In The Early Days Of The Qajar Dynasty, Iran And Russia Competed In The Eastern Caucasus (1795-1828)

The contact between Iran and modern Russia was officially started in sixteenth Century. The two court of intimate contact began in the Shah with the Russians to negotiate to seek military assistance in which to deal with the invasion of the Ottoman Empire and the Uzbek tribes. In this period, Iran set up a military alliance with Russia and maintained friendly relations for a long time. But to the Tsar Peter I during the reign of 1689-1725, tsarist Russia to quest for a port on the sea and produce the aggressive ambition of Iranian expansion, launched against Iran "Persian March" and divided Iran with the Ottoman Empire. It is said that Peter the great quest for a port on the sea is the beginning of the change in Russian policy toward Iran.Since then, Iran’s reunification in the late eighteenth century under the Qajar tribe came in the aftermath of nearly a century of warfare and territorial disunity. This dynasty’s first shah of Aqa Muhammad with a great ambition and want to transform the Qajars from a tribal to a dynastic/royal identity and maintaining the legitimacy of the rule of the Qajar Dynasty, decided to recovered the territory that once belonging to the Safavid Dynasty of the East Caucasus. Catherine the Great also fixed her sights on Iran in the meantime and her policy owed very little to Peter’s influence, Catherine paid more attention to the commercial profits of the commercial profit. Iran and Russia, the two sides under the guidance of their respective policy proceed fierce competition in the East Caucasus and broke out twice Russo-Iran Wars one after another. In the process of competition, the Iranian rulers changed their attitude in the face of Russian.Due to the lack of understanding of Russia, Aqa Muhammad Shah did not trust the Russians and was confident he could rise to their challenge. Iran’s attitude toward Russia changed especially after the defeat, the self-confidence of previous years gave way to total apprehension and even fear of the northern neighbor.The conclusion is that the Iranian’s require for territories in the East Caucasus and the Russia’s ambition of Iran led to a couple of irreconcilable conflict between the two countries in this area. In the process of the struggle between the two sides, Iran’s rulers in the face of strong Russian the enemy, the attitude is also changed from the original confidence for fear and worry for the modern military empire. And ultimately the failure of Iran in these struggles led to the decline of the strength of the Qajar Dynasty and the interference of foreign forces to the internal affairs of Iran.