On New Year's Eve 1977, US President Jimmy Carter raised a glass in Tehran and called the Shah's Iran an island of stability. 54 weeks later, the Shah was gone, and 2,500 years of Iranian monarchy ended with him. How does a throne collapse that fast, in a single year? That is the question this video answers, together with the one that follows from it: what has losing the throne cost?
The reason to answer it now is running in Iran's streets. In early July 2026, millions of Iranians filed past the coffin of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed in an Israeli strike in February. His son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded in the same strike and has not been seen in public since. On 18 July, the Iranian judiciary indicted Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah's son, for espionage. And crowds in Iranian cities have kept chanting 2 words that were banned for 47 years. Javid Shah. Long live the Shah.
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