Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran.

The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty or Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty. The last Iranian king was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979), which was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution. Since then, Iran has been governed as an Islamic republic.

Reza Shah Pahlavi was an Iranian military officer and monarch who was the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and Shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941. Originally an army officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war and prime minister of Iran, and was elected shah following the deposition of the last monarch of the Qajar dynasty. In order to reduce foreign influence by Britain and Russia, he partnered with Germany and used German expertise to modernize Iran's infrastructure during the 1920s and 1930s. Reza Shah's reign ended when he was forced to abdicate after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, during the Second World War; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Mohammad Reza Shah. A modernizer, Reza Shah clashed with the Shia clergy and introduced social, economic, and political reforms during his reign, ultimately laying the foundations of the modern Iranian state. Therefore, he is regarded by many as the founder of modern Iran, though the Pahlavi dynasty he established was later overthrown in the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. Iran ranks 17th globally in both geographic size and population and is the sixth-largest country in Asia. Iran is divided into five regions with 31 provinces. Tehran is the nation's capital, largest city, and financial center.