Parvin DARABADI

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Parvin Darabadi, D.Sc. (Hist.), professor at Baku State University (Baku, Azerbaijan).

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CENTRAL EURASIA IN THE “BIG GEOPOLITICAL GAME” OF THE LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURIES (PAGES OF GEOHISTORY)

ABSTRACT

The author offers a glimpse of one of the most dramatic episodes of geopolitical rivalry between the Russian and British empires that unfolded in the Central Eurasian mega-region in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He presents an in-depth analysis of the geostrategic aims pursued by both empires, the role of the Caucasian factor in the Crimean War, and the main stages of the empires’ confrontation in Central Asia. Prof. Darabadi pays a lot of attention to the so-called railway policy Russia and Britain pursued in Persia, as well as to the oil factor of the geopolitical games in the Caspian.

Introduction

In the first half of the 19th century, Russia turned its attention to the Caucasus and the Caspian once more and revived its military-political involvement to complete the struggle for Russia’s absolute hegemony there started by Peter the Great and continued by Catherine the Great. Iran and Turkey likewise turned their gaze to the same region while Russia, Britain, and France found themselves competing for the Middle East and the Caspian region in particular.

Military assistance from Napoleon’s France and Britain did not save Iran and Turkey from crippling defeats in…………….

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