Issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, 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.

During World War One, Conscientious Objectors united to oppose the war despite the criticism they faced. Three of these anti-war protest groups included the Conscientious Objector Information Bureau, the Union of Democratic Control, and the No-Conscription Fellowship. The collection includes complete files of key anti-war publications. It also contains rare reports from the Conscientious Objector Information Bureau. The internal papers include minutes from the Union of Democratic Control and letters from the No-Conscription Fellowship. The Fellowship’s most prominent figure, Clifford Allen, wrote a number of these items. Local Fellowship branches in Willesden, Middlesex and in Hyde, Greater Manchester are also covered. The Conscientious Objector, Thomas Henry Ellison, spent much of his time between 1916 and April 1919 in prison. His scrapbook covers both his own experiences and of the experience of the anti-war movement as a whole.

With firsthand primary source perspectives from over 70 previously-colonized countries, this new archive will prove crucial in the understanding of decolonization as a historical process – that is the changing or adapting of systems away from an imposed imperial or colonial structure.

The resource contains declassified government documents covering critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post World War II through the 21st century. Documents include glossaries, chronologies, bibliographies, overviews, and photographs.

A full text and indexed collection consisting of primary sources documenting the relationships of peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. Coverage includes exploration, discovery, travel, people, culture and the environment. Source documents include: letters, diaries, memoirs, images and accounts of early encounters.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) features page images of almost every work printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700. Over 200 libraries worldwide have contributed to EEBO. From the first book printed in English through to the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War, EEBO's content draws on authoritative and respected short-title catalogues of the period and features a substantial number of text transcriptions specially created for the product.

This collection of primary sources looks at two centuries of everyday, political, religious, working, trading and administrative life in England during this pivotal epoch. Documents cover an array of topics relating to England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a significant focus on the lives of ‘everyday’ people. Volumes of correspondence from more prominent families look at governance, politics, monarchy, relations between landowners and tenants, war, politics and relations with England’s neighbours. The materials offer in-depth case studies of different regions in England from the Southeast to the Scottish borders allowing for comparison of experience across the country.

East India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947.

This Module consists of 793 volumes, comprising original, draft and abstracted correspondence from IOR Class E plus their associated H- and Z-class indexes, and the Z-class indexes for the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. It includes correspondence between the East India Company and the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India (the Board of Control), the Company’s various settlements and Presidencies throughout Asia, government departments, and European houses of agency. The records offer a fascinating insight into the early voyages of the Company and its shifting interests from trade to the gaining of territorial power, and are interspersed with a number of petitions, reports (including quarterly 'Narratives of Proceedings' produced by regional administrations), financial accounts, inventories and other documents.Date Range:1600-1858.

Module 5: Correspondence: Domestic Life, Governance and Territorial Expansion

This collection provides a unique perspective on the complex geopolitical circumstances of India during the 18th century, and how the foundations of British colonialism were established through the activities and campaigns of the East India Company. Drawing from the personal and professional papers of two East India Company employees, Colonel Robert Clive and Brigadier-General John Carnac, the collection offers an insight into how the East India Company became increasingly influential after the weakening of the Mughal Empire during the 18th century.

Robert Clive was a British military commander and eventual Governor of Bengal. Through his political and military actions in India, he amassed vast personal wealth and played a key role in laying the foundations for British domination of India for the next few centuries. John Carnac served as Commander-in-Chief of the East India Company in India between 1760-1761, defeating the French supported forces of the Mughal Empire. He worked in tandem with Clive as they systematically expanded British influence on the subcontinent.

Of particular interest are events such as the pivotal Battle of Plassey in 1757, the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ incident, and the British military expedition against the Dutch in 1759. Together, the the papers enable researchers to study how the burgeoning commercial and political power of the East India Company turned into monolithic rule of the Indian subcontinent.

Delve into the theatrical world of eighteenth century society and explore how the Larpent plays reflect the politics of the time, the role of women, views on race and religion, opinions on empire, and European and British history. Eighteenth Century Drama features three distinct areas:

• Primary source documents; the focus of which is the Larpent collection of plays and Anna Larpent's Diaries
• The London Stage Database; and
• The Biographical Dictionary Database.

The collection provides digital versions of content originally in Adam Matthew Publication’s microfilm project Eighteenth Century Journals from the Hope Collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. It includes journals written for and by women and journals dealing with eighteenth-century drama, providing insights into London life during the period.

The collection is based on the holdings of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin. As one of the finest collections of rare 17th and 18th century British periodicals in the world, it contains newspapers, magazines, journals, almanacs on diverse themes - politics, theatre and arts, mercantile and trading, current affairs, and literature.

Materials for Eighteenth Century Journals III are drawn from two sources: the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, London and Cambridge University Library. This section focuses on journals published outside of London. The inclusion of Canadian, Caribbean and Indian journals allows users to explore the ways in which major world events were reported in different areas of the globe. There are also a large number of Irish journals and British provincial publications.

The collection consists of material sourced primarily from Chetham’s Library in Manchester. A collection of rare magazines and newspapers, literary periodicals and political journals have been included to chart the transformation of Manchester during a time of rapid industrialisation and political turmoil. These varied sources are supplemented by a selection of periodicals, many European, from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.

Eighteenth Century Journals V includes the full run of The Lady’s Magazine, 1770-1832 from the British Library, Birmingham Central Library and Cambridge University Library. Readers of the magazine today can trace shifts in public opinion, taste, culture and political climate, making it a major source for scholars of gender, social and literary studies and an invaluable source for any scholar of the eighteenth century.

A network of interconnected letters, documents and correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century. 

A collection of full text original documents relating to empire studies from libraries around the world. Each section is accompanied by an essay which contextualises the material. Topics include cultural contacts 1492-1969, empire writing and the literature of empire, and imperialism and colonialism 1607-2007. Regions include Africa, the Americas, Australasia, Oceania, South Asia and Middle East. The source material is mainly British and European.

Empire Studies offers a rich array of sources for the study of the British Empire. The collection includes material on British colonial policy and government; perspectives on life in British colonies; the relationship between gender and empire; race; and class. Sources include government and official records, personal papers and diaries, rare periodicals, and conference proceedings.

Provides a complete exploration of the prominent themes, events, and theoretical underpinnings of the movements of human populations from prehistory to the present day. It includes thematic interpretations and theories of migration, as well as the significant contemporary scientific discoveries and scholarly interpretations that have reshaped the way historians and social scientists analyse and map the past.