Part One: The First Shah of Iran

0:00What'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

1:03shit 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.

2:03That'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

3:04notes 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.

4:04And 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.

5:06I'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

6:08get 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

7:11we'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

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10:20Right? 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,

11:20that'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,

12:23we 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

13:24their 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

14:25one 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

15:32Expeditionary 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

16:36nearly 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

17:40empire 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

18:45of 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,

19:47right? 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,

20:49deep 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

21:51story 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.

22:51That'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.

23:58So 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

25:00we 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

26:05be 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

27:08British 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,

28:12we 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

29:14Shia 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

30:20always 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

31:23with 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

32:24second 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.

33:26McDonald'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.

34:30Text 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

35:31recommendation 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

36:35these 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

37:40he 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

38:46and 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

39:49impressed 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

40:54this 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

41:57and 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

43:02that 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

44:05influence 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

45:07so 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

46:16and 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

47:17or 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

48:22for 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

49:25period 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

50:25govern 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

51:27these 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

52:29the 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

53:30purposes 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

54:30the 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

55:31thrown 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

56:31like 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

57:34the 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

58:36i'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

59:38taxes 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

1:00:39yeah 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

1:01:44texting 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

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1:03:50thirsty 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

1:04:53Armenia 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

1:05:56early 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

1:06:59so 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

1:08:02liked 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

1:09:04is 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

1:10:10where 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

1:11:14sea 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

1:12:15over 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

1:13:20all 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

1:14:23this 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

1:15:23Iranians 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

1:16:26to 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

1:17:26of 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

1:18:29actions 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.

1:19:33Kovat 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

1:20:33of 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

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