A Study Of Iran-British Relations Between The Two World Wars (1919-1939)

Iran's unique geostrategic location makes it a bridge and crossroads of east-west exchanges since ancient times,and it is also a region contested by modern western powers,especially the Britain and Russia.At the end of the First World War,the October Revolution in Russia had a great influence on the situation in Iran.Then the Soviet government withdrew its troops in Iran,which greatly stimulated the British Empire's expansion ambition.Therefore,the British took the opportunity to plan to monopolize Iran,and wanted to establish a huge colonial empire from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean,which triggered a series of activities of Iran's resistance to British control and seeking national independence.After the war,the real contradiction between Britain's expansion in the Middle East and its lack of financial and military resources,especially the rise of many anti-British movements in the Middle East,forced Britain to withdraw its troops from Iran,and gradually changed its intervention policy to Iran.At the same time,the rise of Reza Khan and his modern nation-state building activities strengthened Iran's diplomatic strength.The influence of the state seeks the independence and development of the Iranian nation.The contacts and interactions between Iran and Britain between the two world wars showed a significant turning point,which not only changed the British military and political intervention in Iran's policy,but also started the new cause of Iran's nationalist modernization reform and the realization of national liberation and independence.This article takes the time when Reza Khan established the Pahlavi Dynasty as the boundary,and sorts out the evolution and development of the Iran-British relations and important events between the two world wars in 1919-1925 and 1926-1939.The significance of the turning point in the relationship between Iran and Britain in the period of time has analyzed and summarized the characteristics,constraints and influence of the exchanges between the two countries.The article is divided into four parts to describe and analyze the relationship between Iran and Britain.The first part is a historical review of Iran-British relations before the First World War.This paper firstly reviews the early history of Iran-British exchanges initiated before the 19th century,and then reviews the history of Iran-British exchanges,from the perspective of Anglo-Russian,from the 19th century to the end of the First World War.The second part discusses the relationship between British policy and the rise of Reza Khan.This section describes in detail the proposal and failure of the British plan to fully control Iran,and the process of Reza Khan's gradual seizing of the supreme power in Iran through the efforts of Englishman,showing the transformation of British policy towards Iran.In particular,Reza Khan implemented anti-British and national independence policies to establish a unified and independent Iranian nation-state.The third part focuses on the disputes and negotiations between the Reza Khan regime and the British over Iran's independent sovereignty and oil economic interests between the establishment of the Pahlavi Dynasty and the outbreak of the Second World War.During this period,Iran challenged the interests of the Britain in order to safeguard its national sovereignty and interests.The Britain implemented the policy of non-interference in Iranian politics.At the moment,the Iran-British relationship has three key elements:Iran abolishes foreigners' extraterritorial rights and unreasonable economic privileges in Iran,disputes over the sovereignty and territorial rights of the Persian Gulf islands,and increases Iran's profits in Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.Iran worked tirelessly to achieve political equality and independence and to safeguard its economic interests,but failed to regain sovereignty over the Bahrain islands in the Persian Gulf.The fourth part summarizes and analyzes Iran-British relations between the two world wars.This section introduces British foreign policy and Iran's Third Power Diplomacy,summarized the evolution of the Iran-British relations,analyzes the relationship between the Iran-British nature from inequality to equality,"oil diplomacy"early in the content and the performance characteristics of form bucket and not broken,points out that the factors restricting the relations between the two countries have national interests and national power,geopolitics,the international situation and policy makers personal factors,finally in this paper,the relationship between the two countries on the impact and subsequent Iran-British relations between the two countries.The conclusion emphasizes the turning point of bilateral relations between the two world wars,analyzes the wisdom and limitations of Reza Khan's Third Power Diplomacy,and points out that Iran-British relations are still affected by historical inertia and national strength.