Safavids Research Paper

The identity of the modern era Iran was established during the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736), which established Shi’a Islam as the official religion of the Empire. The greatest of the Safavid monarchs, Shah Abbas I the Great (1587-1629) came to power in 1587 aged 16. Abbas was not only successful against the Ottoman Empire in the war of 1603-1618, but he also dislodged the Portuguese from Bahrain in 1602 and Hormuz in 1622. However the Safavids were in decline at the start of the 18th century. In 1722, Peter the Great of Imperial Russia launched the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723), capturing many of Iran’s Caucasian territories. In 1724, under the Treaty of Constantinople, the Ottomans and the Russians agreed to divide the newly conquered territories …show more content…
He was later assassinated while preparing a second expedition against Georgia in 1797. The Russians finally entered Tiblisi in 1799 and made it part of Russia in 1801. This led to prolonged wars between Iran and Russia from 1804-1813 and 1826-1828. Iran lost territories to the Russian Empire, comprising modern day Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Armenia during the Russo-Persian Wars. As a result, large migrations took place from the Caucasian regions to Iran. In 1864 until the early 20th century, another exodus of Caucasian Muslims took place as a result of the Russian victory in the Caucasian War. Iran became a constitutional monarchy in 1906 after the Persian Constitutional Revolution against Shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah (1896-1907).
Persia was considered the crown jewel by both the Russians and the British and both wanted to have absolute control of Persia, in what became known as the Great Game. Finally, the political instability of the Qajar government resulted in the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi and the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty in