ACH and WI: Russia and Britain annex Persia

It is possible for, during the Great Game, for the Russian Empire and Great Britain to come to an agreement to all out annex Persia, dividing the country between them, not just into spheres of influence, but outright annexation?

For example, southern Persia becomes a part of the British Raj, while Northern Persia is occupation and eventually incorporated into Russia, maybe parts of it made into a protectorate.

Could this happen?
 

Deleted member 14881

That's unlikely b/c Britain didn't want a longer border with Russia.
 
They created modern Afghanistan's odd borders just to prevent sharing a direct border, I'm sure that getting an even larger one in Persia was in neither's interests.
 
Based on the above info, its seems we'd need to have Russia and Britain not mind having want a longer border. I'm not sure how to do this, but I'm sure you guys can up with something. :D
 
Tsarist Russia survives WWI and them and the British decide on something re: Persia at Versailles?
 
Their's no reason for Britain to do it, they got what they wanted with Persia remainind independent, annexing it would be a massive mess and provide zero benefits.

Britain did'nt just go around goinf 'Derr, I wants more land so I'm gonna annex this territorah!', the entire British colonial empires expansion from the 19th century onwards was based on securing the route to India from the other colonial powers and pirates, annexing Persia would not only not help in that regard it has a large potential of making it less secure.

Now, under the right circumstances they might take all of Balochistan and turn it into a buffer state, but that's about it.
 
That's right. Britain didn't want a long border with Russia. They would have preferred to have Persia as a buffer state like Afghanistan. Annexing parts of Persia was not in the interests of Britain.
 
Y'all are spot on about Britain not wanting this, but Russia could easily take choice out of the equation. If the "great game" were to boil over into a war then Russia would probably make a grab for Persia, and Britain would feel compelled to block them by seizing the South. This would probably be done through rival puppet regimes, but it being a de facto annexation would be indisputable.

(Of course Britain or Russia might succeed in driving the other out of Persia completely, but I'd say a stalemate is more likely. Britain would have a hard time supplying troops in the North, and Russia an even harder time in the South)
 
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