The Qajar Dynasty of Persia

The Qajar Dynasty of Persia The Qajar Dynasty was an Iranian family of Oghuz Turkish descent that ruled Persia (Iran) from 1785 to 1925. It was succeeded by the Pahlavi Dynasty (1925–1979), Irans last monarchy. Under Qajar rule, Iran lost control of large areas of the Caucasus and Central Asia to the expansionist Russian Empire, which was embroiled in the Great Game with the British Empire. The Beginning The eunuch chief of the Qajar tribe, Mohammad Khan Qajar, established the dynasty in 1785 when he overthrew the Zand dynasty and took the Peacock Throne. He has been castrated at the age of six by the leader of a rival tribe, so he had no sons, but his nephew Fath Ali Shah Qajar succeeded him as Shahanshah, or King of Kings. War and Losses Fath Ali Shah launched the Russo-Persian War of 1804 to 1813 to halt Russian incursions into the Caucasus region, traditionally under Persian dominion. The war did not go well for Persia, and under the terms of the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan, the Qajar rulers had to cede Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and eastern Georgia to the Romanov Tsar of Russia. A second Russo-Persian War (1826 to 1828) ended in another humiliating defeat for Persia, which lost the rest of the South Caucasus to Russia. Growth Under the modernizing Shahanshah Nasser al-Din Shah (r. 1848 to 1896), Qajar Persia gained telegraph lines, a modern postal service, Western-style schools, and its first newspaper. Nasser al-Din was a fan of the new technology of photography, who toured through Europe. He also limited the power of the Shia Muslim clergy over secular matters in Persia. The shah unwittingly sparked modern Iranian nationalism, by granting foreigners (mostly British) concessions for building irrigation canals and railways, and for the processing and sale of all tobacco in Persia. The last of those sparked a nationwide boycott of tobacco products and a clerical fatwa, forcing the shah to back down. High Stakes Earlier in his reign, Nasser al-Din had sought to regain Persian prestige after the loss of the Caucasus by invading Afghanistan and attempting to seize the border city of Herat. The British considered this 1856 invasion a threat to the British Raj in India and declared war on Persia, which withdrew its claim. In 1881, the Russian and British Empires completed their virtual encirclement of Qajar Persia, when the Russians defeated the Teke Turkmen tribe at the Battle of Geoktepe. Russia now controlled what is today Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, on Persias northern border. Independence By 1906, the spend-thrift shah Mozaffar-e-din had so angered the people of Persia by taking out massive loans from the European powers and squandering the money on personal travels and luxuries that the merchants, clerics, and middle class rose up and forced him to accept a constitution. The December 30, 1906 constitution gave an elected parliament, called the Majlis, power to issue laws and confirm cabinet ministers. The shah was able to retain the right to sign laws into effect, however. A 1907 constitutional amendment called the Supplementary Fundamental Laws guaranteed citizens rights to free speech, press, and association, as well as the rights to life and property. Also in 1907, Britain and Russia carved Persia into spheres of influence in the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907. Regime Change In 1909, Mozaffar-e-dins son Mohammad Ali Shah tried to rescind the constitution and abolish the Majlis. He sent the Persian Cossacks Brigade to attack the parliament building, but the people rose up and deposed him. The Majlis appointed his 11-year-old son, Ahmad Shah, as the new ruler. Ahmad Shahs authority was fatally weakened during World War I, when Russian, British,  and Ottoman troops occupied Persia. A few years later, in February of 1921, a commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade called Reza Khan overthrew the Shanshan, took the Peacock Throne, and established the Pahlavi Dynasty.

What Is Content Hacking (How to Be a Content Hacker) - CoSchedule

What Is Content Hacking (How to Be a Content Hacker) Have you ever heard of growth hacking? Its a  marketing technique developed by technology startups that uses creativity, analytical thinking, and social metrics to sell products and gain exposure. Its a bit scrappy, and completely focused on results. Does that sound familiar? Growth hacking isnt too far off from its counterpart, content marketing, a technique that we all know and love. In fact, its so close that it just might call for an entirely new breed of hacker:  The content hacker. Wait, hacking? Cant you go to jail for that? #ContentHacker = A growth-focused content marketer. #growthhacking #infographicListen, if you want your blog to grow, you may want to learn a thing or two from the content hacker. He or she is traffic-obsessed and focused on nothing but growth. In my upcoming book,  The 10x Marketing Formula, I describe in depth how to combine the best of growth hacking and content marketing. Heres an excerpt from the book that sheds more light on how to become a content hacker. Becoming A Content Hacker In 2010, Sean Ellis, co-author of Hacking Growth and CEO of GrowthHackers, coined the term growth hacking in a blog post entitled, â€Å"Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup.† Ellis wrote: â€Å"A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. Everything they do is scrutinized by its potential impact on scalable growth.† He further explained, â€Å"An effective growth hacker also needs to be disciplined to follow a growth hacking process of prioritizing ideas (their own and others in the company), testing the ideas, and being analytical enough to know which tested growth drivers to keep and which ones to cut. The faster this process can be repeated, the more likely they’ll find scalable, repeatable ways to grow the business.† From its inception, growth hacking described people whose sole focus is growth. And whose process is a thousand short-sprints that methodically test ideas. Keeping what works; killing what doesn’t. Growth hacking has never been code for being irresponsible and unaccountable. Running fast doesn’t mean running without strategy. But strategy in this context isn’t traditional fare. In marketing, growth strategies are confused with 52-page internal documents that spell out how often you’re going to blog, publish to social media, and push ad campaigns. The stuff of marketing plans. But think about this. Every second you’re not finding ways to directly benefit your customer base and audience is wasted effort. Because once the strategy is submitted, reviewed, and approved by your boss, it’s over. Now, instead of assuming responsibility for the results, you’ve passed it off on your boss. He or she now owns them, not you. In the bureaucracy, so long as you have a strategy, you’re safe. I see this happening all the time. Writing it down feels safe. But the problem with feeling safe is it becomes the goal rather than results. After you’ve spent a week or more in documentation mode, all that’s left is working the strategy. But in the digital landscape, what’s the likelihood said strategy will be viable three months from now? This is the primary fault line in the marketing-plan mindset. Ready for the good news? You can become a superhuman marketer by merging the best of growth hacking and content marketing. The Three Constraints Growth hacking is about turning clever tactics into fast-paced growth. Content marketing is about creating, publishing, and sharing valuable content with your audience to convert traffic into customers. But as we saw in chapter one, with its rising popularity, content marketing alone may not be enough. This means marketers need to take a page from the growth hacker’s playbook. We need to become content hackers. A content hacker is a results-or-die! marketer who merges agile growth tactics with high-converting content to achieve rapid 10x growth. And they never stop doing this. All you need to start are the three constraints: One Metric that Matters + Goal + Timeline = Content Hacker One Metric that Matters The first constraint is focus. Content hackers doggedly pursue growing one, and only one, metric. It’s the gas pedal to slam on- the one metric that will accelerate your business more than any other. Goal The second constraint is specificity. Content hackers set specific goals for measuring the one metric that matters. They’re not looking for â€Å"more† users or â€Å"increased† revenue. They are dead-set on a $100,000 increase in monthly sales. Content hackers set hard numbers to reverse engineer from. Timeline The third constraint is speed. Content hackers define a clear timeline for when their goal will be a reality. It’s a specific month, day, and year. And ideally, it’s much shorter than what sounds safe or comfortable. And there you have it. The three constraints are your new documented marketing strategy; and the tactics and communication between your team remains fluid. People are usually stunned by this. But it’s the happy truth. It’s neither complex nor gangly. Instead, it’s simple, messy in the middle, and effective in the end. We hope you realize that you can do this, too. That doubling your sales, tripling your email list, or increasing users tenfold isn’t outside of your grasp. And even better, you can start sprinting toward 10x growth in the time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee. This infographic will give you a peek inside their inner psyche and help you become a content hacker. The Tweetable  Characteristics Of A  Content Hacker The #ContentHacker doesnt see product/market fit, he sees content/audience fit #contentmarketing The #ContentHacker eats, sleeps, and drinks blog growth #contentmarketing An opportunistic #ContentHacker turns contacts into connections #contentmarketing Where a #GrowthHacker sees scale, a #ContentHacker sees sustainability #contentmarketing The #ContentHacker eats data and only settles for moving the needle forward  #contentmarketing An SEO-minded #ContentHacker has been leveraging the search base since 1991  #contentmarketing Viral growth can be manufactured if youre a real #ContentHacker  #contentmarketing