H. E. Chehabi

Like the neighboring Ottoman Empire, Iran escaped foreign rule in the age of imperialism. Its continued sovereignty notwithstanding, European powers did not treat Iran as an equal. The most visible manifestation of the country’s subaltern status in the international society of states were the so-called capitulations, imposed treaties in which Iran (like the Ottoman Empire) exempted the subjects of foreign countries from its own jurisdiction, without securing a similar treatment for its own subjects from the other side.