The Confrontation of Qājār Princes and Court-Relatives with Modern European Institutions

Traditional formations of dominance in continental lands were mainly based on gathering taxes and direct application of power. In contrary, the most current of their modern alternatives, i.e. colonization used science and technology as its structural bases of power. So, it has been able to change more effectively the structure of thought and life of the colonized people. This study addressed an indigenous case of confrontation with modern civilization of the west that is Qājāri elite’s encountering with modern European colonization. Its purpose is to show how these Qājār elite understood modern western civilization and explain the main characteristics of their attitude to it as well. Its primary focus is on that part of aforementioned elite which in decades following the military defeats from Russia were sent to Europe to acquire some new information. Basing on textual analyzing method, this study aims to be able to present an explanation of this elite’s contribution to the approaches of Qājār government to modern European colonization. The results show that these Qajari elite were not able to attain a sound understanding of Iranian society’s situation in comparison with Europe. Their best achievement was a superficial grasp of European modern material culture which its strong focus was on military technology. They didn’t have a serious concern for political and social bases of this civilization with which they were dealing. Their understanding of modern European civilization did not proceed further than a sensational level. Therefore, they failed to understand and explain law and constitution as the crucial bases of this civilization.