Greater Iran

"Many Iranians consider their natural sphere of influence to extend beyond Iran's present borders. After all, Iran was once much larger. Portuguese forces seized islands and ports in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire wrested from Tehran 's control what is today Armenia , Republic Of Azerbaijan , and part of Georgia . Iranian elementary school texts teach about the Iranian roots not only of cities like Baku , but also cities further north like Derbent in southern Russia . The Shah lost much of his claim to western Afghanistan following the Anglo-Iranian war of 1856-1857. Only in 1970 did a UN sponsored consultation end Iranian claims to suzerainty over the Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain . In centuries past, Iranian rule once stretched westward into modern Iraq and beyond. When the western world complains of Iranian interference beyond its borders, the Iranian government often convinced itself that it is merely exerting its influence in lands that were once its own. Simultaneously, Iran's losses at the hands of outside powers have contributed to a sense of grievance that continues to the present day."

"Iran today is just a rump of what it once was. At its height, Iranian rulers controlled Iraq , Afghanistan , Pakistan much of Central Asia , and the Caucasus . Many Iranians today consider these areas part of a greater Iranian sphere of influence."

"Since the days of the Achaemenids , the Iranians had the protection of geography. But high mountains and vast emptiness of the Iranian Plateau were no longer enough to shield Iran from the Russian army or British navy. Both literally, and figuratively, Iran shrank. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Azerbaijan, Armenia, much of Georgia, and Afghanistan were Iranian, but by the end of the century, all this territory had been lost as a result of European military action."