IRAN DURING THE REIGNS OF FATH ‘Alī SHāH AND MUHAMMAD SHāH

Hambly, Gavin R. G.

doi:10.1017/chol9780521200950.005

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Guns were produced locally after a French pattern, and young men were sent to study abroad. Abbas Mirza also attempted to go beyond technical and organizational innovations: he designed and tried to implement in Azerbaijan a new, centralized system of recruitment and taxation (Martin 1996;Cronin 2008;Hambly, 1991).…”

Section: Qajar Persia: External Pressure Without Westernizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surprisingly, despite a clear and present danger from Russia, no sustained effort at military reform was ever made under Naser al-Din. We might speculate whether the Shah preferred to rely on a strategy of balancing Britain and Russia against each other, or on the British guarantee (Hambly 1991). Yet the facts are clear: all by itself, significant external military pressure was not enough to break the existing balance of power and to spur the incumbent ruler on to a Westernizing revolution.…”

Section: Qajar Persia: External Pressure Without Westernizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Just like Abbas Mirza, Muhammad Ali was building up his own army in Luristan and Khuzustan. He is usually considered a conservative, and his troops were predominantly tribal, yet he too possessed a small corps of regular infantry, set up cannon foundries in his domains, and employed Russian and other European renegades(Hambly 1991). Still, Muhammad Ali made efforts to incite opposition to Abbas Mirza from the ulema by presenting the latters' nizam-i jaded as being contrary to the principles of Islam.…”

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confidence: 99%

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'Westernizations' from Peter I to Meiji: War, Political Competition, and Reform

Fedyukin

2016

SSRN Journal

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Radical "Westernizing" transformations in extra-European countries, from Peter I's Russia to Meiji Japan, are traditionally presented as a response to threats from the more militarily and technologically advanced European powers. This corresponds to the general tendency to view war as the driving force behind early modern state-building. Yet, how exactly did such transformations become possible? How were the rulers able to pursue policies that threaten large sections of their own military elites, from strel'tsy and mamluks to janissaries and samurais? And why did some of the extra-European states failed to 'Westernize" in response to external threats, while others rapidly Westernized when the threats was ephemeral, at best? This article seeks to complicate this "bellicist" narrative of Westernizing transformations by shifting the focus of analysis to the rulers' quest for political survival. It argues that when the domestic balance of power is stable, incumbent rulers tend not to embark on reform, even in the face of external military threats. Conversely, such reforms tend to occur when the domestic balance of power is disrupted to such a degree as to lead to the emergence of challengers, who launch "Westernization" as they seek to expand their power base and undermine that of their rivals. Factional political struggles accompanying such transformations are interpreted here not as a conservative reaction against reforms, but as a process that precedes and enables reforms by facilitating the creation of an alternative ruling coalition.

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Section: Qajar Persia: External Pressure Without Westernizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Qajar Persia: External Pressure Without Westernizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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