Contemporary History (Since Qajar till Present Day)       As long as men fought with swords and at the most with simple guns and cannons, Iranians were known as fearless and fierce warriors. But the then modern weapons and war techniques, developed by Europeans, changed the methods of warfare so rapidly that within a short period of time Iranians found themselves helpless before Western armies. When Agha Mohammad Khan of Qajar dynasty defeated the Russian army with lightning speed, it was considered only natural by the Iranians that they should win the war with such ease. Just over a decade later, the modernized Russian army helped by British diplomacy, inflicted one defeat after another on the Iranian army leading to the annexation of a number of northern Iranian provinces by the Russian empire, notably Georgia and what became later known as Soviet Azerbaijan (the Republic of Azerbaijan, as it is known today.)     On the domestic side, lacking experience in international politics and diplomacy Iran soon became the scene of colonial rivalry between the Russians and the British who demanded more and more concessions from Iran and imposed merciless conditions. The Iranian central government was weakened and lost its autocratic control over the nation and, incidentally, the nation took the opportunity to demand and secure a constitutional system of government (1906). However, for the same reason (weakness of the central government) internal conditions became chaotic inducing the Russians and the British to take full advantage of the situation such that in 1907 an agreement was signed by the two powers according to which Iran was divided into two "spheres of influence", the North being under the "influence" or control of the Russians and the South being practically governed by the British; though officially Iran retained its independence. With the Russian Revolution and the overthrow of the Czarist regime, the Russian influence diminished, and even for some time vanished altogether, although it soon returned with the coming to power of Stalin: first as a great rival which the British had to contend with, and soon after as their ally.     Meanwhile, an Iranian soldier, Reza Khan, had been showing great gift for military leadership and organization, and had risen from the status of a private to that of an officer while the Iranian army was under the super vision and instruction of imperial Russian officers as military advisers. When the Russian officers left the Iranian army following the October Revolution, Reza Khan's value as a soldier became even more evident and appreciated. By then, the British were untroubled by Russian rivalries and favored a strong central government in Iran to protect their interests specially in the oil industry. Ahmad Shah, the last Qajar king, was not willing to cooperate with the British; and the Majlis (the parliament) which at one time the British had favored was now an obstacle in their way. Thus, Reza Khan whom the British discovered as a man capable of controlling the country and protecting their interests, was supported by them. In 1921 he engineered a coup d'賡t with the cooperation of Seid Zia- od-Din Tabatabai, a young journalist, as a result of which the latter became the prime minister and Reza Khan the minister of war. Gradually Reza Khan gained complete control of the government and the Majlis which finally deposed Ahmad Shah (1925) and a constituent assembly elected Reza Khan as the Shah.     The Pahlavi dynasty was thus established. In the Second World War Reza Shah, sympathizing with the Germans, refused to allow the allies to pass Iran to supply the Soviet Union with war materials, and so help the Russians fight against the Germans. So, the Allied forces occupied Iran in 1941 and remained there until the war was over. As soon as Iran was occupied, Reza Shah was coerced by the British to abdicate in favor of his son Mohammad Reza who had to adopt policies more appropriate to the circumstances. Bitter over the fact that Reza Shah had "betrayed" them and had disappointed them, the British refused Reza Shah's request to go to Canada. Instead the British government sent him first to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar, and later to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he died in I 944. From 1941 Mohammad Reza Shah, a young man of 22 years began his reign over the Iranian nation.