Natural Disasters: Their Outcomes and Consequences in Qajar-Era Iran
Keywords:
Natural disasters, Qajar, consequences, governmental responsesAbstract
Natural disasters have an inextricable connection with the history of Iran, serving as catalysts for numerous transformations across various social, economic, and even political dimensions. In this context, the Qajar era (1789–1925) represents a pivotal period in Iranian history that witnessed devastating natural disasters such as floods, hailstorms, snowfalls, extreme cold, and droughts. The central question of this study is: what types of natural disasters occurred during the Qajar period, and what were their outcomes and consequences? Accordingly, this study adopts a historical research design with a descriptive-analytical approach, and the data collection method is based on library and documentary sources. The findings of the study reveal that natural disasters during the Qajar period led to consequences such as population decline, migration, the spread of diseases, and the outbreak of social unrest and insecurity—all of which continuously afflicted Iranian society. Based on historical documentation, governmental and administrative responses to the aftermath of these disasters can be assessed as weak. This ineffectiveness is attributable to authoritarian governance, the state-society divide, self-interest, the absence of crisis management mechanisms, Iran’s geographic and natural conditions, lack of communication infrastructure, and the vastness of the country’s territory.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Emamali Shabani (Corresponding Author); Masoumeh Hajian khoshdel, Hadi Bayati (Author)
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