Commercial oil is struck at Masjed Soleyman

The government formally cancelled the tobacco concession after months of protest and boycott. The success of the campaign demonstrated the political force of coordinated action across bazaars,...

Mirza Hasan Shirazi issued a follow-up communication after the concession’s withdrawal, ending the prohibition on tobacco use and closing the immediate boycott. The campaign became a precedent for...

Mozaffar al-Din Shah’s government granted British subject William Knox D’Arcy a 60-year oil concession covering most of Iran except five northern provinces. It gave a private concessionaire broad...

After protest, strikes, merchant and clerical mobilization, and a royal sanctuary movement, Mozaffar al-Din Shah decreed an elected National Consultative Assembly. Fundamental Laws followed in...

The convention mapped a Russian sphere in the north, a British sphere in the southeast, and a neutral area. Iran was not a party. It did not formally abolish sovereignty, but treated Iranian territory...

Forces of Mohammad Ali Shah, including the Persian Cossack Brigade under Russian officer Vladimir Liakhov, shelled parliament in Tehran and suppressed constitutional institutions. The attack began the...

Constitutionalist forces from Tabriz, Gilan, and the Bakhtiari region entered Tehran. Mohammad Ali Shah was deposed and his young son Ahmad Shah succeeded him; constitutional government was...

The agreement proposed British advisers for Iran’s military and finances and a British-arranged loan. Opponents feared it would turn British influence into control over state policy. It faced public...

Cossack forces led by Reza Khan entered Tehran and helped install journalist Seyyed Zia al-Din Tabataba’i as prime minister. British officials had contacts with plotters and British policy shaped...

The Moscow treaty renounced a range of Tsarist-era privileges and debts and recognized Persian sovereignty. Article 6 also reserved a Soviet right to intervene if a third power used Iranian...