Anglo-Russian Convention 1907
The 1907 agreement between Britain and Russia that divided Iran into northern (Russian) and southern (British) spheres of influence with a neutral zone, violating its sovereignty.
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- Date
- 31 August 1907 CE
- Parties
- Britain and Tsarist Russia
- Content
- Division of Iran into spheres of influence
- Outcome
- Erosion of Iranian sovereignty during the Constitutional era
Detail
The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (Convention of St. Petersburg) was a colonial agreement signed on 31 August 1907 between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia, in which the two rival powers settled their differences in Asia and effectively divided Iran into spheres of influence. Under it, northern Iran (including Tehran, Tabriz, and Khorasan) fell into the Russian sphere, the southeast (near the Indian border) into the British sphere, and the central region was left as a neutral zone. The agreement formed part of the emerging Triple Entente against Germany before the First World War. It was concluded without consulting the Iranian government and in the very midst of the Constitutional Revolution, dealing a heavy blow to Iran's sovereignty and territorial integrity and to the aspirations of the constitutionalists. The event endures in Iranian historical memory as a symbol of great-power interference in Iran's fate and disregard for its independence.
Related entities
Sources
- Encyclopædia Iranica, "Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907"
- Firuz Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864–1914
- Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran