The Mossadegh government`s nationalization of the Anglo-İranian oil company and the American intervention that followed

Abstract

Musaddık hükümetinin İngiliz-İran Petrol Şirketinin bağımsız İran Şahlığı topraklarındaki mal varlıklarını kamulaştırma kararı sonrasında, Büyük Britanya ve Kuzey İrlanda Birleşik Krallığı ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri hükümetleri tarafından onay verilen ve Merkezi İstihbarat Teşkilatı tarafından gerçekleştirilen 'müdahale' sonucunda Muhammed Musaddık Hükümeti devrilmiştir. Musaddık Hükümeti'nin yükselişi ve İngiliz-İran Petrol Şirketi'nin kamulaştırılması kararının alındığı dönemdeki uluslararası siyasi ve ekonomik ortam detaylı bir şekilde ele alınmaktadır.Keywords: Iran, Mossadegh, Mohammed, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Central Intelligence Agency, Anti-Colonial, Regime Change

This thesis examines what is perhaps the single most important event in the recent history of Iran: the decision by the government of Mohammed Mossadegh to nationalize the assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. It also deals with the somewhat delayed reaction by the government of the United States of America, in the form of what it euphemistically referred to as an intervention to overthrow the Mossadegh government. The great tragedy of this intervention has been twofold: a twenty-six year period when Iran was severely oppressed by the brutal dictatorship of Reza Shah Pahlavi and a strong feeling of Anti-American sentiment among the leaders of the Islamic Revolution that, in turn, overthrew the Shah in 1979.This thesis analyzes both the factors regarding the nationalization decision as well as the decision by the American government to intervene. This analysis is done on a few levels, beginning with the relevant literature on the topic, such that it is, then goes into the major possible factors that led to the two decisions. The conclusions are fairly clear. The decision to nationalize was largely motivated by a strong democratic, anti-colonial bent on the part of Mossadegh, in particular, directed against Western capitalist corporate interests, specifically, those of a single corporation, the AIOC, while the intervention was motivated by a combination of virulent anti-communist red baiting, geopolitical concerns, and no small amount of propagandizing and arm-twisting on the part of the British government, particularly in advance of the goals of a single, British run Capitalist corporation, the AIOC.Keywords: Iran, Mossadegh, Mohammed, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Central Intelligence Agency, Anti-Colonial, Regime Change