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How The British Empire Captured Iran's Wealth

#iran #uk #irancoup1953

For decades, the 1953 Iranian coup has been framed as a Cold War operation to stop communism. That explanation misses the real motive. The coup was not ideological, it was financial.

After World War II, Britain was economically exhausted. Its empire was shrinking, its currency was under strain, and its recovery depended heavily on one foreign asset: Iran’s oil. That dependence ran through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which generated enormous wealth for Britain while Iran received only a carefully controlled share of the profits from its own resources.

This documentary exposes how a concession signed in 1901 allowed Britain to dominate Iran’s oil industry for decades. While British tax revenues from Iranian oil helped stabilize the postwar economy, Iran was left with limited returns, calculated through accounting systems it did not control.
By the early 1950s, the Abadan refinery had become essential to Britain’s financial stability. When Iran moved to nationalize its oil industry in 1951, Britain did not simply lose an investment, it faced a serious economic threat.

This film examines the financial reality behind Operation Ajax, the covert operation that removed Iran’s democratically elected government. Unable to intervene openly, Britain turned to intelligence cooperation, political pressure, and covert action, drawing the United States into a campaign that prioritized economic survival over democratic principle.

From corporate compounds and intelligence safehouses to the streets of Tehran, this is the story of how oil, power, and desperation converged in 1953, and how that decision set the stage for decades of instability that still shape the world today.

#iran #uk #irancoup1953 #history #historyfacts