Franco-Persian Alliance
The Franco-Persian Alliance was an alliance signed on May 4, 1807 in the Treaty of Finckenstein between France under Napoleon Bonaparte and Persia (today's Iran ) under Fath Ali Shah . The alliance was directed against Russia and Great Britain . Persia promised financial and military support from the alliance in the war against Russia that the country began in 1804. Napoleon saw in the alliance an opportunity to undertake the attack he planned on British India with the support of Persian and Afghan troops.
After the peace of Tilsit , in which France and Russia allied themselves, the alliance lost its strategic importance for Persia and - despite Napoleon's efforts to maintain it - was terminated in favor of an alliance with the British.
prehistory
The first contractual relations between Persia and France go back to 1715. The Persian envoy Mohammad Reza Beg was received on February 19, 1715 by King Louis XIV with great pomp in the Palace of Versailles . On August 13, 1715, a trade agreement was concluded between Persia and France. The trade relations between Persia and France could not develop as planned, however, as there was an uprising of the Sunni Afghans tribe of the Ghilzai in 1719 . They conquered Isfahan in 1722 and finally overthrew the Safavid dynasty in 1736 , which was replaced by the Afsharids .
An attempt to resume relations between France and Persia occurred during the French Revolution . The board of directors sent the two scientists Jean-Guillaume Bruguières and Guillaume-Antoine Olivier to Persia in order to negotiate an assistance pact aimed primarily at Great Britain. However, they returned without having achieved anything.
With his campaign in Egypt in 1798, Napoleon had attempted to strengthen France's position in the Islamic world and to win the Muslims as allies against Great Britain and for an attack on British India. However, the French fleet was completely destroyed in the battle of Abukir in 1798. This cut off the French troops from any supplies from France. The Ottoman Empire eventually declared war on France under British pressure. On August 31, 1799, the French troops capitulated and had to leave Egypt against free withdrawal.
In order to secure the western border of British India after the military success in Egypt, Great Britain dispatched Sir John Malcolm , who concluded the Anglo-Persian Treaty of 1801 with Fath Ali Shah . In the treaty, the British assured Persia military support against Russia. In return, Persia granted Great Britain military support against France and preferential economic relations.
Fath Ali Shah claimed the former Persian khanates Karabag , Shirvan , Talysh , Sheki and Kartlien-Kakheti , which had broken away from Persia after Nadir Shah's death in 1747. With the attempt to enforce the territorial claims, Fath Ali Shah came into conflict with Russia, which had annexed Kartlien-Kakheti in 1801 and wanted to add the khanates to its territory. In 1804, when Russian troops attacked Persia, the third Russo-Persian War broke out . Persia urgently needed reinforcements in order to be able to hold its own against the Russian troops, which were superior in terms of armament and training. Great Britain, despite the Anglo-Persian treaty concluded in 1801, did not consider itself obliged to support Persia, since the pact was directed against France and not against Russia. For this reason, Fath Ali Shah turned to Napoleon, seeing him as a natural ally. In order to forge an alliance with Persia, Napoleon sent the orientalist Pierre Amédée Jaubert to Fath Ali Shah in the spring of 1805 . He returned to France in October 1806 with a letter of thanks from Fath Ali Shah, in which Fath Ali Shah asked Napoleon to send instructors to the Persian army.
Treaty of Finckenstein
Fath Ali Shah now sent Mirza Mohammad Reza Qazvini to Napoleon from his side. He met Napoleon in Finckenstein in West Prussia, where he had set up his quarters in the campaign against Russia. On May 4, 1807, the alliance with France was formally sealed by the Treaty of Finckenstein. In this treaty, France recognizes Persia's territorial claims to Georgia and confirms that it will do everything possible to force Russia to surrender Georgia to Persia. In return, Persia declared war on Great Britain and allowed Napoleon to march through an army into India. As a first step in the implementation of the alliance, a French military mission under General Antoine Gardanne was sent to Persia to advance the modernization of the Persian army. General Gardanne was also supposed to explore a possible route for a French army through Persia to India. Gardanne should also keep in contact with the Ottoman army and coordinate a joint military action by Ottoman and Persian troops against Russia.
The military mission, consisting of 70 officers, arrived in Persia on December 4, 1807. Captain of the Infantry Lamy and Captain Verdier trained the New Army (Nezame Jadid) , which was placed under the command of Crown Prince Abbas Mirza . On November 29, 1808, the newly formed army managed to repel a Russian attack on the city of Yerevan . The artillery lieutenants Charles-Nicolas Fabvier and lieutenant Reboul were sent by General Gardanne to Isfahan to build a factory there for the manufacture of cannons for a new Persian artillery to be created. Despite the greatest difficulties, they managed to manufacture 20 cannons, which were immediately brought to Tehran.
After the Russian troops had suffered a heavy defeat in the battle of Friedland in the war against Napoleon on June 14, 1807 , Tsar Alexander I then started negotiations with the French side, which initially led to an armistice on June 23, 1807 and then on June 7, 1807 July 1807 led to the Peace of Tilsit . With this peace agreement, France and Russia became allies. In Tilsit, Russia agreed to negotiate with Fath Ali Shah on the issue of Georgia and the end of the Persian-Russian war. Fath Ali Shah made it clear, however, that he would insist on the complete return of Georgia, so that there would be no formal negotiations between Persia and Russia. It turned out to be a grave mistake that Fath Ali Shah did not use this opportunity to resolve the conflict, but instead continued the war with a complete misunderstanding of its military capabilities. In the end the war with Russia was lost and in the peace of Gulistan Persia had to cede not only Georgia, but also the northern part of Azerbaijan to Russia.
The end of the alliance
Napoleon wanted to continue the alliance with Persia despite his political reorientation towards Russia in order to advance his plans to invade India. He planned to send his brother Lucien Bonaparte to Tehran as ambassador. For its part, Persia had already sent Askar Khan Afshar to Paris as ambassador. Askar Khan arrived in France on July 20, 1808 and had a first conversation with Napoleon on September 4, 1808.
In order to end the political rapprochement between Persia and France, Great Britain sent John Malcolm to Fath Ali Shah, who, however, could not convince the Shah to realign his policy in favor of Great Britain. Only Sir Harford Jones Brydges managed to conclude a treaty with Fath Ali Shah in 1809 in which he promised extensive military aid in the war against Russia, which was now allied with France. In return, Fath Ali Shah terminated the alliance with France and expelled all French officers from the country. The British officer Henry Lindsay Bethune arrived in Persia in 1810 and began with other British officers to reorganize the Persian army. In 1810 Fath Ali Shah declared war a " holy war ". But despite the support of British officers, the Russians achieved decisive victories, such as the capture of Lənkəran .
After Napoleon's failed Russian campaign , the Russian army was also able to win the war against Persia in 1812 with victories at Aslandoz and Lenkoren . Russia was now allied with Great Britain again and British support for Persia ceased. In the Peace of Gulistan , which was concluded in 1813, Persia ceded extensive territory to Russia.
Following the final fall of Napoleon in 1815 and the dissolution of the French army, the French officer Jean-Francois Allard traveled to Persia and offered his services to the Crown Prince Abbas Mirza . He was promised a position as captain. Allard learned Persian but never received command of the Persian army. He then left Persia for India and served Maharaja Ranjit Singh for many years . He succeeded in modernizing the Maharaja's army and thus forming the first modern Indian army. The result was a powerful Punjab state that was the only one not controlled by the British.
Diplomatic relations between France and Persia were not to be resumed until 1857, when Farouk Khan became Persian ambassador in Paris. Previously, the French Emperor Napoleon III. brokered the peace of Paris between Persia and Great Britain.
Individual evidence
- ↑ JC Hurewitz: The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics. A Documentary Record. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1956, ISBN 0-300-01294-2 , pp. 56ff.
- ^ A b Iradj Amini: Napoleon and Persia: Franco-Persian relations under the First Empire. Routledge, New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-7007-1168-0 , pp. 6f.
- ^ William E. Watson: Tricolor and crescent: France and the Islamic World. Praeger, Westport, 2003, ISBN 978-0-275-97470-1 , pp. 13f.
- ^ A b Martin Sicker: The Islamic world in decline - from the Treaty of Karlowitz to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Praeger, Westport, 2000, ISBN 978-0-275-96891-5 , p. 97.
- ^ Iradj Amini: Napoleon and Persia: Franco-Persian relations under the First Empire. Routledge, New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-7007-1168-0 , pp. 156f.
- ^ A b Iradj Amini: Napoleon and Persia: Franco-Persian relations under the First Empire. Routledge, New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-7007-1168-0 , p. 164.
- ^ Iradj Amini: Napoleon and Persia: Franco-Persian relations under the First Empire. Routledge, New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-7007-1168-0 , p. 140.
- ^ Percy Molesworth Sykes : A History of Persia. Hesperides Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4437-2408-1 , pp. 404f.