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ANATOMY OF A REVOLUTION
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION


Zander Lyvers
Period 1




Phase 1: Economic and Political
Frustrations Under an Absolutist
Regime
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Both the French Revolution and the Iranian Revolution began with economic and
political discontent under an absolutist regime. Before the revolution Iran was ruled by Shah
Reza Pahlavi, and the old regime in France was ruled by Louis XVI . In Iran, power was
clustered among a close network of the Shah's relations and friends, while Louis XVI held
power from his palace of Versailles with the support of the 1
st
and 2
nd
estates
1
.

1
Reza Sayah, Iran marks revolution anniversary amid ongoing dissent. CNN,
February 8, 2010.
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Both leaders were facing an angry majority who were protesting the lack of political
power as well as the devastating economic conditions under which they suffered. Due to
France financially subsidizing the American Revolution, France became bankrupt in the
1780s. The poor suffered because the price of bread rose in 1789 after hail storms destroyed
the grain harvest. While the poor rioted over bread shortages, the bourgeoisie campaigned
for the ideals of the Enlightenment. The third estate created the National Assembly and
vowed to create a constitution in the famous Tennis Court Oath. After Louis XVI
responded by sending mercenaries to occupy Paris, the urban poor sans-culottes stormed the
Bastille prison for weapons. Similarly, 200 years later in the 1970s the gap between Iran's rich
and poor grew, which later led to revolution.
Distrust of the Shah's economic policy and resentment of his autocratic style fuelled
dissent against his regime
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. Opposition rallied around liberal pro-democracy voices, as well as
conservative ideas put forth by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a shia cleric living in exile in
Paris. Promising social and economic reform, the ayatollah prescribed a return to traditional
religious values, which struck a chord with many Iranians. As the 1970s drew to a close, a
series of large-scale, increasingly violent anti-Shah protests swept Iran. Instability, including a
wave of general strikes, continued throughout the year, crippling the country's economy.
For the king of France and the shah of Iran, economic depression fueled the flames of
revolution.



2
Emma Lynch, Slideshow: Iranian Revolution 1979. BBC, February 1, 2009.
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Phase 2: Absolutist Leaders
Power is Limited
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Revolutions tend to go through a liberal phase in which the original rulers role is
limited by the majority of citizens protests. For the first two years of the French
Revolution, the National Assembly was successful in limiting the kings absolute power. In
the Womens march to Versailles, armed peasant women were able to physically force King
Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette to move from Versailles to Paris. The National
Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which
guaranteed the rights of the French people. During this Liberal Phase of the revolution,
moderates were able to gain a constitution without the radical change of abolishing the
monarchy.
Similar to the liberal phases victory of limiting the kings power in France, in January
1979, the Shah left Tehran for an "extended vacation"
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. He was never to return. All over
Iran statues of the Shah were torn down by conservative Khomeini supporters. In his final
act before fleeing, the Shah appointed Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar as head of a regency
council to run the country in his absence. Mr Bakhtiar tried to stave off the growing tide of
opposition. He refused to allow Ayatollah Khomeini to form a new government. At this
time, there was hope that the country would shift to a democratic system with rights
guaranteed by a constitution
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. The people had succeeded in ousting the absolute leader.
However, the hope for a liberal revolution did not last long.

3
Emma Lynch, Slideshow: Iranian Revolution 1979. BBC, February 1, 2009.
4
Roger Cohen, 1979: Irans Islamic Revolution. Scholastic, 2010.
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Phase 3: A Violent Struggle
between Radicals and so-called
Enemies of the Revolution

The Iranian and French Revolutions both suffered a bloody phase that was
engineered by radicals. The radical phase of the French Revolution began after Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette were beheaded via guillotine. After this development, the Law of
Suspects was passed by Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety, which
eventually allowed everyone to be suspected as being enemies of the revolution. This law
led to the infamous Reign of Terror, in which 40,000 people were killed from 1793-1794. A
similar development happened in Iran after the liberal phase. In February 1979, Ayatollah
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Khomeini made a dramatic return from exile. Political and social instability increased. Street
battles raged in towns and provinces between pro-Khomeini demonstrators and police and
security officers, and supporters of the imperial regime
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. On the 11 February, tanks rumbled
through the streets of Tehran amid rumours of an impending military coup. However as the
day wore on it became apparent that the army had little appetite for seizing power.
Revolutionaries stormed Tehran's main radio station and declared: "This is the voice of the
revolution of the Iranian people!"
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Soon people that were part of the revolution but not as
religiously fundamentalist as Khomeinis followers were labeled as enemies of the
revolution.
While the radicals in France believed that religion was superstition and Catholicism
should be replaced with a worship of reason, the radical Iranian revolutionaries wanted to
reject anything that resembled western Enlightenment ideals. Instead, the radicals used a
fundamentalist version of Islam to justify their right to rule.

5
D. Parvez, Iran 1979, a revolution that shook the world. Al Jazeera, February 11,
2014.
6
Reza Sayah, Iran marks revolution anniversary amid ongoing dissent. CNN,
February 8, 2010.
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Phase 4: Return to Tyranny

Both the Iranian and the French Revolutions ended in a return to an absolute power.
In 1799 in France, Napoleon brought a return to a French monarchy even though he pushed
for some revolutionary reforms. Napoleon did pass the Napoleonic Code, which embraced
many Enlightenment ideas of natural rights, but he was still and emperor whose power was
unchecked by the population of France. While Napoleon was seen as a return to stability
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after the excesses of the radical phase in France, it was the radicals who maintained power in
Iran. Prime Minister Bakhtiar, who was left to govern after the shah left, resigned. Two
months later Ayatollah Khomeini won a landslide victory in a national referendum. He
declared an Islamic republic, and was appointed Iran's political and religious leader for life
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.
France eventually came to embrace the ideals of the French revolution that the
liberals and radicals desired, thereby ushering in a new era of recognition of the peoples
right to lead in the modern world. Political participation, religious freedom, freedom of the
press, the end of slavery, and the expansion of womens rights became ubiquitous in the later
19
th
and 20
th
centuries. However, Iran fought against everything associated with the west
since it associated the occident with the corruption and cronyism of the shah
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. While the
radicals of the French revolution were bringing society forward against the old ways of the
monarchy, the radicals of the Iranian revolutions goals were to take the country back in time
by imposing a theocratic system of government that still rules today.

7
Ian Black and Jim Powell, The Iranian Revolution: 30 years on, its legacy still
looms large. The Guardian, February 2, 2009.
8
Waiting for God: Debunking the myths that sustained Ayatollah Khomeinis
republic. The Economist, March 2, 2013.