A HISTORY OF MODERN IRAN - Stoa

60 A History of Modern Iran
The Germans were also active. Wilhelm Wassmus, their “Lawrence of
Arabia,” instigated uprisings among Qashqa’is, Khamsehs, Boir Ahmadis,
Sanjabi Kurds, and, most serious of all, Arabs who in 1915 were able to
cut the main oil pipeline. The Germans also persuaded a number of
Swedish officers in the gendarmerie to desert. One historian writes: “The
Swedish-officered gendarmerie, organized in 1911, had been as close as
Britain could hope to come to a force in the south to maintain order; but
that particular institution proved to be an unmitigated disaster during the
war when most of the force defected to the Germans, refusing even to
obey instructions from the Persian Government.” 77 The British attributed
German popularity to the “aggressive,” “uncouth,” and “unscrupulous”
behavior of the Russians. 78
These wartime disruptions coincided with bad harvests, cholera and
typhus epidemics, and, most deadly of all, the 1919 influenza pandemic.
Altogether between 1917 and 1921 as many as two million Iranians –
including one quarter of the rural population – perished from war, disease,
and starvation. 79 One British eyewitness wrote that by 1919 hungry tribesmen
were taking to rural banditry while starving peasants were rumored to
be resorting to cannibalism. 80
Peace did not bring an end to these difficulties. Curzon, now Britain’s
foreign minister, saw the defeat of Germany and Russia as providing Britain
with the perfect opportunity to take over the whole of Iran. As viceroy of
India he had described Iran as vital for the security of the Raj, and had
denounced in no uncertain terms the 1907 convention for conceding too
much to Russia. He now drafted his Anglo-Persian Agreement to incorporate
the whole country into the British Empire. Harold Nicholson, who
served in the British legation in Tehran before turning to literature, wrote in
his biography of Curzon that his protagonist aspired to create “a chain of
vassal states from the Mediterranean to India.” 81 “Curzon’s imperialism,” he
added, “was founded on the belief that God had personally selected the
British upper class as an instrument of the Divine Will.” One London
newspaper mocked that Curzon acted as if he had “discovered” the country
and consequently owned it. 82 According to the Anglo-Persian Agreement,
Britain obtained the sole right to provide Iran with loans, arms, advisors,
military instructors, customs administrators, and even teachers. Frenchmen
were to be barred from the Dar al-Fanon on the grounds that law and
politics often seeped into international relations. In return, Britain was to
provide Iran with a loan of £2 million. It was also to have the monopoly
right to help the country build railways, combat famine, find entry into the
League of Nations, and seek indemnity for damages suffered in World War I.