Trial access to Egypt and the Rise of Nationalism until 7 March 2024

Posted on 19 February 2024 by iholowaty

Oxford researchers are invited to trial Egypt and the Rise of Nationalism: 1840–1927, part of East View’s Archive Editions series. This resource consists of 4,050 digitized documents, almost all derived from government records held in The National Archives UK; they capture an era of rising nationalist sensibility in Egypt and the response of the British government in its evolving policy towards the region in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Autograph letter from Esther Fahmy H. Wissa, Vice-President of the Women’s Committee of the Delegation in Egypt, to His Excellency Field Marshal Lord Allenby, 1 August 1922 ©East View

The British military occupation in Egypt was a legal and political anomaly. Never formally described as part of the “British Empire” by successive British governments, that relationship may have been inferred, applied by the popular press, or understood to be a colonial relationship by the public. But Britain was an administering power and the term “protectorate” was a debated definition of the relationship as early as 1884. The eventual end of British occupation marked the emergence of modern Egypt.

With more than 4,000 primary source documents in English, French and Arabic, Egypt and the Rise of Nationalism presents the development of nationalist sensibilities, movements, and publications from the 1870s until the third decade of the twentieth century and culminating with the formal dissolution of the British protectorate in 1924.

Letter from British Diplomat L. Oliphant, to for the Foreign Office, 1 June 1922. U.K. National Archives, T 161/155

The documents included in Egypt and the Rise of Nationalism range in scope from records of casual conversations, formal meetings, correspondence with individuals and groups, monitoring of the nationalist press, internal British evaluations and debates on objectives and the status of leaders and individual campaigners, and forceful responses to insurgencies involving nationalist activists.

This collection focuses on developments connected to figures prominent in nationalist activities and pays special attention to interactions between them and British authorities, typically at flashpoints. As such, some years in which no specific events occurred may be omitted, while documents relating to particularly eventful years figure more prominently in the record.

Due to the official nature of the documents included, there is an inevitable bias against Egyptian nationalist sentiments for its inherent negative implications to British interests. However, some officials and politicians were more sympathetic and supportive than others, depending on the overall policy of the home government.

Each document in this collection is richly tagged and full-text searchable. Users can browse by people, places, and topics (as identified by the collection’s editors), as well as document types (e.g., despatch, map, telegram, letter, etc.). Each object is also georeferenced in a map view, both by geographic origin of the document and by locations associated with items in the collection.

[Information derived from East View’s website]

This trial ends 7th March 2024. Please take a look and send feedback to lydia.wright@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New: Confidential Print: Latin America

Posted on 25 August 2023 by iholowaty

Researchers in Latin American and Caribbean History now have access to Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969, a terrific database recently acquired by the Bodleian Libraries that focuses on the subject area through a British diplomatic lens.

Front page of Confidential Print: Latin America showing tabs for further information (Introduction, Documents, Chronology, Interactive World map, Essays, Help). The main space is a photo of a steam ship on a river.

Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 is part of Archives Direct, published by Adam Matthew Digital, which is a cross-searchable platform incorporating multiple products sourced from the National Archives at Kew.
Image credit: akg-images

OvERVIEW

[Information from Adam Matthew Digital/Archives Direct website]

“The series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.

“This collection consists of the Confidential Print for Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Topics covered include slavery and the slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars and territorial disputes, the fall of the Brazilian monarchy, British business and financial interests, industrial development, the building of the Panama Canal, and the rise to power of populist rulers such as Perón in Argentina and Vargas in Brazil. …

“The collection begins in the aftermath of independence for the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Latin America, addressing the politics of state-building and the Latin American nations’ establishment of their place in the fast-expanding global economy.”

Scope of the collections

Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 includes the following file classes from The National Archives, Kew in their entirety.

FO 420/1-294: Central and South America general, 1833-1941
FO 467/1-5: Brazil, 1947-1951
FO 486/1-10: Mexico, 1947-1956
FO 495/1-10: River Plate countries (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), 1947-1956
FO 497/1-10: South America general, 1947-1956
FO 533/1-11: Central America and Caribbean general, 1946-1957

The following selected files are also included:

FO 118/276, 281, 287, 305, 317, 331: South and Central America general, 1906-1913
FO 177/297: Chilean Revolution, 1891
FO 461/14-22: Americas general, 1958-1969
FO 508/8: South and Central America general, 1908-1909

Material types included:

Profiles of leading political, military, diplomatic and economic figures
Incoming and outgoing diplomatic dispatches
Correspondence
Statistical charts and tables
Descriptions of leading personalities
Accounts of tours
Minutes of meetings and conferences
Texts of treaties
Political summaries
Economic analyses
Annual reports and calendars of events, by country
Maps

Searching the collection

There are multiple ways of searching the full text database. A simple box on the home page that enables you to search the collection via its dedicated portal, as well as giving you the option, once you’ve clicked through to the next interface, to cross-search one or more of the other collections on the platform that the Bodleian Libraries subscribes to.

In addition, you can use the advanced search that enables you to select multiple keywords and you can also click out to search by country using an interactive world map.

There is a useful set of search tips.

Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 is available via SOLO or Databases A-Z. University members should use Single Sign On for remote access. The individual newspapers are also discoverable in SOLO.

Frank Egerton, Librarian (Bodleian Latin American Centre Library) and Subject Consultant (Latin American History and Social Sciences).

While you are here, you might also be interested in…

Save the date: Bodleian iSkills: Confidential Print and Foreign Office Files: Sources for 19th and 20th century studies. 7 November 2023, 2-3pm (Week 5)
More Foreign Office sources at Oxford.
Guide to resources for Latin American History (LibGuide)

New: Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan, 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet Rule

Posted on 18 August 2023 by iholowaty

Oxford reseachers now have access to Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan, 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet Rule (Archives Unbound).

‘This collection of documents sheds a remarkable light on British and Anglo-Indian foreign policy and intelligence across the Persianate world – Russian Central Asia, Qajar Persia and Afghanistan. It contains a wealth of diplomatic correspondence and memoranda – much of it intercepted from Britain’s rivals and neighbours in the region – which include much ethnographic, religious and cultural material alongside the purely political. It will be an essential resource for scholars and students alike.’ Dr Alexander Morrison, University of Oxford.

Landing page for the resource. Image shows a colour print of an Oriental market scene.

Central Asia Persia and Afghanistan 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet Rule © Adam Matthew Digital 2023

From Adam Matthew Digital:

“This collection of Foreign Office files explores the history of Persia (Iran), Central Asia and Afghanistan from the decline of the Silk Road in the first half of the nineteenth century to the establishment of Soviet rule over parts of the region in the early 1920s. It encompasses the era of “The Great Game” – a political and diplomatic confrontation between the Russian and British Empires for influence, territory and trade across a vast region, from the Black Sea in the west to the Pamir Mountains in the east.”

Included in the resource “are 188 volumes from FO 65 and all 11 volumes of FO 106, comprising original correspondence, drafts and enclosures which detail ‘Proceedings in Central Asia’ from 1858 to 1905; 30 volumes of general correspondence relating to Central Asia from FO 371, dated 1920-1922; and 118 Confidential Print files for Central Asia from the FO 539 series, covering 1820-1971. Maps previously included in these volumes and extracted to form part of the MFQ, MPK and MPKK series are also made available here.”

“The collection begins with materials relating to Britain and Russia’s relations with regional powers in the 1830s, and continues with volumes which can be used to explore the Anglo-Afghan Wars, conflicts between Russia and its neighbours to the south, the construction of strategic infrastructure, border disputes and confrontations including the Panjdeh Crisis, and continued competition between Britain and Russia for influence and territory into the early twentieth century, ending with documents which describe fears of Communist subversion in British India and growing Soviet influence over the governments of Afghanistan and Persia.”

Snippet from Affairs of Persia and Afghanistan Correspondence Part I page 3: Correspondence relating to the affairs of Persia and Affghanistan [sic]. No 1: Mr McNeilk to Viscount Palmerston (received April 28 1837). Described of transmitting a copy of a letter from the Indian government and discusses British intentions towards Afghanistan and Persia.

Affairs of Persia and Afghanistan Correspondence Part I page 3. 1837-1838, FO 539/1, in Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan, 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet Rule © Images including crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London,

The Foreign Office files contain:

Correspondence
Telegrams
Intelligence Reports and Agents’ Diaries
Newspaper clippings, and translations of Russian-language articles
Maps and plans
Government reports and memoranda
Copies of treaties and agreements
Photographs, sketches, and landscapes.

The documents are mostly in English though some French items are included. You can search and browse in various ways. Some documents are digitised manuscripts.

While you are here, you might also be interested in:

Confidential Prints resources: From the 1820s papers of significance began to be distributed to officials in the Foreign Office, Cabinet and other departments as Confidential Print. The practice grew until the 1850s when nearly every important dispatch or telegram was routinely printed.
Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980
Documents on British Policy Overseas – includes declassified FO documents covering 1898-1990.
U.K. Parliamentary Papers (ProQuest) – contains report, papers, legislation and debates relating to foreign affairs.
The National Archives’ Research guides for collections relating to British foreign affairs

New: Cambridge Archive Editions: China Political Reports 1911-1960, 1961-1970

Posted on 23 January 2018 by iholowaty

Thanks to colleagues in the China Centre Library, Oxford researchers now have access to the Cambridge Archive Editions: China Political Reports 1911-1960, 1961-1970. It can be accessed via SOLO or Databases A-Z.

This resource draws together the periodic political and intelligence reports sent by British officials based in China back to the British Foreign Office. The set includes:

Annual Reports
Personality Reports
Occasional Despatches
Peking Fortnightly Summaries
Peking Observations
Shanghai Summaries
Occasional Reviews

The reports have been published as an electronic version of the originally 14 printed volumes rather than a database. Therefore the reports are filed chronologically.

At the beginning of each volume there is a detailed contents listing which is helpful to identify the documents included in each particular volume.

Please note that full-text searching is not yet possible!

The first collection, 1911-1960, covers the “history of the rise of Communism in China and its effects over more than half a century. Although the period covers the First and Second World Wars the impact of these world events is almost matched for the Chinese by their internal struggles. After the declaration of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese diplomacy took a more international turn but by then the international arena had become paralysed by the effects of the cold war and the prevailing beliefs of the Great Powers were anti-Communist in nature thereby continuing the isolation of China.” (Eastview, accessed 23/1/18)

The second collection, 1960-71, covers the “recovery from the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the main thrust of the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’ which two events alone would sustain research for years to come but also within this period are the huge foreign relations disputes that grew out of the complications of the cold war.” (Eastview, accessed 23/1/18)

Also of interest:

Trial until 8 June: America and Great Britain : diplomatic relations, 1775-1815

Posted on 9 May 2016 by iholowaty

Together with the Vere Harmsworth Library, we have organised a trial to America and Great Britain: diplomatic relations, 1775-1815. Oxford readers can access it via SOLO or OxLIP+.

This resource is the digitised Cambridge Archive Edition 9-volume set of facsimile British diplomatic primary material, charting the emergence of an independent United States and comprising diplomatic correspondence between America and Britain.

It provides access to diplomatic and official correspondence between America and Britain and gives a good insight into the shaping of a nation, from America being referred to as ‘our Colonies and Plantations in North America’ by the King, to its recognition as the ‘United States’ by Britain in 1782.

The correspondence is formed of diplomatic letters between the British Government and American officials including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, John Jay and John Hancock. The collection begins with a résumé of events centered around American protests over taxation, follows the course of the War of Independence, and concludes, after ratification of the Treaty of Ghent in February 1815, with the restoration of normal diplomatic relations.Together these correspondences form a narrative which not only captures major historical events from a contemporary viewpoint, but also provides a vivid, lively and uniquely personal insight into the creators of modern America.

Transcript: “All that the americans want from Europeans is a supply of European manufactures… ” America and Great Britain : diplomatic relations, 1775-1815. British government documents. Volume 3. 1783-1791 (Cambridge, 2016), p.344

The archive is a valuable tool in understanding an era of modernization in diplomatic practises. With the expansion of the British Foreign Office, there was a movement away from the era of the aristocratic amateur towards a more tightly controlled process, where professionalised servants of the British Crown filed regular despatches from across the world to a rigid procedure. The collection also provides an insight into European politics during this period. Conflicts between America, France and Britain arising over trade, defence and diplomacy are explored and increase our understanding of this complex trans-Atlantic triumvirate.

Feedback to isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

History Database of the Month Confidential Prints: Africa

Posted on 1 May 2013 by iholowaty

The database of the month for May is Confidential Prints: Africa 1834-1966.

What is this database?

Confidential Print: Africa offer full text access to complete volumes of all British Government Confidential Print for Africa, from the Colonial, Dominion, Foreign and War Offices from the National Archives. The series originated out of a need for the Government to preserve all of the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Some of these were one-page letters or telegrams; others were large volumes or texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.

The introduction to the database provides an overview of the collections covered within the database and also gives some examples of the types of material included. There are telegrams noting the South African government’s support for sanctions against Italy after the Italian conquest of Abyssinia and despatches discussing newly independent Ghana’s slide into authoritarianism.

An example map result of British Somaliland in 1926

The collections include

Reports
Dispatches
Correspondence
Descriptions of leading personalities
Political summaries
Economic analyses
hundreds of colour maps

How can I access it?
University of Oxford members can access this subscription resource on and off campus via OxLIP+. Remember to sign on to OxLIP+ with your single sign on when accessing the database off-campus.

Other similar databases

New: Confidential Print North America 1824-1961

Posted on 11 December 2009 by iholowaty

Thanks to a generous donation in support of the VHL, we have been able to purchase this database. It is available to Oxford users via OxLIP+.

This resource gives full-text access to a selection of TNA Colonial Office and Foreign Office papers, reports, dispatches, weekly summaries, etc. The collection covers a broad sweep of history from 1824-1961, taking in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean. There are also some items that cover South America. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet, and to Heads of British missions abroad.

CO 880/1-32 spans the years 1839-1914 and is primarily focused on Canada. It includes topics such as the birth of the railways, fisheries, border disputes, the Hudson’s Bay Company, clergy reserves, trade, Treaty of Washington, Native Americans, shipping.

CO 884/1-38 covers the years 1826-1961 and focuses on the Caribbean. Topics such as slavery and apprenticeship, trade, economy, agriculture, boundary disputes, the Morant Bay rebellion, troops, military expenditure, indentured labour, health and disease, finance, and communication are all covered.

FO 414/1-278 covers a vast array of subjects from the years 1824-1941 including: Prohibition, Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between US and Germany, Conference on Electrical communications, Canadian claim to territories, Liquor smuggling, Reports on the Ku Klux Klan and its declining membership and influence, The League of Nations, World War II, etc.

FO 461/1-13 – covers both North and South America over the time period 1942-1956, and includes the text of President Roosevelt’s broadcast address regarding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the entrance of the USA into the war, USA and WWII, Anglo-US co-operation in WWII, Nazi activities in Chile, Columbia and WWII, Financial situation in Venezuela

FO 462/1-10 covers the U.S.A. from 1947 to 1956. Topics covered include the aftermath of World War II, the rise of Communism, McCarthyism, The atomic bomb, Strikes, US policy towards China, Racial desegregation in the US, the hydrogen bomb, “Atoms for peace” conference, Ireland, etc.

New: Documents on British Policy Overseas

Posted on 26 November 2009 by iholowaty

The trial of Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO) was very well received. We are pleased to announce that thanks to special funding we have secured access this database. DBPO provides users with access to a wide range of primary source documents from Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Selected and edited by the official historians of the FCO it includes many documents specifically de-classified for inclusion in the series. The resource contains three distinct collections, which together form a continuous exploration of British foreign policy and diplomatic history: British Documents on the Origins of the War 1898-1914; Documents on British Foreign Policy 1918-1939 and Documents on British Policy Overseas. Please note that DBPO is not yet complete and that content is regularly being added to. Access is via OxLIP+. Use SSO for remote access.

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Tag Archives: diplomatic & foreign affairs