چكيده لاتين :
Historical sources show that Iranʹs sovereignty over Caucasian region dates back to the time before the birth of Christ, when were ruling Iran. Many Persian and Arabian historians believe that many towns in the area were established by Sassanid kings. With the advent of Islam this area remained as before under the rule of Iranian rulers and when the inhabitants of northern and eastern parts of Caucasia embraced Islam, cultural bonds and friendly relations between them and other parts of Iran were strengenthed. In 18th century, when Russia had developed by the reform policies of Peter the Great and had stepped into new industrialised world, Caucasia emerged as a main source of security, energy and raw materials for the newly established factories. Oil, cotton, wool, cereals, low prices man power and widespread market were indispensable to flourish the Russian economy. For this reason Peter came to this conclusion that it was quite necessary to occupy this strategic region. The first attempts made by Russia to occupy the region which, terminated to a short term occupation of part of Caucasia, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces was defeated due to heavy toll of armies who died from plague and other contigenous diseases. At length Russia under the pressure of various factors, concluded two treaties with Iran, one the Rasht Treaty (1732) and the Ganjeh Treaty (1735) and on the basis of these treaties Russia evacuated the occupied territories and recognized Iranʹs sovereignty over them. But the Russian government could not over look its strategic economic and political interests in the region and by annexing Georgia to her main land in 1801, Moscow followed her goals with more speed. Finally the conflicting interests of Iran and Russia, impelled the small and disorganized tribalistic troops of Iran to fight against the greatest 19th century infantry force in the world. At the end of the combat between two imbalanced forces due to intervention of greedy European colonial powers, Caucasia was occupied and annexed to Russia at the end of 19th century. The present essay using the most outstanding Persian and Russian sources plans to study and analyse the reasons of the events and the outcome of such expeditions.
