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VI. British Intervention in the Persian Revolution, 1905–1909*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Ira Klein
Ira Klein
Affiliation:
The American University, Washington, D.C.
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Extract

The activity of the foreign Powers in Persia during the early twentieth century has begun to receive historians’ attention; the British role in the Persian struggle against Kajar despotism, however, has not been made clear. The British have been pictured as indecisive and as not significantly supporting the Persian revolution. Or, where they have been described as aiding rebellion, only vague implications exist as to their purpose: hints that before the Anglo-Russian Convention the British encouraged the revolutionaries in order to extend British influence, presumably at Russian expense, and that after the Convention the British tried to make the shah honour his promises to the constitutionalists to obtain political stability and a secure environment for British trade. At least partly correct, if limited in scope and inexplicit about details, these ideas do not allow a full understanding of British policy during the tumultuous Persian struggle for a constitution. A thorough examination of the exact impact of the Anglo-Russian Convention on Russians and revolutionaries in Persia is required for comprehension of British attitudes and policies.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 731 - 752
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 Keddie, N. R., ‘British Policy and the Iranian Opposition 1901–7’, Journal of Modern History, XXXIX, 3 (1967), 282.Google Scholar

2 Kazemzadeh, Firuz, Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864–1914 (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968), pp. 490–543.Google Scholar

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5 Ibid. p. 280.

6 Ibid. p. 281.

7 Ibid. p. 282.

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12 Foreign Office Series 416, Persia (P.R.O.), vol. XXVIII, Grant Duff to Grey, 19 July 1906.

13 Grey Papers (P.R.O.), Spring Rice to Grey, 3 Jan. 1907.

14 Ibid., Grey's Memo, on Persia, 23 Feb. 1906.

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27 F.O. 416/33, Nicolson to Grey, 7 Nov. 1906.

28 It was true of course that formally there was no way that a convention between Russia and Britain alone could have excluded Germany or any other Power from concessions or political intervention in Persia. Tehran traditionally had attempted to play Russia against Britain, however, to maintain Persian freedom of action. Any common Anglo-Russian front against other foreign concessions would have carried significant weight in Persian court and high political circles; the British and Russians were successful, in fact, in imposing a de facto exclusion of concessions to other Powers in most of Persia several years later. Before this understanding was reached the Germans were free to bid for economic advantages from the shah as well as for the political allegiance of any group in Persia. Naturally, the Russians eventually tried to gain German adherence to the closing of the Open Door by offering a quid pro quo, which the Germans accepted. Naturally also, this agreement did not prevent the overtures of Persian dissidents to the Germans, who became the great hope of the radical nationalists in Persia after the reformers’ faith in the British diminished. The central point for the period of the Persian revolution, however, between 1907 and 1909, was that the Convention had not advanced British interests as far as Grey, Nicolson and others had hoped; by no means had the British ‘fastened their clutch’ irresistibly on Persia. They had not succeeded in securing a Russian commitment to help banish Germany from the region, and were forced to pursue their own methods of limiting German influence. The British remained anxious, then, about German penetration, and their concern comprised another axis for British policy making in addition to that of obtaining good relations with the Russians. For negotiations with Germany towards closing the Open Door, see F.O. 416/44, Goschen to Grey, 5 May and 13 May 1910; O'Beirne to Grey, 30 Oct. and 9 Nov. 1910; Bertie to Grey, 23 Nov. 1910.

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46 F.O. 416/37, Marling to Grey, 17 June 1908.

47 Ibid.

48 F.O. 416/37, Marling to Grey, 15 July 1908.

49 F.O. 416/28, Consul Grahame to Grant, n.d., enclosed in Grant Duff to Grey, 15 July 1906.

50 F.O. 416/26, Hardinge to Grey, 23 Dec. 1905.

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52 F.O. 416/26, Hardinge to Grey, 23 Dec. 1905.

53 Ibid.

54 F.O. 416/25, Grant Duff to Lansdowne, 7 Dec. 1905.

55 F.O. 416/25, Grant Duff to Lansdowne, 2 Dec. 1905.

56 F.O. 416/46, Acting Consul Smart to Barclay, enclosed in Barclay to Grey, 24 Nov. 1910.

57 F.O. 416/26, Hardinge to Grey, 23 Dec. 1905.

58 F.O. 416/33, memo, by Colonel Douglas on the Persian Army, enclosed in Spring Rice to Grey, 16 July 1907.

59 F.O. 416/37, Marling to Grey, 1 Aug. 1908.

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68 F.O. 416/26, Grahame to Grant Duff, n.d., enclosed in Grant Duff to Grey, 15 July 1906.

69 F.O. 416/26, Hardinge to Grey, 23 Dec. 1905.

70 Ibid.

71 Grey Papers, Spring Rice to Grey, 28 Mar. 1907.

72 F.O. 416/26, Hardinge to Grey, 23 Dec. 1905.

73 Ibid.

74 Grey Papers, Spring Rice to Grey, 18 July 1907.

75 F.O. 416/26, Hardinge to Grey, 23 Dec. 1905.

76 Ibid.

77 F.O. 416/25, Grant Duff to Lansdowne, 2 Nov. 1905; F.O. 416/29, Grant Duff to Grey, 10 Sept. 1906.

78 F.O. 416/26, Grant Duff to Grey, 20 Dec. 1905.

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