EP 25: Iran Unconquered

Is Iran a colonial predator or colonial prey?

In this episode, we dive into Iran’s history from 1500 to 2026. Looking at its long struggle over sovereignty, economic and political instability, and survival in a modern world shaped by colonial empires.

Join Triploi as we trace Iran’s path from the Safavid Empire through to its 18th-century collapse and warlord fragmentation, and into the 19th-century, when industrial empires turned trade, debt, and diplomacy into weapons of global domination, and all the clever ways Iran avoids their traps.

Then into the 20th century when the discovery of oil draws the eye of US imperialism, and all the horrors that would soon follow…

And finally in the 21st century, where Iran’s story continues to ask the question, what is the price of sovereignty?

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References and reading list:

• Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran (2008)
• Hamid Dabashi, Iran: A People Interrupted (2007)
• Cosroe Chaqueri, The Left in Iran, 1905–1940 (2001)
• Afshin Matin‑Asgari, Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah (2002)
• Kamran Matin, Recasting Iranian Modernity: International Relations and Social Change (2013)
• Homa Katouzian, Khalil Maleki: The Human Face of Iranian Socialism (2018)
• David S. Painter & Gregory Brew, The Struggle for Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951–1954 (2022)
• Hamid Dabashi, Iran in Revolt: Revolutionary Aspirations in a Post‑Democratic World (2025)