MO4957 Britain & Iran in the Modern Era
   
Lecturer Professor Ali Ansari  (New Arts Building, room 131)
   
Credits 60
   
Availability 2009-2010 - semesters 1 and 2
   
Class Hour Wednesday 10 - 12
   
Description This course will discuss and analyse the often intimate relationship between Iran and Britain in the modern period focussing on the initial diplomatic contacts in the early 19th century when Britain sought an ally against Napoleonic, to the apogee of British power and influence in Iran from the end of the 19th century until the nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951-53. The course will not only look at broader strategic aspects of the relationship, especially with growing British interests in India, but also analyse the growing economic relations between the two countries, as well as ideological and cultural developments concluding with a discussion of the British conception of ‘Persia’. English language documents will be used throughout the course.
   
Basic Reading E Said, Orientalism
D Wright, The English Among the Persians
D Wright, The Persians among the English
   

Course Structure

Semester 1

  1. The Context of Anglo-Iranian Relations: Sir Anthony Sherley, Chardin and James Fraser
  2. The Napoleonic Wars: Sir John Malcolm
  3. Confronting the British: Amir Kabir
  4. The Anglo-Persian War 1856-7
  5. Nasir al Din Shah & Queen Victoria
  6. The Growth of Economic power: the Reuters Concession and the establishment of the British Imperial Bank of Persia
  7. Anglo-Russian Rivalry in Iran
  8. E G Browne & the Babi Movement
  9. ‘Persia & The Persian Question’.
  10. Britain & the Constitutional Revolution
  11. William Knox D’Arcy and the foundation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company

Semester 2

  1. The Great War & the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919
  2. Britain & the Rise of Reza Khan
  3. Challenging British economic hegemony: Ebtehaj and the Imperial Bank
  4. The Allied Occupation and the beginning of the Cold War
  5. Mosaddeq & Oil Nationalism
  6. Britain and Iran after 1953
  7. Iranian perceptions of Inglestan
  8. British conceptions of ‘Persia’
  9. The archaeology of nationalism
  10. Britain, Iran and the development of the ‘Aryan Myth’
  11. Overview and outlook
   
Assessment 60% examination - two 3-hour papers
40% coursework
   

Learning Outcomes
  • An understanding of a complex bilateral relationship between an Imperial European power and a Middle Eastern power in decline.
  • An appreciation of the different aspects of the relationship.
  • An appreciation of the historical dimension of current relations.
 
   
Restrictions Available only to students in the second year of the Honours programme