Figure 1.-- |
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Muslim countries and preominately Muslim areas were some of the most backward areas on earth. Photograms taken in the late-19th century show societies that had changed littlde in a millenium. Most of the change that did occur was in the areas colonized by the Europens. There was almost no infrastructyre, technology, or medical science that was not European. It is interesting that Islamists today blwme their problems on the West and colonization. Never do they mention how backward the Muslim world or ever attempt to understand why that was. The most advanced state was the Ottoman Empire, but even the Ottomans were far behind the West. Iran or Persia at it was called until the 1930s was one of the Muslims countries that had virtually no modern infrastructure. Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925–41) set about developing the country's first modern ifrastructure bring the country for the fitst time into the modern world. He initiated a wide range of reforms, including founding an educational reform and legal system. He introduced modern industries. Some of the reforms andresulkting social change disturbed Persia's very conservative Islamic society which casued political stability. One of Reza Shah's most important development projects was the Trans-Iranian Railroad. It would play an important role in getting American Lend Lease supplies to the embattled Soviet Union. It connected Persian Gulf ports to the Soviet border. It was hardly sufficent for the quantity of supplies dlivered, but it provide a working railroad that could be expnded. Britain and the Soviets intervened in Iran to remove the NAZI-leabing Reza Shah and replace him with his son (1941). The United States set out to exppand Irans's infrastructure, including ports, roads and ard rail. As a result while most countries were devestated by World war II. Iran acquired the most modern ibfrastructure in the Middle East. Iran's mecrurial Islamicist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13), demanded reparations from the Unite States. The demand was soon dropped when Ahmadinejad could not point to any damage done, but a lot of modern ifrastructure that American built.
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