He might have done things for love of Iran, who knows. After all he was a great soldier and a true Iranian.
However, as a leader, he was brought to power by British and ruled Iran with an iron feast. People think of little achievement he made as if they were something huge, forgetting the very fact that rule of likes of him are main responsible factors for setting back the clock in our counry to as far as ancient times. Dictatorial rules, especially when foreign intervention is involved, are anything but regretful for a country.
I disagree with you on this. Our country was set back by Qajar dynasty and their incompetence and their vatan foroshi and ...
Reza Shah Kabir had no choice other than being tough and hard. To cut the hand of all those Qajar Shahzadeh, all those separatists, all those Amameh besar Akhoonds, he could have not taken any other approach.
You cannot implement democratic ways in a country that was hold back in dark ages by bunch of Islamic turban head devils and dirty Qajar kings. Our people did not have the education to accept democratic ways (heck, most of them still don't). He had to first make the changes, clean the country from the hand of few rich and powerful and then as history shows, start to educate people.
Reza Shah built schools, roads, hospitals, universities and sent Iranian students to Europe to study.
He kept Iran from being torn into pieces by like Khazal and....
If it was not for Reza Shah, who knows how many more years we would have had the power in the dirty hand of Qajar and Qajar princes and what would have been left of Iran. they have already lost so much of Iran through Golestan and Torkamanchayee treaty, who knows what would have been next !!! Lets not start on their vatan foroshi and their economical treaties with Russia and UK.