REVISITING THE REUTER CONCESSION FROM GEOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVES
Year 2024,
Volume: 9 Issue: 18, 1 - 16, 21.08.2024
István Dávid Vácz
Abstract
The Reuter Concession of 1872 marked the beginning of a new chapter in Iran’s history. It was the beginning of the concession-hunting period and the first time when the economic sphere was comprehensively affected by British-Russian rivalry. The research aimed to analyze the Reuter Concession from a geopolitical perspective. The study sought to examine the geopolitical perceptions and reasoning of the Iranian creators, Mirza Hosein Khan and Malkam Khan. Malkam Khan’s main objective with the contract was to engage British interests, thereby guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Persia and advancing the modernization agenda. The study argues that the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of the concession revealed the power structure and framework within which Iranian geopolitics had to operate. The other main aim of the research was to analyze the reactions and reasonings of British geopolitics and the impact of the concession on it. Although the Foreign Office did not support the Reuter Concession, it was seen as crucial by British India and Iran-based actors and kept it alive. The strategy of the latter group proved to be extremely useful in later decades, as they were able to rely on it to create and deepen British economic positions and counter Russian influence. The concession also had an impact on British geopolitical traditions and thinking.
References
- “THE REUTER CONCESSION”. Pall Mall Gazette, 1873.07.15. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000098/18730715/006/0005
- The Earl of Carnarvon, 1873, July 14. Persian Government—Concession To Baron De Reuter, Hansard, Volume 217. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1873-07-14/debates/66c3f518-5938-4d3d-8036-67f705c61680/PersianGovernment%E2%80%94ConcessionToBaronDeReuter
- The Earl of Granville, 1873, July 14. Persian Government—Concession To Baron De Reuter, Hansard, Volume 217. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1873-07-14/debates/66c3f518-5938-4d3d-8036-67f705c61680/PersianGovernment%E2%80%94ConcessionToBaronDeReuter
- QDL, ‘Abstracts of Letters from India 1873’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA13. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000de
- QDL, ‘Abstracts of Letters from India 1874’ British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA14. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000df
- QDL, ‘Agreement Between His Britannic Majesty’s Government and the Persian Government.’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/C197.
- https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000833.0x00018a
- QDL, ‘Confidential. Persia’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, MssEur F111/359/2.https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100098361150.0x000001
- QDL, Political No. 150 of 1873, Forwarding Copies of a Letter from HM Minister at Teheran to Earl Granville, Explaining Why he Believes the Completion of a Railway between the Caspian and Teheran would be Fatal to the Independence of Persia, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/6/111, ff 244-248.https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100108630303.0x000001
- QDL, Railways in Persia, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/5/268, ff 271-273. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100084589627.0x000018
Primary Sources (Published)
- ARMY HEADQUARTES INDIA (1911). ‘Military Report on Persia’ British Library: India Office Records and Private
- Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/5, in Qatar Digital Library. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000239.0x00012b
- CADMAN, J. 1927. “The Development of the Petroleum Industry in Persia”, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 75 (3878): 430–35.
- MALKAM, K. 2003. “Osul-e Taraqqi”, (Ed.) Asil. H.A. Resaleha-ye Mirza Malkam Khan Nazam al-Dowleh. Tehran.
- RAWLINSON, H. 1875. England and Russia in the East. London.
- SYKES, P.M. 1951. History of Persia, Vol. 2. London: Macmillan.
- WOLFF, H. D. 1908. Rambling Recollections Vol. 2. London: Macmillan.
- ABRAHAMIAN, E. 1982. Iran Between Two Revolutions. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- ADAMYAT, F. 1973. Andishe-ye Taraqqi va Hokumat-e Qanun. Tehran.
- ALGAR, H. 1973. Mirza Malkum Khan, A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- AMANAT, A. 2003. “British Influence in Persia in the 19th Century”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 11. New York: Columbia University.
- AXWORTHY, M. 2008. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. New York: Basic Books.
- BÍRÓ, D. 2022. “Hegemónia és befolyásszerzés Ankara politikájában: Soft power elemek a kulturális kapcsolatoktól a szunnita iszlám vallási dominanciájáig”, Külügyi Műhely, 4 (1): 149–174. DOI 10.36817/km.2022.1.7
- BRAUDEL, F. 1996. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, trans. S. Reynolds. University of California Press.
- CRONIN, S. 2008. “Importing Modernity: European Military Missions to Qajar Iran”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 50 (1):197–226. DOI 10.1017/S0010417508000108
- DADKHAH, K. 2003. “From Global Capital to State Capitalism: The Evolution of Economic Thought in Iran, 1875–1925”, Middle Eastern Studies, 39 (4): 140–158. DOI 10.1080/00263200412331301827
- FARMANFARMAIAN, R. 2008. “The Politics of concession: Reassessing the Interlinkage of Persia’s Finances, British Intrigue and Qajar Negotiation”, (Ed.) Farmanfarmaian, R. War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and Present. London and New York: Routledge, 213–228.
- FLOOR, W. 1991. “Traditional Crafts and Modern Industry in Qajar Iran”, Zeitschrift Der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 141 (2): 317–52.
- GALBRAITH, J. S. 1989. “Britain and American Railway Promoters in Late Nineteenth Century Persia”, Albion: A
- Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 21 (2): 248–62. DOI 10.2307/4049928.
- GHEISSARI, A. 2023. “Unequal Treaties and the Question of Sovereignty in Qajar and Early Pahlavi Iran”, Durham Middle East Papers, 106.
- QORBANIAN, M. 2011. “Zamineha va Bastarha-ye Tashkil-e Bank-e Shahansahi dar Iran”, Faslename-ye Tarikh-e Ravabet-e Khareji, 13 (49): 137-154.
- GREAVES, R.L. 1959. Persia and the Defence of India 1884-1892: Study in the Foreign Policy of the Third Marquis of Salisbury. Athlone Press.
- GRIFFITHS, J. 2017. British Foreign Policy and Iran, a Performance 1872-1979. PhD Thesis, University of Manchester.
- GUITY, N. 1982. The Origins of Modern Reform in Iran, 1870-80. London: University of Illinois Press.
- KATOUZIAN, H. 2009. The Persians, Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
- KAZEMZADEH, F. 2013. Russia and Britain in Persia, Imperial Ambitions in Qajar Iran. London: I.B. Tauris.
- KEDDIE, N.R. 2008. “Iran under the Later Qajars, 1848-1922”, (Ed.) Avery, P., Hambly, G. and Melville C. The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7: 174–212.
- KEDDIE, N.R. 2006. Modern Iran, Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
- KEDDIE, N.R. 1999. Qajar Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan, 1796-1925. Mazda Publishers.
- KHALILI, M. “Qarardad-e Reuter”, Tarikh-e Ravabet-e Khareji, 10 (38): 49–71.
- KOLOSSOV, V. and TOAL, G. 2007. “An Empire’s Fraying Edge? The North Caucasus Instability in Contemporary Russian Geopolitical Culture”, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 48 (2): 202–225. DOI 10.2747/1538-7216.48.2.202.
- LOCKHART, L. 1971. “Emergence of Anglo-Persian Oil Company 1901-1914”, (Ed.) Issawi, C. The Economic History of Iran, 1800-1914. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
- MAMADOUH, V. and DIJKINK, G. 2006. “Geopolitics, International Relations and Political Geography: The Politics of Geopolitical Discourse”, Geopolitics, 11 (3): 349–366. DOI 10.1080/14650040600767859.
- MIRSEPASSI, A. 2000. Intellectual Discourse and the Politics of Modernization: Negotiating Modernity in Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- MODELSKI, G. 1987. Long Cycles in World Politics. London: The MacMillan Press.
- SADEQIAN, N. 2010. “Taamoli-ye Tarkihi va Hoquqi bar Qaradadha-ye Naft-e Iran dar Asr-e Qajar”, Ganjineh-ye Asnad, Payiz 1389. 20(79): 6–21.
- SHAHRIARI, K. 2017. “Modernization Process in Iran: Historical Overview”, Journal of Social Science Studies, 4 (1), 269–282.
- TABATABAEI, M.T.S. 2020. “Mirza Malkam Khan and the Idea of Method”, Occidental Studies, 10 (2):143–168.
- TAYLOR, P. J. 1993. “Geopolitical world orders”, (Ed.) Taylor P.J., Political Geography of the Twentieth Century: A Global Analysis. London: Belhaven Press, 31–60.
- TEYMOURI, E. 1954. Asr-e Bikhabari, ya Tarikh-e Emtiazat dar Iran. Tehran: Entesharat-e Aqbal.
- VAKILI-ZAD, C. 1996. “Collision of Consciousness: Modernization and Development in Iran”, Middle Eastern Studies, 32 (3): 139–160.
- VALERIANO, B. and BENTHUYSEN J.V. (2012). “When States Die: Geographic and Territorial Pathways to State Death”, Third World Quarterly, 33 (7): 1165–1189. DOI 10.1080/01436597.2012.691826
- VÁCZ, I.D. 2022. “Lord Curzon’s Geopolitical Strategy and the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919”, International Congress on Afro-Eurasian Research VI. Istanbul, 201–215.
REVISITING THE REUTER CONCESSION FROM GEOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVES
Year 2024,
Volume: 9 Issue: 18, 1 - 16, 21.08.2024
István Dávid Vácz
Abstract
The Reuter Concession of 1872 marked the beginning of a new chapter in Iran’s history. It was the beginning of the concession-hunting period and the first time when the economic sphere was comprehensively affected by British-Russian rivalry. The research aimed to analyze the Reuter Concession from a geopolitical perspective. The study sought to examine the geopolitical perceptions and reasoning of the Iranian creators, Mirza Hosein Khan and Malkam Khan. Malkam Khan’s main objective with the contract was to engage British interests, thereby guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Persia and advancing the modernization agenda. The study argues that the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of the concession revealed the power structure and framework within which Iranian geopolitics had to operate. The other main aim of the research was to analyze the reactions and reasonings of British geopolitics and the impact of the concession on it. Although the Foreign Office did not support the Reuter Concession, it was seen as crucial by British India and Iran-based actors and kept it alive. The strategy of the latter group proved to be extremely useful in later decades, as they were able to rely on it to create and deepen British economic positions and counter Russian influence. The concession also had an impact on British geopolitical traditions and thinking.
Supporting Institution
„Supported by the ÚNKP-23-3 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Culture and Innovation from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.”
References
- “THE REUTER CONCESSION”. Pall Mall Gazette, 1873.07.15. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000098/18730715/006/0005
- The Earl of Carnarvon, 1873, July 14. Persian Government—Concession To Baron De Reuter, Hansard, Volume 217. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1873-07-14/debates/66c3f518-5938-4d3d-8036-67f705c61680/PersianGovernment%E2%80%94ConcessionToBaronDeReuter
- The Earl of Granville, 1873, July 14. Persian Government—Concession To Baron De Reuter, Hansard, Volume 217. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1873-07-14/debates/66c3f518-5938-4d3d-8036-67f705c61680/PersianGovernment%E2%80%94ConcessionToBaronDeReuter
- QDL, ‘Abstracts of Letters from India 1873’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA13. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000de
- QDL, ‘Abstracts of Letters from India 1874’ British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA14. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000df
- QDL, ‘Agreement Between His Britannic Majesty’s Government and the Persian Government.’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/C197.
- https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000833.0x00018a
- QDL, ‘Confidential. Persia’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, MssEur F111/359/2.https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100098361150.0x000001
- QDL, Political No. 150 of 1873, Forwarding Copies of a Letter from HM Minister at Teheran to Earl Granville, Explaining Why he Believes the Completion of a Railway between the Caspian and Teheran would be Fatal to the Independence of Persia, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/6/111, ff 244-248.https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100108630303.0x000001
- QDL, Railways in Persia, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/5/268, ff 271-273. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100084589627.0x000018
Primary Sources (Published)
- ARMY HEADQUARTES INDIA (1911). ‘Military Report on Persia’ British Library: India Office Records and Private
- Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/5, in Qatar Digital Library. https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000239.0x00012b
- CADMAN, J. 1927. “The Development of the Petroleum Industry in Persia”, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 75 (3878): 430–35.
- MALKAM, K. 2003. “Osul-e Taraqqi”, (Ed.) Asil. H.A. Resaleha-ye Mirza Malkam Khan Nazam al-Dowleh. Tehran.
- RAWLINSON, H. 1875. England and Russia in the East. London.
- SYKES, P.M. 1951. History of Persia, Vol. 2. London: Macmillan.
- WOLFF, H. D. 1908. Rambling Recollections Vol. 2. London: Macmillan.
- ABRAHAMIAN, E. 1982. Iran Between Two Revolutions. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- ADAMYAT, F. 1973. Andishe-ye Taraqqi va Hokumat-e Qanun. Tehran.
- ALGAR, H. 1973. Mirza Malkum Khan, A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- AMANAT, A. 2003. “British Influence in Persia in the 19th Century”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 11. New York: Columbia University.
- AXWORTHY, M. 2008. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. New York: Basic Books.
- BÍRÓ, D. 2022. “Hegemónia és befolyásszerzés Ankara politikájában: Soft power elemek a kulturális kapcsolatoktól a szunnita iszlám vallási dominanciájáig”, Külügyi Műhely, 4 (1): 149–174. DOI 10.36817/km.2022.1.7
- BRAUDEL, F. 1996. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, trans. S. Reynolds. University of California Press.
- CRONIN, S. 2008. “Importing Modernity: European Military Missions to Qajar Iran”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 50 (1):197–226. DOI 10.1017/S0010417508000108
- DADKHAH, K. 2003. “From Global Capital to State Capitalism: The Evolution of Economic Thought in Iran, 1875–1925”, Middle Eastern Studies, 39 (4): 140–158. DOI 10.1080/00263200412331301827
- FARMANFARMAIAN, R. 2008. “The Politics of concession: Reassessing the Interlinkage of Persia’s Finances, British Intrigue and Qajar Negotiation”, (Ed.) Farmanfarmaian, R. War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and Present. London and New York: Routledge, 213–228.
- FLOOR, W. 1991. “Traditional Crafts and Modern Industry in Qajar Iran”, Zeitschrift Der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 141 (2): 317–52.
- GALBRAITH, J. S. 1989. “Britain and American Railway Promoters in Late Nineteenth Century Persia”, Albion: A
- Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 21 (2): 248–62. DOI 10.2307/4049928.
- GHEISSARI, A. 2023. “Unequal Treaties and the Question of Sovereignty in Qajar and Early Pahlavi Iran”, Durham Middle East Papers, 106.
- QORBANIAN, M. 2011. “Zamineha va Bastarha-ye Tashkil-e Bank-e Shahansahi dar Iran”, Faslename-ye Tarikh-e Ravabet-e Khareji, 13 (49): 137-154.
- GREAVES, R.L. 1959. Persia and the Defence of India 1884-1892: Study in the Foreign Policy of the Third Marquis of Salisbury. Athlone Press.
- GRIFFITHS, J. 2017. British Foreign Policy and Iran, a Performance 1872-1979. PhD Thesis, University of Manchester.
- GUITY, N. 1982. The Origins of Modern Reform in Iran, 1870-80. London: University of Illinois Press.
- KATOUZIAN, H. 2009. The Persians, Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
- KAZEMZADEH, F. 2013. Russia and Britain in Persia, Imperial Ambitions in Qajar Iran. London: I.B. Tauris.
- KEDDIE, N.R. 2008. “Iran under the Later Qajars, 1848-1922”, (Ed.) Avery, P., Hambly, G. and Melville C. The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7: 174–212.
- KEDDIE, N.R. 2006. Modern Iran, Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
- KEDDIE, N.R. 1999. Qajar Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan, 1796-1925. Mazda Publishers.
- KHALILI, M. “Qarardad-e Reuter”, Tarikh-e Ravabet-e Khareji, 10 (38): 49–71.
- KOLOSSOV, V. and TOAL, G. 2007. “An Empire’s Fraying Edge? The North Caucasus Instability in Contemporary Russian Geopolitical Culture”, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 48 (2): 202–225. DOI 10.2747/1538-7216.48.2.202.
- LOCKHART, L. 1971. “Emergence of Anglo-Persian Oil Company 1901-1914”, (Ed.) Issawi, C. The Economic History of Iran, 1800-1914. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
- MAMADOUH, V. and DIJKINK, G. 2006. “Geopolitics, International Relations and Political Geography: The Politics of Geopolitical Discourse”, Geopolitics, 11 (3): 349–366. DOI 10.1080/14650040600767859.
- MIRSEPASSI, A. 2000. Intellectual Discourse and the Politics of Modernization: Negotiating Modernity in Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- MODELSKI, G. 1987. Long Cycles in World Politics. London: The MacMillan Press.
- SADEQIAN, N. 2010. “Taamoli-ye Tarkihi va Hoquqi bar Qaradadha-ye Naft-e Iran dar Asr-e Qajar”, Ganjineh-ye Asnad, Payiz 1389. 20(79): 6–21.
- SHAHRIARI, K. 2017. “Modernization Process in Iran: Historical Overview”, Journal of Social Science Studies, 4 (1), 269–282.
- TABATABAEI, M.T.S. 2020. “Mirza Malkam Khan and the Idea of Method”, Occidental Studies, 10 (2):143–168.
- TAYLOR, P. J. 1993. “Geopolitical world orders”, (Ed.) Taylor P.J., Political Geography of the Twentieth Century: A Global Analysis. London: Belhaven Press, 31–60.
- TEYMOURI, E. 1954. Asr-e Bikhabari, ya Tarikh-e Emtiazat dar Iran. Tehran: Entesharat-e Aqbal.
- VAKILI-ZAD, C. 1996. “Collision of Consciousness: Modernization and Development in Iran”, Middle Eastern Studies, 32 (3): 139–160.
- VALERIANO, B. and BENTHUYSEN J.V. (2012). “When States Die: Geographic and Territorial Pathways to State Death”, Third World Quarterly, 33 (7): 1165–1189. DOI 10.1080/01436597.2012.691826
- VÁCZ, I.D. 2022. “Lord Curzon’s Geopolitical Strategy and the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919”, International Congress on Afro-Eurasian Research VI. Istanbul, 201–215.