The Most Important Factors Influencing the Iranian Famine during the First World War

Abstract

The First World War was one of the most significant events of the twentieth century, whose devastating consequences affected the Iranian population despite Iran’s declaration of neutrality, leading to the occupation of the country by Russian and British forces. The northwestern regions of Iran were also repeatedly subjected to attacks by Ottoman troops. A land that had long been exposed to drought and famine due to its climatic conditions, Iran on this occasion—under the shadow of foreign invasion and as a result of internal factors such as the inefficiency of governmental agents and the absence of crisis management, hoarding of grain and food supplies, weakness of the transportation network and road infrastructure, financial incapacity and national dependency, collapse of social order and expansion of poverty, banditry and plunder accompanied by the creation of a climate of fear, population decline caused by disease and debilitation, and fragmentation of military power, along with external factors including military occupation, control of food depots, and the large-scale purchase of Iranian grain by Britain and Russia—became afflicted by a massive catastrophe that laid the groundwork for the emergence of the Great Famine in Iran concurrent with the First World War. The primary objective of this article is to explain and analyze the most important internal and external factors contributing to the outbreak of famine in Iran during the First World War, based on reliable historical documents and reports. The main research question is: What were the most significant internal and external factors affecting the famine in Iran during the First World War? This study is a historical investigation in which data were collected through library-based research and presented using a descriptive–analytical method. The findings indicate that Iran, which due to its climatic conditions had always faced the risk of drought, experienced severe famine and extensive human losses as a result of the simultaneous aggression of foreign occupiers and the exploitative practices of domestic profiteers; a catastrophe whose political and economic repercussions remained in the country for many years.