Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966
The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research that should be possessed by any academic library.
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.
From coastal trading in the early nineteenth century, through the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa, to the abuses of the Congo Free State, fights against tropical disease, Italy’s defeat by the Abyssinians, World War II, apartheid in South Africa and colonial moves towards independence, the documents in Confidential Print: Africa cover the whole of the modern period of European colonization of the continent. They are essential sources for the study of African history and the understanding of Africa today.
The resource will include the following file classes from the UK National Archives, Kew, in their entirety:
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CO 879/1-190 (Africa, 1848-1961)
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CO 886/1-11 (Dominions, 1907-1925)
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DO 116/1-8 (Dominions (South African), 1913-1944)
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FO 341/1-3 (Africa 1884-1900)
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FO 401/1-48 (Abyssinia, 1846-1956)
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FO 403/1-482 (Africa, 1834-1957)
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FO 413/1-99 (Morocco and North-West Africa, 1839-1957)
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FO 458/1-157 (West Africa, 1882-1950)
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FO 468/1-4 (British Commonwealth, 1945-1949)
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FO 485/1-3 (Liberia, 1947-1949)
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FO 540/1-6 (Libya, 1951-1956)
The resource will also include selected files from:
CO 885/1-140 (War and Colonial Department and Colonial Office Confidential Print, 1839-1966)
DO 114/1-120 (Dominions Office Confidential Print, 1924-1951)
DO 201/1-53 (Commonwealth Relations Office Confidential Print, 1946-1966)
WO 287/1-287 (War Office Confidential Print, 1904-1949)
All these documents will be full-text searchable.
In addition, this resource will showcase more than 700 maps, many of them extracted from their parent files and stored separately at The National Archives. Confidential Print: Africa reunites all these maps, scanned in colour, with their parent files for the convenience of scholars and students.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 is an Archives Direct resource. Please see this link for further information.