The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur

The 1919 Anglo-Persian Agreement made every Persian government that followed unviable. Britain wanted Iran to be a colony, but couldn’t find a viable collaborator in the Qajjar Shahs or the Majlis. So, in 1921, they used one of their favorite moves: they organized a coup to overthrow a government they had installed and supported. The … Continue reading "Interwar 7: Reza Khan and the Cossack Coup of 1921"

Iran’s Constitutional Revolution was in 1905, but the British are there and bent on colonizing it. The struggles of the last of the Qajjar Shahs, the British occupation during WWI, and the British imposition of the hated Anglo-Persian agreement of 1919, which no Iranian government can survive…

In the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916, the Irish Revolutionaries regrouped. We trace their path through armed struggle against Britain, negotiation, the formation of the Dail and its role. The larger than life characters including Michael Collins and events like Bloody Sunday. How England’s first colony fought the Empire between the world wars.

In the early morning of January 3, 2026, the US bombed Venezuela and kidnapped its president and its first lady. As of Day 1 of the war, Venezuela’s government is intact and popular mobilizations are calling for their president’s return. Trump has said that the US will run Venezuela and take its oil. Some insights … Continue reading "AER 153: Venezuela War Begins with Maduro’s Kidnapping"

Our last episode of 2025. Did you know that Amanullah’s decision to wage war for Afghanistan’s independence from the British Empire had everything to do with Amritsar and the struggle underway in India in 1919? Some details on this war that you may not have heard, including the British besieging Peshawar, displacing whole towns full … Continue reading "Interwar 4: The Anglo-Afghan War of 1919: Amanullah wins Independence"