Anglo-Iranian Treaties and Agreements

Anglo-Iranian Treaties and Agreements 

1800, 1809, 1814, 1841, 1857, 1882, and 1919. The political and commercial agreements of 1800 were signed in Tehran on 12 Shaban, 1215 (Dec. 29, 1800; the text of the treaty gives the date as January 1801). Iran pledged to defend India in the event of an attack by the Afghans or by some European power. Great Britain promised to supply military equipment to Iran. The trade treaty gave British and Indian merchants the right to settle freely in Iranian ports and to import certain British goods into Iran without duty.

The 1809 treaty (“Preliminary Anglo-Iranian Treaty”) was signed on March 12, during the Russo-Iranian War of 1804–13. Its goals were to force Iran to continue the war with Russia and to obligate it to break off relations with France and other states hostile to Britain. Britain promised to pay Iran a subsidy and to supply it with military equipment and instructors.

The treaty signed on Nov. 25, 1814, repeated the 1809 treaty and obligated Iran to send troops to aid the British in the event of an attack on India.

The trade treaty signed on Oct. 28, 1841, gave Britain trading privileges analogous to those given by Iran to Russia in the 1828 Treaty of Turkmanchai.

The 1857 treaty, signed on March 4, concluded the Anglo-Iranian War of 1856–57. Iran promised to withdraw troops from Herat and recognized the independence of Afghanistan and Herat. If disputes arose between Iran and Herat and Afghanistan, the shah was obligated to resort to British mediation.

The 1882 agreement on the struggle with the Persian Gulf slave trade was signed on March 2. It basically reestablished the Anglo-Iranian Convention of 1851 and gave the British the right to examine Iranian merchant ships.

By the agreement of Aug. 9, 1919, Britain gained the right to reorganize the Iranian Army and to dispatch advisers to the state institutions of Iran, among other rights. Britain was also given control over the spending of its L 2 million sterling loan to Iran. The Iranian government declared this agreement void in February 1921, amid sharp protests from Iranian society, the growth of the national liberation movement in the countries of the Near East, and the successful Soviet-Iranian negotiations in Moscow for the conclusion of a political agreement.

PUBLICATIONS

Kliuchnikov, Iu. V., and A. V. Sabanin. Mezhdunarodnaia politika noveishego vremeni v dogovorakh, notakh i deklaratsiiakh, part 2. Moscow, 1926. Pages 340–41.
Aitchison, C. U. A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sanads Relating to India and Neighboring Countries, vol. 13. Calcutta, 1933.
Motamen-ol-Molk. Recueil des traités de I’empire persan avec les pays étrangers. Tehran, 1908.

M. S. IVANOV