Despite the importance of the Persian Gulf as a theatre of war during World War II, few scholarly works have examined the impact of the war on lives of the inhabitants of the northern littoral of the Persian Gulf during this period (1939-1945). However, control of Iran was of strategic importance to the Allied forces (the Soviet Union, the U.K., the United States and China). The Southern (especially the southwestern) coastline of Iran was not only the site of important oil fields, but also served as an entrepôt for supply routes to the Soviet Union via the Gulf and a site of struggle with the Axis forces, particularly the Germans. Using archival sources this dissertation offers a glimpse into how the local populations of southern Iran lived under Allied (American, British and Soviet) occupation. It attempts to answer the following research questions: What impact did the occupation of Allied forces have on life for Iranians in the Persian Gulf littoral during WWII? Did they collaborate, resist or simply live alongside the Allied forces? The archives include the National Library and Archives of Tehran, the Moassess-e-Bushehr Shenasi (The Institute for Bushehr Studies) in Bushehr, Iran, the National Archives of the United States in College Park, Maryland, and the British Library in London, England. These sources are primarily qualitative and include consular reports, correspondence, journals, dairies, letters, government (Persian Gulf Command) reports and newspaper articles. The argument is that — although the Allied powers (particularly the British and American governments in the Gulf region) preferred a stable government that could control the population, the removal of Reza Shah in 1941 and the subordination of local institutions for the war effort paradoxically opened a space for people in the south to formulate political ideas that would chart a path for the country’s future. In that sense, the paper adds to national, regional and global historiography.