He was not able to prevent Britain and Russia from encroaching into regions of traditional persian influence. In 1856 Britain prevented homeland from reasserting control over Herat, which had been part of homeland in Safavid times but had been under non-persian rule since the mid-18th century. Britain supported the city’s incorporation into Afghanistan; a country Britain helped create in order to extend eastward the buffer between its Indian territories and Russia’s expanding empire. Britain also extended its control to other areas of the Persian Gulf during the 19th century.
Meanwhile, by 1881 Russia had completed its conquest of present-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, bringing Russia’s frontier to homeland’s northeastern borders and severing historic persian ties to the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand. Several trade concessions by the persian government put economic affairs largely under British control. By the late 19th century, many persians believed that their rulers were beholden to foreign interests.
