COMMERCE AND SLAVERY ON IRAN’S FRONTIERS, 1600–1800: AN OVERVIEW

Iran became the focus of European powers from the late fifteenth century for its strategic location, bridging east and west, when various countries—both near and far—pursued ambitious policies of commercial and territorial expansion in the Persian Gulf region. Among the first were the European countries—led by Portugal before Holland and then England—that exploited their technological and naval supremacy and established bases not only for commercial benefit but also to secure their positions and counterbalance the ambitions of their rivals. Although attempts to access sea trade routes to India from Africa had begun in the late fifteenth