In 1917, Mexico adopted a new constitution that reformed prior issues of inequitable land distribution and increased rights of workers and women, including universal suffrage. However, the increased nationalist sentiment meant that the government took control of industries that had been built under the Diaz regime and discouraged foreign investment.

In 1923, Reza Shah was selected as the Prime Minister of Iran by the National Assembly, becoming the first democratically elected monarch in the country’s history. He established a constitutional monarchy that lasted until the Revolution of 1979. He established a secular state and instituted many reforms to bring Iran in line with the western world, including infrastructure building, modern education, industrialization, public health, and loosening restrictions on women.

The Iranian Revolution occurred in 1979. The regime of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced by an Islamic regime led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. 

In 1979 the Iranian Revolution overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and Ruhollah Khomeini came into power. He ruled Iran as the Supreme Leader until his death in 1989 when Ali Khamenei took the position.

After the First World War President Ataturk of Turkey and the Shah of Iran laid out aggressive policies for the modernization of their two nations. These policies moved away from the religiously governed law codes, and enforced western culture, business, and legal practices. 

The May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist political movement that began in China in the late 1910s. By that time, the Qing dynasty had fallen and China was a fragment nation dominated by foreign Western powers. As a result, young intellectual and nationalists in China advocated reform, attacking traditional Confucian ideals and advocating adoption of Western science and democracy.

The Boxer Rebellion began in China in 1899. Unlike the earlier Taiping Rebellion, the goal of the Boxer Rebellion was to rid China of foreign influence, particularly the influence of Christianity. The rebels were eventually defeated by the combined efforts of the Chinese government and the overwhelming military force of the European powers.

The Duma was created in Russia in 1906 in response to Bloody Sunday, the Russian Revolution and the rise of the soviets. The Duma was, for a time, the Russian legislative body. It was overthrown in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then reinstated as the lower legislative body of the Russian Federation in 1993, following the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Indian National Congress was founded in the late nineteenth century and soon grew to be the largest and most influential organization campaigning for Indian independence. The Muslim League was founded in 1906 and worked alongside the Indian National Congress in pursuit of independence. The stated goal of the Muslim League was to ensure the political and social rights of Muslims during the transition from British rule.

Prior to the Iranian Revolution, Iran was a country in the midst of a decades long modernization movement. However, the Iranian Revolution ushered Ayatollah Khomeini into power and he instituted a government based on strict adherence to Islamic law.