2. The Shah Was Soon Forced to Flee the Country
The protests against the Shah continued. In September of 1978, clerics directed as many as half a million people to march through the streets of Tehran. Believing that the mass demonstrations against him were a passing phase that he was in control of, the shah ordered the military to open fire in what came to be known as Black Friday. A total of 89 demonstrators were killed. Protests and demonstrations against him intensified until he realized that it was no longer safe for him to stay in the country. The Shah fled Iran on January 16, 1979, and left the government in the hands of a regency council.
Many in the international community believed that the Islamic Revolution was a blip that would soon dissipate, and the Shah would be able to return to a restored Iran. However, that was not to be the case. World leaders would quickly have to figure out how they would negotiate with the new Islamic government, which was founded almost entirely on the religious ideals of Ayatollah Khomeini. This challenge was exacerbated by a group of students from the University of Tehran, who laid siege to the American embassy and took dozens of diplomats hostage in what came to be seen as the enduring legacy of the revolution: the Iranian hostage crisis.