ANGLO-RUSSIAN CONVENTION OF 1907, an agreement relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. Signed on 31 August in St. Petersburg, it formalized political changes that had occurred in the Far East, the Middle East and Europe as a result of the Russo-Japanese war and the Russian revolution of 1905. Anglo-Russian rivalry in Iran originated when Emperor Alexander I annexed Georgia and other territories that had been for centuries under Persian sovereignty. The fear of a Franco-Russian drive against India had initially impelled the British to oppose the extension of Russian influence, but even the downfall of Napoleon did not make the British feel secure in their possession of India.
