In the 19th century, Persia was courted by two pushy suitors: Czarist Russia and Imperial Britain. It was one of the key arenas where the so-called ‘Great Game’ for control of central Asia was ‘played’ by these two giant imperial powers. Eventually two ‘Areas of Influence’ were established, with Russia dominant in the north of the country, Britain to the south.
After World War One and the Russian Revolution, Britain became the supreme foreign power in Iran. This continued until after World War Two, when the ascendant USA took over as Iran’s chief ‘ally’. In the late 1970s a popular revolt toppled the Shah and Iran’s Islamic Revolution ushered in the current era.
Dr Younes Parsa Benab: a left-wing historical perspective on Iran
For most of the 20th century, a secular left-wing was a significant force in Iranian politics. It was was not monolithic and had pro-Soviet and independent elements, like the left in most counties. It was recurrently suppressed by authoritarian Iranian regimes, acting with the support of Britain and America. After the Islamic Revolution, repression of the secular left did not come to an end.
Iran has been the plaything of domineering external interests for generations – and the determination of Iran’s current leadership to chart an independent course is not hard to understand. Those in the west with secular and ‘progressive’ aspirations for the Iranian people might do well to reflect on how those influences came to decline in the first place. The centuries-old western imperial remedy – yet more external manipulation – is no way to help this generation of Iranians.
It’s time the whole world respects the sovereign independence of Iran, which should be free to trade freely and prosper as an independent nation. The Shanghai Group of countries understands this. Western nations – notably Britain and the USA – risk missing out if they don’t do the same – and would do this if it wasn’t for the Zionist monkey round their necks.
Persia in 1814: a blank page for outside colonial ambitions
Iranian distrust of Britain is mystifying to many Britons, whose historical appreciation is typically Anglo-centric and one-eyed. But many Iranians aren’t just outraged by the duplicity of contemporary British governments; they remember a long history of imperial manipulation and aggression.
Here’s a short extract from a three part series: The origin and development of imperialist contention in Iran; 1884-1921 by the emigré Iranian historian Younes Parsa Benab (access the entire paper here). It gives some insight into the extent of British monopolistic practices in ‘independent’ Persia, more than 100 years ago:
British designs (1884-1921)
Although British trade with Iran in this period did not exceed half of the Russo-Iranian trade, her principal objective was to establish British domination of Iran in order to defend her imperialist interests in India and the Persian Gulf. British attempts for the so-called “strengthening” of Iran were designed to enable her to resist the Russian drive toward the Persian Gulf and at the same time to dominate the Iranian economy.
The major economic concessions obtained by the British in the Victorian era:
- During the 1860′s concessions were given to the Indo-European Telegraph Company, acting on behalf of the government of British India, for the construction and operation of a land telegraph line running from Baghdad across Iran to the Persian Gulf where it connected with a submarine cable to India, forming part of a system of telegraph communication between Britain and India.
- Immunity from road tolls and internal transit taxes, which were collected from Iranian merchants in the southern provinces of Iran, was granted to the British (1871).
- A comprehensive countrywide monopoly of railway construction, mining, and banking was granted to a British subject, Baron Julius de Reuter (1872).
- In 1888, the British firm of Lynch Brothers (which was already running a line of steamers on the Tigris) was granted a concession for running a line of steamers on the Karun River up to Ahwaz.
- A concession was obtained by the British to organise the Imperial Bank of Persia with a monopoly in issuing currency (1888).
- In order to encourage and increase the British investment in Iran, Britain pressed Naser al-Din Shah for a life and property decree [27]. This important commercial instrument, announced in May 1888, was designed to protect British investors and fortunes against the possible upsurge of the people’s wrath.
- One British national was granted a monopoly on the production, sale, and export of all tobacco in Iran (1890).
- Furthermore, there was the Act of 1889, which established “consular jurisdiction” by the British over British nationals in Iran because of “the increasing numbers of British subjects who resided in Persian as a result of the banking activities, the opening of Karun, the operation of the telegraph line, and the mining exploration” [28].
- Finally, a historic concession was granted to a British syndicate headed by William Knox d’ Arcy to explore for and to produce petroleum anywhere in Iran except in the Russian “sphere of influence” in northern Iran (1901).
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See Dr Benab discuss the Origins of Contemporary Wars in the “New” Middle East.
