Reddit reviews Blood and Oil:: Memoirs of a Persian Prince

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Britain had invested a lot of money in developing Iran's oil fields, and in return was promised a share in its profits.

That's not at all the arrangement that was actually in place. For one thing the Brits prevented Iran from checking the books to see how much oil was being pumped and kept two sets of books to cheat Iran

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Oil-Memoirs-Persian-Prince/dp/0679440550

What part of They Weren't Allowed To Industrialize did you not get?

In Iran, the oil was being ROBBED thanks to colonial-era contracts (in which, for example, BP could take as much oil as it wanted but didn't have to show Iran the books. Read this http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Oil-Memoirs-Persian-Prince/dp/0679440550) Iran got NOTHING for it until the 1960s even though Iranian oil kept the British navy afloat, which allowed Britain to have that empire. Today Iran is a major automaker -- and under sanctions for trying to develop nuclear technology to develop its economy while its oil dwindles.

Nor was this limited to oil. In the 1890s for example the British and a corrupt Iranian monarch made a secret trade deal according to which in return for kickbacks to the King, the entire tobacco business in Iran would be the conceded to the British. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Protest When this became public knowledge, it led to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, which was crushed by the colonial powers. In 1907 Iran tried to regain access to its sovereignty and resources, and even hired an American named Morgan Shuster to manage the country's economic affairs -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_Shuster - but he was forced out of office by the Russian and British powers who had divided Iran between themselves, and Iran's attempts at creating a democracy with a Constitutional monarchy like Europe were ended when these powers backed the return of another corrupt King and even shelled Iran's Parliament building. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908_bombardment_of_the_Majlis

Furthermore, not all nations in the Mideast HAVE oil, and many only came into existence on the drawing boards of colonial powers for THEIR benefit (such as Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc -- all left over from the fall of the Ottoman empire after WWI) Most of these nations are led by corrupt leaders who were placed there by the same colonial powers, and who get rich while their country is exploited and kept backwards. Saudi Arabia is a perfect example. The people are bought off with govt payments from the sale of oil, but Saudi Arabia produces nothing else except raw oil.

The whole point of colonialism is to PREVENT the colonized nation from being anything more than the producer of raw materials, and consumers of finished goods made by the colonialists. When colonized nations try to create their own industry, they get attacked. For example in India, the Brits had a monopoly on all the cotton and wool to be sent to British textile firms where they would be turned into garments and sold back to the Indians. This meant that India wasn't allowed to maintain their own textile industry. That was the whole point of why Mahatma Gandhi started his own weaving wheel, which is now the central symbol of India's flag. The British also had obtained a monopoly on the sea salt business. People in India weren't even allowed to make their own salt (rather a big deal in a tropical country especially.) Which is why Gandhi went on a famous trek to the ocean in 1930...

Don't even get me started on the Chinese experience with Western FORCED opium-peddling which was used to maintain a favorable balance of trade in favor of the Brits and Americans who were exploiting China.

So before jumping to conclusions, learn your goddamn history.

I don't really need to read the collective ignorance of people, thank you, I am very familiar with my own country's history.


>Before 1979, although Iran owned the company, there was a 50/50 agreement on proceeds, but Iran could not even take a look at the books...

No, that was before 1953 that Iran could not check BP's books.
Here's a book you should read whch discusses that specific point

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Oil-Memoirs-Persian-Prince/dp/0679440550

and no the fact that Iran generated more tax from non-oil than oil does not prove the opposite, because it supports my point that in reality Iran ias less and less reliant on oil

Furthermore like the UN report stated and I quoted, Iran's economy was not doing so well during that time period when it was massively improving living standards and was actually subject to sanctions

If you're suggesting that Iran must have had some savings after overthrowing the Shah that it was using to develop, well that's not correct either and in fact the Shah's regime was facing dire economic conditions in the late 1970s and Iran had to cancel weapons purchases too like 2 Spruance Class Destroyers canceled in 1976

>with someone who behaves like this,

You mean someone who doesn't just make up crap?