<P> Germany established their Intelligence Bureau for the East on the eve of World War I, dedicated to promoting and sustaining subversive and nationalist agitations in British India and the Persian and Egyptian satellite states . The bureau was involved in intelligence and subversive missions to Persia and Afghanistan to dismantle the Anglo - Russian Entente . The bureau's operations in Persia were led by Wilhelm Wassmuss . The Germans hoped to free Persia from British and Russian influence and to further create a wedge between Russia and the British, eventually leading to an invasion of British India by locally organized armies . </P> <P> The Ottoman Empire's military strategic goal was to cut off Russian access to the hydrocarbon resources around the Caspian Sea . Aligned with the Germans, the Ottoman Empire wanted to undermine the influence of the Entente in this region, but for a very different reason . The Ottoman Minister of War, Enver Pasha, claimed that if the Russians could be beaten in the key cities of Persia, it could open the way to Azerbaijan, to Central Asia and to India . Enver Pasha envisioned an extended cooperation between these newly establishing nationalistic states, if they were to be removed from western influence . This was his pan-Turanian project . His political position was based on the assumption that none of the colonial powers possessed the resources to withstand the strains of world war and maintain their direct rule in their Asian colonies . Although nationalist movements throughout the colonial world led to political upheaval in nearly all colonies in Asia during World War I and the interwar period, the decolonisation on the scale of Enver's ambitions was never achieved . However, Enver Pasha continued with his ambition after the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the victorious Entente Powers until his death on August 4, 1922 . </P> <P> In 1914, before the war, the British government had contracted with the Anglo - Persian Oil Company for the supply of oil for the navy . The Anglo - Persian Oil Company was in the proposed path of Enver's project: the British had the exclusive rights to work petroleum deposits throughout the Persian Empire except in the provinces of Azerbaijan, Gilan, Mazendaran, Astarabad and Khorasan . </P> <P> The Persian forces were established around certain districts, instead of one single force . Each district (like state forces) furnished battalions and each of the provinces had several battalions . Each district depending on the tribal grouping furnished one or sometimes two battalions usually under their own chiefs . The strength of battalions was from 600 to 800 . They had artillery batteries whose strength ranged from four to eight guns . The irregular troops amounted to about 50,000 in each district, with ranks composed of tribal horsemen and an uncertain number of footmen, all poorly armed . It was not uncommon of the chiefs, who controlled the battalions, to change sides . Some of these forces were Qashqai Tribesmen, Tangistani Tribesmen, Laristani Tribesmen, and Khamseh tribesmen . The Persian central government also had the Persian Central Government Gendarmerie, which had Swedish officers and consisted of about 6,000 troops . Only 2,000 of the 6,000 were mounted . They were in six regiments, each of nine battalions, and their armament included Mauser rifles, twelve machine guns, and four mountain guns . The Persian forces were dispersed at Tehran, Kazvin (Ghazvin), and Hamadan with the objective of keeping the country's main roads, which covered an estimated distance of 930 miles, under Persian control . </P>

Who pushed the british out of persia in the 1920s