:DThis country was called Persia for a long time by people outside of Iran. But Iranians (people who were from Iran) always called their country "Iran." The name Iran is drived from "Aryan" and is also mentioned in the ancient book of the Zoroastrians, which was called the Avesta.
People have lived there since before history. Around 3200 BC it was the centre of the Persian Empire. Then, Alexander the Great took the country by fighting and the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia later ruled. After them the Sassanian dynasty (AD 224-651) took over.
Other people took Persia by fighting like the Arabs (7th century), Turks (10th century) and Mongols (13th century). However, Iran has always maintained a distinct culture and continues to survive. The Safavid dynasty (1502-1736) made Islam the religion of Iran although Islam was always popular then. The Pahlavi dynasty ruled from 1925 until 1979, when there was a revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini created an Islamic republic.
In 1951 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was brought to power after being unanimously elected as prime minister by the parliament in Iran. His first act in office was to nationalize the oil industry in Iran which had been controlled by Great Britain.(Most of Britain's oil was pumped from Iran at the time) This move was seen as a danger to Great Britain's security and empire so they attempted unsuccessfuly to overthrow the government. After this they convinced the U.S. through diplomacy that the government of Iran was a communist threat.
the Iranian people re-took the country, and drove out the United States invaders.
The CIA worked in Iran to create riots which ultimately led to the removal of Prime Minister Mossadegh. The U.S. and Great Britain then installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as leader of Iran. .
The words "Iran" and "Iraq" are similar only in Latin alphabet. In Arabic/Persian, they are different. They are spelled "ايران" and "عراق" respectively.
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