LibGuides: History: World History

Introduction to World History

Cambridge has long been an international centre for research and study in World History. Our research interests, spanning five centuries, stretch from Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific and compares and connects the history of regions and empires through convergence and divergence. Social, economic, political, and intellectual approaches are all represented, with cross-cutting thematic interests in colonialism and imperialism, collaboration and resistance, diaspora and migration, gender, religion, labour, science, and the environment. World History faculty seek to understand the historical experience of peoples in the global South on their own terms and through their own sources and languages.

The British Library also has a wealth of material pertaining to Asia and Africa, accessible if you visit the Asian & African Reading Room, which includes, amongst other helpful resources, the India Office Records and Private Papers Collection, Newspapers, Oriental Manuscripts

Complimenting this, Cambridge University Libraries boasts a large and varied collection of both physical and digital resources to help you in your studies. This not only includes books but online databases, newspapers, official publications, journals, music and film repositories, and much more. Here in the Seeley, texts on World History can be found across the library, though in the Main Library the following may be of specific interest for the regions mentioned above: 'F - Latin/Spanish America', 'DT - History of Africa', 'DS - History of Asia', 'DU - History of Oceania', and '8 - World History'. We also hold the library collections for the Centre for Latin American Studies (CLAS) which covers specific countries, regions and topics of the Latin American world, the Land Economy Department, and Social and Political Sciences (SPS) which itself includes material focusing on POLIS and Sociology courses, and all together hold a range of texts on World politics, literature, society and more.

You also have access to the University Library (UL), where the classmark range 500-698 covers Geography and History and is then organised by region, all Faculty Department Libraries (FDLs), and your own College Library, so explore these for useful books and resources as well.

As with any library, searching on iDiscover for the text, journal or database that you require is a good starting point, and if you have any questions then please reach out to a member of staff who would be happy to assist.

Seeley Library World History Collection

Audio-Visual Material

Nisshinkan sensō jikki (FJ.357.1) Digitized with the support of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Shiranui Monogatari, part 16 jō ge (FJ.767.5-6). Digitized with the support of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Shāhnāmah (MS RAS 239) - This manuscript was copied in Herat for the Timurid prince Muhammad Juki (1402-1445) whose name appears on a banner in a miniature on f. 296r. It is written in nasta’liq with 536 folios and contains 29 miniatures with two further miniatures on f. 430v and f. 531r, added during the Mughal period. It contains the impressions of seals of the Mughal emperors from Babur, Emperor of Hindustan, 1483-1530 to Aurangzeb, Emperor of Hindustan, 1618-1707, together with a note written by Shahjahan, Emperor of India, 1592-1666 on f. 536v. At the beginning of the manuscript we find an inscription by the same on gold ground.

Gulistan of Sa‘di (RAS Persian 258) - One of the finest illustrated manuscripts contained within the collections of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland is the Gulistan (Rose Garden) composed by the renowned Persian poet Sa‘di (1203-1292). It is noted not only for its exquisite paintings of birds and animals which decorate the pages of the text but also for its colophon portrait which depicts the eminent scribe Muhammad Husayn al-Kashmiri known as Zarrin Qalam (Golden Pen) and the artist, Manohara as a youth, who later had a long and illustrious career at the court of Shah Jehan (1592-1666).

Kalāpustaka (MS Add.864) - A masterfully crafted 17th-century Nepalese accordion book, completely consisting of polychrome drawings, for a total of one-hundred and forty-four illuminated pages of an extremely vivid grace and an exuberant, expressionistic character. The paintings represent stories of both sacred and secular nature, often narrated along multiple pages, sometimes divided in two or three frames with the story evolving and the movement shifting from one composition to another.

Te Mutu, with his sons Patuone and Te Kuri (Plate XVI ‘The New Zealanders illustrated’ (1847); RCS.FL.89.1.OS)

Fingo witch doctor, Peddie, Ciskei (RCMS 211/43)

Zulu warrior, Banganoma, Zululand (RCMS 211/4)

Momotaro (1889.5.1). Digitized with the support of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Map of Zululand (RCS/RCMS 193/2/1) A litho map by L.M. Altern, Durban, including 'definitions of boundaries of reserves'. Prepared in Surveyor-General's Office, 1905, by Altern for C.R. Saunders, Natal Commissioner for Zululand Lands - Delimitation Commission

Title: Buddha image

Note(s): Period: Early Anuradhapura.; Date: 1C BCE.; Material: Limestone.; Site: Anuradhapura.; A Buddha of one of the cardinal points (Tathagata), dating from the first century AD, from the Abhayagiri Vihara complex. (Similar to Mamallapuram); Founded by Vattagamini (44-17 BC) Dagaba 587'sq. base, 350' H. Gajabahu I (112-134 AD) rebuilt Dagaba as a monument of colossal proportions. Built "Adimukha" at its four gates. Abhayagiri originally built 2 AD, present form 8 AD, reconstruction in 9 and 10 AD.

Batak oracle bones (MSS Add. 3680–81). These two pieces of carved bone (probably buffalo) are decorated with figures and text in Batak script containing magical texts and were used as amulets or in divination. They have more text on the reverse side. The Batak languages are native to the north of Sumatra and other areas of Indonesia and the script was probably derived from the Palava script of southern India. It was traditionally used by the datu (priests) to write magical texts and calendars and they wrote on materials that were easy to obtain such as bamboo, tree bark and buffalo bones. The bones were purchased by the Library in 1900 from Mr W. D. Webster.

Mine dancing (RCS/Marnham V) This group of Kodachromes shows Africans dancing in what is clearly the same spot. Original photography by John Ewart Marnham, reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Elizabeth S. Marnham.

Global Intellectual History Journal

Itinerario

Related University of Cambridge Department sites

Centre for South Asian Studies
Centre of African Studies
Also see their LibGuide here:

African Studies LibGuide
Centre of Latin American Studies
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Also see their LibGuide here:

FAMES LibGuide

Journals

Comparative studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAAME) Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAAME) seeks to bring region and area studies into conversation with a rethinking of theory and the disciplines. Its aim is twofold: to ask how area and region are implicated in the production of geohistorical universals and, conversely, to attend to the specificity of non-Western social, political, and intellectual formations as these challenge normative assumptions of social life, cultural practice, and historical transformation. The journal is committed to working across temporal divides and asking how concepts and practices might be rethought and redeployed through new narratives of connection and comparison.
Global Food History Global Food History is the preeminent peer-reviewed journal for authors who wish to write about food and drink using history as their primary disciplinary perspective—though we also welcome work from scholars in other disciplines or who use interdisciplinary methods to consider the relationship between food history and food studies. The editors welcome the following submissions: Research Articles: These should be essays of 8,000 to 10,000 words, which use primary source research to make new arguments, engage with scholarship in the field, and which deal with time (change or continuity), causation and causality, context (historical and historiographical), and complexity. Pedagogical Articles: These essays reflect on teaching practices and strategies related to interdisciplinary food courses, such as assignments, syllabi, and class experiences in kitchen laboratories. These are generally about 4,000 to 6,000 words. Review Articles: These essays are typically historiographical in nature or else think pieces on trends within subfields of food history. The word count may vary from a long book review to a full-length research article, but the length should reflect the scope of the topic. Archival Articles: These essays should provide context for and analyze specific recipes, primary sources, or archival collections. For publishing primary sources, the editors prefer that the source should be historically significant, previously unpublished, and ideally of pedagogical value. The journal has a strong preference for translations into English. Such documents must include an introduction putting the source into context as well as critical apparatus in the footnotes. Total word count should not exceed that for other types of submissions. The translator/editor must obtain all necessary reprint rights prior to consideration. Book Reviews: The journal book review editor commissions reviews of significant recent books. If you have a published a book and would like to have it reviewed, please ask your press to send a review copy to the address below. Book reviews are typically about 1,000 words in length. We do not publish unsolicited book review manuscripts. The editors take a broad view of what is considered “global.” Articles from the ancient period up to the present on comparative and transnational history are acceptable, as are pieces that consider the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean worlds (as well as connections between them). Essays dealing with non-Western and non-European history are particularly welcome.
Global Intellectual History How can we define intellectual history? At present scholars who call themselves intellectual historians, or who express an interest in intellectual history, can be found working on a variety of topics, such as the history of identity, time and space, empire and race, sex and gender, natural and popular science, the body and its functions, the movements of peoples and the tranmission of ideas, the history of publishing and the history of objects, art history and the history of the book, in addition to the subjects traditionally associated with intellectual history, political theory, political economy and international relations. While Intellectual historians are at the forefront of the current global, transnational, comparative, spatial, visual, and international turns in the historical profession, its definition remains contested. John Burrow, the first person to hold a professorship in the subject in Britain, provided a notable definition of intellectual history as the process of recovering ‘what people in the past meant by the things they said and what these things ‘meant’ to them.’ Burrow warned that it is often the case that ‘academic labels are better thought of as flags of convenience than as names of essences’; but his definition is probably the best we have, as are the metaphors that he employed of the intellectual historian as an eavesdropper upon the conversations of the past, as a translator between the cultures identifiable today and those of the past, and of an explorer studying worlds full of assumptions and beliefs alien to our own. The fluid identity of intellectual history may explain its success. Intellectual history is stronger than ever before at the time of writing. Intellectual historians can be found working in every academy and in every country across a large number of arts faculties. This has led to discussion of the practice of intellectual history in a global age and more particularly to the relationship between intellectual history and global history. David Armitage, for example, has argued that intellectual history is very well placed to deal with the most wide-ranging ideas over long spans of time and across cultures, coining the term ‘a history in ideas’ to describe such labour. Armitage makes the point that the assumption that intellectual historians deal only with specific ideological episodes in narrow and precise contexts is mistaken, as intellectual historians have always been interested in long-term change. At the same time, and as Moyn’s and Sartori’s edited collection Global Intellectual History underlines, intellectual historians can help in tracking the movement of ideas and their dissemination, and the transformation of ideas across borders and cultures. The result must not be a return to the study of those figures alone who have a global reputation, which is to focus on the peaks of the mountain while neglecting the foothills. The historian who has avoided these sins and has written what might be said to be a model for intellectual historians interested in global ideas is John Pocock. His Barbarism and Religion books cover the transmission of ideas across the Roman Empire and their history after the break-up of this empire, entailing the translation of arguments across the gigantic Eurasian land mass and their involvement across the Atlantic world and all the lands encompassing the British Empire at the end of the eighteenth century. Pocock has traversed traditional disciplinary boundaries, recovering lost arguments that crossed nations and continents, seeking to explain what they meant to new generations of people who have been schooled in national or narrower forms of history. It is this broader sense of intellectual history that inspires this new journal. Intellectual history as a subject has thrived because it gives people the skills to understand an alien persona, the product of cultures and beliefs that are likely to have been altogether at odds with their own. Intellectual historians can learn to appreciate the different values held by societies whose modes of living may clash with our own, and realise that the rationales of such values are explicable. Above all, intellectual history teaches prudence, a sense of the alternative futures articulated by historical actors, the transmission mechanisms they developed to realise those futures, and the limits upon their capacity to improve and sometimes to protect their worlds. Given the lack of disciplinary or geographical boundaries to the subject of intellectual history as traditionally practised, it is right to create a journal that encourages exactly these virtues on a global scale.
Itinerario Editorial board For over forty years, Itinerario has provided a platform for scholars researching the history of imperial and global interactions. Published for the Leiden University Institute for History and mindful of the University’s entangled history with empire and colonialism, we encourage authors to take a global perspective. We aim to publish contributions which critically evaluate histories of empires, institutions, ideas, and networks across the globe, and the ways in which their legacies continue to shape the contemporary world. Itinerario is committed to sharing the results of academic research through a liberal green open access policy.
Journal of Global History Editorial board The Journal of Global History is an open access journal that aims to be the leading scholarly outlet for innovative analyses of global historical phenomena. JGH publishes articles that examine structures, processes, actors, and theories of global change; and that study connections and disconnections on a trans-regional scale, or on smaller scales that nevertheless transcend the boundaries of individual polities or environments. JGH particularly values creativity and originality in approaches to global history, as well as debates on the theories, methods, and evidence underpinning global historical narratives.

Africa Yearbook online This link opens in a new window
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Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window A comprehensive listing of journal articles published worldwide on architecture and design, archaeology, city planning, historic preservation, interior design, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Over 2500 publications are indexed, including scholarly and popular literature, professional association publications, US state and regional periodicals, and major publications on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Obituary citations have also been included. The index now incorporates 60,000 records from the 10-volume Burnham Index to Architectural Literature, published by the Art Institute of Chicago, adding additional coverage of Midwestern periodicals.
Clase Periodica (Index of Latin American Journals) This link opens in a new window
PRISMA (Publicaciones y Revistas Sociales y Humanísticas) This link opens in a new window Full-text scholarly journals in social sciences and humanities for Hispanic and Latin America and the Caribbean Basin.

Research Projects

Competing Regionalisms in South East Asia Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA) is a multi-million euro interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme that studies multiple forces affecting regional integration in Southeast Asia and the challenges they present to the peoples of Southeast Asia and its regional institutional framework, ASEAN. The project comprises a consortium of 13 universities across the world, and is divided into five broad areas of research: the environment, the economy, the state, identity, and the region. At Cambridge, led by Tomas Larsson (co-PI, POLIS) with Rachel Leow (co-PI, History), historians and political scientists are engaged in interdisciplinary research into the state and identity in Southeast Asia from multiple perspectives. Projects include the politics of religion in contemporary Thailand, the historical deportation of ethnic Chinese migrants from Southeast Asia, and the migration of Shan traders on the Lao-Thai border.
Democracy, Family, and Religious-Customary Law in South Asia This project demonstrates how the codification of religious personal laws permitted state to enter into intimate dialogue with citizens on their domestic lives, which was largely mediated through religion in post colonial India. Questions of secularism, constitutionalism, rights of minorities and women dominated the political and judicial discourses in independent India and produced contestations which were formative of India’s democracy. Family law, arguably the most visible sphere of such contestation, emerged as a particularly hospitable arena for conversations between religious and legal regimes. The project analyses how the attempts to translate marriage and divorce laws and customs of Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities into codes and statutes contributed to a unique evolution of both, the rule of law, and the doctrine of secularism in twentieth-century India. This fellowship is funded by the British Academy.

Audio-Visual Material

Abhilekh Patal - The National Archives of India (Online)
The Abhilekh Patal, derived from the Sanskrit word 'Abhilekh' signifying records of ancient times, and 'Patal' representing a platform or a surface, is a digital repository thoughtfully curated by the National Archives of India (NAI). This platform serves as a gateway to India's historical legacy, offering a treasure trove of meticulously preserved documents and records. Significantly, the acronym 'PATAL' is also an embodiment of its purpose 'Portal for Access to Archives & Learning'. Abhilekh Patal contains the reference media of more than 3.7 million files held by the National Archives of India.
Chinese go home: A film by Rachel Leow
Between 1948 and 1953, over 20,000 Chinese people were deported from what was then British Malaya to China. Both the countries they were leaving and going to were embroiled in war and revolution. My short film “Chinese Go Home” tells the story of this extraordinarily complex but largely forgotten historical moment through the voices of two women whose families were sundered in its aftermath. The film screening will be followed by reflections on the longer history of colonial deportation and racialized governmentality in Malaya, as well as inviting an open conversation about how film, art and storytelling might continue to help enrich a “people’s history” of Malaysia.
Cambridge Digital Library
Cambridge Digital Libraries is a home for the discovery of digitised material and research outputs from the University of Cambridge and beyond. The following collections may be of particular interest, but explore widely; - Ancient India and Iran Trust
- Southern African Collections: a co-curation
- Curious Objects
- Japanese Works
- Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
- Royal Commonwealth Society
- Sanskrit Manuscripts

African Music Library This link opens in a new window
Open access database aimed at providing the global music industry with the most accurate and comprehensive understanding of African music.
Centre of South Asian Studies film archive This link opens in a new window
The Centre holds a sizable archive of films – approximately 50 individual collections totalling in the region of 80 hours of footage. Most of the material we hold is 16mm or 8mm home movies, taken between 1911 and 1956, which give a unique perspective of life in South Asia towards the end of the British Empire and in the first years of independence. The collection covers a broad range of topics – the rescue of civilians and soldiers trapped inside Burma by swollen rivers after the country’s fall to the Japanese in World War II, repairs on the railway line from Quetta to the Khyber Pass after the Quetta earthquake of 1935, relief work and disturbing scenes of the removal of bodies during the Partition period, the social lives of the Raj, children playing and going to school, royal weddings, Indian festivals and rites – the list is very long.
Centre of South Asian Studies oral history archive This link opens in a new window
The Centre of South Asian Studies has a large collection of oral history and other sound recordings, which we are currently in the process of digitising with the help of a grant from the AHRC. During this process the interviews are indexed and catalogued
Digitalia Film Library This link opens in a new window
Digitalia Film Library offers a diverse selection of movies and documentaries to see instantly in your library.
Ethnographic Sound Archives Online This link opens in a new window
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Ethnographic Sound Archives Online brings together previously unpublished historic audio recordings and their supporting field materials, opening new paths for the study of music in its cultural context. The collection brings together 2,000 hours of audio recordings from field expeditions around the world, particularly from the 1960s through the 1980s—the dawn of ethnomusicology as a codified discipline
Global Jukebox This link opens in a new window
An archive of field recordings of music from around the globe. The archive currently holds more than 6000 songs from approx. 1000 cultures.
An archive of field recordings of music from around the globe. The archive currently holds more than 6000 songs from approx. 1000 cultures.

Databases

Africa Bibliography This link opens in a new window Includes monographs, chapters in edited volumes, journal articles, and pamphlets, covering all regions of Africa, including North Africa and listing works published in English as well as Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Swahili, Spanish and Afrikaans. Subject coverage in the social and environmental sciences, humanities and arts, and some items from the medical, biological and natural sciences
Asia and the West (Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)) This link opens in a new window A range of primary source collections related to international relations between Asian countries and the West during the nineteenth century.
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Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture (Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)) This link opens in a new window Includes monographs, manuscripts and newspaper accounts covering key issues of economics, world politics and international strategy.
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Feminism in Cuba: Nineteenth through Twentieth Century Archival Documents This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound
Oral poetry and narratives from Central Arabia This link opens in a new window Consists of the five volumes of P. Marcel Kurpershoek’s work on Bedouin poetry from Najd, published between 1994 and 2005.
Visual history archive of the USC Shoah Foundation This link opens in a new window Contains more than 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide, crimes again humanity and related persecution.
Women and Transnational Networks (Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)) This link opens in a new window Issues of gender and class ignited nineteenth-century debate in the context of suffrage movements, culture, immigration, health and many other concerns. Using a wide array of primary source documents—serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals—Women and Transnational Networks focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late-eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early-twentieth century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions. Researchers and scholars will find rare content related to: Social reform movements and groups High and popular culture Literature and the arts Immigration Daily life Religion
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World scholar. Latin America & the Caribbean This link opens in a new window A rich collection of primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean; academic journals and news-feeds covering the region; reference articles and commentary; maps and statistics; audio and video; and much more. World Scholar covers topics such as politics, economics, religion, culture, international affairs, the environment, science, and technology.
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Newspapers

Al-Ahram This link opens in a new window
Founded in 1875, Al-Ahram (الأهرام‎, “The Pyramids”) is one of the longest-running newspapers in the Middle East. It has long been regarded as Egypt’s most authoritative and influential newspaper, and one of the most important newspapers in the Arab world, with a circulation of over 1 million.
Founded in 1875, Al-Ahram (الأهرام‎, “The Pyramids”) is one of the longest-running newspapers in the Middle East. It has long been regarded as Egypt’s most authoritative and influential newspaper, and one of the most important newspapers in the Arab world, with a circulation of over 1 million. Prior to 1960, the newspaper was an independent publication and was renowned for its objectivity and independence. After being nationalized by President Nasser in 1960, Al-Ahram became the de facto voice of the Egyptian government and today the newspaper is managed by the Supreme Council of Press.
LatinNews This link opens in a new window
Entitled to access six titles: LatinNews Daily; Latin American Weekly Report; Latin American Regional Reports (Brazil and Southern Cone; Mexico; Caribbean and Central America; Andean Group)
Maisaku 毎索 This link opens in a new window
Archives of the Mainichi shinbun from 1872 to the present. In addition to the regular Japanese newspaper, the database also includes the English-language ‘The Mainichi’ since 2008, the weekly ‘Ekonomisuto’ since 1989, and searchable ‘Yoron chôsa’ from 1945 to 2017
Our subscription allows 2 concurrent users, so please log out when you are done
Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
Researchers will find a wealth of unique content from the Middle East and North Africa, much of which has never been digitized or available as open access material. Content in the Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers collection is predominantly in Arabic, but also includes key titles in English and French. The collection comprises mostly out-of-copyright, orphaned content. CRL members and subscribing institutions also receive access to five in-copyright titles from the region: al-Akhbār (الاخبار, Lebanon, 2006-2019), al-Dustūr (الدستور, Jordan, 1967-2000), al-Jumhūrīyah (الجمهورية, Egypt, 1962-1986), al-Riyāḍ (الرياض, Saudi Arabia, 1972-1996), and Filasṭīn (فلسطين, Israel/Palestine, 1956-1967).
NewspaperSG: National Library of Singapore This link opens in a new window
An online archive of Singapore's newspapers. Step back into history through our digitised newspapers.
Seoul Press Online This link opens in a new window
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Founded in Seoul in 1890 and published by the Office of the Resident-General (tōkan) 1906-10, then, post-annexation, by the Office of the Government General (Sōtoku) of Korea, the Seoul Press is the English-language newspaper of record for the Japanese protectorate then colony in Korea, 1906-1945.
South Asian Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The South Asian Newspapers collection chronicles these conflicts as well as contemporary perspectives on independence movements, early statehood, and the extensive economic and social growth taking place in the region during this time. The collection covers several countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and features multiple languages such as Bengali, Dari, English, Nepali, and more. With reportage dating as far back as the 1850s, the South Asian Newspapers collection provides a wealth of coverage and perspectives on major regional and global events of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Times of India This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper (1838-2005) provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
World News in Indian Newspapers 1782-1908 This link opens in a new window
World News in Indian Newspapers brings together numerous editions of three Anglophone newspapers that were published in India during the period 1782–1908: The India Gazette (1782–1834); The Bengal Hurkaru and Chronicle (1822–1866); and The Bengal Times (1876–1908).
Subjects covered range from the American Revolution and the Crimean War, to British parliamentary debates on the India Act of 1858. Much coverage was devoted to the industrial and pharmaceutical developments of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Suffice to say that Britain, France, India, Ireland, the United States, and China received the most editorial attention, although items regarding other nations also feature.
World Newspaper Archive: African Newspapers Series 1, 1800-1922 This link opens in a new window
African Newspapers, Series 1, 1800-1922 provides access to almost 70 newspapers published between 1800 and 1922 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Content features English- and foreign-language titles from countries including Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Useful Links

Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira This link opens in a new window Portal for digital collections of the National Libraries of Brazil and Portugal.
Brazilian Presidential Transition (2018) Web Archive This link opens in a new window The Archive consists of Brazilian government websites in the areas of human rights, the environment, LGBTQ issues, and culture, for the period following the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil on October 28, 2018, up to his inauguration on January 1, 2019. The Archive comprises Brazilian government websites in the areas of human rights, the environment, LGBTQ issues, and culture, for the period following the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil on October 28, 2018, up to his inauguration on January 1, 2019. The collection targets web content considered to be vulnerable due to the anticipated consolidation or elimination in the aforementioned areas, and represents a snapshot of government content before Bolsonaro took office, with the aim of preserving these important, but potentially ephemeral, documents for researchers and scholars.

British Library Americas and Oceania Collections blog This blog is written by the Americas and Oceania Collections curatorial team at the British Library, with guest contributions from students, academics, writers, and our colleagues at the Eccles Centre for American studies. It records some of the work done, as well as events and collections related to the Americas and Oceania.

Diario de Pernambuco This link opens in a new window The Diario de Pernambuco is acknowledged as the oldest newspaper in circulation in Latin America (see : Larousse cultural ; p. 263). The issues from 1825-1923 offer insights into early Brazilian commerce, social affairs, politics, family life, slavery, and such. Published in the port of Recife, the Diario contains numerous announcements of maritime movements, crop production, legal affairs, and cultural matters. The 19th century includes reporting on the rise of Brazilian nationalism as the Empire gave way to the earliest expressions of the Brazilian republic. The 1910s and 1920s are years of economic and artistic change, with surging exports of sugar and coffee pushing revenues and allowing for rapid expansions of infrastructure, popular expression, and national politics.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports This link opens in a new window The Foreign Broadcast Information Service is a United States government agency which translates the text of daily radio and television broadcasts, newspapers and periodicals, government statements, books, and other sources of unrestricted information such as databases and gray literature from non-English sources around the world. Reports with translations are issued for eight world regions daily and cover such topics as military affairs, politics, the environment, societal issues, economics, and science and technology. Readex will offer online access to daily reports for 1941-1996.
Manioc This link opens in a new window Digital library specializing in the Caribbean, the Amazon, the Guyana Plateau and the regions or centres of interest linked to these territories. Includes textual, audio, iconographic documents and references concerning the cultural, social, economic or political history of these countries.
Trove (National Library of Australia) This link opens in a new window Full-text online copies of Australian Newspapers and Government Gazettes. These digitised newspapers date back to 1803 and have generally been digitised up to 1954, with select newspapers and gazettes contributed up to present day (rights and funding permitting)
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Official Publications

Caribbean colonial statistics from the British Empire, 1824-1950 This link opens in a new window
Colonial Law in Africa, 1808-1919 This link opens in a new window Originally known as the 'Government Gazettes', each item contains the colonial laws for the year they were published. Includes 159 documents housed in 10 volumes.
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Cuartel General del Sur;1910-1925 This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound
Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, 1947-1980 This link opens in a new window
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Foreign Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean States;1930-1944 This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound

The Latin American Mortality Database (LAMBdA) The Latin American Mortality Database (LAMBdA) was originally created to support the empirical study of the history of mortality trends in Latin American countries after independence. It now supports the study of very recent mortality trends and is particularly suited for the study of old age mortality during the post-WWII period in 19 Latin American countries. The database covers the interval between 1848 and 2014, it includes population censuses, age-specific (five year and single year age groups) total death counts (starting in 1900), and by causes of deaths (starting in 1945). It contains over 170 years of data including adjusted life tables (about 500 life tables). Adjustments are of two types: (a) for relative completeness of death counts and (b) for adult age misstatement. The adjustment procedures were chosen from a battery of 10-12 techniques that proved to be optimal (in the sense of mean squared error reduction) in extensive simulations that reproduced known or suspected sources of errors in the data. These adjustments are applied consistently across countries and years of observation. The resulting data are optimized for inter-temporal and inter-country comparability. Please read the overview and the methods section for more details about the adjustments and the data.

Middle East Online: Iraq;1914-1974 This link opens in a new window Archives Unbound
Political Database of the Americas This link opens in a new window Through its website, the PDBA offers centralized and systematized information about institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies and other subjects related to the strengthening of democracy in the region.

Resources for My Subject

History: World History

Introduction to World History

Seeley Library World History Collection

Audio-Visual Material

Nisshinkan sensō jikki (FJ.357.1) Digitized with the support of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Shiranui Monogatari, part 16 jō ge (FJ.767.5-6). Digitized with the support of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Te Mutu, with his sons Patuone and Te Kuri (Plate XVI ‘The New Zealanders illustrated’ (1847); RCS.FL.89.1.OS)

Fingo witch doctor, Peddie, Ciskei (RCMS 211/43)

Zulu warrior, Banganoma, Zululand (RCMS 211/4)

Momotaro (1889.5.1). Digitized with the support of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Map of Zululand (RCS/RCMS 193/2/1) A litho map by L.M. Altern, Durban, including 'definitions of boundaries of reserves'. Prepared in Surveyor-General's Office, 1905, by Altern for C.R. Saunders, Natal Commissioner for Zululand Lands - Delimitation Commission

Mine dancing (RCS/Marnham V) This group of Kodachromes shows Africans dancing in what is clearly the same spot. Original photography by John Ewart Marnham, reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Elizabeth S. Marnham.

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