VIIIFrance and Britain in Iran
The Qajars's initial exposure to the British and the French was limited,
but positive, and led Fath 'Ali to seek Western assistance in his war
against Russia. Anglo-Iranian contacts centered on the growing trade
with the East India Company and the stationing of a company "resi-
dent" in the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr (Bushire). In 1799, Richard
Wellesley, the governor-general of India, became concerned over the
threats posed by the Durrani Afghans, who had raided Lahore, and
by the French, whose troops were in Egypt, from where they might
attack India. Therefore, Wellesley sent his resident in Bushehr and,
soon after, Captain John Malcolm (an East India Company soldier
with experience in civilian administration) to obtain Fath 'Ali's
cooperation in opposing these two threats. Malcolm's efforts produced
the Anglo-Iranian political and commercial treaties of 1801. The
most significant provisions of the political treaty were the Iranian
commitment to bar the French or the Afghans.
1
Relations between
Iran and the company remained amicable for the next few years,
even though the Afghan and the French dangers subsided and the
Iranian ambassador to India was killed in a scuffle in 1802. (The
company paid the ambassador's son a generous pension.)
As relations between Russia and Iran deteriorated, Fath 'Ali looked
for British support, either military or diplomatic, to help him expel
the Russians from the eastern Caucasus. He was encouraged in this
by a highly questionable interpretation of the 1801 political treaty,
which, he argued, had committed Britain to aid Iran if it were at-
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