Can Iran/Persia become a great power?

With a post-1850 or so POD? Post-1900? Iran used to be a solid breadbasket and has some notable coal deposits, if I can recall correctly. But what would it take? Was it politically feasible? Could they play off the Russians, the Turks and the British?
 
With a post-1850 or so POD? Post-1900? Iran used to be a solid breadbasket and has some notable coal deposits, if I can recall correctly. But what would it take? Was it politically feasible? Could they play off the Russians, the Turks and the British?
I think you'd have to have an earlier POD for Iran to really become a Great Power. Though in the hands of a very gifted ruler, you could conceivably have a guy who plays the British against the Russians to get help modernizing and the like.
 
Iran couldn't become a 'Great Power' post-1850 without some spectacular PODs. I can see the nation becoming a regional power and gain notoriety in the rest of world perhaps, but power on par with Russia, Germany, France, etc...? It seems far too unlikely to me at least, sorry.

During the 1900s (and late 1800s) the main reason Iran did not modernise was because of the strength of the conservative clerics/tribal leaders. Removing those and other factors that worked against modernisation would be hard. A Meiji Iran would be more easily done with an even earlier POD.
 
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I think you'd have to have an earlier POD for Iran to really become a Great Power. Though in the hands of a very gifted ruler, you could conceivably have a guy who plays the British against the Russians to get help modernizing and the like.

that's an option

or for a more recent PoD - the Shah doesn't fall and Iran becomes a relatively westernised nation with a relatively moderate government which means Iran is a US / western Proxy in nipping Saddam in the bud and chasing al-queda around the gulf ...
 
I think you'd have to have an earlier POD for Iran to really become a Great Power. Though in the hands of a very gifted ruler, you could conceivably have a guy who plays the British against the Russians to get help modernizing and the like.

I'd say Reza Shah covers that well enough. :p
 

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Wasn't it already a great power or at the very least moderately powerful when The Shah was in charge? The thing I've noticed about Iran is its a modern country(as far as technological advances are concerned), but has an ass-backwards government. If they can drop the religious restrictions and a government overturn, then thats a step in the right direction.
 
Wasn't it already a great power or at the very least moderately powerful when The Shah was in charge? The thing I've noticed about Iran is its a modern country(as far as technological advances are concerned), but has an ass-backwards government. If they can drop the religious restrictions and a government overturn, then thats a step in the right direction.

Nobody's saying they're not modern, but rather that they're not a great power.
 
Great power seems ASB but a Persia/Iran as a regional power wouldn't be too hard to make happen.
Persia's in a spot where it isn't possible to be simply a regional power...historically its been surrounded by enemies....Turks to the west and north, Russians too, Mughals to the east...it needs to dominate at least on of those powers...and 1739 is too late for that. By 1850, it is way too late.
 
Essentially, you need someone other then the Safavids to unite Persia post-Timurids. Or that's the easiest way to get a government conducive to Great-powerdom anyway.

In face, just getting rid of Timur entierly is probably a good idea.
 
Essentially, you need someone other then the Safavids to unite Persia post-Timurids. Or that's the easiest way to get a government conducive to Great-powerdom anyway.

In face, just getting rid of Timur entierly is probably a good idea.
Not necessarily....perhaps if Timur himself was better at keeping his empire stable, and not try and go off to China could create a basis for a strong and GP Persia.
 
In the ancient world Persian Empire was a great power and there are several PODs which would have made it a great power. Even if we leave all possibilities prior to the twentieth century, Persia had chances in the last century also. Had Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi been not as despotic as he was, and had he introduced economic and political reforms which were essential, he might have saved his throne and made Iran a Regional Power.
 
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