Anglo-Russian Entente

A map of the region, dating from 1907-1920, showing the Russian line.
Events leading to World War I
Triple Alliance 1882
Franco-Russian Alliance 1894
Anglo-German naval arms race 1898–1912
Entente cordiale 1904
First Moroccan Crisis 1905–06
Anglo-Russian Entente 1907
Bosnian crisis 1908–09
Agadir Crisis 1911
Italo-Turkish War 1911–12
Balkan Wars 1912–13
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand 1914
July Crisis 1914

Signed on August 31, 1907, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 brought shaky British–Russian relations to the forefront by solidifying boundaries that identified respective control in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. The Anglo-Russian Entente, a pact in which Britain and Russia settled their colonial disputes in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. It delineated spheres of influence in Persia, stipulated that neither country would interfere in Tibet’s internal affairs, and recognized Britain’s influence over Afghanistan. The agreement led to the formation of the Triple Entente.[1]

The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907[2]

During the last third of the nineteenth century, Russian imperial advances into Central Asia and the consolidation of British imperial domination in south Asia led to intense rivalry between the two European empires. The conflicting interests centered on Afghanistan, Iran, and Tibet, three states that constituted buffers between Britain's and Russia's colonial possessions in Asia. The emergence of Germany as a world power and the humiliating defeat in 1905 of Russia by a nascent Asian power, Japan, helped to persuade some British and Russian officials of a need to resolve their respective differences in Asia. Consequently, in 1907, Britain and Russia signed an agreement to regulate their economic and political interests. With respect to Iran, the Anglo–Russian Agreement recognized the country's strict independence and integrity, but then divided it into three separate zones.

The agreement designated all of northern Iran, which bordered Russia's possessions in Transcaucasia and Central Asia, as an exclusive sphere of influence for Russian interests. This northern zone was defined as beginning at Qasr-e Shirin in the west, on the border with the Ottoman Empire, and running through Tehran, Isfahan, and Yazd to the eastern border, where the frontiers of Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia intersected. A smaller zone in southeastern Iran, which bordered Britain India, was recognized as an exclusive sphere for Britain. The British zone extended west as far as Kerman in the north and Bandar Abbas in the south. The area separating these two spheres, including part of central Iran and the entire southwest, was designated a neutral zone where both countries and their respective private citizens could compete for influence and commercial privileges. For Britain and Russia, the agreement was important in establishing a diplomatic alliance that endured until World War I. The government of Iran, however, had not been consulted about the agreement; it was informed after the fact. Although not in a position to prevent Britain and Russia from implementing the Anglo–Russian Agreement, the Iranian government refused to recognize the accord's legitimacy, since from an Iranian perspective, it threatened the country's integrity and independence. Iranian nationalists, in particular, felt betrayed by Britain, a country they had idealized as a democratic beacon during the Constitutional Revolution (1905–1907). Thus, an important legacy of the agreement was the growth of anti-British sentiment specifically and anti-Western attitudes more generally as strong components of Iranian nationalism.

The Anglo–Russian Agreement did not eliminate all competition between the two powers with respect to their policies in Iran, but after 1907 it did foster broad cooperation, often to the detriment of Iranian interests. In particular, Britain and Russia intervened in Iran's domestic politics by supporting the royalists in their contest with the constitutionalists, and increasingly, their intervention assumed military dimensions. The agreement lapsed in 1918 after it was renounced by a new revolutionary government in Russia.[3][4][5]

The Great Game

Main article: The Great Game

During the 19th century, Britain had firm control over India and considered that control a top priority. However, Russia had been wielding its imperial sword as well by expanding drastically to the south and east, the latter directing to move towards India. By 1813 and 1828, it had wrested Transcaucasia and Dagestan from Persia taking over the Caucasus from the latter, and by 1829, it had expanded even further to the south, now at the expense of Ottoman Turkey. Thus in some 30 years, it had dramatically expanded its borders to the south at the expense of its two neighboring rivals, Persia and Turkey. “The Great Game” refers to the rivalry between Britain and Russia over territorial and political control in Central Asia.[6] In the course of the next few decades, it annexed all the khanates and territories in Central Asia, reaching a new territorial frontier in the geo-political with Britain, namely the middle zone of land that was located between India and Russian holdings at that time: Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet.

Britain feared that a Russian presence might result in a Russian invasion—a situation that might challenge the British hold on India.[6] In essence, the British aimed to keep “Russian influence from the borders of British India.” On the other hand, Russia wanted more land on its southern border, namely in Afghanistan, and feared a British surge towards their territories. Furthermore, by the 20th century a new issue had arisen, and an influential British official, George Nathaniel Curzon, pushed for British security of Middle Eastern petroleum.

This push only compounded the issue, and kept Britain diplomatically neurotic of every Russian move. Using tactics similar to its economic marriage to Iran, Britain took Tibet under its wing by first invading it in 1903 and then making it a trade partner, ultimately allowing Tibet to accumulate a large debt and forfeit even more power over to Britain. Though each of the Great Powers was spared from outright war, “The Great Game” was a constant factor in Britain and Russia's political psyche.

By the early 20th century, however, alarmed by the quick expansion of the Russian rail network in Central Asia and the high costs that an increase in Indian troop strength would necessitate, Britain began to pursue a two-pronged policy to clear the Russian threat. The first step involved an agreement with Japan, in order to bind Russian forces and attention in Manchuria and Korea. The second move encompassed the Entente Cordiale with France, partly in the hope of France restraining the ambitions of her Russian ally, as well as acting as a facilitator for better relations between Britain and Russia.[7]

Likewise Russia began to seek rapprochement with the British Empire after the disaster following the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. On the one hand the Russian leadership hoped to gain breathing space in dealing with the domestic problems plaguing the country, on the other hand they hoped to gain greater freedom of external action.[8]

The rise of Germany

On May 20, 1882, Germany entered into the Triple Alliance with Italy and Austria-Hungary, complementing its industrial and socio-political climb in the world arena. Furthermore, Germany dramatically increased its military output from the early 1900s up to the outbreak of World War I. Under a new “Prussian-German” empire, the German government worked to increase the nation's wealth and reach what was then the zenith of German power. While Britain and Russia were skeptical of Germany's imperialistic motives, members of the Triple Alliance were in turn somewhat threatened by Britain's and Russia's aggressive foreign policy tactics and wealth derived from their colonies. Thus, military and territorial expansion was Germany's key to making itself a major player in the international arena of power. Germany's Middle East took a secondary position—one subordinate to Germany's primary policy toward Europe and America—throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While of secondary importance, it was a tool that was used to manipulate the Middle Eastern attempt to play off the Western powers against each other. Berlin peacefully penetrated the Ottoman Empire, and it had few colonial aspirations in the region.

Trouble in Iran

In 1905, revolutionary activity spread throughout Tehran, forcing the shah to accept a constitution, allow the formation of a majles (parliamentary assembly), and hold elections. Major figures in the revolution had secular goals, which then created rifts in the clergy to the advantage of the monarchy. Neither Britain nor Russia approved of this new liberal, unstable, political arrangement—-they preferred a stable, puppet-like government that submitted to foreign concessions and worked well with their imperialist goals.

In order to facilitate the situation in Iran, Britain and Russia discussed splitting Iran “into three zones. The agreement they wanted would allocate the north, including Isfahan, to Russia; the south-east, especially Kerman, Sistan, and Baluchistan to Britain; and demarcate the remaining land between the two powers as a “neutral zone.” This division of Iran reinforced Great Power control over these respective territorial and economic interests in the country as well as allowed for contrived interference in Iran's political system. With foreign influence, revolution was outflanked by a combination of European and monarchist activities. As a result, Iranians learned “that however predatory the two 'neighbors' were, they were even more dangerous when they put aside their rivalries.”

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Anglo-Russian Entente". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2016 <http://www.britannica.com/event/Anglo-Russian-Entente>.
  2. ↑ "Agreement concerning Persia" - Full Text
  3. ↑ Kazemzadeh, Firuz. Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864–1914: A Study in Imperialism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1968.
  4. ↑ Siegel, Jennifer. Endgame: Britain, Russia, and the Final Struggle for Central Asia. London and New York: Tauris, 2002.
  5. ↑ White, John Albert. Transition to Global Rivalry: Alliance Diplomacy and the Quadruple Entente, 1895–1907. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  6. 1 2 "Central Asia: Afghanistan and Her Relation to British and Russian Territories". World Digital Library. 1885. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
  7. ↑ Clark, C. (2013). The Sleepwalkers. How Europe Went to War in 1914. London: Penguin Books., pp. 138-40
  8. ↑ Ibid., pp. 158

Further reading

External links

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