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Control of the waterway and its use as a border have been a source of contention between the predecessors of the Iranian and Iraqi states since a peace treaty signed in 1639 between the Persian and the Ottoman Empires, which divided the territory according to tribal customs and loyalties, without attempting a rigorous land survey. The tribes on both sides of the lower waterway, however, are Marsh Arabs, and the Ottoman Empire claimed to represent them. Tensions between the opposing empires that extended across a wide range of religious, cultural and political conflicts, led to the outbreak of hostilities in the 19th centuryAlternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical ( 18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801- 1900. Events The Little Ice Age ended and eventually yielded the Second Treaty of Erzerum between the two parties, in 1847Events January 4 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government. January 13 The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California. January 16 John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory., after protracted negotiations, which included BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly and RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Withn delagates. Even afterwards, backtracking and disagreements continued, until British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, was moved to comment in 1851Events January 23 The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning. March 1 Victor Hugo gives speech at the French national assembly and uses the phrase United State that "the boundary line between TurkeyTurkey (officially the Republic of Turkey Turkish Turkiye is a country located in Southwest Asia with a small part in southeastern Europe. Until 1922 the country was the center of the Ottoman Empire. The Anatolian peninsula, between the Black Sea and the and Persia can never be finally settled except by an arbitrary decision on the part of Great Britain and Russia". A protocol between the Young Turks and the Persians was signed in Constantinople in 1913, but World War I cancelled all plans.

The British advisors in Iraq were able to keep the waterway bi-national under the thalweg principle that has worked in Europe (see Danube River): the dividing line was the middle of the waterway. All United Nations attempts to intervene as mediators have been rebuffed. Under Saddam Hussein Baathist Iraq claimed the 200-kilometer navigable channel up to the Iranian shore as its territory, while Iran insisted that the line running down the middle of the waterway, which had been negociated as recently as 1975, remained the official border. In 1980 when Iraq invaded Iran, the main thrust of the military movement on the ground was across the Shatt al-Arab.

During the occupation of Iraq, British servicemen were held for two days in June 2004 after apparently straying into the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab. After being initially threatened with prosecution, they were released after high level conversations between British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kamal Kharrazi. The initial hardline approach was put down to power struggles within the Iranian government. The British marines' weapons and boats were confiscated.