Part One: The First Shah of Iran

What's illegal my US invasions of several countries actually that have been happening recently

and also my entire life.

I'm Robert Evans.

This is behind the bastards, a podcast about bad people, the worst in all of history, several

of whom are currently in the Trump administration where they have recently orchestrated what

is already ramping up to be a bloody war with Iran.

We're covering what's happening in an ongoing basis on our daily news podcast.

It could happen here.

But you know, that's not what we do over at behind the bastards, you know, we're not breaking

news here.

Our specialty is like pieces of shit.

And that makes us, I think, well suited to talk about why is stuff like, why is the

Western world's relationship with Iran, what it is, like how did, how did all of this

shit start?

Like what was going on that kind of led to the, the present situation?

And if you want to tell that story, you have to start with the 1700s and the 1800s

in the period of like particularly what's called the great game, which is, you know, kind

of this thing that happens at the height of British and Russian imperialism.

And you have to talk about the shot, the very first shot of Iran, because it's the

shots of Iran that lead us to the current regime in Iran and that lead us to a lot of

things about the current conflict and like why it's taken on the dimensions that it's

taken on.

So in order to talk about all of this, we're bringing on my buddy and doctor, Kava Hoda,

also podcaster, much more impressive than doctor.

I should have led with podcaster Kava.

I'm sorry.

Welcome to the show.

And musician.

Thank you so much.

And musician, many things, you're multi-talented, a polity man.

The key is to be bad at all of them.

That's the key to doing this right.

If you want to do more, that's a polycrap, not a polycrap, but yeah, you want to know what

you are good at, though.

What?

What am I good at?

Being my friend.

It's my best job.

Also being a doctor and a podcaster, I'm good at one of those three things.

Yeah.

I'm hoping it's doctor.

That's the one.

That's really sort of the one, couldn't it?

The rest is you're going to find out, listener and viewer, not as much, but you know, give

it my darnest.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, this is obviously like what's going on right now.

The United States is doing, I mean, we've just killed a school full of little girls, like

a lot of really ugly stuff.

Yeah.

But if you want to, like, the story of like, why did the US start fucking around with

Iran, like, why, why is the current Iranian regime the way it is?

That all starts well before the US gets involved, right?

That starts with, you know, like most of our imperial ambitions, we cribbed off the

notes of the Brits and the Russians from like a century or so ago, and it's those imperial

powers who made sure that Iran wound up with a shot in the first place, which is why,

you know, we have a revolution because the Shahs rule so badly that they inspire a revolution,

which brings us the Ayatollas.

And all of these are our stories in and of themselves, but to this week, we're going

to be talking about like the first Shah of Iran of the Polavi dynasty, right?

Like that's where we're obviously Iran had previous Shahs, but we're talking about like

the dad of the guy who got exiled when the current government of Iran took over.

And how much do you know about the first, about Reza Khan, like the first of, of that line

of Shahs?

That's it.

So first of all, thank you for having me back on.

First of all, second, I talked right over that.

Yeah.

I'm so happy.

No, I'm so happy that you're covering this topic because you're exactly right.

There is a long history of involvement of Western powers.

And as an American, American powers, you know, really explicitly in 1953, as we're going

to, I'm sure, talk about that really set off a chain of events that led us to where

we are now.

And you know, you could argue, did a lot of damage and destabilized the region.

So it's what bothers me the most is that it's a story that most people in the United States

do not know.

They don't know the real reason why people in Iran may have taken over that embassy back

in 79.

You don't really know some of the anger, the anti-American feeling that happened at that

time.

Yeah.

There was great relations, you know, for a while between the two countries.

So I think it's a really important story.

I do know, more or less, the basics of it.

I never was that interested in the Shaz because like, I'm just the concept of a monarchy just

rubs me the wrong way in general.

Seems like a bad idea.

It seems like a terrible idea.

I'm not into it.

But there are these characters in there, which I'm sure we're going to talk about like

Mosadeh, who are really interesting people.

And there is a story here that really explains a lot about what's happening here.

The Reza Khan, his son, Mohammed Reza Khan, and now his son, who's now a player in what's

happened, currently the news, Reza Palavi, he's our old Marilyn, yeah, right?

So it is, it is something I know a little bit about, but part of the thing is it's like

when you grow up Iranian and your parents came over after the revolution, a lot of these

parents are very politically savvy, well read, studied, were politically active, but getting

a lot of information from them was hard about what happened during the revolution.

Not just because everyone has only their side of it, but because Iranians get so upset

about it, it would just be like, that bastard did this and that's that son of a bitch

did this. And then you're like, you're losing the story here with this and you can't really

get the story from your family. So it is nice to, I think we're going to go into more depth

about what actually happened now. And I get that in part, I think, because if I had the,

if I got exiled and had to explain overseas, like a bunch of the different infighting around

leftist movements or like a bunch of the different right-wing grifters who got us here,

I would probably just wind up cursing like after a while.

Right. And this son of a bitch and this piece of shit.

There's a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah. Like you have to really work to be. And I want to clarify,

we're not even getting past, we're only getting up to 1941 in these episodes. I wanted to do both

shots at once, but there's so much behind how the British and the Russians like maneuver the

situation that leads to this dynasty into being and how the oil situation gets started that you

have to really talk to. So we will come back and we will do the sequel to these episodes,

which we'll talk more about most of it as well. We're going to talk about some of these episodes.

But he's like becomes the prime minister, I think, at 51. So that's even a little past the era

we're talking about. But this is really important because this is what sets, this is what starts

like everything into motion that we're seeing. Unfortunately, come to very like a very bloody head

right now. Right. This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.

One iced coffee. 99 cents please. For real? No way.

One iced coffee. 99 cents please. For real? No way.

Hmm. What a deal. Your new morning groove. Ice coffee from McDonald's. Any size for just 99 cents

to 11 a.m. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer.

Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously.

On public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stock,

bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an

investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt from renewable energy companies with

high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can

literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a

one-of-a-kind index and lets you backtest it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks.

Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based

on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when

you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by public investing,

brokerage services by open to the public investing ink, member Finra and SIPC. Advisory services

by public advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice.

Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures.

There's a difference between liking a house and actually getting it. Redfin is built to make

up that difference and close the gap between finding and owning the home for you. Redfin agents

close twice as many deals as other agents. So when you find a home you love, you're not a

step behind when it comes to making an offer. That means less watching great homes disappear

and more focus on the one you'll call home. Redfin helps turn saved listings into real addresses.

Get started at redfin.com. Own the dream. Do you want to find a stress-free way to buy

your next car? Start at CarMax and shop your way. If you want to browse with confidence,

get pre-qualified online with no impact on your credit score and shop cars within your budget.

From luxury cars to family rides. CarMax has options for almost every price range,

including more than 25,000 cars priced under $25,000. So hey, want to get started?

Just head to CarMax.com for details and get pre-qualified today. Want to drive? CarMax.

So we're going to start these episodes talking about a period of time. This is going to be

kind of over to the US. This is like happening in like the Civil War reconstruction era.

Right? And in Europe, that's also a time of great change and of war. Not only is Europe

industrializing rapidly in the 1870s, the Germans beat France in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian war

and the British Empire is kind of watching this. They're seeing Germany become a major world

power because Germany becomes a country in 1871 as the result of that war. And very suddenly,

France isn't the primary land power in Western Europe anymore. Germany is. And so Britain,

which had primarily been worried about France previously, has two growing and major concerns in

this period after 1870. One is that you've got this Kaiser and he seems really interested in

expanding Germany's military capacity, right? And the Brits are kind of fine with the fact that

Germany's got the most powerful army in Europe. You're like, you Prussians can have your big army,

right? That's fine as long as they stay on the continent. But once you start building boats,

that's when the Brits are not happy with you, right? Yeah, no one else is allowed to have a navy.

That's really the British Empire's primary foreign policy during this period,

these of the Europe. I was like, other people want boats, wait a second, like hold the fuck up.

Can I also make a quick note? I love the way when you say the Germans, I don't know if you've

meant to do this. You slipped into the Germans. Is he Germans? Yes. It's very good.

And there are nice. There's a beautiful case of a small town German man who went to New York City

recently and had some salsa verde on a taco and is suing because like the spice like destroyed

his body and like for days made him ill. It was like New York City salsa verde. I was just

thinking, motherfucker, I can some barbacoa last week that could wipe out all of Germany. If that's

if that's really the level of spice tolerance over there, I know this guy's just a hasty grifter

from a small town. Sorry, my German friends. I know you can handle spices. No, no. Listen,

we had a whole series of commercials in the 80s, remember, where they're like paste made in New

York City. New York City got a road. New York City, salsa. Yeah, it was like a whole very offensive

to me. Yeah. I don't think it should be allowed to have salsa. Yeah. So anyway, yeah. So the

Brits are looking at the at the Germans start to expand their navy and they're like, well,

fuck, like if Britannia doesn't rule the waves, like what do we really have, right? We can't we

the home islands are in danger if we can't keep if we can't keep control of the sea. So that's

one of Great Britain's major concerns in this period. The other thing that's really freaking them out

is India, right? Protecting India. That is the jewel in the British Empire's crowd. It's their

most valuable possession, right? And the Germans are nowhere near India. Thank God. But over the course

of the 19th century, Imperial Russia starts expanding troublingly close to India, right? Like they

start. There's a couple of different fits and starts where the Russians will, you know, expand

their territory and they keep getting closer to the British Raj. I want to quote from the article

a very British coup in the world policy journal by Shereen Brysik quote, the British watched

nervously as the distance between the Russian Empire and India 2000 miles with the beginning of

the 19th century shrank so much that by centuries end as the Russian Empire expanded eastward

at the amazing average of 55 square miles per day, as little as 20 miles separated the two

empires in central Asia's pemeers. Squeezed between these expanding powers was Persia,

described by George Nathan Curzon, one time Viceroy of India and subsequent foreign secretary as

one of the pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the domination of the

world. We're real proud of being upon real proud of that one. Great. Thanks for calling this

pieces on a chessboard. Fantastic. We're talking about them a lot in these episodes. I should do

an episode on just him. He's one of these, like when we talk about British imperialists, he is like

one of the imperialists of imperialists in the British Empire's history. And this is why Curzon's

comment is why participants came to call this struggle in what's often referred to as like the

near east, right? Between Russia and Great Britain as the great game, right? This is a diplomatic

propagandistic and sometimes military struggle between the British and Russian empires over central

Asia. One part of the great game is that the Great Britain invades and occupies Afghanistan for a while,

doesn't work well, right? But that's part of why that happens, right? Is it's part of the stupid game

they're playing with the Russians? And it's all in the name of keeping India safe, right? They don't

want Russia to get Afghanistan and they don't want Russia to get Persia. Right. Perfect. Yeah.

The actual name, the great game I think comes in 1840 is the invention of a British spy named Arthur

Connolly who was corresponding with a colleague in Kandahar Afghanistan and wrote, you have a great

game, a noble game before you. Now, obviously, again, everyone dies. Like a lot of the British

Expeditionary Force dies. So I don't know how great a game they fought that was by the end there.

This is the thing. This is the thing that bothers me. I don't know much about this time period. So

this is really interesting to hear. I do know a little bit more about the coup as we mentioned that

you'll get to at some point in the future. And one nauseating fact about that is the callus

nature in which these like British and American spies and propagandists how they talk about it

afterwards. Like how much fun it was to overthrow this. It was a game. It's so much fun and they

were good at it. And we won. It's just it drives me baddy. Yeah. And millions of people's lives.

And I take some satisfaction that like Connolly in 1840 writes his colleague, you've a great game,

a noble game before you in 1842, like the shattered remnants of the the army that had marched in

to the first angle to Kabul during the first Anglo-Afghan war like fleet because you know,

they get massacred like very badly. So at least a lot of times these guys got shot, but not

nearly and often enough. That is going to be not nearly often enough. So recurring theme. A lot of

people get shot in this story, but not the right ones generally. Usually some teenagers who got

drafted from farms. So always the kids. Yeah. Now, before that term was invented, the great game,

the Russians did have one of their own. They called it the tournament of shadows, which is

objectively cooler. Like that's that is a cooler name. That sounds like a fantasy novel that I would

probably read. Yeah. A tournament of shadows, right? It's a great name for like a prestige TV show.

Right. That will really disappoint you in maybe like the seventh season. Right. The end is going to

get weird. Yeah. So for the British again, the whole goal of this stupid game is to protect their

territory in India. And the whole name of the game for the Russians was for the Tsar, each

subsequent Tsar to prove himself a good ruler. And the main thing you had to do as Tsar to be a good

ruler is expand the borders of the empire. That's why people forget this because of how weak Russia

seems entering World War One and is. But through the 1800s, again, 55 miles a day, the Russian

empire expands over the course of like years. It's crazy. How fast this I mean, and you look at

the size of the Russian Empire, it is maximum extent. It's not that weird. So the the Brits have a

hard line of how close they want anyone any European power to get to the Raj and the Russians feel

like we have to expand constantly and ultimately Persia winds up standing in between both empires.

So in Persia in 1785, you're going to help me with the pronunciation here. I think it's the

Quahar dynasty or Quajar dynasty, Qaj, J-A-R. I think it's Quajar. I think it's an actual J.

I'm going to preface this by apologizing to how many of our actual Iranian listeners you have

that my Farsi is only nominally better than Roberts. I mean, it's better, but not as good as yours,

and I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was born in Indiana. You're lucky I speak English much less Farsi.

Yeah, yeah. So just so sorry. Yeah, the Quajar dynasty took power 1785 and they are the descendants

of Turkmen from Central Asia and aren't seen as authentically Persian by a lot of people,

right? Like authentically, not seen as belonging in what's called Persia, right? Because there's

a lot of different ethnic groups there. Now, because the first Qajar king doesn't have like a

really solid hold on power, he decides he has to put on a show in order to convince everyone he

belongs in the job, right? You know, a lot of people don't think I should be in Tehran at all.

I have to really like make everyone believe I'm legitimately like God wants me here, right? And so

this first Qajar king is Fatali Shah and he's known his nickname is the super procreant because he

has a lot of kids. But by the way, and just just so it's if it's not obvious, the word Shah

translates to like emperor, ruler, king, etc. Just in case people weren't aware of that.

Somebody asked me that question like a few years ago and I was like, that's what I mean. So

just in case. And it often in these names, it will come as like a last name, but that is his title,

right? It's Fatali Shah is Fatali is the Shah, right? Reza Khan will become Reza Shah. Like when

he becomes the Shah. And he gave them the impolavi because it was like the, I think it was like

the ancient length written square version. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll talk about that because

that's that's important to this. There's a lot of ethnic groups in Persia at the time and he's

only really the Shah is only going to be really interested in one, right? And that's kind of a big

part of like what occurs in his reign. But so the first Qajar king is known as the super procreant

because he's he's fucking constantly. And that's also why the throne of the Shahs of Iran gets

its name because it's called the peacock throne. Now for an explanation of why it's called the peacock

throne, I'm going to quote from a boss Milani, the author of a book called the Shah. Here's how they

describe it. That superb and barbarous Devon of enamel and precious stones with its arabesque designs

brought of 26,000 gyms brought back from India as spoils of war. It uses bright red rubies,

deep blue sapphires and verdant greened emeralds and is flanked by two golden snakes each peering

from one side. In the beginning, the peacock throne was called the sun throne. Its name was changed

because the Shah who had close to a thousand wives of quote diverse origin had a favorite concubine.

This concubine was named taboo and that name literally means peacock in Persian. And so this throne,

the sun throne, they fuck on it. The night they get married and he starts calling it the peacock

throne because he has sex with this lady whose name is peacock on it. That's why it's the peacock

throne. Hey guys, I just want to clarify, this is one explanation I found in one book for why it's

called the peacock throne and this represents like a popular story more than it does kind of the

literal truth because you know, there's peacocks carved into the throne. There's some I think I've

heard some other stories as to like why it's called that right? Naran is called the peacock kingdom

or Persia is called the peacock kingdom at around this time too. This should be viewed as kind of a

story that a lot of people told as to why the throne got its name as opposed to like the absolute

reason. Pretty cool name for a throne story for a throne's name. Actually, that is pretty,

that is real game of thronesy. That is very game of thronesy. I like it better than the iron throne.

It's a nicer story than a bunch of swords getting them out together and a fun night. Yeah, the peacock

throne sounds better. The reality of these thousand women actually being into this guy. Pretty low.

Probably not great. So makes a little bit less charming for me, but yeah, yeah, it's a great name.

When you think about yeah, the relationship dynamics, it's less fun, but yeah, it's probably more

comfortable than the iron throne way better than the iron throne. You wouldn't want to have sex on

iron throne like you'd get like tetanus pretty badly, I think. I mean, Westeros has vaccines for

that. And it's really cold, I think, to be probably. Yeah, I think if you were naked, I think

it'd be really cold. I mean, there are things to hold on to, which is nice. There's a lot of grips.

That's a good side. Did either of you watch the a night of a seven kingdoms game of thrones show?

I did. It's my first time venturing back into the world of Westeros since the original series.

I do. I need to watch it. What's the vibe? It's fun. It's good. I mean, it's much lighter. I

think they kind of read the room and they're like, people don't want so much rape and incest and

all that. And they kind of like they tried to mix it up a little bit, a little bit less castration

in this one, which is a big plus for me. I was trying to talk about this for hours. We're talking

about the peacocker right now. So which has a much sexier origin. My friends are here. We're

going to talk about game of throw. I could totally do that for like an hour conservatively speaking.

I have a lot of thoughts about it, but yeah. Oh, yeah. Solidly an hour. So we've got this new

king. He's incredibly horny, famously horny, so horny that the throne is named for his horniness,

which is again, the coolest anyone will be in these episodes. Sorry, guys.

So I'll go and go from there. It's all downhill from the peacock throne getting named.

One of fatali Shah's most consequential decisions was that he signs a treaty in 1828 that gives

a big chunk of Persia away to the Russian czar in exchange for protection. Persia is not a strong

country. It doesn't really have a functional military like the military is kind of capable of

keeping like the people from rebelling against the Shah, but it can't defend the country from other

countries, right? And a lot of critics complain that this 1828 treaty makes Persia a virtual

satrap of the czar, right? Basically Persia is just like a satellite state of the Russian empire

now. And so subsequent rulers in the Shah's line would veer towards the British whenever they

got worried that like the Russians are getting too much power. And part because they're getting

criticized by the people, like the people are pissed that like you're getting everything away

to the Russians. So they'll be like, well, maybe I'll make friends with the British. And then,

you know, the Russians will have to kind of fight for my affection with the British. And maybe

we can gain a little more power that way, right? Really what the Shah and their success, they just

are getting bribes from both these sides, right? And they're getting a shitload of bribes from

the British who are getting more and more power over the Persian court, over the course of the 1800s,

basically by being like, hey, those Russians, I don't think they're going to stop at the stuff they

got in that treaty. But you know, we've got British guns and we've got, we can send some some

supporters over from the colonies. And, you know, we can really keep it eye on your backs.

Fair. Well, you know, if you just give us this little bit of some mineral rights here in there

and that is build a factory here and then, you know, export these raw materials, you'll never regret

your dealings with the British Empire. That's kind of what's going on over like the 70 year period.

You like tea, we like tea. There's no harm that would come out of this relationship ever.

Two groups of people who like tea could never hob one another.

All you will say are actually fun fact. Iran is known famously for its tea consumption,

like an insane amount of tea consumption. But we were the old school coffee. Like all we used to

be all about coffee. I blame the British for becoming a tea country, which is in my mind,

something I'm not proud of. I want to go back to something a coffee country. I don't want to be a

tea country. You must return. God, it really bothers me. I know. I know. No, because the

Syrians are really like kicking y'all's asses in the coffee department, right? Oh, no, we lost our

coffee. You must return. I know. I know. Well, they have hipster coffee shops now in Iran. You

can go to Iran. They'll do like the the hipster latte sort of art and stuff to have that. But,

I mean, we used to be like our thing. One of our things. Right. Yeah. So the situation going on

between these British agents and these Russian agents all competing with these various shazas

complicated by the fact that this isn't just a contest for influence between England and Russia.

Within the British Empire, there are two sets of competing on voice that are in Persia

and are fighting with each other as well as with the Russians. One set of British on voice are

answering to the foreign office back in London. And another set are sent by the government of the

British Rajan Calcutta. And these guys, so they're like representing British India in Persia.

And they have this huge office on the Gulf Coast in a place called Boucher. And here's Cherine

Brysac describing like the ministry from Calcutta. The government of India preferred a highly decentralized

Persian regime. That means weak. So from the outset, successive residents, including major

surpassing Cox and Lieutenant Colonel A. T. Wilson cultivated ties with nearby shakdoms.

Kerson, an eventual vice-roy of India visiting in 1889 spotted the Union Jack fluttering from the

summit of the residency flagstaff and wrote that it was no vain symbol of British ascendancy.

The British resident is to this hour the umpire to whom all parties appeal. Having in his command

an effective naval force imposed at will, he may be entitled the Uncrowned King of the Persian Gulf.

So basically Kerson realized it like because we've like like we're running the show by 1889

in Persia. Outside of the areas, the Russians have like literally taken over by treaty,

we are governing the country in all but name because we have all of the weapons here, right?

That's what he's bragging about. Yeah. So you do that. You do that really well.

And it's weird like you you like get into that British character. It's not just the voice.

It's the you you can get that entitlement like you channeling my answer. You channel it.

It's a yeah, that's right. So the shot benefits from having a close relationship with Great

Britain because British naval power is effectively his as long as he does whatever they asked, right?

As one such envoy wrote of the shak quote, he and his prime minister were worried by the Russian

threat to Persian independence. They believed or hoped that by giving the British a large

economic stake in the country, they would become committed to defending that independence.

Basically, if we make if Great Britain feels like we're an important part of their security

and economic apparatus, they won't let us get taken over by the Russians, right? Now the Russians

meanwhile are stoking unrest within Persia, often by bribing or otherwise encouraging

Shia clergy to preach against foreign involvement, basically to be like, hey, these

Brits are taken over your country guys and their their heathens, you know, like aren't you

should be angry or about this. Why is the Shia letting them get away with that, right? So the

the Russians are operating a very effective propaganda like it's propaganda, but it's also accurate.

Great Britain is running things in Persia. That is pretty messed up. Now the Russians also want to

run things in Persia. They're not any like better people here really, but like this is how they're

choosing to kind of like, it's actually kind of similar to what Iran does in Iraq when the US

invades with Shia clergy and like Baghdad, interestingly enough, where they're they're they're

realizing like this group of people are particularly unhappy with the foreign power that's occupying

the territory. So I'm going to like basically fund them to build support for insurrections and

like rebel movements within the country. Yeah, we learn how to play the great game. We learn

the great game. Yeah, yeah, right. Unfortunately, yeah, it's it's never been that great a game and

always gets a lot more people killed than anything else. So these like Russian propaganda like

instruments and whatnot within Persia, these attempts to stroke unrest within the clergy

succeed in getting the shot at cancel a number of projects, including a railway project that he'd

taken on that was supported by British interests. However, they failed to stop a British agent from

creating the Imperial Bank of Persia. In fact, the Russians are so jealous of the British Imperial

Bank that they create a bank of their own in Persia, subsidized by the Zaris state, where the

Imperial Bank was actually a functional banking institution that you could trust. That was the

upside of it is the British do know how to run a bank that doesn't like go bust every 10 seconds.

The Russians are not as good about running like a legitimate bank. And this the Russian

Bank of Persia, it's primary purpose is to bribe the Shah's top officials. Like it's not a real

bank for people to use. It's a bank to issue loans to members of the governments that they do

with the Tsar wants them to do. So basically what you've got here is Great Britain's holding kind

of the whole country hostage by running the bank that the people who have money use. And the Tsar

is influencing shit within the country by using the bank that he's created to bribe government

officials. So this is what we've got going on here. This is like where the sort of Archie being

courted by Betty, I think in Veronica where there are just few people fighting for Iran is like

nice. This is like so far. Not so bad. But I also know that it just it gets worse and worse.

Right now it's almost kind of cute. It's going to get worse than banks. It's going to get

all that worse than banks. So Russia's fortunes in the area have been flow on a daily basis.

And they depended largely on the attitude of the reigning Shah. For example, in 1879,

Nasser Aldin, who's the Shah at the time, visited Tsar Alexander II in Russia. Alexander the

second intent on staging a good show for his neighbor, ensured that the Shah was wowed by a mass

presentation of Cossacks, the elite cavalry unit who had Cossacks. I mean, they're also like an

ethnic group, right? But they they're they're primarily known as like a military unit or a series

of military units. They'd started out for a long time had been enemies of the Tsar, right? Like

Cossacks had fought the Tsars for a very there'd been a rebellion not all that long ago. And they've

been converted over time into the Tsar's red right hand. And we're going to talk a little bit more

about that. But first, my red right hand, these sponsors of our podcast.

McDonald's any size for just 99 cents to eleven a.m. Price and participation may vary.

Cannot be combined with any other offer.

Texting privacy policy in terms of conditions posted at TextingTerms.us. Texting roles you for

occurring by a text marketing message. You're spending days on your daily's,

may apply or play stopped out. Visit ISSA Online for details.

Tired of the nine to five grind? Looking for something different that's flexible,

fulfilling and pays well? How do you like to get paid to work out? Now you can, with ISSA,

the Global Leader in Personal Fitness Certification. There's a huge demand for

certified personal trainers right now and once you get ISSA certified they guarantee you'll

get a job. Trainers can make as much as $100 an hour. Yes, I said $100 an hour and with ISSA

you can be certified in as little as six weeks. You do everything at your own pace and 100% online.

Pursue your passion in specializations like yoga, nutrition or strength training. Get certified

and live your life on your terms. Work at a gym, start your own business or a side hustle.

Whatever works for you, just don't wait. Get your free personal training evaluation kit today.

Get certified in as little as six weeks and ISSA guarantees you'll get a job. Text lift to 323232.

Text lift to 323232. Lift to 323232. Support for the show comes from public. The

investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can build a multi-asset portfolio

of stock, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an

investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with

high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can

literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a

one-of-a-kind index and lets you backtests it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few

clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and

based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped

1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by public

investing, brokerage services by open to the public investing ink, member Finra and SIPC,

advisory services by public advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor. Generated assets is an

interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment

recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures.

Versury prices are skyrocketing but true nature meets beef karnasada delivers zesty flair for

under $6 per person. Do see pre-cooked with her noran marinade ready for tacos or plates.

Eat in two minutes vibrant restaurant level taste at home. Exceptional taste on its value.

Visit truenaturemeats.com. Code pre-meats for 20% off plus free New York strip. Texas smoked

brisket and Mediterranean chicken with code pre-meat at truenaturemeats.com.

And we're back. Yay. So I want to quote from an article in CNN world news about the evolution

of the Cosax within Russia. During the 14th 15th and 16th centuries the Cosax fought for the

Russian crown and regional wars against the Russian people garnering a reputation as the

Tsar's henchman acting on behalf of the Russian empire the Cosax carried out pogroms or

massacres of the Jews in 19th century Russia. So the Cosax go from these people who were

these like nomadic horse warriors and didn't want to be governed to the government being like

but what if we give you money in exchange for murdering anyone who stands up against the Tsar

and the Cosax eventually are fine with this right and they do a lot of there's a lot of genocide

done by the Cosax on behalf of the Russian empire in this period right like these pogroms are

very ugly there's there's one that kills something like a million people in the 1800s like 700

thousand or something like that pretty hideous stuff. Now there had been a Cosax rebellion led by a

dude named Pugachev in the late 18th century and in general any expert on Russian history would

have told you that a powerful autonomous cadre of warriors with zero accountability sometimes rebel

against it's not always a good idea for the government right to have like this group of warriors

that you can't really tell what to do yeah seems like a bad idea. Right and the the the Cosax had

always been a double edged sword even for the Tsars but not Sir Aldin the Shah at the time sees

all these Russian Cosax and he's like these guys look cool as hell I want some Cosax and so

he founds his own Persian Cosax Legion this is kind of in the late 18 or the yeah the late 1800s

he founds the Persian Cosax Brigade I had not known there were Persian Cosax I thought that was

just like a because the like Cosax are like from like Ukraine is where a lot of like Cosax

originate from so the fact that there's a Persian Cosax Brigade is kind of wild we will take any

concept and then we'll take it to an extreme that's sort of what we do as a as a people culturally

if you've been to Los Angeles you'll you'll see that yeah but this Kajar dynasty what's

interesting about is I know very little about it other than the the way they are presented the

narrative is that they were just an incompetent ridiculous group of like people who are only

interested in you know procreating and spending wasting money on things and not Sir Aldin is like

the one name I recognize as like the epitome of that like this is the most wasteful terrible

dinosaur saying something for all the other dynasties that have been around and went on

and it's important to note that they are this terrible because they're all from the entire time

this dynasty exists they're not they're always puppets of two different competing powers right

like they're never like from the beginning any of these for one thing anyone who might be a

decent ruler is not going to be allowed by the Russians or the Brits to do fuck all right so

they're going to make sure that guy never gets close to power in the first place because they're

orchestrating who was in power and they're doing that based on their own interests not what's

good for Persia it happened time and time again this is this is the story this is how it's laid out

from time time they're on yeah yeah and obviously like these individual shaws and their officials

suck too these are all really corrupt bad people right but they're corrupt bad people who are

being bribed by someone and that is completely dominating the course of politics in Persia during

this period of time um and it's not entirely on the regime right like these two foreign powers

have a lot to do with it right um so the czar Alexander the second head had the shot over and

impressed him with these caustics because he wanted something like this to happen he wants

Persia to have a caustic brigade because the point of having caustics is that they're supposed to

directly support the ruler like these are your I've had a rebellion I need someone to go and

massacre them that's why you have an elite group of horse guards like the caustics and so the

shaws buying these caustics thinking like shit this will help me anytime there's unrest I'll be

able to have these guys just murder my enemies and Persia does in fact pay handsomely to equip

train and maintain a brigade and this brigade is pretty much for a lot of this period the only

effective military unit Persia has and it's led by Russian officers right the Russians are kind of

subsidizing this effort and they're sending their own military officers who report directly to

Russia's minister of war so if you're Russia what you've done as soon as the the shaw starts

adopt this idea starts hiring caustics you've ensured the the shaw's bodyguard unit basically

isn't controlled by your guys that's a big win if you're Russian in this period right no I think

this is it's so interesting to learn about this I'd heard about the caustic brigade and yeah a little

bit of the connection to the the Polly family but it's a big yes I don't I don't entirely understand

like the concept is it like the Hessian soldiers that were in America that came over from Germany

like they're kind of a mercenary force or is it more like yes but it's a formal like oh what are

the bad guys in dune the the member like the one they're more like kind of more sardachar and well

the caustics are there is like kind of an ethnic group like these are basically try these start

out as like tribal groups of what where caustics come from is you know how through most of human

history you had like your your settled civilizations and then these groups of like nomads on horses

who periodically take over everything right well caustics are one of those groups of people they

just happen to be around at the time that the modern world comes into being and so they're those

guys but instead of like bows and arrows they've got like rifles and eventually machine guns

and as a general rule in this period of time if you're going to brutalize a protest you're going

to use guys on horseback because horses are really good at breaking up mobs it's very scary to be

charged by a bunch of guys with sabers on horseback and that's the the Russian caustics that's

what they do these are the guys you send in when these villages are rebelling kill them or we've

decided we're going to ethnically cleanse this area of this group of people send in the caustics

right and once the Shah gets his caustics that's what they're going to be used for is brutalizing

peasants to scare them away from doing disorder right now they're not good for much else they're

supposed to be bodyguards to in 1896 Nasser is assassinated while at a shrine and his caustic

bodyguards failed to protect them as a general rule they're not great at that part of the cha

we don't protect we hurt oh no all I got to talk was that a hit people we're more of an offensive

thing less defense yeah but once you've got these guys you've got this unit of powerful horse guards

that are close to the Shah they're going to remain a powerful force in Persian politics which by

the turn of the century once the 1900s start going are in a chaotic place to say the least

Shereen Bryseck describes the country during this time as a playground of Russian and British spies

Tehran is very much the way Berlin is going to be during the height of the cold war right it's this

city where like spooks from all over the world are coming and executing plots as part of these

different great power games and neither Russia or Great Britain trusted the local state security

forces as far as they could throw them so they brought in their own troops to protect their

own agents in the country the Russians had brought in their own caustic guards right or used

Persian caustic guards which were led by Russians right whereas British consuls in the country

brought supose and bangle Lancers from India to protect their guys at the start of the 20th century

Russia and England had reached an accord which Bryseck rights was settled without informing

much less consulting the leaders of Persia they split the country up into three spheres of

influence the British control southeast Persia Russia runs the north and the southwest is like a

neutral zone where they're both allowed to do like certain things as long as they don't like

cross other certain lines and again no one asks anyone in the Persian government about this

they're not consulted their consent does not matter uh Russia's chunk of Persia is most valuable

during this period of time they seem to get off better bet like the best of this treaty right because

they get the chunk of Persia with the largest cities including Tehran but here's the thing

in 1901 when this agreement gets kind of ink neither power is really interested in Persia's oil

fields there's not a lot that's known about them it we we'd only really figured out there were

oil deposits in southwest Persia in like 1892 that gets discovered thanks to the work of a

French archaeologist whose findings are brought to this French guy who's digging for evidence of

earlier societies finds oil and he his findings get sent on to the commissioner general of Persia

so an actual Persian government official and this says a lot about who was bribing the commissioner

general Persia he goes straight to Sir Henry Drummond Wolf who's a conservative parliamentarian

and London and he says hey we found oil in our country I figured I'd go to London first and

Wolf introduces the Persian commissioner to a guy named William Knox Darcy I assume he's an

actual descendant of Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice much less level below the wall probably is

because William Knox Darcy is a millionaire who'd gotten rich speculating on golden Australia he

sounds like that guy's kid or something still blows my mind that Mr Darcy's also Tom Wands

Gams from succession blows my mind I don't know that show but they're apparently doing a new

Pride and Prejudice and it looks like I know women love Mr Darcy and I don't entirely understand

why love Mr Darcy they love that scene where he like she brushes his hand and he like twitches like

crazy yeah yeah yeah yeah big scene so William Darcy gets introduced to the Persian commissioner

and you know this guy loves speculating so he decides he's gonna branch out an oil speculation

as well in 1901 he offers the rulers of Iran 20,000 British pounds and 16% of annual profits

gained from exploiting their oil reserves this draws little initial outrage within Persia as

regular people have a lot bigger fish to fry right and nobody's thinking about oil as a huge

industry yet it's 1901 the number of people who have like used gasoline for anything is very small

the vast majority its horses are walking from most people right and trains are a thing obviously

so yeah you've got this guy Darcy who gets involved and he basically bribes the rulers of Iran with

20,000 pounds and a chunk of annual profits to exploit as much oil as he can find there

and nobody cares because oil is not worth all that much yet in fact Darcy nearly bankrupts

himself paying for the deal and he trying to build the infrastructure to start taking Persian oil

to market because there's nothing there nobody's been digging or exit like nobody's been drilling

or anything he has to do all of that like from the ground up it's very costly and even a very

rich dude like Darcy can't bankroll the project on his own so he partners with a company called

Burma Oil which is despite the name based in Glasgow and Burma Oil has the capital necessary

to make Darcy's dreams a reality so Darcy is now in business with with this Glasgow based

company and they're starting to build oil wells and whatnot and drill in Persia and at the time

this is one of a bunch of innumerable deals by which Persia's natural resources are being sold

off for the benefit of foreigners this is not just happening with oil everything valuable in the

country is being sold to Russia or Germany right like that's the way it's working for everything

so regular people in the country know they're being fleeced they are not unaware of that there's

actually a very because the press is starting to become an increasingly significant thing in this

period of time and literacy is fairly high in the cities regular people are very aware that they're

being robbed by both the British and the Russians and that their leaders are selling the country out

for what amounts to middling bribes the current rulers the dynasty had their origins in a tribe

of Turkmen warriors who'd served as the bulk of the Safavid military and the the kujars had a

Russian branch which again because these are Turkmen people this is all very complicated

ethnic stuff but the the ruling dynasty in Persia at the time are Turkmen which means they have

Russian cousins who are nobility in the Russian empire which means the Shah's of Persia are

related to the Tsar which endears them to the Tsar right they're not directly related to the Tsar

but they're directly related to other royals within the Tsar's empire right and this so a lot

that's part of why a lot of people don't trust them right is they're both stewedges of the

British and well you don't you're not really like at least a lot of Persians feel like you're

not really Persian you're more Russian unlike you're much more aligned with the Russian government

so there's a lot of reasons why people are getting increasingly pissed off at their rulers at this

period of time they're selling off the entire country and they're doing it as if they're agents

of other countries right that's increasingly how the this dynasty is seen as Sharia Kiyah

wrote in an article for the National Council of Resistance on Iran or in CRI quote

the Quijar crisis influenced by Russia and Britain had led Iran to financial ruin

and a political crisis they were weak against foreign influence and oppressive of citizens

so by 1905 people are are sick they are fed up with the shity as dynasty

and the king is because you know Nasser had gotten assassinated and his successor by this point

is aging an ill and there's enough unrest with elites in the capital that they form a parliament

right there's this like national assembly formed in Persia called the Mojles as the result of

a lot of work by a lot of different activists within the country a lot of differently very brave

people who want the government that the people of the country deserve that will actually functionally

govern and modernize the country and won't be taken advantage of as hideously as as the

Shah's regime had and the Mojles draft a constitution which was approved regretfully by the Shah

right before he died and the Shah's kind of in this position of like if I don't approve this

it's allow this bit of democracy or have a rebellion right that's that's the dire situation

he sees himself in so once this parliament gets going and starts passing a constitution the Russians

are like well we can't have this these guys aren't working for our best interest they're working

for their own best interest that's not great so they immediately set to work pushing their allies

in the Shia clergy to sabotage this new experiment in functional self governance historian Ruhola

Ramazani writes that they quote destroyed the foundations of this new government twice in about

four years right so the Mojles keep trying to install functional parliamentary governments and

these clerics and other agents of the Russians that are working within Persian society keep sabotaging

these efforts because they don't want this to happen and this is the same thing this is the same

thing that happens with the national front later yep the same sort of dynamics they use to play

against the second more secular elements yeah the religious elements they use them the same exact

manner just in such an easy playbook it's always it's so it's really frustrating when you

lay it all out like this um so in 1908 Russian interests install a new Shah on the throne

Muhammad Ali Shah and he celebrates his newfound power by imprisoning his own prime minister

who had been semi-democratically elected by the Mojli per Shereen Brysac's article with a

loan underwritten by the Russian bank and with his own crown jewels of security the Shah hired

rioters to storm the Mojles when the assembly successfully resisted the Russian officer Persian

Kassak Brigade moved rapidly to dissolve parliament and to impose martial law the Kassak

shelled the parliament building igniting a blaze that destroyed its records and killed eight people

the Russian commander proclaimed himself military governor of Tehran that's fucking nuts

so there's new Shah hires rioters and the parliament fights off the rioters so they have to

blow up the building with our it's fucking nuts that's insane and obviously very sad yeah

and the the Mojles I mean I don't know if you know this but like so there are parliament because I

know that I always thought they're like a senator something but I don't entirely understand

they were like the parliamentary force it's it's part like I don't think any of these are like

quite perfect it's like a national assembly type deal right like it's a semi-democratic body

basically yeah yeah okay but it doesn't translate perfectly uh to senators and senate and

that sort of thing not I mean it's kind of its own like thing like I think the word literally

means like like a place to sit basically and it comes out of tribal councils um but yeah it's

like a it's a it's a type of parliament basically it's good that's that's close enough for our

purposes right um so the Russians have massacred a bunch of people and shelled the parliament building

and installed a Russian military commander as governor of Tehran and this is not popular in fact

it inspires a mass uprising and this is one of these beautiful moments where

Pete regular people in Tehran and in the areas outside of it are so fucking pissed off at what the

Russians have done that all of these different normally up normally opposed political groups

unite together in resistance of Russian domination and there's this mass uprising that pushes

the Kassat guards out of the capital and Muhammad Ali Shah becomes one of the shortest

reindeer Shah's in history um he he uh he is he is not around much longer um now because feudalism

is a really bad system at the best of times he is succeeded by his son Ahmed when Ahmed is 12 years

old the reason why this is generally seen as good by the power that's backing this succession

the British is that Ahmed is too young to rule on his own that means he needs a regent

and the regent who gets picked to rule in his stead is a very close friend of british foreign

secretary nathan curzon um so we have gone from ha ha the Russians took over and basically this

mass movement forces them out of power and forces the shot to abdicate but then the guy who takes

over is a studious for the british government again right it's this they can't get out of this you

and in the movie the regent is played by ben kingsley that's exactly who plays that that character

he's half indian uh half white to my understanding and he has played an Iranian in like four movies

and uh and it's and they're never good they're never good characters never no so what you've got now

is a fucking regent who's running things in tevernon and everybody's tired because they've just

thrown the russians out and the british are kind of come in as the winners in this this round of

blows in the great game and shit like this the fact that great britain kind of sits back while

russia commits a bunch of horrible war crimes and then winds up in charge is why england part of why

they get their reputation being perfidious albian is everyone's like how the fuck did you wind up

winning wait a second like we were fighting them how are how did you win what the fuck like that's

that's that's that's the way the british plays stuff in this period of time great yeah wow

now one reason why you had this popular uprising against the russians and why like the majles

are able to gain and maintain a degree of power is that regular Persians are fairly well informed

about what's happening in their country starting to be in this period because especially once the

majles come like into power Persia has a shockingly free press during this whole period of time from

like the about this point in the story forward up until we get the the last dynasty of shaz there's

like a really vibrant media ecosystem particularly in taeran the the first majles had put an into

the stifling control the aristocracy had exerted on media and so even when the Persian people lacked

the power to stop great britain or russian from doing something they at least knew that they were

being fucked right that's an important dimension of the story is that people are not in the dark

because there's a pretty good media at the time which i was also unaware of um so folks are

especially aware of the rampant corruption within the shaz court public opinion of it is so

negative that the regents foreign ministers sends men out to find him a disinterested american

expert to come to taeran and fix the Persian economy now that fact alone should give you an idea

of very different regard americans were held in during this time that like foreigners who are

meddling in a for a still other foreign countries economic system are like we need someone reliable

trustworthy and unbiased to fix this economy let's find an american like the fact that that's

the way things work back then is crazy it is wild but i will say you know until the whole 1953

coup yeah like they there was a real there was and then afterwards you know if you talk to your rank

and file iranian now they do and they have for many years now love the americans but

and before this they used to have a lot of contempt for the british they used to have a lot of

contempt for the russians and they used to always sort of know that they are meddling but there was

like a real warm spot for americans because of the americans that would come over and help them

with the finance stuff i must be everybody's name but like there's a there's a few yeah yeah so

there was a real like you know warmth and this guy this guy isn't bad at his job i don't think his

name is w morgan schuster he's a middle-aged lawyer who had worked and he'd been like a customs guy

after the u.s had taken cuba from the spanish and he basically rebuilt the tax system for the

philippines after the united states took over the philippines uh schuster is the first american that

i'm aware of who has a significant political impact in the Persian government uh and his experience

couldn't have been more different from the americans who would follow for one thing schuster

seems to have been genuinely welcome and desired by many Persians because the economy is completely

fucked up right and he's as popular with like the local people as much as he is hated by european

expats living in tehran who rightly see his crusade for financial solvency as something that's

going to cut into their graft because schuster actually wants the iranian people to have a functional

and when he realizes they're being robbed blind he's pissed about it he's like well you're

they're never going to have like you're never going to have a happy country with a good economy

if you rob them blind like this if the goal is for the like Persia to be a functional country

you're screwing them in 1911 schuster who's now the treasury secretary sparks outrage with

the russians when he confiscates the home of the former shah's brother who was a russian citizen

schuster was in the right by any rational observation the exiled shah's brother had not been paying

taxes for years but the british and the russians file formal complaints against this guy with the

majles who ignore the complaint to their peril the czar since his army and he shells tehran killing

many pro-independence liberals and clergy members they shell this the capital and kill a bunch of

people because this guy shuster takes one dude's house for not paying taxes the russian army also

shell she a holy sites as the british look on but avoid direct intervention themselves on

christmas day 1911 shuster is forced to leave Persia he goes back to the united states and he

writes a book called the strangling of Persia which is all about how european powers are robbing

the country blind and murdering any chance of it having a functional government like he's

he as far as i can tell he seems to genuinely be like offended on behalf of the Persian people

yeah and there are i mean in this whole story of all these terrible people like it's there's

not a lot of heroes but there were a couple on the and they were i mean early nice guys

yeah yeah there was a couple tried yeah yeah right they they the end of the day most of them couldn't

affect things in a positive way but there were a couple of americans that that did try to do the

right thing they tried to do the right thing like the spikely movie and you know what else is

like a spikely movie it's the it's it's it's probably and and you know i'm a good test taker

i learned that in medical school probably the ads and services that are going to be presented in

these commercials bingo banga

one ice coffee 99 cents please for real no way

one ice coffee 99 cents please for real no way

hmm what a deal your new morning groove ice coffee from McDonald's any size for just 99 cents

to 11 a.m. price and participation may vary can i be combined with any other offer

texting privacy policy in terms of conditions posted at texting terms.us texting rolls you

for a courting automated text marketing message your messages may apply or play stopped out

visit i.s.s.a online for details tired of the nine to five grind looking for something

different that's flexible fulfilling and pay as well how do you like to get paid to work out

now you can with i.s.s.a the global leader in personal fitness certification there's a huge

demand for certified personal trainers right now and once you get i.s.s.a certified big guarantee

you'll get a job trainers can make as much as one hundred dollars an hour yes i said one hundred

dollars an hour and with i.s.s.a you can be certified in as little as six weeks you do everything

at your own pace and one hundred percent online pursue your passion and specializations like yoga

nutrition or strength training get certified and live your life on your terms work at a gym

start your own business or side hustle whatever works for you just don't wait get your free

personal training evaluation kit today get certified in as little as six weeks and i.s.s.a

guarantees you'll get a job text lift to thirty two thirty two thirty two text lift to thirty two

thirty two thirty two lift to thirty two thirty two thirty two thirty two support for the show

comes from public the investing platform for those who take it seriously on public you can build a

multi asset portfolio of stock spawns options crypto and now generated assets which allow you to

turn any idea into an investable index with AI it all starts with your prompt from renewable

energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over twenty

percent year over year you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work it screens

thousands of stocks builds a one-of-a-kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500

then you can invest in a few clicks generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities

completely customizable and based on your thesis not someone else's go to public dot com slash

podcast and earn an uncapped one percent bonus when you transfer your portfolio that's public

dot com slash podcast paid for by public investing brokerage services by open to the public

investing ink member finraw nsi pc advisory services by public advisors LLC sec registered

advisor generated assets is an interactive analysis tool output is for informational purposes only

and is not an investment recommendation or advice complete disclosures available at public dot com slash

disclosures grocery prices are skyrocketing but true nature meets beef karnasada delivers

thirsty flair for under six dollars per person do see precooked with her norin marinade ready

for tacos or plates eat in two minutes vibrant restaurant level taste at home exceptional taste

honest value visit true nature meets dot com code pre meat for twenty percent off plus free

new york strip texas smoked brisket and Mediterranean chicken with code pre meat at true nature meets

dot com and we're back so while all this is going on and while Persia is both finding itself

split between british and russian influence and fighting for its own autonomy a boy was born

and starts growing into a man his name was reza con mirpangie and he came into the world on March 15th

1878 on in a town called alash in the province of mazandaran his father abas Ali was a Persian man

and a major in the army his mother nush affarin had immigrated from either Georgia or part of

Armenia both were owned by the russian empire at that point but he's Caucasian like literally

from the caucuses region we don't know exactly where she's from because paperwork isn't anybody

strong suit but reza from the beginning is like an example of how mixed Persia is at this point in

time right he is himself mix and that's interesting because he is not going to govern in that way

reza's dad is a war hero but he's the kind of war hero who dies when his son is eight months old

after this nush moves the family to tehran to live with her brother when she remarries in 1879

reza's a year old and she abandons him to start a new family and leaves her first born son in the

care of her uncle this is not a wildly uncommon thing for a lot of people to do at the time all over

the world i've read a bunch of stories like this but it is pretty fucked up right yeah she's basically

like i got to try with a new family kid sorry here's an uncle you know hopefully he'll take care

of you explains a lot yeah goodness it's not great now from what little detail we get about his

early life we can conclude that reza's family saw him as an opportunity to increase their fortunes

and little else in 1882 his uncle sent him off to live with a family friend who was a rare Persian

officer in the cossack brigade this helped him get entrance to the cossack brigade when he's well

not an adult it's unclear exactly how old reza is when he joins the military i've heard both 14

and 16 and either is really plausible you can get a hint of why by looking at this 1909 photo of a

unit from the brigade and look at the differing ages of those soldiers because one of those actually

so are really small that's a child clearly in like their fifties and there's like a nine-year-old

there's a few people who look like their kids that's an actual child straight up boy yeah that

nine-year-old those seems to have medals which is pretty cool there's a story there i'd like to hear

the nine-year-old killed so has killed a lot of men right he's seen some things he's a hard nine

so reza was a literate as a young man he had basically no formal education and his first job in

the cossacks was as a stable boy he was however tall and handsome and extremely charismatic he is

very good at making the right friends which assures that he eventually rises to have a cushy

job guarding the dutch consul general um he he does fight in a couple wars he's a good soldier he's

particularly good with a machine gun and he becomes like his units machine gunner they call him

machine gun reza that's his nickname which is pretty cool god wutain cland sort of vibe to it so

right right that word he rose rapidly through the ranks and by the nineteen teens he's one of the

highest ranking officers in the cossack brigade sharia kia writes that he was also quote known for

his role as a leader of religious bands and as a community enforcer in religious ceremonies

in her article shareen brysac ads he earned a reputation of being a fireman someone who was sent

to quote disturbances or round up thieves so basically this guy's kind of stupid but he's well

liked by his peers which are the most functional military unit in the country and he's also he's

also kind of like known as being a religious hardliner like he's in very good with the clerics he

spends a lot of time like making sure other people are doing the things they're supposed to do

like religiously in his community so that the clerics like him and he just generally he's the guy

who if people are breaking the rules who kick their asses like that's that's who this guy is and

that's the reputation he's the heavy right he's the tough that you send in right um so basically

he was cooked up in a lab to become a western back dictator right all that was needed was the

proper impetus and this brings us back to William Darcy and the question of Iran's fast oil reserves

Anglo Persian oil the company Darcy eventually establishes enjoyed a monopoly on Persian crude oil

for years but it's not until 1914 that the world gets a good I look at just how big a deal this

is going to be because in the lead up to world war one great Britain is hungry for any advantage

they can get over the rising power of imperial Germany I talked about that at the start of the

episode right Germany's building a fleet that can that can compete with the British royal navy

and so great Britain needs an advantage this enters into the picture admiral Sir John Fisher

he was described into by the press and in his time as Britain's primary naval oil maniac

this means he was the first admiral with power in Britain to be like we should switch to oil from

coal right that's a good idea to to become an oil based navy there's benefits to doing this right

your ships can go further on oil than they can on coal without needing to refuel they can go faster

there's a number of like logistical benefits to eventually doing this but it's a hideous cost

when you're thinking of the whole moving the whole navy over you're spending a shit load of money

and there's not a lot of oil exploitation yet right either so great Britain doesn't necessarily

have it to an oil to exploit Darcy seeks out and befriends the admiral in 1903 at a bohemian spa

where Fisher engaged his main in his main pleasure outside of being an oil maniac which was dancing

so Darcy basically that code for something or is it legitimately dancing I think he's just a

dancer and I did Darcy befriends him dancing at the spa and they've become buddies yeah straight

buddies I'm sure I've been to a lot of spas don't remember anything about dancing just saying

a lot of dancing at spas they were different back then so let's let's be real that sounds

pretty fun like a spa where you just like relax in the hot tub and then dance a dance spa I think

that's what dirty dancing is pretty much about kind of point yeah it's a dance spa so there's a

dirty dancing scenario right that's very integral to the story and he had this and he had the time

of his life yeah at the time of his life Darcy's this is Darcy and I'm sorry

who's a person again that he is according to admiral Fisher yeah admiral Fisher Admiral Fisher

the oil maniac yeah and in 1904 after he and Darcy become friends Fisher becomes the first

sea lord which is a real job in the British military hire oil maniac the sea lord that's not

bad that's right he's the first sea lord that's great thought was a job for Aquaman but okay

I was thinking Elron Hubbard yeah see Commander yeah so Fisher keeps on talking up this idea and

by 1911 or so Winston Churchill has come around and Churchill is like we need to switch the navy

over to oil right and so Darcy has by 1911 successfully gotten this idea that primarily

financially benefits him because he bought access to all of Persia's oil into the halls of

British power in 1914 the House of Commons supports a proposal to switch the navy over to oil

per an article in the fair observer the goal was to ensure energy security for Great Britain where

the Royal Navy switched from coal to oil to compete against the fast rising German Navy

after World War I broke out Persia remained neutral but supplied oil to Britain in fact Persian oil

arguably led to allied victory the conversion of the British fleet to oil gave them advantages

over the German fleet powered by a coal greater range and speed and greater refueling and keeping

with their imperial tradition Britain paid a pittance to Persia for oil so that's fucked it plays a

role in their victory I it I don't I wouldn't say it led to it because but it's it's certainly not

an insignificant factor in in the efficacy of the British fleet the fact that they've switched

her over to oil and again Great Britain is fucking Persia they're bribing the Shah but the the

Persian people are getting very little for their resources yeah again something real the pattern

that that will play out many for a long time this is fucked up but the real fuckery is still to come

during the war World War I Persian territory is a battleground between Ottoman forces and Russian

and British forces right and Russian and British are on the same side this time so they go from

competing to being on the same side but they're fighting the Ottomans in parts of Persia right now

the the realities of the war massively disrupt agriculture in Persia because farmers are constantly

if you do fight over their fields and shell them so they can't grow as much food and also you have

all of you have three different armies in the area they're not growing their own food they're

confiscating it from the people who live there to feed their own soldiers so people in Persia

start to starve in huge numbers as Zara Adalati and Majid Imani right in an article for third world

quarterly Ine Olsaltana a well-known Iranian chronicleer wrote in a newspaper entry of 19th

April 1917 that famine and hunger prevail in all parts of Iran Muslims and people of all faiths

are dying in Kuhm in the center of Iran currently 50 die each day in Hamadon 30,000 have registered

as destitute in this heart-reading description he further stated that people in Tehran were

taking sheep's blood from the slaughterhouse to feed themselves in their children in fact several

Iranian newspaper reports in 1917 to 1919 highlighted the occupying forces attempts to seize

food and grains and blocked people's access to food so no one really debates that what happens

next is a human engineered or at least a human influenced famine right is this intentional or is

this just a byproduct of armies being armies right there's debate over that but it's caused by the

fact that these foreign forces are in the country right now there is a huge debate as to who is

more at fault given the similarities between the great Persian famine and the Bengal famine of 1943

a lot of people understandably blame the British from that same paper quote highlighting the role

of the occupying powers in the great Persian famine some scholars have pointed to the issue of

oil capitalism during the 20th century the financial policies adopted by Britain for instance

they're refusal to pay oil revenues to Iran in the middle of the great Persian famine

indicates their lack of concern for Iran starving people for the occupying powers Iran was mainly a

strategic military asset the dominant consequence was a lack of access to food among large parts of

the population and what Amartusian called entitlement failure thus besides natural factors pandemics

socio historical context and the in capability of the central government the great Persian famine

was also caused by the occupying forces that pursued the war at the expense of the lives of many

Iranians and there's a lot of people involved in this catastrophe again as well as some stuff that

is just happening at the time there's disease which is still related to the war and there's some

environmental concerns it's important I emphasize that the Russians are also hugely involved here too

with the early stages of the Russian civil war once that kicks off various Russian forces start

seizing like housing materials roofing and firewood and other basic supplies for their bases

and these are things that thousands of Persians need to keep their homes habitable and like 100,000

Persians are made effectively homeless just by this 10,000 villages are abandoned largely because

Russian forces are are seizing everything that makes them habitable 10,000 villages abandoned I'm just

I've never heard I'm sure there's a listener right now some auntie who's gonna be yelling at me

right now because I didn't know this but I never I never knew about this oh wait till you hear

the scale of this disaster so British diplomat Harold Dickerson wrote quote Persia had been exposed

to violations and suffering not endured by any other neutral country and World War One and it's

hard to argue at that point 8 to 10 million people roughly half the pre-war population of Persia

perish in the Great Persian famine like about 40% of the pre-war population die over the course of

like World War One up to like 1919 as a result of all this hey guys I just want to let you know

the Great Persian famine is vastly understudied and there's a wide range of scholarly

disagreement over the death toll at the time and for a very long time contemporary reporting

suggested two to two and a half million dead was a very reasonable you know range but there's also

scholars who are arguing with it more like 8 to 10 million is is very likely so this is not a

kind of thing where because of sort of the paucity of the scholarship on this at the moment I don't

I don't feel comfortable saying like one is definitely right I do kind attend just on other because

of other famines I've read about to lean towards the larger numbers but we don't really know perfectly

I did not realize the scale of this we don't talk about this yeah because it's a very complicated

famine it's not as simple as just Russia or Great Britain starved around there were a lot of

factors right including some environmental ones and aspects of local government but like Russia

and Great Britain and the Ottomans play a huge role in why 8 to 10 million half a fucking

Persian nearly starved to death right and nobody talks about it anymore um that's not it's not

I mean yeah wow I have to say I really appreciate sorry this is a total this is the

kind of thing I'm supposed to say at the end when we're off air but I really appreciate

how you synthesize all this information this is not easy there's so many it's a lot of stuff a lot

different I know I've left stuff out that and obviously like we're only going up to like 1941 um

but like this is like when we're I mean we're looking at the hideous the heinous death toll of US

actions already in Iran um it's also important to just like know like this is the latest in a long

string of of just like the horrific human consequences to imperialist fucking around in that part

of the world um it's all bad stuff so uh it is not until 1921 that Britain and Russia fully

withdraw their forces from Persia given that the zaris or largely given that the zaris government

had collapsed by this point leading to civil war in Russia uh throughout most of the worst of

the famine educated Persians blame the British for it because they saw the British as being the

controlling power in their lives and there's an element a degree a sizeable degree to which this

is fair um the British for their own part are less concerned with Persia for its own sake and more

worried about something else which is that the Bolsheviks are now in charge of a lot of Russia

they're fighting a civil war for control of what had been the Russian Empire and it sure does

look like Persia might become communist too and that is gonna tee up part two.

Kovat how you feeling i can't wait i want to hear it now oh well you'll hear it in a second

you'll hear it in just a minute Kovat but first let's hear your pluggables uh so my podcast is called

the House of Pod it is a medical slash science podcast it is a look at the world of science and

health through an approachable manner we've tried to make things as fun and as uh let's

scary if if that's the word that i can use and do a terrible job explaining my show you think

after five years of doing this i'd be much better at it i'm not but the show is actually fun if you

like this show you're gonna like the the podcast the House of Pod because we also take a look at

medical grifters and we look at all kinds of different medical malarkey that's out there

trying to present you the science in a way that is um i i think honest and nuanced and clear so

i think you will enjoy it you should listen to it and you you will hear some episodes with both

of these lovely people on that podcast the House of Pod you can find it anywhere you find podcasts

array excellent well listen to the House of Pod and you know do something nice in your own house

or not i don't control your life neither do you probably whoa do any of us are we all just

lots of floating through cosmic debris yes goodbye maybe but i but i'm definitely in control here

bye

behind the bastards is a production of coolzone media for more from coolzone media visit our website

coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app apple podcast or wherever you get your

podcast full video episodes of behind the bastards are now streaming on Netflix dropping every Tuesday

hit remind me on Netflix you don't miss an episode for clips and our older episode catalog

continue to subscribe to our youtube channel youtube.com slash at behind the bastards we love about

40 percent of you statistically speaking a better help add international women's day is this

march and it's a chance to celebrate women in all their brilliance the leaders the caregivers

the problem solvers the hype friends the quiet forces the how do you do it all types answer

with a lot of strength and usually very little rest therapy can be one way to support the incredible

work you already do a space just for you to reflect reset and reconnect with what fuels you your goals

your boundaries your joy better help makes starting therapy simple by matching you with a qualified

therapist based on your needs and preferences no pressure no guesswork and if your first match

isn't quite right you can switch anytime here's to celebrating women and giving yourself support along

the way visit better help dot com for 10 percent off that's better h-e-l-p dot com

imagine if your wi-fi was a lot smarter and way more reliable picture it your tv phone laptop

even your fancy fridge working together to make life easier well xfinity makes that dream a

reality devices so in sync you think they're telepathic wi-fi that knows when your device needs

a boost the best equipment to stream or games at once with multi view or stream your favorite

podcast on iheart radio that's the magic of xfinity it's seamlessly in tune with you xfinity imagine

that restrictions apply in the heat of battle your squad relies on you don't let them down unlock

elite gaming tech at linovo dot com dominate every match with next level speed seamless streaming

and performance that won't quit push your gameplay beyond performance with intel core ultra

processors for the next era of gaming upgrade to smooth high quality streaming with intel wi-fi 6e

and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking win the tech search power up at linovo dot com

this is rathie wukia from a really good cry i absolutely love getting outside whether it's a

quick walk or a mindful few steps between meetings or even a longer run to just clear my head

but the one thing that can really ruin that for me is shoes that just don't feel right that's why

i started wearing ultra running with the ultra fair every step feels comfortable balanced and strong

like my feet can finally move freely what really stood out to me was the roomy tow box my

toes actually now have room to spread out which makes movement feel more natural and comfortable

and when your feet aren't crammed you feel more balanced like every step has a strong stable

foundation i've noticed that with extra space my foot muscles get to work building strength

so i can actually move with more confidence ultra fits and moves with you no matter your pace

or your goals beginner or marathon runner they've really become my go-to for any kind of running

or training and i always feel like my feet can do exactly what they're meant to do feel the

difference by visiting ultra running dot com and use my code cry 10 for 10% off that's ultra

l-t-r-a running dot com experience ultra and stay out there this is an i heart podcast

guaranteed human