afghanistanagainst Napoleon’s France, was no longer prepared to provide military aid
to Persia in its war with Russia in Georgia. When a French ambassador
arrived in Tehran in October 1805 with offers of military and financial
assist ance, Fath ‘Ali Shah decided to pursue this alliance. The French initia-
tive was part of Napoleon’s plan to secure a safe overland route to invade
India and fulfil his dream of emulating the conquests of his hero, Alexander
the Great. In response to the French mission to Tehran, Fath ‘Ali Shah sent
an envoy to Tilsit with a letter for Napoleon, offering to join in an attack on
Russia and facilitate a French invasion of India. The diplomatic exchanges
led eventually to the Treaty of Finckenstein, signed in May 1807, under the
terms of which France recognized Persian sovereignty over Georgia and
pledged military support in return for the Shah opening the road to India
and declaring war on Britain. In early December a large French military
mission under General Gardane arrived in Tehran and began to train the
Persian army.
Though he did not know it at the time, Gardane’s position was under-
mined by the Treaty of Tilsit of July 1807, an agreement that ‘converted,
in an hour, the Emperor of France and the Autocrat of Russia into sworn
friends and active allies’. 25 One outcome of this agreement was that
Napoleon secretly agreed to assist Russia in its war with the Ottomans
and tactically gave the Tsar a free hand in the Caucasus, a change of strat-
egy that nullified France’s pledge of military assistance to Persia against
Russia. Despite this, Gardane managed to convince the Shah that only
France could persuade Russia to evacuate Georgia and played on Fath ‘Ali
Shah’s disappointment that Britain had failed to live up to its promises of
military aid. British alarm increased when military officers attached to the
French mission began to survey possible invasion routes to India, though
Gardane’s assessment of the feasibility of such a campaign was somewhat
naive. According to him, the Persians and Afghans could be persuaded to
unite to provide safe passage and logistical support for the French army. 26
In response to the Franco-Persian alliance the British government
in London dispatched Sir Harford Jones to Persia with plenipotentiary
powers. Lord Minto, Governor General of India, convinced that the French
posed an imminent threat to India, decided he could not wait until Jones
arrived in India, so he sent John Malcolm to Bushire, backed by a naval
squadron, to put pressure on the Shah. When Malcolm landed in Bushire
he sent a letter to the Shah in Tehran, but the messenger was turned back
at Shiraz, whereupon Malcolm abandoned the mission and threatened war.
Sir Harford Jones’s subsequent visit to Tehran was far more successful. Not
only was he granted an audience with the Shah, in 1809 Fath ‘Ali agreed to