From Persia to Iran ••• 237The Apogee of British Power
In 1919 Britain seemed ready to absorb Persia as it had most of the Arab
lands. British imperial troops occupied Iraq; guarded most of the Arab sul¬
tanates, emirates, and shaykhdoms along the Persian Gulf; invaded the Cau¬
casus republics that were formed as the Turks pulled out; and aided White
Russian forces against the Bolsheviks. Britain offered the Qajars a treaty that
would have turned Persia into a veiled protectorate, rather like Egypt under
its last khédives. But popular opposition to the proposed treaty was so fierce
that the Majlis never ratified it, and it became a dead letter.
As we have shown elsewhere, 1919-1920 marked the high tide of British
power in the Muslim world. The Kemalist revolt in Turkey, nationalist up¬
risings in Egypt and Iraq, Arab riots in Palestine, Britain's reluctance to
defend the Caucasian republics (Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia), its half¬
hearted attempt to oppose Soviet influence in Afghanistan, and the failure
of Allied efforts to crush the Bolsheviks elsewhere, all taken together,
marked a turning point in British policy. The public was clamoring to bring
the troops home. Parliament would not commit funds to a long occupation.
London had, therefore, to cut back its presence in the Middle East.
But Persia's territorial integrity was still threatened. Separatist revolts
broke out in 1920 in the northern provinces of Gilan and Azerbaijan, and
the Bolsheviks landed troops to aid them. British officers remained in
many areas as trainers for various Persian army units, but they were widely
disliked. Trying to make both sides withdraw, Tehran negotiated a treaty
with Moscow early in 1921. The Soviets removed their troops, renounced
all extraterritorial privileges, canceled debts, and turned over all Russian
properties in Persia. But the treaty had an article allowing the USSR to send
in troops whenever it felt menaced by another foreign army occupying
Iranian soil. Although the Soviets would invoke this clause later, it helped
Persia in 1921 to ease Britain out.
The Rise ofReza Shah
Five days before the Soviet-Persian pact was actually signed, an officer in
the Persian Cossack Brigade (a local police force formed and led mainly by
Russians) toppled the regime in Tehran. This officer, Reza Khan, born in
1878 in Mazandaran, rose to prominence within the brigade during the
tumultuous period after the war. Having helped to oust the brigade's pro-
Bolshevik commander, Reza took charge of its infantry regiment and or¬
ganized a secret society of Persian officers opposed to both British and
Russian control. A general mutiny of the Persian cossacks resulted in the