British Policy In Persia 1918 1925

First Published in 1990. Viewed from the perspective of Whitehall, Persia was a crossroads where Britain’s European and Indian interests met. Control of Persia by any European power was bound to jeopardize the security of British India. At first London and India hesitantly experimented with the policy of bringing Persia into the British sphere of influence either by contracting an alliance with her or by turning her into a protectorate. Persia’s crushing defeat in the war with Russia put an end to these experiments. The Turkomanchai Treaty of 1828 firmly established Russian influence at Tehran. For the rest of the nineteenth century, the basic thrust of British policy was to prevent Russia from taking control of Persia and, at the same time, to avoid a serious dispute with her over Persia. So Persia had to be preserved as a buffer state. This volume charts the history of Persian Polices from 1918 to 1925.

A study of Anglo-Iranian relations during World War I. This book analyzes such diplomacy as an example of great power politics in regional affairs, examining Britain's concern to maintain stability in Iran and exclude foreign interests from the Persian Gulf and the approaches to India.

Early twentieth-century Iran had been dominated by the competing influences of the two great imperial powers of the time - Russia and Britain - making it difficult for a third power to establish a foothold. But an emergent, highly industrialised and assertive Germany in the 1930s became an attractive ally through which Iran could cut loose from domination by Britain and the Soviet Union, allowing it to seek modernity outside the constraints of old imperial interests. This led to the development of close commercial ties between Reza Shah's Persia and Hitler's Germany in the interwar period, an aspect of German foreign policy that is often overlooked. It was the National Bank of Persia, established in 1927 under German management, and with Kurt Lindenblatt as its governor, that was to be the vehicle for Germany's commercial expansion into Iran. The Bank was a vital engine driving industrialisation, even after Lindenblatt retired and was followed by Gholam Reza Amir-Khosrari and a board of directors including Hossein Ala and Abdul Hossein Hazhir. By the mid-1930s, a new German foreign policy approach of active diplomacy fortified initial inroads into the Iranian economy, building upon the foundations laid by individual entrepreneurs, the National Bank and the construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway. Iran evolved into an attractive country for international trade and, at the outbreak of World War II, Germany was Iran's largest trading partner - surpassing both the Soviet Union and Britain. These close ties reveal a complex relationship between Germany and Iran, and an admiration of the Nazi's brand of industrial, scientific and organisational progress. It was, however, a relationship that came to an abrupt end with the Allied invasion of Iran in 1941 that deposed the Shah. Khatib-Shahidi delves into previously untapped German primary sources to explore the nature of German involvement in Iran between the wars, examining how it came to be moulded by a handful of individuals. This book is a revealing resource on the historical ties between Iran and Germany, making it indispensable for students and researchers of European Imperialism and Colonialism in the Middle East as well as of Iranian Political and Economic History.

This is a study of Austen Chamberlain's term of office as Stanley Baldwin's Foreign Secretary from 1924-29. It is argued that Chamberlain's priority was a two-stage policy in Western Europe, which aimed at pacifying both France and Germany, as well as encouraging the League of Nations.

This collection of essays, by a distinguished group of specialists, offers a new and exciting interpretation of Riza Shah's Iran. A period of key importance, the years between 1921-1941 have, until now, remained relatively neglected. Recently, however, there has been a marked revival of interest in the history of these two decades and this collection brings together some of the best of this recent new scholarship. Illustrating the diversity and complexity of interpretations to which contemporary scholarship has given rise, the collection looks at both the high politics of the new state and at 'history from below', examining some of the fierce controversies which have arisen surrounding such issues as the gender politics of the new regime, the nature of its nationalism, and its treatment of minorities.

Placing Iran's 'tribal problem' in its historical context, this innovative and important work provides an overall assessment of tribal politics in the Riza Shah period, challenging conventional political and scholarly approaches to tribal politics.

The First World War, leading to the overthrow of the Qajar regime and replacement by Reza Shah, was pivotal in the history of modern Iran. The Constitutional Revolution of 1906-09 aimed to abolish the arbitrary regime and bring in a modern constitution and parliament. But growing provincial unrest and rebellion by nomadic peoples brought chaos and instability, heightened by the strains of war and intervention by foreign powers. Iran was on the brink of disintegration, modernisation had failed, and growing frustration and pressure from the disillusioned middle classes, intelligentsia and urban population, set the stage for centralisation of power under the `Man of Order' - Reza Shah.