As the century turned, Iran experienced political turmoil and America became a part of the drama of Iranian constitutionalism. After the assassination of Nasser al-Din Shah, the country moved toward constitutional government under his son, Mozaffar al-Din Shah. The constitutional revolution and civil war ushered in important political change in inaugurating Iran’s parliament, but instability followed. American missionaries and sympathizers, such as the martyred Howard Baskerville, fought for Iran’s freedom and to restore constitutional rule. During the period of the Second Majles, Iran hired American advisers to revamp its finances but was met with Russian interference. As war loomed, Iran found itself in a precarious position and its territory threatened by outside powers.

This chapter analyzes the rise and consolidation of Qajar rule from a tribal monarchy to a national dynasty. It examines the pervasiveness of centrifugal forces dominating the country’s landscape following the collapse of the Safavid dynasty, and slow rise in the 1780s of the Qajars from a tribal chieftaincy to a dynasty. The Qajars consolidated power, eliminated various tribal rivals, incorporated the clerical classes into the power structure, and implemented what was at best halting and scant social and economic reforms. Personal autocracy, and the avarice of successive monarchs and courtiers, undermined prospects for any kind of political development, paving the way for the dynasty’s steady decline and eventual collapse.