History Research Guide

Americas and Africa

Explore the complex history of intercultural encounter, exchange, and conflict that connects South, Central, and North America and the diverse nations of Africa.

Colección Revolución, 1910 – 1921 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. This collection was formed by members of the Historical Research Commission of the Mexican Revolution and covers and reproduces many files under the guard of the General Archive of the Nation.
Colonial America This link opens in a new window UCSC has only Module 1: Early Settlement, Expansion and Rivalries: Documents the early history of the colonies, and includes founding charters, material on the effects of 1688’s Glorious Revolution in North America, records of piracy and seaborne rivalry with the French and Spanish, and copious military material from the French and Indian War of 1756-63.
Evangelism in Africa: Correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835-1910 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. Diaries, letters and other first-person accounts track missionary efforts across a continent of Africa.
Feminism in Cuba: Nineteenth through twentieth century archival documents This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. This collection, compiled from Cuban sources, spans the period from Cuban independence to the end of the Batista regime (1898-1958). The collection sheds light on Cuban feminism, women in politics, literature by Cuban women and the legal status of Cuban women.
Foreign relations between Latin America and the Caribbean States, 1930-1944 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. Organized by country, this collection covers a wide range of viewpoints on political, social and economic issues. It sheds light on the foreign relations interactions between Central American and South American countries — with coverage of the Caribbean, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Users will find memoranda, cables, correspondence, reports and analyzes, and treaties.
Global missions and theology This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. This collection documents the broad range of nineteenth century religious missionary activities, practices and thought in the United States by reproducing pivotal personal narratives, organizational records and biographies of the essential leaders, simple missionaries and churches. This collection includes materials on missionary activities among Native Americans and African Americans, both slaves and freed men. In addition, it highlights activities in far-flung regions and countries, such as Africa, Fiji and the Sandwich Islands, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan and Hawaii. Covers 1800-1899.
Liberation movement in Africa and African America This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. Composed of FBI surveillance files on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People's Revolutionary Party, this collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for domestic Black struggles. Covers 1970-1985.
Popular culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window Music, Politics, Fashion, Youth Culture – the period from 1950 to 1975 witnessed dramatic changes in society. There was the onset of Rock & Roll; the introduction of computers and credit cards; the boom of radio and television; and campaigns for black power, civil rights and women’s liberation. All around the world there were challenges to authority.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500–1926 This link opens in a new window Through published pamphlets, tracts, memoirs, congressional legislation, correspondence, broadsides, biographies, histories, fiction and poetry, eulogies, sermons and innumerable other genres, Sabin opens a window onto the Americas through which few get to glimpse.
Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new window This resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Close attention has been given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Covers 1490 - 2007.
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window 30 primary source collections covering civil rights, peace and pacifism, suffrage, reproductive health care, grassroots feminist organizations, trade unions and labor, legal issues, periodicals, and more.
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window Digitized official government documents. Full document image format. Coverage from 1945 to present
Empire Online This link opens in a new window An interactive collection of primary source documents, sourced from leading archives around the world. Cover all continents and includes primary documents and secondary resources from the period which relate the story of the Empire from the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German points of view, as well as that of indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America.
Latin America & Caribbean Digitized Primary Resources This link opens in a new window List of openly accessible digitized primary sources that relate to Latin America and the Caribbean. Compiled by SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials)
Struggles for Freedom: South Africa This link opens in a new window Through materials from various archives and libraries throughout the world, documents colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region. Consists of 76 different collections including images, periodicals, nationalist publications, records of colonial government commissions, local newspaper reports, personal papers, correspondence, UN documents, out-of-print and other particularly relevant books, pamphlets, speeches, and interviews with those who participated in the struggles.
World Heritage Sites: Africa This link opens in a new window Includes 20 sub-collections and more than 57,000 objects. Selected sub-collections include the Heinz Rüther Collection from the University of Cape Town, the Kilwa Archive from the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), and the Smithsonian Heritage Collection. The collection is comprised of two interlinked and unique types of data: spatial and contextual data. More info here Formerly Aluka.

Asia and the Pacific

Encompasses East, South, and Central Asia along with the Pacific and the Indian Ocean

China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window A wide variety of primary source material detailing China’s interaction with the West from Macartney’s first Embassy to China in 1793, through to the Nixon/Heath visits to China in 1972-74. It provides multiple perspectives – from politicians, diplomats, missionaries, business people and tourists – and documents many of the key events that happened in this period.
Chinese Civil War and U.S.-China relations: Records of the U.S. State Department's Office of Chinese Affairs, 1945-1955 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. Comprehensive documentation examines the political background of the civil war, the failed efforts of American mediation, and the ramifications of Communist victory.
Chinese recorder and the Protestant missionary community in China, 1867-1941 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. During its long run, The Chinese Recorder (published in English in China) covered the beginnings of mission schools, the crusade against opium, the Boxer Rebellion, ecumenical missionary conferences, the 1911 Revolution, the growth of the Chinese church and the rise of communism in China.
Global missions and theology This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. This collection documents the broad range of nineteenth century religious missionary activities, practices and thought in the United States by reproducing pivotal personal narratives, organizational records and biographies of the essential leaders, simple missionaries and churches. This collection includes materials on missionary activities among Native Americans and African Americans, both slaves and freed men. In addition, it highlights activities in far-flung regions and countries, such as Africa, Fiji and the Sandwich Islands, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan and Hawaii. Covers 1800-1899.
Japan at war and peace, 1930-1949: U.S. State Department records on the internal affairs of Japan This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. Japan’s progression toward a democratic system faced economic and political pressures, during which expansionism and militarization became increasingly influential. Covers 1930-1949.
Policing the Shanghai International Settlement, 1894-1945 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. These files represent a large portion of the archives of the British-run municipal police force based in Shanghai's former international settlement; an opportunity to explore a unique period in China’s struggle toward a modern existence through these settlements. Covers 1894-1945.
Tiananmen Square and U.S.-China relations, 1989-1993 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. This collection covers U.S.-China relations in the post-Cold War Era, and includes documents related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, China’s human rights issues, and resumption of World Bank loans to China in July 1990. Covers 1989-1993.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window An interactive collection of primary source documents, sourced from leading archives around the world. Cover all continents and includes primary documents and secondary resources from the period which relate the story of the Empire from the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German points of view, as well as that of indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America.
International women's movement: The Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association of the USA, 1950-1985 This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. The Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women's Association strengthened international understanding and friendship among the women of Asia and the Pacific and women of the U.S.A. Includes brochures, reports, correspondence, event programs, financial materials, conference programs and more. Covers 1950-1985 (a few materials from 1938-1949 and 1986-2006).

Europe and the Mediterranean World

Intensive study of the histories of Europe, Russia, North Africa and the Middle East, as well as imperial, colonial, and transnational histories that trace the changing relations among these places.

Empire Online This link opens in a new window An interactive collection of primary source documents, sourced from leading archives around the world. Cover all continents and includes primary documents and secondary resources from the period which relate the story of the Empire from the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German points of view, as well as that of indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America.
Testaments to the Holocaust This link opens in a new window An Archives Unbound collection. Testaments to the Holocaust is the online publication of the archives of the Wiener Library, London, the first archive to collect evidence of the Holocaust and the anti-semitic activities of the German Nazi Party. In German. Covers 1889-1965.
The Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs This link opens in a new window In the late 1800's, Dutch physician Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V. Gerritsen began collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. The Gerritsen Collection has since become the greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world.
Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new window This resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Close attention has been given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Covers 1490 - 2007.
Popular culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window

University Library

History Research Guide

Americas and Africa

Asia and the Pacific

Europe and the Mediterranean World

Land Acknowledgement