Iran at a crossroads

Iran’s challenges could be summed up in one word: modernity. ¹ Although the first encounter with modern Europe was under the Safavid dynasty in the 17th century, ² it is the Russo–Iranian wars of the early 19th century that revealed the gap between Iran and the modern world. Despite its numerical advantage, the Iranian side was badly defeated by the superior arms and modern military tactics of the Russians. The quest for modernization thus began under the auspices of Crown Prince Abbas Mirza, the commander of the defeated Iranian army. The first meaningful steps, however, were taken by Premier Amir Kabir in the mid-19th century. ³ It was the consequences of his reforms and the ‘enlightenment’ movement of the second half of the 19th century that resulted in the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–07—Iran’s first major encounter with modernity.