Early South Caucasus's History
From the early days following the split of the Roman Empire into it’s western and eastern Byzantine capital at Constantinople in the fifth century, territorial possessions stretched into the region near the Caspian Sea. At which time, influence of the former Greek civilizations reemerged nearly to the prominence of it’s classical period grandeur when the great city states of Athens and Corinth once ruled prior to being triumphed by Rome for six hundred years. Upon the Roman collapse in the fifth century and establishment of the European split, the Constantine powers intended to defy the Roman Catholic tradition, practice Orthodox Christianity and assert an individual Greek culture upon an immense area spanning the Black Sea into Central Asia.
The influence of western Catholic Christianity in the early Middle Ages of Europe amounted to rivalry among the practitioners of contradictory teachings who were subject to fierce repression by the ruling theological powers of the day. The eastern Orthodox religion was less subject to internal struggle over the rule of religion as Constantinople provided a rather stable base of hereditary political leadership while religion was closely administered by a chosen clergy.
Cooperation between the Church and state was closely joined but rarely exclusively the same. Of greater concern was ensuring that the eastern Empire remained unhindered from such potential enemies as the German Visigoths from the northwest or more importantly the Ottoman and other Middle Eastern powers from Persia. Alliances between the Byzantine emperors, the Ottomans and various Persian rulers sometimes emerged during which times the ability of the Eastern Europeans to extend their influence across north Asia Minor to the Caspian Sea became common.
The region of Armenia and Georgia maintained Christian populations and were often involved with the imperial powers of Constantinople. Below these adjacent civilizations was what later became the nation of Azerbaijan but which avoided much of the eastern Orthodox influence as it remained largely under control of the domineering Middle Eastern power of the day either Ottoman, Turk or Persian.
As the Middle Ages came to a close and the Renaissance brought more modern civilizations to various areas across the European continent, Georgia and Armenia were left isolated from the improvements affecting the parts of the west. Much of the population though remained Christian while a portion were also comprised of Muslim in what became a heterogeneous mixture of religions including some Jews.
Through the sixteenth century and beyond this land between the Black and Caspian Sea turned into territorial pursuits by tribal warriors whose use of cavalry had emerged from the Turkic people along the steppe regions of Eurasia between Russia and the lower Middle East. As these Central Asian Turks established a more forceful ability to overtake continental territory particularly moving west, the region surrounding the Caspian found itself despondent to their control.
The Persian capital in Isfahan during several centuries of the Safavid Dynasty mildly extended it’s rule into Armenia and Georgia but rather mostly established it’s northwestern border near present day Azerbaijan. It wouldn’t be until the gradual fall of the Safavids and the effects left after the death of the valiant Persian commander Nader Shah that the establishment of individual nations for Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan began to occur.
Proclaiming oneself as the late eighteenth century Shah in Iran was an endeavor sought by two formidable figures that amounted to great violence in the era immediately follwing the forty years of rule by Karim Khan, a former Zand military tribesman. Karim Khan had been a highly regarded general of Nader Shah's superior military force and soon was able to seize authority among the rather devastated cities such as Isfahan after Nader's death in 1747.
For one year though a preliminary effort by Nader Shah's nephew, Abdel Khan, to vye for succession was attempted but soon proved ineffective. After Abdel's brief tenure lasted Karim Kahn ascended to power in 1749 that would leave a legacy to be highly regarded for the future of Iran. He lacked the military resolve for leadership compared to Nader. But for the second half of the eighteenth century, Karim Khan managed to restore much of the wreckage left over from decades of heavy taxation and military plundering.
In cities like Isfahan he commissioned large civic buildings, gardens and mosques to be repaired as well as within the city of Shiraz which Karim decided to rename as the capital. His death in 1779 though again left an unsuited figure for succession and careened one of the more vicious figures, Agha Mohammad, to arise to supreme power in the Iran's modern history.
During that brief tenure of Nader Shah's nephew, Abdel Khan, Agha Mohammad was ordered castrated at a young age due to his strong patriarchal heritage with the Qajar tribes who were then viewed as a threat by the Zand member tribes of whom Nader's nephew had belonged. Both the Qajar and Zand inhabited locations around the north of the country that later spread the Zand populace into more populated larger regions like Isfahan and later Shiraz as their fellow tribesmen Nader and Karim Khan arisen to rule the country.
Shortly after the devastating boyhood torture of the Qajari, Agha Mohammad is when Karim Khan displaced Abdel Shah's one year in power. For the forty years of Karim Khan subsequent empowerment, members of his court subjected Afgha Mohammad to a mild imprisonment while providing access to a good education. Such conditions though failed to overcome the resentment carried by a captive Agha Mohammad despite any offerrings of sympathy over the years.
Upon Karim Khan's death in ... Agha Mohammad escaped to the north to rejoin his fellow Qajar tribesmen with intention of fomenting a power grab to rule Iran. He managed to gain support from the North but was told by the people in Tehran that their loyalties were held with the Zand leaders in Isfahan. If however, the powers in Isfahan could be overcome, then the people of Tehran agreed to shift loyalty to the determined, long imprisoned Qajari tribesman. So Agha Muhammad turned to Isfahan, taking it in 1785 and securing the support over much of Iran’s population except the capital city of Shiraz.
A rival struggle emerged by another Zand power figure named Loft Ali Khan who opposed Agha Muhammad's army over several years resulting in a near total win during a campaign at the vanquishing power center of Shiraz. But miscommunication over the status of Loft Ali Khan's strategy during the chaos of a nighttime battle left Ali Khan's forces in the fog of war providing just the advantage that Agha Mohammad’s men needed to deliver a final assault.
With Loft Ali Khan's forces largely defeated, Agha Mohammad was left largely uncontested in his position to lead the country. The first major move for extending the reach of his power was into the previously Persian occupied land around the Dagestan Mountains which in 1748 was proclaimed as the autonomous Kingdom of Georgia after General Erekle's return there from war. Since that time, Georgia had managed to establish a solidified society with administrative powers, civic authorities and a populace largely satisfied with their standard of existence along the Caspian Sea. In 1783, Georgia had placed itself under Russian protection as it's powerful northern neighboor was seemingly intent on providing a beneift of wealth and non interventionalist governing policy.
This caucaus region had experienced occasional Russian involvement since the magnificent rule of Peter the Great during the mid seventeenth century. But intent on repossessing the land for Persia, Agha Mohammad in 1795 led an army to contest the soverign Kingdom where a capable defense of Georgian fighters nearly managed to claim a victory against the more sizeable Persian army. A battle in the country's capital of Tbilisi eventually resulted in thousands of causalities and many of the country's women and children being carried away as slaves.
The ramifications for the subsequent leaders of Iran over this event which Russia viewed intolerably would foster a tension along this bottleneck stretch of land causing future military engagements, notably the Persian/Russian War from 1804-1828.
Agha Mohammad’s life ended in 1797 from an assassination by two guards whom he'd ordered to be killed. But orders having not properly been carried out resulted in the demise of the former Qajari tribesman's at the age of... Much to the country's benefit, he had prepared a the succession of his nephew Fath Ali Khan who would rule for thirty seven years. The tenure is characterized as being a milder tone of rule during an era of relative domestic calm but that also experieince unsuccessful foreign conflicts particularly with Russia.
The nineteenth century propelled many of the less developed countries into an age of Napoleonic War and Western Imperialism that would play an impactful role for claiming external control particularly as it related to Iran and it's former land near the Caspian. One of the first orders of business for Fath Ali Khan was to lead a surge into Azerbaijan which had been struggling for years to separate itself from the influence of Persia's military creating a state of strife leading into the eighteenth century. Along with neighboring Georgia and Armenia, the area became an active front of periodic war between Fath Ali Shah's army and Russian troops for more than a decade. The end result was a major loss for Iran requiring that the entire region be relinquished into Russian territory.
The British had begun to maintain major interests in India during the age of Imperialism. France was proving it's might outside of Europe under Napoleon who had already claimed a meaningful stake in Egypt and established a diplomatic office in Tehran at the turn of the century. Britain’s apprehension about France being a threat to it's valuable East India territory if Persia choose to coordinate diplomatically with France. To guard against a French presence in the area, Britain dispatched an impressive assembly of ambassadors from the British East India Company to Iran where lavish terms were agreed upon for preventing a Persian/French alliance. Weakness though in the agreement showed itself though when Iran looked for British help in fighting it's war against the Russians.
Britain had also previously agreed to an alliance with Russia in order to ensure against the major East European power from meddling in it's Indian protectorate. Thus Britain’s uncooperative stance incoming to the aid of Iran in it's fight with Russia left the Middle Eastern power alone to deal with it's large , more modernized northern enemy to the north.
The Caucasus region persisted to be the predominate location of conflict between the two countries. Persian governors had for decades been in place at Baku, the central Azerbaijan city. Georgia had become occupied by Russian troops in 1799 which just a few years later would abandon it's status as a Kingdom in exchange for becoming an autonomous region of Russia.
A talented Russian General named Tsitsianov had led the initial command of forces into the area in 1804 only to find that the area's geography with it's forests and mountains presented challenges for even a superior armed power to fend off a Persian opposition. Expecting to conclude a treaty of Russian control over Azerbaijan around 1800, Tsitsianov attended an intimate meeting with the Baku governor during which one of the several assistants to the governor fatally shot the Russian general severely disrupting the handover of the Azeri state to Russian control.
The regional war continued to regularly ensue over a period lasting thirteen years that ultimately resulted in a debilitating loss for the Persian forces during a final battle at Aslanduz along the Araxes River in 1812. The next year the British helped mediate a treaty that surrendered everything north of the River to Russia including the Dagestan Mountain region, Tbilisi, Baku and.. just to note several of the spoils from victory.
Renewed efforts were made by Persia in 1826 involving a considerable army of 35,000 troops under the command of Abass Mirza, son of Fath Ali Khan. Again the Russians at this time under a general named Yermolov brought renforcements and aided by it's Naval fleet on the Caspian was able to succesfully to dispel the resurgent Persian aggression.
Following Russia's annexation of the area, the local Chechens would begin opposing the occupations by resorting to their knowledge of the land that was conducive for utilizing guerrilla tactics of war. That in combination with the fighter's resolve for proclaiming sovereignty over their homeland would pose a long standing aggressive situation for many more years to come.