- 1862-08-22 — Concessions by the Persian government in the Qajar period (1789-1925) included grants of political and extraterritorial rights to the Russian and British governments, as well as monopolies, contracts, and licenses to British and Russian citizens and companies to carry on specific economic activities on Persian territory. Please see Encyclopaedia Iranica for details of concessions to both the British and the Russians.
The following is an example of one such concession: The Telegraph Concession in Iran in 1862 was a significant agreement that allowed a British company to construct and operate a telegraph line in Persain territory. This concession played a crucial role in the development of telecommunication infrastructure and British influence in Iran during the 19th century.
The concession was granted to a British entrepreneur named Charles Morrison by, Nasir al-Din Shah. The agreement gave Morrison the exclusive rights to build a telegraph line across Persia. This line was intended to connect the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea with branches extending to Tehran and other important cities.
The British government supported Morrison in securing the concession as it served British interests in the region. It was not only a means of communication but also had strategic importance as it facilitated the transmission of information and news across the vast Iranian territory and contributed to British control over their interests.
Construction began in 1864 and was completed in several stages over the following years. The concession allowed Morrison's company to operate for 70 years. The telegraph line facilitated communication between Persia and British India, which was also under British control at the time, and it played a role in the coordination of British interests in the region.
- 1863-12-15 —
During this period Bahá'u'lláh made His proclamation to the kings and rulers.
Also during this period the decline and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire continued. It was often referred to as the "Sick Man of Europe." This decline was characterized by administrative inefficiency, territorial losses, and the rise of nationalist movements in many of its provinces.
- Serbia had been taken steps to loosen the Ottoman control since the early 1800s. In 1867 the Turks had to evacuate their fortress there. In 1876, Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, participating in the broader conflict known as the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). Following the war the Treaty of Berlin (1878) recognized Serbia's full independence. Its territory was further expanded in the subsequent years.
Muhammad Ali Pasha was taking Egypt out of the Ottoman fold and his dynasty continued until 1952.
- Moldavia and Walachia were united into the autonomous principality of Romania in 1861 or 1862. In 1877-1878, Romania played a significant role in the Russo-Turkish War, and after the Treaty of Berlin it was officially recognized as an independent nation. The country's independence was further solidified in 1881 when Carol I became the first King of Romania.
- The Greek War of Independence (25 March 1821) laid the foundation for the modern Greek state and it was a significant chapter in the broader context of nationalist movements and the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.
- Pan-Slavism, supported by Russia and its agents in the region, had become the prevailing ideology in the Balkans during Bahá'u'lláh's time in Adrianople (1863-68). A serious insurrection broke out in Herzegovina in 1875, followed by an uprising in Bulgaria in 1876 and a declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire by Serbia and Montenegro. Russian armies crossed the Ottoman frontiers and occupied Sofia and Adrianople, fulfilling Bahá'u'lláh's prophecy that:
"the day is approaching when the Land of Mystery [Adrianople], and what is beside it shall be changed, and shall pass out of the hands of the king, and commotions shall appear, and the voice of lamentation shall be raised, and the evidences of mischief shall be revealed on all sides, and confusion shall spread by reason of that which hath befallen these captives at the hands of the hosts of oppression..." [The Summons of the Lord of Hosts p143]
[Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine:
Abdu´l-Bahá's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p16]
- 1872-07-25 — The Baron de Reuter concession in 1872 was a significant agreement between the government of Persia and a British financier named Julius de Reuter. This concession, sometimes referred to as the Reuter Concession, granted exclusive rights to de Reuter for the construction of a telegraph line that would connect Tehran to the western border with the Ottoman Empire and the right to explore and to exploit various natural resources, including mines and forests, along the proposed telegraph route.
The concession met with controversy and criticism and became a symbol of the encroachment of European powers and their control over Iran's resources and infrastructure. This lead to the re-negotiation of the contract and the terms of the concession were revised to be somewhat less favourable to the concessionaire.
[Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu'l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p3; Wikipedia] - 1878-07-12 — The British government took over the administration of Cyprus. [BBR306]
- 1882-07-11 — Egypt had mounting debts and a financial crisis which had been exacerbated by the construction of the Suez Canal and the extravagant spending of Egypt's ruling khedive, Isma'il Pasha. To finance modernization projects and the Canal, he had borrowed extensively from European powers and banks. The debt burden became unsustainable, and Egypt was on the verge of bankruptcy. in 1876 Britain and France, the major creditors, had established a Commission of the Public Debt to oversee Egypt's finances and to ensure repayment.
In 1879 Britain and France agree to take joint control of Egypt's administration, know as "Dual Control" with Britain often controlling the more influential positions. This measure was taken partially our of fear that there would be a complete collapse of Egypt's government and financial system. This imposition dual control faced opposition from many Egyptians who perceived it as foreign interference in their country's affairs. This period contributed to the rise of nationalist sentiments in Egypt and calls for greater Egyptian autonomy and independence from foreign control.
Dual control lasted until 1882 when British forces effectively took control of Egypt during the Urabi Revolt, further solidifying British dominance in the country. Egypt was technically still part of the Ottoman Empire at this time, but in reality, it became a British protectorate, leading to a prolonged period of British influence over Egyptian affairs. [Wikipedia] - 1882-07-11 — The British navy bombarded Alexandria, beginning or provoking fires that destroyed the city and forced a mass exodus of its population to the interior. In August-September the British invaded the country, restored Khedive Tawfiq to his throne, arrested Urabi, the Muslim modernist Muhammad 'Abduh, and other constitutionalists, and imposed a "veiled protectorate" on the country that differed only in name from direct colonial rule. The official British sources attempted to suggest that they had saved Egypt from a military junta allied to Islamic fanaticism, but more impartial observers have characterized the British invasion as the quashing of a grassroots democratic movement by an imperial power in the service of the European bond market. [BFA15, Wilmette Institute faculty notes]
- 1882-07-11 — Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet of Maqsud was revealed following the invasion of Egypt by the French and British forces. In this Tablet He strongly denounced European imperialism and proposed an international peace conference to be attended by the world's major heads of state in response to this situation.
- 1889-08-19 — Baron Julius de Reuter, a British-German financier with a history of financial agreements in Persia, secured a concession from the Persian government. This concession allowed him to establish the Imperial Bank of Persia. The bank was the first modern bank in Iran and introduced European banking ideas to a country in which they were previously unknown. The concession gave him exclusive rights to issue banknotes, manage the state's revenues, and establish branches in various Iranian cities.
The bank was given the authority to handle customs duties and foreign trade, which were significant sources of revenue for the Persian government. The bank was also responsible for managing the government's foreign debts and helping Iran to raise capital in international markets.
As usury was forbidden under Islam, the traditional money lenders in Iran were the Jewish sarrafs, who continued to dominate the field after the establishment of the Imperial Bank due to greater loan flexibility and cultural ties. At the time the only form of money in circulation was gold and silver coins.
In 1890 a similar Russian bank known as the Loan and Discount Bank of Persia was founded. The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 split Iran into a Russian and British sphere of influence. It assigned to the Russian Loan and Discount Bank the revenues from the amortization of Persian debts in northern Iran, and the same for the British Imperial Bank in southern Iran.
Bank Melli, an Iranian-controlled central bank, was established in 1928.
[Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu'l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p3; Wikipedia]
- 1890-03-00 —
Násiri'd-Dín Sháh entered into contract of 50 years duration with British interests that would provide him with an annual payment plus 25% of the profits for the production and sale of tobacco. Prior to this, in the 1870s and 1880s the country's telegraph and mail systems, its fisheries, and many of its mines were sold to Western, mostly British, interests.
- Opposition, fomented by Britain's rival Russia, came from merchants and shopkeepers who anticipated higher prices and feared being marginalized if the tobacco trade were to pass into the hands of foreigners. Many of the ulama supported the resistance, in part from fear of foreign influence and some because they owned land, either privately of on religious property, that grew tobacco. Articulated as a struggle in defense of Islam against foreign intrusion, the movement quickly became a popular one. At that time about one third of the population of 8 million used tobacco.
- The movement first flared up in Shiraz, the centre of Iran's main tobacco-growing region and then Tabriz in the north of the country that was under heavy Russian influence. Isfahan and Mashhad soon followed in popular clergy-led agitation. The protest movement culminated when the ulama declared tobacco itself unclean and smoking religiously impermissible. Ordinary Iranians, frustrated at the mismanagement and misery prevalent in the country, massively heeded the call. People throughout the country gave up smoking.
- In January 1892 the Shah rescinded the concession and was forced to compensate the tobacco company for its losses. The Qajar government had to take out a £500,000 loan to cover the cost.
- The Tobacco Revolt is considered a landmark event in Iran's modern history. It is often seen as the first episode in which common people showed an awareness of a collective identity and were successful in mobilizing disparate groups around a common cause.
[Encyclopedia]
[Wikipedia]
- See 'Abdu'l-Bahá's comments on the insurrection that saw the clergy's involvement in the affairs of state in His Treatise on Politics.
- 1901-00-00 — 'Abdu'l-Bahá had Gabriel Sacy, a Bahá'í Frenchman of Syrian Christian origin, deliver a message to Leo Tolstoy. In speaking of the colonialism and the imperialism of the day He said in part: (emphasis added)
For several centuries the West has been now attacking the East like bandits with its armies and cavalries and has not stopped yet. And it is going to continue this assault with all troops at its disposal until Doomsday. You observe the large armies impetuously assaulting like lions from the woods of the Western world onto the
battlefields of the East. Among these are an army of finance (tharwa), an army of industries (saná`a), an army of commerce (tijára), an army of politics (siyása), an army of knowledge (ma´árif) and an army of discoveries (iktisháfát), numerous soldiers loaded with war materiel, assaulting from the West with their sharp and deadly weapons and conquering the East in all its parts.
[Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu'l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p7]
- 1907-08-31 — Anglo-Russian Convention relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet, was signed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The convention brought shaky British–Russian relations to the forefront by solidifying boundaries that identified respective control in the three countries. It delineated spheres of influence in Persia, stipulated that neither country would interfere in Tibet's internal affairs, and recognized Britain's influence over Afghanistan. [AY p47-48; Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Bahá's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p6]
- 1909-07-18 — The accession of Ahmad Sháh Qajar, the boy-king, to the throne of Iran. He was twelve years old and because of his youth a regency was established under Azudu'l-Mulk, the head of the Qájár family. Ahmad's official coronation took place on the 21st of July, 1914. His reign formerly lasted until October 1925 when he was deposed by the Majles while he was absent in Europe. He was the last of the Qajar dynasty which had begun around 1789. [BBR482; CBM57]
The period of this reign was of the so-called pénétration pacifique, the technical term used euphemistically in contemporary Western works, during which the country was subjugated by the Western Powers and lost its sovereignty as well as its natural resources. [Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Bahá's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p6]
- 1911-05-11 —
W. Morgan Shuster was an American chosen by the Persian Chargé d'Affaires at Washington, Mirza Ali Kuli Khan, to serve as Treasurer-General of Persia for a period of three years. His mandate was to organize and conduct the collection and disbursements of the revenues. Four American assistants were likewise engaged to serve under the Treasurer-General. Since the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 the country was under the influence of the Russians in the north and the British in the south. The purpose in engaging Shuster was to put the country's financial affairs in order so that they might attract investment from other nations.
- After an encounter with the Russian Consul-General he was forced to leave on the 14th of January, 1912. [AY79-82]
- He subsequently wrote a book called The Strangling of Persia.
- 1911-09-29 — The start of the Italo-Turkish war which lasted until the 18th of October 1912 when the Ottoman Empire signed a treaty in Ouchy in Lausanne called the First Treaty of Lausanne, (often also called Treaty of Ouchy to distinguish it from the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne), (the Second Treaty of Lausanne). Italy's victory led to the annexation of the Ottoman Tripolitania Vilayet, including sub-provinces like Fezzan, Cyrenaica, and Tripoli itself. These regions later became Italian colonies known as Italian Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, which eventually merged into Italian Libya. Italy established control over Libya and would govern the region until the end of World War II.
After defeating the Ottoman army they confiscated on large scale the lands of the Arab peasants on which Italian settlements were established and large numbers of Italian settlers were brought in for the cultivation of cash products. The war cost Italy 1.3 billion lire, nearly a billion more than Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti had estimated before the war. This ruined ten years of fiscal prudence.
This war is notable for the introduction of new military technologies including the use of the airplane for reconnaissance and bombing. It also included the first instance of an airplane being shot down by ground fire.
The Italians also used a wireless telegraph network established with the help of the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi.
This war is considered by historians as a precursor of the First World War. Members of the Balkan League, seeing how easily Italy defeated the Ottomans and motivated by incipient Balkan nationalism, attacked the Ottoman Empire in October 1912, starting the First Balkan War a few days before the end of the Italo-Turkish War. [Wikipedia]
The Battle of Benghazi was a preliminary to the fascist invasion of Ethiopia and Italy's ambitions
to establish its own colonial empire. [Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p18] - 1911-10-21 —
News of the Battle of Benghazi (17 October) was headline news. It was one of the opening salvos of the Turko-Italian War and began on the 17th of October when Italian invasion forces began their bombardment of the Turkish garrison. The Turks were forced to abandon the city and there were many lives lost, Italians, Turks and civilians. -
His talk, The Pitiful Causes of War, and the Duty of Everyone to Strive for Peace. [ABF96-100 PT28-30; Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p18]
- See as well SoW Vol 2 No 14 November 23, 1911 p5 for His talk on the Battle of Benghazi.
- The talk was attended by Remi de Gourmont, literary critic, essayist, poet and writer. The following day his editorial, "Le Béhhaïsmie: les idées dujour" was published in the newspaper Le France. [ABF95n287, 98]
- 1911-11-24 —
'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke about the press coverage given to a train accident that claimed the lives of some 20 people in Paris the previous day. He compared this to the apparent indifference to the news that 5,000 people had been killed in the bombing in Tripoli as the Turkish-Italian war raged on there. [ABF221-223; The Cruel Indifference of People towards the Suffering of Foreign Races]
In a comment not in the transcript of the talk in Promulgation of Universal Peace He is recorded as having said that the Italians left their country:
- 1912-04-12 —
- 1912-05-03 —
Talk at Hotel Plaza in Chicago. [PUP83]
- In this talk He said, ""Observe what is taking place in Tripoli: men cutting each
other into pieces, bombardment from the sea, attacks from the land and the hail of dynamite
from the very heaven itself." and denounced imperialism and colonialism by saying that men conquering other territories in our times are considered by
Him to be nothing less than "tyrants" and "murderers", and even worse than wolves. [Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p20]
- Afterward He gave each child an envelope with a rose petal and invited all of them to Lincoln Park for a photograph. He asked for time alone and walked over to a statue of Abraham Lincoln at which He gazed for a while. [PUP84; Luminous Journey 51:25]
- 1912-05-12 — `Abdu'l-Bahá took a ferry to New Jersey then a train to Montclair where He addressed the congregation of the Montclair Unity Church before returning to New York to speak to the International Peace Forum at the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church on
West 104th Street, New York where He spoke to 2,000 people. [239D:66; AB191, PUP113, PUP116]
He used the situation in Libya as an example of the senselessness of war. See Promulgation of Universal Peace p119 and Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Bahá's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p19-20]
- 1912-10-08 —
The start of the the First Balkan War when Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia constituting the Balkan League and having large parts of their ethnic populations under
Ottoman sovereignty, attacked the Ottoman Empire, terminating its five centuries of rule in the Balkans. The seven-month campaign ended in the Treaty of London (30 May 1913) brokered and mediated by the great powers of Europe, including the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. They sought to prevent further conflicts in the Balkans and to maintain stability in the region.
The main provisions included the following:
- Serbia expanded its territory, gaining control of Kosovo, parts of Macedonia, and northern Albania.
- Greece acquired southern Epirus, southern Macedonia, Crete, and the northern Aegean islands.
- Bulgaria received Thrace up to the outskirts of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and parts of Macedonia.
- Montenegro also saw territorial gains in northern Albania and Kosovo.
- Albania was created as an independent state, with the great powers of Europe guaranteeing its sovereignty.
- The division of Macedonia: The treaty stipulated that the majority of Macedonia would be under the sovereignty of Serbia and Greece, with Bulgaria gaining a smaller portion. This division sowed the seeds of future conflicts and territorial disputes in the region.
- The deportation of people according to their "ethnical" backgrounds was stipulated in this treaty for the first time in history and was soon to lead to unprecedented atrocities and new forms of racism and racial prejudice committed later in Europe, especially by the Nazis. Unprecedented atrocities were committed by all parties involved and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, mostly Greeks, Bulgarians and Slavs now designated as "Turks", were deported eventually to the Asiatic parts of Turkey, putting an end to Ottoman rule in Southeastern Europe. [Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p16]
In a talk at the Japenese Independ - 1915-07-00 — The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence was a series of ten letters exchanged from July 1915 to March 1916 between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, and Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner to Egypt. In these letters, the UK government agreed to recognize Arab independence in certain regions after World War I if the Arabs revolted against the Ottoman Empire. The intended area for Arab independence was defined by boundaries proposed by the Sharif of Mecca, excluding some regions of western Syria. However, this correspondence became controversial after the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the Sykes–Picot Agreement in 1916, which contradicted the promises made to the Arabs. As a result, Sharif Hussein later refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and any agreements assigning Palestine to Jewish homeland or Syria to foreign control. The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence significantly influenced Middle Eastern history and continues to be a topic of discussion and dispute. [Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu´l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p21]
- 1919-04-00 — The Egyptian Revolution of 1919: From 1883 to 1914, the successive Khedives of Egypt and Sudan, under the Ottoman Sultan, remained the official ruler of Egypt and Sudan, but ultimate power was exercised by the British Consul-General. During the reign of Muhammad Ali (1805 - 1848), the man considered as the founder of modern Egypt, (and a dynasty of Khedives that lasted until the end of the first World War), the foundations were laid for the modernization of Egypt. Pan-Arabism and Pan-Islam were the leading ideologies of the period as well as the principle of self-determination and independence from foreign rule. A request was made for independence, Egyptian representation was made at the Paris Peace Conference that resulted in the leader of the nationalist forces being exiled to Malta. (It should be noted that during WW I Egypt was under martial law administered by the British.) [Wikipedia; Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu'l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East by Kamran Ekbal p3]
- 1932-10-03 —
The term of The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration or "Mandatory Iraq" came to an end. It had been created in 1921 following the Iraqi Revolt in 1920 and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty. The British chose Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi as king of of Iraq and Syria. He fostered unity between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and tried to promote pan-Arabism with the goal of creating an Arab state in Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent. Faisal died in Switzerland while there for a medical examination at the age of 48, under what some consider to be suspicious circumstances. [Wikipedia]
- Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations. [BW5p357]
- 1954-11-01 — The members of the Algerian National Liberation Front initiated an armed conflict on French targets to start the Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the War of Independence which lasted until 1962 and lead to the independence of Algeria from France. This decolonization war was marked by guerrilla warfare, war crimes, and civil strife. The conflict ended with the signing of the Évian Accords.
The war had a profound human cost, with estimates of Algerian casualties ranging from 400,000 to 1.5 million, alongside 25,600 French soldiers and 6,000 Europeans. The war also saw the perpetration of war crimes, including massacres, rape, torture, the destruction of villages, and the displacement of over 2 million Algerians. Upon independence, approximately 900,000 European-Algerians fled to France. The FLN targeted the Harkis, Algerian Muslims who served with the French army, for retribution, with many facing brutal violence. About 90,000 Harkis found refuge in France, where they and their descendants form a significant community. [Wikipedia]
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