British Archives Research Articles

Urban elites and the foundation of municipalities in Alexandria and Istanbul

In a rich and stimulating article Professor Gabriel Baer has compared early municipal reform in Alexandria with that in Istanbul.' Both cities were distinguished by a European and Europeanized merchant population familiar with and desirous of Western municipal institutions, services and amenities. While a municipality enjoying a large measure of autonomy was inaugurated in the foreign section of Istanbul in 1858, a similar institution was not introduced in the Egyptian city until 1890. Professor Baer attributes this disparity in municipal development to the difference in 'the response of the diplomatic community in each city to the possible foundation of a municipality. In Alexandria the European consuls perceived municipal reform as a threat to their treaty rights. 'In contrast with other parts of the Ottoman Empire, it was the customary privilege of foreigners in Egypt that no tax whatever could be imposed on them unless it was sanctioned by a specific international convention.'2 Hence the diplomatic community of Alexandria was unwilling to concede the taxing privilege which was a prerequisite to the successful functioning of the new municipality. In addition the consuls feared that since foreigners made up less than one third of the population, 'there would be no guarantee for an adequate representation of the European community.'3 For both these reasons the consular authorities refused to sanction the development of municipal institutions in Alexandria. In Istanbul, according to Professor Baer, the situation was different. Internal taxes could be levied upon Europeans and the area in which municipal reform first took place was inhabited primarily by foreigners. The diplomatic corps could not object to a new internal tax and was presumably less fearful of losing control of a municipality located in a predominantly European area.4 Thus the foreign consuls voiced no objection to the experimental municipality which was inaugurated in the Galata section of Istanbul in July, 1858. In the absence of extensive data dealing with the municipality of Galata, Professor Baer wisely uses the example of municipal reform in Istanbul primarily to set off and contrast his much more extensive data on Alexandria. Recent research in the British and Ottoman Archives and in contemporary journals has produced evidence which demonstrates that the views of municipal reform in Istanbul presented by Professor Baer call for some modification. The difference in municipal development between Alexandria and the Ottoman capital cannot be explained merely by diplomatic opposition in the former and diplomatic acquiescence in the latter. The attitude of the foreign consuls toward municipalities in both cities had much more in common than has hitherto been suspected. In any case both the impetus behind the formation of the experimental municipality and the determina-

Captain Gillespie and the 58 Anglophiles of Buenos Aires in 1806

After the British conquest of Buenos Aires General Beresford invited the citizens to take the oath of allegiance to King George. The names of those who did so, if we had them, would certainly shed some light on the antecedents of the May revolution. According to Captain Alexander Gillespie of the Royal Marines, whom Beresford had made commissary for prisoners, they numbered 58. Unfortunately the list has disappeared. In the Gleanings and Remarks Collected during Many Months Residence at Buenos Ayres and within the Upper Country, which Gillespie published at Leeds in 1818, with a second edition in the following year, we are told that he brought the document back to England and presented it to the government. Much effort has gone into the quest for it. The Argentine historian, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Roberts, who combed the British archives very thoroughly for his work Las invasiones inglesas, published in 1938, found no trace of it and, though he accepted that it had existed, concluded that Gillespie's claim to have presented it to the Foreign Office in 1810 was an attempt to blow up his owvn services in order to support claims for recognition.' Twenty years later, in November 1958, Dr. Miguel Carcano of the Argentine Academy of History wrote to Professor R. A. Humphreys of University College, London, requesting that search be made in Oxford, but neither the Bodleian nor any of the Oxford colleges had the paper. However, Argentine documents showed conclusively that Gillespie had it in 1807, and Professor Humphreys was able to tell Dr. Carcano that a strange coincidence had brought him into possession of the receipt

Struggle for Baltic markets 1558–1618

Abstract This book by a distinguished expert in Baltic history traces the development of the struggle for sovereignty over the Baltic from 1558, when the Russians launched their attack upon the Teutonic Knights, until the agreement of 1617 and 1618, which formed a watershed. In some ways it complements and enlarges upon Attman's The Russian and Polish Markets in International Trade 1500–1650, (Gx00F6;teborg, 1973), which deals with the problems of Baltic exchanges during virtually the same period. The work draws upon an impressive range of primary sources in Swedish, German, English, Dutch, Danish, French, Polish and Russian archives, and an equally impressive range of secondary material in almost all European languages. The beginnings of Russian expansion in the Baltic are here associated with the politics of Ivan IV; the work traces the development of the conflicts between Poland and Sweden, which quickly expanded into the great international conflicts between Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Prussia. This s...

Britain and the Emperor: The Foreign Office and Constitutional Reform in Japan, 1945–1946

British history on the occupation of Japan is largely a blank. Government publications on the Far East, political biographies, regimental histories and diplomats' memoires offer slim pickings. Historians interested in postwar Japan have tended to conclude from the apparent paucity of evidence that British influence on the conduct of the Allied occupation was negligible. Standard works on the period have repeated the conventional wisdom and then moved on. Those who were involved at a policy level rarely made any concentrated attempt to correct this picture. Cabinet ministers certainly did not spend any time confiding in their diaries and have not preserved private papers to indicate any particular fascination with the subject. Diplomats have been equally unforthcoming in print. Consequently, any research into British diplomacy and Japan before the opening of the British archives for 1945 and 1946 would have been an endless disappointment. The position has recently changed. Indeed, with a Thirty Year Rule also applying to the Japanese Diplomatic Record Office and with the material available at the Washington National Records Centre, there is suddenly an abundance of material.

A Note on Research in British Archives on Colonial Broadcasting

A Note on Research in British Archives on Colonial Broadcasting

Soviet War Aims at the Moscow and Teheran Conferences of 1943

Previous articleNext article No AccessSoviet War Aims at the Moscow and Teheran Conferences of 1943Vojtech MastnyVojtech Mastny Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 47, Number 3Sep., 1975 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/241341 Views: 21Total views on this site Citations: 7Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1975 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Susan Santoli (Re)Writing the Second World War: United States, Russian and German National History Textbooks in the Immediate Aftermath of 1989, (Dec 2018): 255–273.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96986-2_15Mark A. Stoler Wartime Conferences, (Nov 2012): 448–461.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118325018.ch27William E. Kinsella Relations with the Soviet Union, (Apr 2011): 564–589.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444395181.ch29MARINA CATTARUZZA ‘Last stop expulsion’- The minority question and forced migration in East-Central Europe: 1918-49 To Hans Lemberg, in memory, Nations and Nationalism 16, no.11 (Jan 2010): 108–126.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8129.2010.00416.xGeoffrey Roberts Stalin at the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences, Journal of Cold War Studies 9, no.44 (Oct 2007): 6–40.https://doi.org/10.1162/jcws.2007.9.4.6Wolfgang Mueller Stalin and Austria: New Evidence on Soviet Policy in a Secondary Theatre of the Cold War, 1938–53/55, Cold War History 6, no.11 (Aug 2006): 63–84.https://doi.org/10.1080/14682740500395444 Historiese tydskrifte Historical journals, Kleio 8, no.1-21-2 (Jun 1976): 73–73.https://doi.org/10.1080/00232087685310091

A Guide to Selected Diplomatic Archives of South America

Although the study of international relations is among the oldest fields of Latin American history, historians have not fully exploited the diplomatic archives of that region. No doubt the main obstacle has been the restrictive policies of the Latin American chancelleries, which have tended to view all diplomatic correspondence as inherently sensitive, particularly since boundary disputes have survived in many cases until the present moment. For this and other reasons, the study of Latin American foreign relations has lagged far behind that of Europe and the United States. Among Latin Americans, ex-ambassadors seem more prolific than professional historians in the field of diplomatic history; their works vary tremendously in quality, from the valuable studies of Cardozo (1961) and Herrera (1908-1927, 1930) to a host of mediocre treatments. European and North American historians have tended to focus on diplomatic contacts with the Great Powers, whose archives are more easily accessible, and to see Latin American foreign relations from the vantage point of the Great Powers. Such products include the classic works of Manchester (1933) and Robertson (1939) and the more recent studies of Burns (1966) and Wood (1966). Some works dealing with inter-American relations—e.g., Tulchin (1971) and Wood (1961, 1966)—define their topics so as to use no Latin American archival materials at all; others, such as Parks (1935) define their topics more broadly but still use United States or British archives exclusively.

I. Marlborough in Exile, 1712–1714

John and Sarah Churchill, first duke and duchess of Marlborough, carefully destroyed most of the correspondence they received during the two years of their self-imposed continental exile. Historians, forced to rely mainly upon the Hanoverian and Jacobite papers published by Macpherson in 1775, have reached radically different conclusions on the central question of Marlborough's loyalty to the Hanoverian succession between 1712 and 1714. Klopp, Trevelyan, and J. H. and Margaret Sherman maintained that Marlborough was ‘the greatest of all trimmers’.2 On the other hand, Sir Winston Churchill, emphasizing ‘the frauds and injuries which Marlborough perpetrated upon the House of Stuart’, contended that the exiled general ‘never swerved from his fidelity to the Protestant Succession.’ A search of Hanoverian, French, and British archives has yielded new material which illuminates Marlborough's political activities during his exile.

I The Accounts of John Balsall, Purser of the Trinity of Bristol, 1480–1

A set of shipping accounts kept by the purser of an English ship, the Trinity of Bristol, on a voyage to the ports of Andalusia and North Africa in 1480–1 was discovered recently in the Mercers' Hall in London. It is a very early example of this type of record, for accounts of privately-owned merchant vessels are rarely found in English archives before the files of the High Court of Admiralty begin in the reign of Henry VIII. Its value is enhanced still further, however, by the fact that the ship in question was a vessel of outstanding importance in the early history of English exploration overseas. The Trinity of Bristol was one of the first English ships known to have set out in search of land across the Atlantic more than a decade before Columbus made his first landfall in the New World. This document shows the Bristol men aboard the Trinity in personal contact with the Franciscan friary of Santa Maria de la Rábida, near Huelva, where Columbus found his earliest and most devoted supporters in Spain for his own projected expedition across the western ocean. New lines of speculation are opened up on links between the earliest English and Iberian voyages of discovery, making this a document of great interest to historians of trans-atlantic exploration.

Wilson, Grey, and Huerta

WITH THE RECENT OPENING Of the British archives, new information has become available concerning the reaction of Sir Edward Grey to President Woodrow Wilson's Mexican policy. Grey's guideline in determining the British course of action was the avoidance of any difficulty with the United States. Therefore, although he deemed the American policy unwise and made an effort to change Wilson's attitude toward President Huerta, Grey nonetheless tried to co-operate with the United States. As Arthur Link has pointed out, Wilson's distrust of Sir Lionel Carden, the British Minister in Mexico, made Grey's task more difficult.' The new documents also provide some interesting sidelights on the change in Wilson's view of the Mexican problem. In the autumn of 1913 Wilson, on the basis of a completely unrealistic assumption, expected Huerta to hold free elections in October. But instead, on October 10 and 11, Huerta surrounded the Chamber of Deputies, imprisoned 110 of its members, and took over dictatorial powers. Wilson not surprisingly concluded that Huerta was unfit for the presidency. Unfortunately for Anglo-American co-operation, Carden arrived in Mexico City during the coup and ostentatiously presented his credentials to the usurper. He then proceeded to compound his felony by telling reporters that Mexico needed a strong man as president.2 Convinced by Carden's actions that England was determined to frustrate his Mexican policy, Wilson plainly told the British

Some differences between Scottish and English archives

(1968). Some differences between Scottish and English archives. Journal of the Society of Archivists: Vol. 3, No. 8, pp. 386-397.

England between Russia and Germany. The Persian Gulf and British prewar politics, 1899-1907, prepared from material found in British archives

England between Russia and Germany. The Persian Gulf and British prewar politics, 1899-1907, prepared from material found in British archives

Presidential Address: Anglo-American Rivalries and the Venezuela Crisis of 1895

Historians should be grateful to President Cleveland. It was his insistence on the arbitration of the dispute between Britain and Venezuela over the boundary of British Guiana that led to an intensive search in Spanish, Dutch, British and other archives for the evidence of European activities between the Amazon and the Orinoco during the three centuries after the discovery of America. The documents so found and printed are essential for any understanding of the historical background of the Anglo-Venezuelan dispute and of great interest to the colonial historian in general.

The Problems and Significance of Administrative History in the Tudor Period

During the past sixteen years “administrative history” seems to have come and gone as a term of distinction in the historical study of Tudor England. In the later 1940's there were a number of scholars newly aware of the vast wealth of government records in the English archives and enormously impressed by the achievements of the medievalists — of Tout and his school — who deplored the absence of comparable studies for the post-medieval period and, for a time, came to seek salvation in an ever more stringent and particular investigation of the processes of government. But that phase did not last long. Now it can be said by Joel Hurstfield, himself a notable contributor to that flowering of administrative history, that “we have passed beyond recall the stage when the machinery alone, however intimately understood, can answer the questions.” The study of social history is all the rage now, by which is meant the history of a given society in its various aspects and manifestations — or rather, whatever may in fact emerge from that awesome ambition. Fashions change, and nowadays they change pretty rapidly; but one need not regret that not-so-distant dawn or believe that the evening has yet come. Let it be made clear, however, what is meant, or should be meant, by administrative history. Certainly this involves the analysis and description of past administrative processes, the discovery of principles implicit or explicit in the conduct of government, and an understanding of the manner in which the theoretical mechanism operated in practice.

New Discovery from British Archives on the 1765 Tax Stamps for America

New Discovery from British Archives on the 1765 Tax Stamps for America

First List of Addenda to a Guide to Manuscripts Relating to America in Great Britain and Ireland

This list is compiled from materiel discovered subsequent to the publication of the Guide, and more particularly in response to letters and circulars sent to all British archives during June and July, 1962. Some reports in process of clarification have been held over for a future issue. Space does not allow the detail given in the Guide. Few of these reports have been verified by direct inspection, nor have proper names been checked. This is, as it were, a “first draft” of some speculative Second Edition of the Guide. Additions, corrections and further addenda will be very welcome and should be sent to me at L. S. E. I thank Mrs. Noomi Connelly for helping me in the compilation.

IV. Entente Manquée: Anglo-French Relations, 1895–1896

In the voluminous historiography of international relations between 1871 and 1914, one of the thinnest patches is the middle 90's. Documents Diplomatiques Français had in 1939 not reached the years 1893–1900, and even now are filling this gap only slowly; the British archives for 1885–1902 were not opened until 1948; Russian material is slight. The consequent dependence of students upon Die Grosse Politik has had profound effects. French policy stands in especial need of re-examination; there is much interest in the early, vain attempts of French statesmen to end the baleful conflict with England. Mr A. J. P. Taylor has gone so far as to say that the Russian alliance was for France a means of achieving British friendship in more favourable conditions. The latest volume of French documents makes it possible to take this study further.

British Archives and The War

British Archives and The War

A Biographical Dictionary of Elizabethan Authors

T? BRING Up to date the accounts of Elizabethan authors in the 1 Dictionary of National Biography, and to collect similar information on the lives and works of writers not included in that great work, have been my main aims during several years of exploring in English archives and manuscript collections and in the libraries of Harvard and Wisconsin. A research fellowship granted by the Huntington Library made it possible during 1940-41 to concentrate upon gathering such information for eventual publication in a biographical dictionary of Elizabethan authors. Since it will be many years before such a work can be finished, I take this opportunity to suggest what the biographical dictionary is expected to include and to point out some ways in which it may be made still more useful to scholars than the Dictionary of National Biography has been. The Dictionary of Elizabethan Authors is intended to give concise accounts of the lives and works of all English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh authors who wrote books of any kind during the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603). Within that period it will include authors of manuscript as well as of printed books; writers in Latin or other languages as well as in English; translators as well as original authors; not merely writers of literary interest but writers who were

Manuscript Materials Bearing on the Negro in British Archives

Previous articleNext article No AccessManuscript Materials Bearing on the Negro in British ArchivesRuth Anna FisherRuth Anna Fisher Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 27, Number 1January 1942 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2715092 Views: 1Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The Journal of Negro History (1916-2001), which is continued by The Journal of African American History (2002-present). Copyright 1942, 1969 The Association for the Study of African American Life and HistoryPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.