Britain and Russia Carve Iran into Spheres of Influence
The constitutional revolutionaries' own ally signs away their independence behind closed doors
Quick facts
- Signed
- August 31, 1907
- Russian zone
- Northern Iran, including Tehran
- British zone
- Southern Iran
- Iranian government consulted
- No
What happened
On August 31, 1907, Britain and Russia signed the Anglo-Russian Convention, an agreement settling their rivalry across Central Asia so both powers could better counter growing German influence in the region. Without consulting Iran's government at all, informing Tehran only after the fact, the convention divided the country into a Russian sphere covering the north, including Tehran itself, a British sphere in the south, and a neutral buffer zone between them where both powers shared influence. Britain's own minister in Tehran, Cecil Spring Rice, warned Foreign Secretary Edward Grey that the arrangement would be seen as a betrayal of the Persian constitutionalists who had looked to Britain as an ally during their revolution the year before, but Grey judged a détente with Russia essential to containing Germany and proceeded regardless.
Why it matters
The convention exposed how little weight great-power diplomats gave Iranian sovereignty even as Iran's own constitutional revolutionaries were still consolidating their new parliament, undermining the credibility of the very foreign power many reformers had counted on for support. It set the template for a recurring 20th-century pattern in Iranian history, foreign powers dividing or occupying the country for their own strategic reasons with little regard for the government in Tehran, that recurred in the 1941 Anglo-Soviet invasion and the 1946 Azerbaijan crisis.
How we know
The Anglo-Russian Convention survives as a signed diplomatic treaty text, and British Foreign Office correspondence from the period, including Cecil Spring Rice's warnings to Edward Grey, documents London's own awareness of how the agreement would be received in Iran.
Sources
- Professor Ali Ansari, Gresham College. Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1906 · Reputable sourcegresham.ac.uk · The domain "gresham.ac.uk" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Away From the Western Front (with the British Institute of Persian Studies). Persia (Mesopotamia and Persia Campaigns) · General sourceawayfromthewesternfront.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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