Iranian Fraticide a TL

  • Thread starter Deleted member 14881
  • Start date

Deleted member 14881

Shah Abbas II was musing over a problem ,how to pick a heir? Raising them in the harem made the heirs not very smart in governance,he slepted on it until morning. He decided to copy the Ottoman system of fraticide of brothers. The year was 1660, Abbas in another time would be dead in 2 years, the Abbas reforms in the 1660's made sure that future heirs would be educated for rule ,and made sure that no male heir beside the one picked by the shah himself would be dead by age 15. Abbas knew his army could be good with their guns,and cannons,but they had no navy to defend the coast ,and Iranian interests. He would bring several advisers for a naval school in Tabriz,mainly from England ,what his previous shah with the same name did with Iran's army. He would be the one that kept Iran's coffers fat and happy by increasing the trade with the west.

He would have to start from scratch due to the lranians lack of naval skill ,so he sent a team of 40 army officers to be taught at naval schools all over Europe for 5 years. Meanwhile in Iran they were building shipyards to build a lion's fleet. They finally got everything ready in 1670 with a small battle line of 5 ships. They were named Tabriz, Tehran, Shahanshah, Qom,and Panjshir. They were copies of European ship of the lines, with 1500 sailors ,and 80 guns in two decks. These ships were small but packed a punch.

By the dawn of the 18th century he had turned Iran to a economic power,and regional power. He died in 1697,with 100,000 man army ,and 50 ships in the navy. He picked his son Selim to succeed him,because he spent all his time reading books, while the rest of them got drunk and spending more time in the harem.

Selim based on the Abbas reforms got the rest of his brothers in a drunken stupor on his coronation night,then all silt their throats while they were sleeping. He would be known as Abbas III after his father. He would be a martial shah.
 
Hmm, well, if this results in the Safavids surviving the knock on effects could be interesting...in particular, surviving Safavids means no Nader Shah*, and thus Delhi probably never gets sacked. This means the Mughal Empire will be stronger for a greater length of time than OTL, which would have some effects on the colonization of India.

Although it might be worth it to point out that Ottoman Fratricide was invented by an heir who had just taken the throne-specifically, Bayzid I. Bayzid, his father, Sultan Murad I, and his brother Yakub all accompanied the Ottoman army to the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. While the Ottomans won the battle, Murad was killed. Bayzid hurridly had himself declared Sultan and ordered Yakub strangled, and the next few generations of Ottoman sultans turned it into a regular practice. Eventually, the sheer inhumanity of the custom got to them, and instead of executing his brother(s), the sultan would basically place him under house arrest in the royal palace for the rest of his life.

*At least not as a ruler. If he's born in this TL, you could have him as a Safavid general, where his military skills would be very useful and he'd have someone above him to reign in his more destructive tendencies.
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 14881

Shah Abbas III,along with some of his generals tried to recover the conquer lands, in Afghanistan. He marched 50,000 men to Kabul,and conquered the cities. The countryside of Afghanistan took 6 years to subdue,due to the guerrilla warfare, so he enacted a scorched earth policy to kill the rebellious tribes. After the afghan wars he made a increase in foreign trade ,and lowered the taxes in ports. Persian rugs,and spices came to the west,and glass , and western spices came in like peppers, foods like potatoes,and tomatoes became a part of Persian cuisine. Eyeglasses became a big thing in the court. Abbas became curious about the heavens ,and he ordered several telescopes from the Dutch glassworks in Iran. These masters were teaching those selected by them. The empire was prospering,and it was fat with conquest,so he reformed the army of 100,000 men ,and doubled it,and made it professional, 20,000 was the Imperial Guard armed with muskets,and bayonets they were the best at being soldiers. They wore purple, the rest of the infantry were black,armed with muskets also. the Calvary wore red they were armed with swords. The officers were armed with pistols ,sabers,and wore green. They had a lot of cannons separated into three categories light, heavy,and siege.
The navy was increased to 100 ships divided to three fleets, the Persian gulf fleet, the Indian Fleet,and the Caspian Flotilla. It was young,vital ,and eager to fight. The main fleet homes were in the south,with the exception of the Caspian. It was a small fleet, due to the Safavid being a land power. The navy was augmented by Marines numbering 5,000 men. They were not part of the navy ,but part of the army.

The Shah also founded 12 universities, several large libraries in the major cites like Tehran. He also founded servral med schools in Tabriz,Tehran,Ardabil,and Baku. There was glorious amounts of learning, building ,and conquering. The shah would order one last conquering spree by a young general named Nadir,on the Uzbeks. The Uzbeks had been a thorn on the side of the Safavids for years. They marched 70,000 men divided into 40,000 foot soldiers,30,000 horsemen,and 300 cannons of various types. He lighted up towns,farms anything that was of use to the Uzbeks, When he lighted up Bukhara,it was similar to one of Genghis Khan's sackings. He was planning to launch a coup on the shah ,when he caught the flu and died while coming back to Tabriz.

Abbas III was 80 in 1742 when he died , he left a legacy of greatness ,but he was succeeded by Selim I he was a drunk with a mean temper. He had all the male heirs shot, stabbed ,or blinded.
 

Deleted member 14881

Selim I spent his time drinking,and in the harem, while his armies faltered ,and got weak. The Russians took advantage of the Persian weakness ,and attacked northern Azerbaijan ,and took Baku after a two year siege of the city.When Selim heard about it , he charged the army leading to liberate Baku he failed,and on his way to Tabriz. He got overthrown by one of his Generals named Reza Khan,he would be a regent,to one of Selim's sons. He chose Ali he youngest son aged 10. Instead of killing his three brothers he merely put them under arrest. He signed a peace treaty with the Russians ceding Baku , and had to pay reparations to Russia costing what was 100 million Pounds sterling in modern times. He had to do this to save the rest of the Empire from falling. After the Peace treaty ,he decided to educate Ali in the ways of the arts , sciences, military drill,and literature. He attempted to make an alliance with the Mughals,with the Sultan agreeing to the alliance ,and the Persians they helped the Mughals , rebuild their armies ,and fleets along western lines which they copied from Europe.

By 1755 the world had changed ,Europe had many powers, Russia , Poland,the ottomans, Austria, France,and England. Prussia was a state on the brink due to losing Sliesia ,in the War of Austrian succession. They lost due to King Frederick II dying by a shot in the battle of Sliesia. Prussia then lost some major battles. Then,they fell back to Prussia. In the treaty of Vienna. Prussia would be a minor power,not to be a major power anymore. Poland got stronger ,40 years later it would be a major power allied with Persia.

In 1756 Reza Khan gave power to a 23 year old Ali which he then changed to Amir I. He copied his grandfather on economic policy, with trade, he also strengthened the Mughal alliance set by his regent. Amir would wait ten years to right the wrong of the treaty of 1743. He would set up cotton,tea,and saffron plantations. A emergent middle class showed up because of the trading,and huge neighborhoods were in Tehran,and due to cotton ,and other mills, there was peasents going in the cities hoping to get rich but what they got was a dangerous ,hard,poverty inducing labor.


In 1765 Amir was pleased he did one l thing he freed the slaves because there was no need for them ,and they got a little bit of land from there masters. A few of them actually got land ,the rest occupied slums, being demestic servants for the middle class,others became sharecroppers.
He also started workshops for rugs,guns,cannons,and bayonets,to make armories with plenty of guns. The workshops were like assembly lines,that made so many guns , the shah sold excess guns to various peoples in africa,and asia. He reformed the military to include volley guns from India,and a drafting system in peace and war. The people being drafted were males of peasant,and urban backgrounds. The shah implemented a minimum wage on the military costing 200 rials,a year per man ,and so people would join eagerly because that was more than what they made in the mills.

In 1770 the economy was booming,the military was large. The navy was compared to the Royal navy. Most of the army used flintlocks with some wheelocks. He built rococo style palaces,plus massive public works. His ministers decided to tell the shah to retake the Caucuses from Russia. He agreed with his ministers. He declared war on Russia on July 20,1771, launching a offensive to take Baku. His general Hassan Khan was a childhood friend of his,he was a Safavid noble with education from Tabriz Army academy. He got 25,000 Cavalry,with 35,000 Infantry with 75 cannons. The Russians brought 40,000 infantry,and 15,000 Calvary with 80 guns.

They met in a small town 170 km outside Baku in the south, the Russian commander Alexey Orlov thought the Persians would be a pushover. There was only 20,000 men with 40 guns on the other side, what he didn't know that most of the army was surrounded outside the town. He ordered a charge into Persian lines. Hassan ordered the rest of the army to unveil themselves,when Oryol thought he was winning,and the larger Persians killed 30,000 men and routed the Russians.
 

Deleted member 14881

No not in Persia or India or Turkey , maybe China, I'm not sure yet.
 

Deleted member 14881

Orlov was surrounded by Persians,when he ,and 10,000 men finally surrendered to Hassan Khan. He was expecting something fierce, when he saw the prisoners. He was pleased with the fact that he defeated a major European power,and he crushed all Russian resistance in Baku,and the Southern Caucasus were his. He wanted to conquer the rest of Caucasus,from Dagestan to Azeribaijan,so he launched a invasion of Georgia,and Armenia. The Russian high command launched a counter offensive in the summer ,at Hassan,but he recivied a present from his friend the Shah, it was 320 rockets imported from India,and improved upon by Persian scientists,and craftsmen. It was made from steel,and had a blade attached to it. Twenty wooden launchers with sixteen rockets mounted on it.
They had that plus 20 more light artillery from Persia, They destroyed Tbillsi in September with 20,000 Russians dead. When the army got to Grozny, The Russian army not wanting to see the rest of their cites destroyed sued for peace. The terms for peace are a return to the old borders before the 1743 treaty,and some minor reparations. Overall Russia got off pretty lenient,and got to keep the north Caucasus it got from Turkey in the Russo- Turkish War of 1754-1760.

After the war , the shah financed a trip to see Europe's sites ,and with a entourage of his two wives,and seven children saw Lisbon , Madrid,Paris,London,Vienna,and Warsaw. The child most affected by the eurotrip was Safi he heard about liberalism from authors like Voltare. After the trip. He got a court scirbe ,and printers to translate his books to Farsi. His father legalized drinking, dancing ,and Hashish after convincing the religious leaders ,and the minsters. Persia also had a fling with Western fashion ,and religious tolerance.
When his father died in 1805 Persia got a few Watt steam engines,and opened up the first fire brigade in Ishafan with 50 men. His reign would last as long as Shah Abbas I. He led Persia's first ever Constitution,and open up relations with the Confederation of America.

Next update: the world in 1806
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Deleted member 14881

Chapter 5: A Time of Blood and Steel Part one

The reign of Shah Safi II or ( The enlighten one) was a time of Enlightenment ,and industalization, one of the major changes enacted by him was a Constitution. As a 15 year old he was a lover of democracy,after seeing a House of Commons meeting,and reading several of Voltaire's books,he tried to convince his father to reform the government,but he almost got killed for it. The only reason he did not get killed is because he was the only son of the shah ,and his father did not trust his brothers to run the empire. The Constitution of 1805 was a rather short document it was only two pages long, but it got sereval things in a short time for example it had universal suffrage for all men (women would not get to vote until 1938). It guaranteed freedom of the press, of protest,of religion, no sharia,but secular courts on all cases,and the provinces had a assembly of 100 men that passed laws with a governor as a head of the province.It guaranteed a fair trial by a 10 man jury, no use of torture ,or any other cruelty in punishing people. It guaranteed freedom ,and happiness to all citizens,a standing military,the right to print money backed by gold,and the right to defend oneself.

The government in Isfahan , was now governed by a bicameral assembly called the assembly of the people,and the Imperial senate with 350 members ,and 120 members of both houses. The executive branch was one run by popular vote with a 1st minster ,2nd minster ,and cabinet voted by the senate. Cities ,counties,and etc were run by councils elected by popular vote.

 

Deleted member 14881

The first minister of the government was in essence an elected commoner Ali Tehrani was born to a wealthy family of gunsmiths. He was born in 1775 a year after the king enacted the last name edict forcing everyone to adopt a surname, so his father choose to name themselves after their hometown. His father expanded the family business to make a semi-monopoly with the government, along with two other companies. His political views were very moderate, balancing the greens view of more reform, and the Black’s view of wanting to reverse reform. He had two terms of 5 years from 1805-1815 In which Persia expanded its navy with a new type of ships called a lion frigate with 120 guns ,and 40 rockets by the end of his term ,the Imperial Navy had 280 ships of which 75 were the Lion frigates.
The Second minister had control of internal affairs like controlling the ministers of various functions. The 1st Second minister was an Armenian noble of the black faction named Count Michael Mariykhan from Yerevan. He did reform the police to be open for all people, and he made a fire brigade of every county, and major cities. He was a pragmatic conservative, in the fact he wanted to slow reform down, and the fact that he wanted to introduce land reform to give 30 acres and a mule to the landless peasants. It did not bode well for the nobles who wanted him to stop reform, and so the Third minister was the speaker of the assembly, Omar Isfahani, out of the three men held the least influence ,and power.
In the Americas the ex- British North American won their rebellion but afterwards decided to split apart, but they were weakly united under a Confederacy of America, but it broke up after they tried to stronger Constitution in Georgetown when Samuel Thomas shot Richard Adams in a duel after a disagreement on the direction of the construction of it. Afterwards the country was divided to many tiny states, and they were turned into something like Ancient Greece. Meanwhile in Isfahan they solidified the loopholes of the Constitution by passing amendments to counter act the fear of dictatorship.
The first ever use of steam power in Persia was in 1805, they were used in the mining industry mainly in the mountains of Persia, to speed up production of precious metals, and iron. In 1809 the first locally made steam engine was made in Baku which would be like the rest of the mountains of Iran its industrial heartland in the future. In the United Kingdom George Stephenson would be an important part in the future of trains. He would start a company that would do business with the various powers of Europe, and the Middle East. By 1835 Persia was now called the Empire of Iran, and it had only a moderate amount of Railroads, and factories. It also helped India modernized, and conquer the rest of the subcontinent from various Hindu kingdoms. Safi also convinced the Indian Emperor Akbar II to set up a constitution, and an assembly.

The Mughal Empire like Iran wanted to expand its borders, to the west but they would have an easier time due to the south infighting, and civil war. Akbar II ordered an attack on the sultanate of Mysore, which lasted 5 years ending with the fall of Mysore in 1840. He used several type of equipment from Persia, like several rifles and exploding rocket shells.
 

Deleted member 14881

here is a roughmap of sorts I did not color most of africa or germany or italy or Southeast asia because its too diffcult,and I am not an expert,on those areas. Next update wiil explain everything

world 1840.png
 

Deleted member 14881

Part 6

In Europe a resurgence of Poland, and a decline of power from the Ottomans ,caused Austria, and Poland to seize ,Bessarabia, and Bosnia. After the end of the Austrian war consisting of Austria, Poland, and Russia tried to get some land from the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire military was good, but not good enough for a three front war they lost the battle of Sarajevo to a joint Austro-Polish army of 31,000 men on October 23, 1832. Knowing the revolt beginning in Morea , Mahmud II signed the treaty of Warsaw the same week. In the Hellenic Revolt, the revolutionaries fought themselves more than they fought the Turks. This caused the revolt to fail, despite the money being poured in, and phillihellenism going on the various courts of Europe. The revolutionaries being outnumbered fled to where the rebellion began ,to Mystra. The revolutionaries made a desperate last stand, at daybreak only 40 men were left, and like the Spartans at the hot gates, they all died with their leader Giorogos Alexandros Kapidros dying in battle with sword in hand yelling Free Greece. After the successful putting down of the revolt, Sultan Mahmud decided to lunch the Tazment Reforms in 1833. First Mahmud sacked the more conservative pashas by giving them figurehead positions instead of killing them.

The Taziment Reforms would be a kick in the balls, lasting 35 years changing the face of the Ottoman Empire into a modern superpower of sorts. He would die in 1839 leaving his son Abdulmecid the I to lead the charge of modernizing his empire, he would bring several advisors to rejuvenate the military ,he opened the first railroads, the first telegraph,he dreamt of a massive alliance with the two other major Muslim powers, but the other two wanted to stay out of European affairs.
In Persia, Safi II died of a illness in 1849 ,the day after that he opened a joint Baku-Isfahan-Herat railroad ,and telegraph line. The rail, and telegraph lines would connect all of Iran by 1870,and his 14 year old son would not be a conqueror ,but a businessman swift in finances ,he would be the first Shah to be educated in Europe mainly in Oxford with degree in law. He took the bar test under a assumed name Ferro Bulbar, and he passed the bar test with flying colors at 28. He would be a unorthodox Shah ,he would be the first shah with only one wife . Her name was Leila Shahi ,a minor noble in the Safavid court, she had Black hair, and light skin, she was smart, but a bit Gullible, she did not like the capital of Isfahan ,due to the fact that everyone looked down on her.

She wanted to put the Capital more to the south to her home of Shiraz, the shah approved the plan ,and asked the assembly to move the capital which they said no , but the shah founded a compromise, the government would stay in Isfahan, but he would live in Shiraz. He moved his wife, and his son to a smaller less grand mansion called Persi. He rebuilt the army, and navy by building Ironclads ,and breach loading guns ,and cannons, he opened the military officers to all classes . The bills were passed by the legislative branch, and approved by the great court of Iran.
He would begin to suggest to the First minister Ali Khameni ,and the second minister Reza Niqal to start a basic welfare system.
 
Top