academy were built on the original site.
Grudges with the United States
During World War II, in 1941, Pahlavi, the son of Reza Khan, succeeded to the throne, and Iran continued to maintain close relations with the United States. At that time, the powerful Soviet Union was also secretly vying with Britain and the United States for "control" of Iran. In 1943, Stalin also deliberately chose the meeting of the Big Three in Tehran. In order to safeguard its interests in the Middle East, the United States spared no effort to support the Pahlavi dynasty, and for a time, Iran, whose national strength and military strength were as powerful, became a hegemon in the Persian Gulf.
In his intimate dealings with Americans, Pahlavi's almost inferior admiration of beauty has caused resentment among Iranians. In 1979, after the Islamic Revolution broke out in Iran, the situation was out of control, and King Pahlavi was forced to go abroad for a "long vacation". In February of that year, Khomeini returned from Paris to Tehran to formally take over power, ending 15 years of exile, and the Pahlavi dynasty collapsed.
Soon, a 444-day Iranian hostage crisis erupted, and decades-long close relations between the United States and Iran broke down, and the two countries severed diplomatic relations and began to make enemies. Losing the pawn of Iran, the United States rushed to find other pawns in the Middle East, and Saddam Hussein, who had just come to power in Iraq, was quickly favored by the Americans.
In 1980, with the support of two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, Iraq launched a war against Iran. Iran has suffered a lot of damage from the eight-year Iran-Iran war, and even Tehran, which is in a "remote area", has been often attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles.
In 2001 and 2003, the United States launched the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, during which George W. Bush also designated Iran as the "axis of evil." Looking at the decades of Iran's "struggle" with the United States, where does this "axis of evil" come from?
In fact, the Americans invisibly helped Iran "rise". Launching the war in Afghanistan, the United States overthrew the Pashtun Taliban regime in the south, while the Tajikitans in the north were descendants of The Persians, and their assumption of the Afghan regime undoubtedly gave Iran greater political benefits.
In the Iraq war, the United States overthrew the Sunnis who came to power in Iraq, followed by the Shiites that Iran expected. It can be said that the Americans have gone to great lengths to help Iran eliminate its mortal enemies and leave a close Shiite neighbor for Iranians, which is one of the reasons why Iranian forces continue to infiltrate Iraq today.
It is planned to relocate the capital again
Iran's plans to move the capital have long been mentioned many times, and in 2010, the Iranian government announced that it would move the capital "for security and administrative reasons", and the Iranian parliament has decided on this, with Isfahan, Shahrood and Semnan as candidate cities for future capitals.
In addition, Tehran's climate is largely influenced by its geographical location, with the Erbs Mountains to the north and the Great Desert to the south. To avoid the potential damage caused by the quake, Iran has a plan to relocate 163 state-owned enterprises and some universities from the capital, the government believes that at least 5 million people should be relocated out of Tehran, and Iranian authorities are moving some defense companies out of Tehran.