History

• African American Communities 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

Explore a range of documents from the early 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century covering desegregation, civil rights activities and protests, race relations and community integration, plus African American culture. You will find facsimiles of letters, pamphlets, photos, maps, legal records etc, plus oral history interviews which you can watch.

• China: Trade, Politics & Culture 1793 - 1980 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

This resource collects sources from nine archives to give an incredible insight into the changes in China between 1793 and 1980, including the birth and early years of the People’s Republic. You will find a wide variety of primary source material detailing China’s interaction with the West from Macartney’s first Embassy to China in 1793, through to the Nixon/Heath visits to China in 1972-74. It provides multiple perspectives – from politicians, diplomats, missionaries, business people and tourists – and documents many key events.

Watch this 23 minute webinar to understand how this archive could help you.

• China and the modern world: Imperial China and the West 1815–1905 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

Imperial China and the West comprises the FO 17 series of British Foreign Office Files held at the UK National Archives, General Correspondence relating to China. FO 17 provides a vast and significant resource for researching every aspect of Anglo-Chinese relations during the nineteenth century, ranging from diplomacy and war, to trade, piracy, riots and rebellions within China, international law, treaty ports and informal empire, transnational emigration, and translation and cross-cultural communication.

From Lord Amherst’s mission at the start of the nineteenth century, through the trading monopoly of the Canton System, and the Opium Wars of 1839–1842 and 1856–1860, Britain and other foreign powers gradually gained commercial, legal, and territorial rights in China. These files provide correspondence from the Factories of Canton (modern Guangzhou) and from the missionaries and interpreters who entered China in the early nineteenth century, as well as from the envoys and missions sent to China from Britain and the later legation and consulates. The later nineteenth century saw an increase in competition amongst Western Powers for influence and rights in China, over profitable enterprises such as railways, telegraph lines, and mines whilst an influx of Western technology and ideas prompted China to look for ways to seek power and wealth. The British representatives based in the region provide valuable reports and opinions throughout this period, including volumes of correspondence to and from the British consul at Seoul.

• Confidential print: Middle East, 1839-1969 

This collection consists of the Foreign and Colonial Office Confidential Print for the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan digitised from The National Archives, UK. Beginning with the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 1830s, the documents trace the events of the following 150 years, including the Middle East Conference of 1921, the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia, the partition of Palestine, the 1956 Suez Crisis and post-Suez Western foreign policy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

• Foreign Office Files for Japan, 1919-1952 

Published in three parts, this collection makes available extensive coverage of British Foreign Office files dealing with Japan between 1919 and 1952: Japan and Great Power Status, 1919-1930; Japanese Imperialism and the War in the Pacific, 1931-1945; Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952.

Incorporating the Taishō to the Shōwa periods, these papers throw light on Anglo-Japanese ties in a time of shifting alliances. Documenting Japan’s journey to modernity, the files discuss a period in which the country took on an increasingly bold imperialist agenda. Strong relations following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles were tested then ultimately destroyed, and by December 1941, Japan and the United Kingdom were on opposing sides of the Second World War.

These Foreign Office files cover British concerns over colonial-held territory in the Far East, as well as Japanese relations with China, Russia, Germany and the United States. Following surrender at the end of the Second World War, Japan was occupied by foreign forces for the first time in its history. The occupation resulted in disarmament, liberalisation and a new constitution as the country was transformed into a parliamentary democracy.

Consisting of diplomatic dispatches, correspondence, maps, summaries of events and diverse other material, this collection from the rich FO 371 and FO 262 series unites formerly restricted Japan-centric documents, and is enhanced by the addition of a selection of FO 371 Western and American Department and Far Eastern sub papers.

Watch this 25 minute webinar to discover more about making the most of this archive.

• Oxford Research Encyclopedia: African History 

Read authoritative, peer-reviewed, regularly updated entries written by experts on African History from across the world. Topics include African Diaspora, Afrocentrism, Oral Traditions, Women's History, Religious History, Slavery and Colonial History.

• Women and social movements in modern empires since 1820 

Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires since 1820 explores prominent themes in world history since 1820: conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance, and post-coloniality, as told through women’s voices. With a clear focus on bringing the voices of the colonized to the forefront, this highly-curated archive and database includes documents related to the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and United States Empires, and settler societies in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.