History Source Analysis. To what extent did the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979 and the new regime cause the Iran-Iraq war in 1980?

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History Culminating Project

To what extent did the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979 and the new regime cause the Iran-Iraq war in 1980?  

Cyrus Eshafi

Mr. Mungar, Period D

January 21, 2012

Word Count: 992  


  1. This paper will be exploring the short term causes of the Iran-Iraq war (1979-1980), and will be answering the research question: To what extent did the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979 and the new regime cause the Iran-Iraq war in 1980?  To answer this question, a variety of academic, encyclopedia, interview, and website sources will be studied, and the views of both Iran and Iraq will be explored.

        

B) In the year 1979, the king of Iran was overthrown, and the new Shi’a (Islamic branch) led government was installed.  Although more than half of Iraq’s population was Shi’a, Iraq was still a Sunni Islamic state.  The revolutionary regime in Iran actively encouraged and funded Shi’a Iraqi Muslims to violently rebel against the government to “export the revolution”, which created tension with the Sunni government in Iraq.  The regime also encouraged Shi’a Iraqis to assassinate Saddam Hussein (the dictator of Iraq in 1980).  Furthermore, the Iraqi foreign minister was injured in an assassination plot by Shi’a extremists.  Hussein’s regime killed and deported Iraqi’s who supported the revolution in Iraq.  Claiming that Iraq was killing Islam by attempting to stop the spread of the revolution, the Iranian government insisted that the people commence a religious war of Jihad (a war against non-believers of Islam).  This was often used as propaganda, so that Iranians had reason to fight.  Hussein made it very clear that he would defend Iraq’s honour and sovereignty if his regime was undermined by Shi’a Iraqi revolutionaries.  Both Iran and Iraq were seeking supremacy in the Middle-East, and after Iran had broken the border treaty of Algiers (1975) in 1979, Hussein used this as propaganda to start a war to gain prestige for his country.  Also, after American embassy workers in Iran were taken hostage in 1979, America encouraged Hussein to enter war with Iraq.  Iraq attacked Iran after the Iranian revolution; because Iran’s large military had collapsed. 

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  1. (source number 8)  The information I obtained from this source comes from an Iranian conscript soldier who fought in the frontlines in 1980.  The information was collected by asking specific questions about the causes of the Iran-Iraq war.

 The purpose of Mr. Eshafi sharing his input on the war was to teach me how the war started in 1980.

This source is valuable, because it comes from a conscript soldier, which may mean that his opinion was not altered by emotion.  This makes his opinion on the subject less biased.    

This source ...

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