Causes of the Famine in Southern Iran during World War I based on Narratives of National Archives

Abstract

The great famine that occurred in the years 1296-1298 A.H/1919-1917 A.D during World War I is a topic in Iranian contemporary history which suffers from poor historiography, and until recently its role and significance in determining the fate of the Iranian society has been neglected by historians. The publication of some articles and monographs that mentioned the disasters striking Iranians due to the violation of impartiality and the presence of foreign forces revealed parts of the calamities of those years. The present article thus aims to study the policies of the war-involved governments, their colonial records in the Qajar era, and the famine of the years of World War I in southern regions of Iran, and to answer this question that what factors were contributive to the outbreak of the famine and the death of people in these regions. The results show that among the various factors effective in the famine and war casualties during the First World War the extension of war to the south and the presence of foreigners including British troops can be pointed out as some main ones.