This is a very important and relevant to today map 👇 Amid the current war, it's important to remember that Iran, like much of the Global South, endured more than a century of colonial domination, marked by devastating territorial losses, humiliating foreign interventions, and deeply unequal concessions imposed by imperialist powers. This is indeed the broader historical backdrop to the current conflict, and why sovereignty remains such a deeply charged issue for many Iranians. The memory of national humiliation, exploitation, and foreign powers seeking to dictate Iran's fate is not easily erased. Against this backdrop, Trump's threats and actions toward Iran have been especially striking: openly coveting its oil and territory, threatening its civilization, attacking critical civilian infrastructure, and not so covert efforts to arm ethnic minorities and destabilize the country. These are not merely familiar instruments of coercive diplomacy. They evoke the methods and ambitions of the imperialist era. And this is of course hardly confined to Iran. Trump's approach to Venezuela is perhaps the clearest illustration of the broader pattern, and of the kind of outcome he has appeared to seek in Iran. It bears reminding that after Maduro's kidnapping, Washington this summer secured an extraordinary oil arrangement granting century-long concessions over 17 Venezuelan fields, an unprecedented U.S. government stake in the operator's parent company, and preferential rights to purchase its oil, including a huge amount production at cost regarding of constantly changing oil prices. The sheer imbalance of these terms evokes the immensely unequal concessions imposed on weaker countries during the colonial era. That such arrangements are being imposed in the 21st century is extraordinary, and their implications have received nowhere near the scrutiny they deserve. In Iran, the methods of coercion have in fact been even more aggressive, with military force, threats against the country's very existence, and pressure on its territorial integrity. Whatever one thinks of the Islamic Republic, the historical parallels are difficult to ignore. For Iranians who know their country's history, the specter of foreign domination is not an abstraction. It is a painful national memory, and one that Trump's conduct has brought forcefully back into the present.