Britain and South-West Persia 1880-1914


Book Description

This book examines the diplomatic activities and behind-the-scene negotiations which led to the Karun opening, including an 'Assurance' given by Britain to the Shah against a Russian retaliation. It also provides a comprehensive analysis of the region's demography, commerce and industry before the advent of the Karun, and the impact of Britain's political and commercial penetration, which eventually resulted in her total domination of the south. This analytical study of the Anglo-Iranian relationship is unique in its extensive use of primary Persian sources and original material found at the Iranian Foreign Ministry archives which have been accessed by the author for the first time.




Russian Imperialism


Book Description

This book offers a fresh and stimulating analysis of the often elusive relationship between domestic and foreign policy in Russia before the First World War. Dietrich Geyer, one of Germany's leading historians of Russia, discusses a wide variety of economic, fiscal, institutional, and ideological developments within imperial Russia. In so doing, he brings into sharp relief the difficulties faced by the ruling elites in maintaining Russia's great power position in Europe, the Near East, and the Far East. Now available in English for the first time, this widely acclaimed book will be welcomed as an indispensable resource by all those who were unable to read the original German edition. "By far the most perceptive, knowledgeable, and intelligent work on the last half century of imperial Russia in print." -Theodore H. Von Laue, Russian History "This important, tightly packed book... analyzes the basic problems of Russian imperialism thoroughly and with enormous erudition.... Scholars concerned with imperialism and Russian domestic and foreign problems will welcome this thought-provoking work." -David MacKenzie, American Historical Review "A convincing and important analysis of the mutual dependence of autocratic domestic and foreign politics.... This book ought to be the occasion for a renewed and wide discussion of Russian imperialism and should give rise to further studies of the question." -Alan Kimball, Slavic Review "This is a remarkably good book. Good in many respects--quality of research and writing, breadth of view, command of the facts, balance and penetration in judgment, familiarity with relevant theory.... The book represents a revived and deepened historicism." -Paul W. Schroeder, Journal of Modern History







British Policy in Persia, 1918-1925


Book Description

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.




Russia and Iran, 1780-1828


Book Description

Russia and Iran, 1780–1828 was first published in 1980. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Modern Russo-Iranian relations date from the late eighteenth century, when after several centuries of commercial and diplomatic contact, the two nations entered a period of extended warfare for possession of the Caucasian borderlands, disputed territory that eventually fell to Russia. In her history of that struggle, Muriel Atkin reasseses the motives of major figures on both sides and views the Iranians with more sympathy than Western and Russian historians have usually accorded them. Russia embarked on her course in the Caucasus for reasons connected with defense or trade, and with a longterm imperial goal based on uncritical acceptance of prevailing European doctrines of empire. The new dynasty in Iran, on the other hand, had to fend off Russian attack and secure the borderlands in order to justify its basic claim to power. In the end, the wars brought major disruption to the already unstable borderlands, and left Iran with a discredited government and a controversy over reforms and relations with the West that would continue to cause turmoil in subsequent generations.







Britain and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911


Book Description

In this thoroughly researched account, Mansour Bonakdarian provides an in-depth exploration of the substantial British support for the Iranian constitutional and national struggle of 1906-1911, illuminating the opposition in Britain to Anglo-Russian imperialist intervention in Iran. In painstaking and compelling detail Bonakdarian analyzes, in particular, the role of the Persia Committee, a lobbying group founded in 1908 for the sole purpose of changing Britain's policy toward Iran. This book's strength lies in its coverage of how Sir Edward Grey's policy toward Iran was shaped and the extent to which this policy was affected by sustained criticism from a number of disparate groups including dissenters, radicals, socialists, liberal imperialists, and conservatives. The volume and breadth of primary archival materials used is extensive. Not only have all the standard collections been examined, such as the Foreign Office files and the Cabinet and Grey papers, but also numerous private archives in international libraries have been consulted. Bonakdarian's deep understanding of the Iranian issues yields a rich and balanced approach to the literature in the field. With clear and systematic arguments, he offers an account of diplomatic history that is accessible and persuasive. His scholarship is certain to reinvigorate dialogue on the subject of Anglo-Iranian relations.




Iranian-Russian Encounters


Book Description

This collection will explore the myriad encounters which have taken place between Iranians and Russian in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will include some discussion of diplomacy and foreign policy but a central objective of the collection will be to widen the scholarly perspective to incorporate an understanding of other types of encounter, whether political, economic, social, cultural, or intellectual, and both friendly and hostile, especially as these developed beyond the official and elite levels. In particular it will attempt to understand the complexities of the impact on Iran of the Russian presence on its northern borders: the very expansion of Tsarist empire during the nineteenth century threatening Iran's independence yet bringing ideas of social-democracy to its doorstep, the Soviet Union in the twentieth century similarly contradictory in its effect, sustaining radical Iranian politics while advancing its own strategic interests.




Iran


Book Description

First Published in 1983. This book brings together the best of Professor Keddie's articles on Iran both published and newly written and spans almost two decades. Long before the current religious-political alliance in Iran startled the world and toppled the Shah, Prof.Keddie undertook a series of studies that reveal the social, economic, doctrinal and political roots of what she was the first to call the 'Religious-Radical' alliance in Iran.