Russia's road building policy in Iran and Qajar's reaction; A case study of the north-west Shuseh roads and Urmia lake route (1287-1340 AH/1870-1922 AD)

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD student of Iranian history after Islam, Islamic Azad University, Shabest branch, Iran

2 Assistant Professor at Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Iran. (Corresponding Author)

3 Assistant Professor at Islamic Azad University, Shabestar Branch, Iran

4 Professor at Islamic Azad University, Shabestar Branch, Iran.

10.22034/skh.2023.16033.1406

Abstract

From the second half of the 19th century, Russia had expanded its economic and political power in Central Asia and the Caucasus by relying on the railways and highways, and wanted to implement the same policy of gradual penetration in Iran's borders. which was opposed by the British and Qajar governments. This research, by analyzing the data and information collected in the library and documents, seeks to answer the question of the role of the governments of Russia and Iran in the process of building commercial-communication routes in the north-west of the country at the end of the Qajar period (1340-1287/1922-1870). m) What was it?

The results show that the most important tool of Russia's influence on Iran was the construction of "roads", but in order to prevent this domination, Iran resisted Russia's proposal to build roads for many years, but to dominate all parts of the country and the need for new roads; The privilege of building highways in the north of the country was given to Russia. The expansionism of the big shipping powers in Lake Urmia had also exposed them to their policies. At the end of the Qajar period, the country was almost devoid of modern internal transportation, and although there were signs of development such as highways, telegraph and bank lines, this development was not internal but due to the needs of external forces until the middle of the First World War (1326/1917 AD). ) in the built roads, collection of road traffic, tolls and monitoring of traffic was in the hands of the Russians. During this period, the use of sea routes, which was a cheap and fast means of transportation and had strategic importance from the point of view of defense, was less noticed by the Iranian government.

Keywords

10- Discourse of History

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 13 September 2023

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