Constitutionalists retake Tehran and depose Mohammad Ali Shah

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...

The D’Arcy enterprise struck a substantial reservoir near Masjed Soleyman in Khuzestan after years of drilling. The discovery accelerated foreign investment and British strategic interest in Iranian...

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...

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...

The Majlis voted to depose the Qajar dynasty and transfer provisional governing powers to Reza Khan pending a constituent assembly. Reza Khan was crowned Reza Shah in 1926. Parliamentary procedure...

After the government canceled the D’Arcy concession in 1932, negotiations produced a new agreement with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The Majlis ratified it May 28; royal assent followed May 29. It...