French Empires: Primary Sources (Colonialism/Decolonization)

Gallica is a digital library of French and francophone culture maintained by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Contains numerous electronic texts, images, maps, animation, and sound files of French and other publications in history, literature, science, philosophy, law, economics, and political science.

The Confidential Print series, issued by the Foreign and Colonial Offices since around 1820, is one of the most important series produced by the British Government. ... Spanning the full era of the modern European colonisation of Africa, from the occupation of Algeria by France, through increasing British presence on the west African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope in the south, the Berlin Conference which set off the 'Scramble for Africa', the high-water mark of economic exploitation of Africans in the Congo Free State, rivalries amongst European powers and the era of withdrawal that followed the Second World War...

The Confidential Print series originated from a need for the British Government to preserve all of the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Some of these were single 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. This resource brings together materials relating to events in the Middle East, such as the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 19th century, the Middle East Conference of 1921, the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Suez Crisis in 1956, partition of Palestine, post-Suez Western foreign policy and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.

Comprising records of the State Department's Central Classified Files, this collection contains records relating to the internal affairs of Indochina, during the period 1945-49. The records include instructions sent to and correspondence received by the State Department; the State Department's internal documentation, as well as correspondence between the Department and other federal departments and agencies, Congress, and private individuals and organizations; telegrams, airgrams, instructions, inquiries, studies, memoranda, situation reports, translations, special reports, plans, and official and unofficial correspondence.

Features several primary source collections- "Europe & Africa" has many relevant documents from the 19th century and into the early 20th century.

Originally known as the 'Government Gazettes', each item contains the colonial laws for the year they were published. The legal records also include property for sale, probate records and bankruptcy notices. This is the first part of the three part series 'Colonial Law in Africa'. These items cover the Napoleonic Wars, the Boer War and the First World War. They also cover the abolition of the legal status of slavery. These gazettes were published alongside the African Blue Books of Statistics during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Originally known as the 'Government Gazettes', each item contains the colonial laws for the year they were published. The legal records also include property for sale, probate records and bankruptcy notices. This is the second part of the three part series 'Colonial Law in Africa'. These records cover the transfer of Southern Rhodesia from the British South Africa Company to colonial rule. A series of legal notices also reveal the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on Tanzania. The Second World War then led to a series of new laws in these colonies. These gazettes were published alongside the African Blue Books of Statistics during the 19th and 20th centuries.

With a particular focus on the latter nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the focus of these Blue Books is upon economic development; imports, exports and each territory's balance sheets are a recurring theme throughout. Ecclesiastical records, public works and population statistics are also common themes. The enforcement of the Blue Book structure upon various territories has resulted in some degree of standardisation where administrations were compliant. Analysis of the data within these documents and the different emphases as governments changed, reveals patterns of social change during a period for which limited other records are available.

This series from Microform Academic Publishers includes archival materials such as journals, correspondence, official records and personal papers over a two hundred year period, all related to British involvement in the Atlantic region, including both Africa and the Americas. It brings together a wealth of collections about Britain's colonisation, commercial, missionary and even literary relations with Africa and the Americas. Alongside the records of Liverpool merchants involved in the infamous Triangular Trade, there are those of slave plantation owners, of early Anglican missionaries, of naval and customs officials, and of a group of nobodies from Lancashire, who maintained a lengthy correspondence over many years with the father of American poetry.