to expand Russia's control over its neighboring territories. A few years previously in Iran, Fath Ali Shah Qajar also became the new shah after the assassination of his uncle, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, in 1797. During his reign, Agha Mohammad Khan had defeated and re-subordinated the Afsharid/Safavid vassals and subjects in the regions of modern-day eastern Georgia, Armenia, southern Dagestan, and Azerbaijan, and claimed those areas as rightfully belonging to Persia. During and after the Battle of Krtsanisi in 1795, he had regained full control over eastern Georgia, Dagestan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Several years later, after Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated in Shusha and Heraclius II of Georgia had died as well. Russia, wishing expand its territory and trade, capitalized on the opportunity to annex eastern Georgia. The Persian court attempted to align itself with France in 1801 in order to establish a better position in case of war with Russia, but those attempts were unsuccessful. Later, as both Russia and Britain were engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, Fath Ali Shah instead brokered a deal with Britain to provide Persia with military support from British troops in exchange for preventing any European country from entering India. Following the agreement, Persia entered into the First Russo-Persian War against a militarily-preoccupied Russia, which was heavily invested in the Napoleonic Wars. The primary motive of the Persian court when entering the war was to reassert its control over Georgia and to ensure the protection of the rest of its northwestern borders. However, Fath Ali Shah had also heard about the atrocities being committed by Russian Commanders in Georgia "through massive extortion and maladministration". Numerically, the Persian forces had a considerable advantage during the war, wielding an army as much as five times larger than the Russians in the Caucasus. However, the Persian forces lagged behind technologically and were poorly trained, a problem that the Persian government did not recognize until far later. Despite these significant disadvantages, the fighting continued in northern Persia, Azerbaijan and in regions of Georgia. Persian court went so far as to declare a jihad against the Russian Empire and called upon its Iranian subjects to maintain unity. The Persian court also requested military and financial aid from France's Napoleon in light of the Franco-Persian alliance. Although France promised to support Iran's ambitions and help it regain its recently-lost territory of Georgia, ultimately Napoleon left Persia unassisted given France's relations