Reza Shah, also Reza Pahlavi (Persian: رضا پهلوی, Rez̤ā Pahlavī), (March 16, 1878 – July 26, 1944), was Shah of Iran from December 15, 1925 until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in September 16, 1941. Reza Shah overthrew Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Shah of the Qajar dynasty, and founded the Pahlavi Dynasty. He was later designated by his successor to the throne, and son, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as "Reza Shah the Great". He established an authoritarian government that valued nationalism, militarism, secularism and anti-communism combined with strict censorship and state propaganda.
Reza Shah introduced many socio-economic reforms, reorganizing the army, government administration, and finances. However, his attempts of modernisation reforms have been criticised by some for being "too fast". and "superficial" .Under Reza Shah, the social structure continued essentially to be one where a small minority lived off the labors of the rest. According to a study by Hedley Cooke, owing to the Reza Shah’s excessive expenditures “by the time of the outbreak World War II, the economic position of the average Iranian was considerably and chronically worse than it had been in 1925.”