نشریه مطالعات تاریخی
پیاپی 62 (پاییز 1397)

This research represents the history of US-Iran relations and the understanding of political elite of both countries about this relation. The main idea of this article says that Iranian elite were seeking for a third force and replacing it to balance the Russian and British forces in Iran and American elite while having different reasons for this relation, they wanted to find international and regional popularity in southwestern Asia in order to achieve their imperialistic goals. This article while assuming foreign politics for Iran, tries to find its intersections with the US foreign policy principals in the Middle East during 19th century to the beginning of WWII.

This article studies the policies and positions made by the US Government toward Persian Constitutional Revolution. The US government chose the policy of consciousness and more than that, ignorance and minimization of this movement. The main reasons behind this approach are: 1) The continuity of Monroe Doctrine in the US foreign policy that resulted in avoiding confrontation with the colonial countries of Russia and Britain; 2) the high cost of political and economic presence in Persia; 3) lack of enough knowledge about the political, social and cultural life of Persia. During the 19th century and the 1st decade of 20th century which was concurrent the Constitutional Movement in Persia, however, the more realistic political and economic interests and desires of the US were followed indirectly and under the cover of so-called humanitarian cultural, religious, educational and medical activities by missionaries.

This article studies the performance and influence of Dr. Arthur Millspaugh and his mission based on the documents and the press of that time and also the Persian National Assembly (Majless) transactions. Millspaugh was the head of the second American economic mission to Persia that aimed to organize the Persian economic conditions and traveled to Persia twice. Before him, a group headed by Morgan Shuster had entered to Persia by the order of Persian National Assembly. Millspaugh came to Persia in 1922 for the first time. During this 5-year-period, he was Treasurer-General of Persia with expanded latitude. Once again he came to Iran in 1942 and became Treasurer-General of Persia once again. The activities of this group were finally unsuccessful for Iran and they were forced to leave because of the competition between the colonial governments in Iran.

Using historical-analytical methodology, this article studies the reasons behind Iranian optimism toward the USA before WWII. The conclusion shows that the US attempts in public diplomacy and the sociopolitical conditions of Iran were the two main reasons for this optimism. The presence of American Mission in Northeast Iran and then central Iran and their attempts in educational and medical affairs, considering the so-called humanitarian and innovative attempts which all of them could be considered as public diplomacy had positive effects. On the other side, some Iranian politicians because of special socio-economic conditions of Iran were looking for a country that could play the role 3rd force and bring Iran out of the hands of two colonial powers.

While presenting a general discussion about religious proselytizing policy of western institutes, this article in particular is to analyze and study a main sector of the activities of American Protestant missioners in Iran, i.e. “Educational Activities”. This study while assuming different proselytizing aims, particularly separates the “religious reasons” from the political and economic interests that for centuries proselytizing movements in the Christian world had under her control. This article has used analytical-descriptive methodology and is based on historical documents and sources.

This article reviews the history of US-Iran political, economic and cultural relations during 1883-1941, the early years of relations and the US attempts to influence in the political arena of Iran. The Americans who had been confronted with the serious resistance of Russia and Britain, during few decades tried to continue their presence in Iran while avoiding confrontations with these countries by using different methods and wait for the change in condition. In this regard, in few junctures they found opportunities, but the existing obstacles impeded them of reaching their goals. However, gradually new approaches were made in the US foreign policy to have dominance over other strategic corners of the world and that created serious challenges between the US and other colonial powers of the world. These competitions and challenges in Iran were marked by international relations developments after the WWI.