QUICK REVIEW

1. Iran had been a monarchy since antiquity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_Iran

2. And then the last Shah of Iran was at minimum deeply divisive : secret police, repression, unpopular economic & social changes rapid-fired from the top (sound familiar)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi

3. He tried to nationalize Iran's oil infrastructure, which led to the CIA giving the theocratic, brutally repressive Islamic Revolution its victory in 1979
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution