The Persian famine of 1917–1919 or the Iranian famine of 1917–1919 was a period of widespread mass starvation and disease in Iran under the rule of the Qajar dynasty during World War I. The famine took place in the territory of Iran, which, despite declaring neutrality, was occupied by the forces of the British, Russian, and Ottoman empires whose occupation contributed to the famine.
According to mainstream scholarship, approximately 2 million people died between 1917 and 1919. By contrast, Mohammad Gholi Majd has cited much higher estimates of 8–10 million excess deaths, although Majd's figures have not gained widespread acceptance among academic historians or awareness among the general public. The death toll was caused by hunger and from diseases, which included cholera, plague and typhus, as well as influenza stemming from the 1918 flu pandemic. A variety of factors are believed to have caused and contributed to the famine, including successive seasonal droughts, requisitioning and confiscation of foodstuffs by occupying armies, speculation, hoarding, war profiteering, and poor harvests.
Background
In November 1915, the price of one kharvar (100 kilos) of wheat increased to twenty tomans, "if there [was] any to be found", after the total granary of the south-east province of Sistan was sold off to the British troops. Russian troops blockaded all the roads in the north-east province of Khorasan, prohibiting any transfers of grain, except those destined for the Russian army. The requisitioning of pack animals, mules and camels for the oil industry in Khuzestan, and for the British and Russian armed forces, left the country's transport network in serious disarray, and disrupted the distribution of foodstuffs and other goods throughout the country – with disastrous consequences. During the war, it often cost more to transport grain than to grow it, in many parts of Iran. All this made the living conditions of the poor even more dreadful.
+Capacity of modern hospitals operating in Iran as of 1920 Affiliation City Total beds NotesPersianTehran372+Pharmacy+Dispensary Enzeli15+Pharmacy+Dispensary Tabriz30Hamadan12Mashhad90Qazvin25–30+Dispensary Mohammerah20Malayer10SabzevarChurchMissionarySocietyIsfahan180Kerman80 Yazd80 Shiraz50PresbyterianMissionTehran45+ApothecaryMashhad50+ApothecaryRasht5+ApothecaryHamadan25+ApothecaryKermanshah25+ApothecaryTabriz100+ApothecaryUrmieh40+ApothecaryKhosrova8German(until 1915)TehranLegationTabrizrowspan=6 ApothecaryonlyBarfrouchRashtHamadanSanandajKermanshahRussianRedCross(until 1918)Tehranrowspan=5 (Small hospitals)MashhadTabrizUrmiehBritishTehranrowspan=9 (Small hospitals)+Dispensary MashhadTorbat-e HeydariehNaserabad+Dispensary BushehrKermanshahLengeh+Dispensary Mohammerah+Dispensary AhvazAnglo-PersianOil CompanyAbadan>200+DispensaryMasjed SoleimanAhvazMohammerah
Spread
A series of severe droughts from 1916 on further depleted agricultural supplies. By early February 1918, the famine spread throughout the country, and panicked crowds in major cities began to loot bakeries and food stores. In the western city of Kermanshah, confrontations between the hungry poor and the police ended in casualties. In Tehran, the situation was "aggravated by hoarding and short-selling to the customers by bakers".
Adulteration of bread, as well as the exorbitant prices charged by some bakers, outraged Tehran's working poor. Printing-house workers who had recently formed a union staged a demonstration in Tehran in 1919, during which crowds attacked the bakeries and granaries. They called on the government to increase food rations, to standardize the price of bread, and to regulate the quality, supply and sales of foodstuffs. Nevertheless, in the turbulent post-war era neither the national government nor foreign powers were in a position to do much to alleviate the human crises. The devastation caused by famine and contagious diseases continued for many years.
Cases of cannibalism were also reported.
Outbreak of diseases Beyond deaths from starvation, epidemics also killed large numbers of people.
The colossal food crisis, plus large numbers of soldiers, refugees and destitute people constantly on the move in search of work and survival, facilitated a deadly combination of pandemics and contagious diseases. Cholera, the plague and typhus spread with terrifying speed across the country.
Influenza + Morbidity and Mortality during the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic in Urban Iran (Compiled by Afkhami)CityPopulationMorbidityMortalityMortality/Morbidity (%) %Mashhad100,00066,6673,5003.55.2Birjandrowspan=2 12,000100rowspan=2 0.8Nosratabad7,0001201.7Anzali10,000colspan=3 2.0Mashhadsarcolspan=4 10.0Tabriz200,000100,000colspan=3 Hamedan30,000rowspan=4 1,0003.310.0Tehran250,0001,0000.8rowspan=3 Isfahan80,0003000.4Yazd40,0002500.6Bushehr30,00015,0001,5005.010.0Mohammareh6,0002504.2Shiraz50,000rowspan=3 2,0004.0Kerman40,0004,00010.010.0Bam13,0006,00046.2 The 1918 flu pandemic spread to the entire country via three main entry routes: Transcaucasia to Tabriz, Baghdad to Kermanshah and India to southern Iran (the latter significantly vected by the British Indian Army soldiers stationed in Bushehr). The rural areas were more affected than urban regions, in which as many as 20% of people were reported to have died. Azizi et al comment that the figure is exaggerated, adding that the mortality rate in Kermanshah and Tehran was about 1%. Afkhami states that the flu impact was enormous and estimates that between 902,400 and 2,431,000 or 8.0% and 21.7% of the total population died, making Iran one of the most devastated countries worldwide. Floor assessed the figure estimated by Afkhami as much higher than the real casualties.: "Floor concludes that the figure of 900,000 to 2.4 million casualties given by Afkhami is too high. And he appropriately relegates Mohammad Gholi Majd's overblown, conspiracy-filled book on the epidemic and the number of 8-10 million (or almost the country’s entire population) given by him, to a footnote".
Cholera In 1916, cholera that hit Azerbaijan in 1915, was widespread not only in all northern provinces, it also reached the south. In 1917, it appeared in Mazandaran and Khorasan, killing 188 and 308 people in the two regions respectively, according to a 1924 government report. Ahmad Seyf states that the origin of cholera outbreak was Russia, and it was not severe.: "In later years, for example, in 1917 cholera was brought to Iran from Russia, but only Mazanadran and Khorasan were affected and altogether only 402 deaths occurred."
Typhoid and Typhus Typhoid spread in many parts of the country, and caused enough deaths that, according to an eyewitness, "the high mortality in Tehran was not due to famine, but rather because of typhoid and typhus".
Causes and contributing factors According to Touraj Atabaki, "successive seasonal droughts caused widespread famine during 1917/1918. Requisition and confiscation of foodstuffs by occupying armies to feed their soldiers, which added to the famine". In The Cambridge History of Iran, it is stated that speculation and hoarding made the situation worse.: "Adding to the disruption and discontent was a terrible famine in 1918–1919, which as usual was worsened by speculators and hoarders." Michael Axworthy believes that the famine was "partly as a result of the dislocation of trade and agricultural production caused by the war". Tammy M. Proctor comments that the cause for food shortage was a combination of army requisitioning, war profiteering, hoarding and poor harvests.: "In Persia, as army requisitioning, war profiteering, hoarding and poor harvests combined to decimate the food supply, famine conditions ravaged the area. Reports from foreign officials in Tehran in 1916 and 1917 note shortages of bread and other essential foods, long lines, and rioting by women."
Nikki Keddie and Yann Richard related the famine to almost all of the factors mentioned above.: "Reform movements were specially strong in Tehran, and in northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Azerbaijan. Adding to discontent was a severe famine in 1918–19, which may have killed as much as one-quarter of the population in the north. The famine was related to wartime Western incursions, a reduced crop area and small harvest, food needs of foreign troops and worsened distribution. Famine was aggravated by hoarding and speculation by landlords, dealers and officials."
Charles P. Melville maintains that the main reason of the famine were the conditions caused by the War.: "It is no coincidence that despite several periods of low rainfall, drought and poor harvests during the first half of the twentieth century, the only serious country-wide food shortages and experience of famine conditions occurred during the periods of the First World War and later the Second World War. In both periods, insecurity, speculation, lack of confidence, breakdown of government authority and political corruption had more effect on food prices and scarcity than did the quality of the harvests."
Mohammad Gholi Majd, holds the British occupation and its custom and finance regulations accountable for worsening the famine,. In the matter of tough custom regulations, Majd mentions incidents of unsuccessful importation of foodstuff recorded by the American embassy. He also refers to a letter by an American official saying "for the last two years practically all the importations have ceased". and Willem Floor suggests James L. Barton's account (occupation by armies, exceptionally light snowfall and disease), joint with hoarding by landowners and lack of purchasing power as other crucial causes of famine. According to him, two major grain producing areas, namely Kermanshah–Hamadan and Azarbaijan were the battlefield between the Ottomans and the Russians.
Rob Johnson blames bad governance and wartime shortages for the famine.: "A rather less successful volume is Mohammed Gholi Majd's attempt to claim that Persia was subjected to a genocide because of the war, confusing poor governance and catastrophic wartime shortages, which led to famine, with the fiction of an intent to wipe out the Persians".
Death toll Scholars such as Ervand Abrahamian, Homa Katouzian and Barry Rubin maintain that the total death toll due to starvation and disease was around 2 million.: "Russian Revolution of 1917 brought much relief to Iran after a century of imperial interference and intimidation. But it was followed by severe famine and the Spanish flu pandemic which, combined, took a high toll of around two million, mostly of the Iranian poor.": "Despite Iran's official neutrality, this pattern of interference continued during World War I as Ottoman-, Russian-, British-, and German-supported local forces fought across Iran, wreaking enormous havoc on the country. With farmland, crops, livestock, and infrastructure destroyed, as many as 2 million Iranians died of famine at the war's end. Although the Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the recall of Russian troops, and thus gave hope to Iranians that the foreign yoke might be relenting, the British quickly moved to fill the vacuum in the north, and by 1918, had turned the country into an unofficial protectorate." Central Intelligence Agency analysts Steven R. Ward and Kenneth M. Pollack state a similar number.: "As the Great War came to its close in the fall of 1918, Iran's plight was woeful. The war had created an economic catastrophe, invading armies had ruined farmland and irrigation works, crops and livestock were stolen or destroyed, and peasants had been taken from their fields and forced to serve as laborers in the various armies. Famine killed as many as two million Iranians out of a population of little more than ten million while an influenza pandemic killed additional tens of thousands." Nikki Keddie and Yann Richard state that about one-quarter of the population of northern Iran were killed.