Central Asia, Persia & Afghanistan, 1834-1949

Central Asia, Persia & Afghanistan, 1834-1949 is a collection of digitized British government documents produced by the British Foreign Office. These files document Britain’s diplomatic activities in Central Asia and illustrate the history of the region in the late 19th through mid-20th centuries from a British colonial perspective. Though Central Asia is the primary focus of the collection, interactions with British India and China are also documented. Rutgers has access to Modules I & II on this platform:

• From Silk Road to Soviet Rule, 1834-1922
• Afghanistan from the Civil War to World War Two, 1923-1949

These consist of a selection of items from the following material classes held by the British Foreign Office:

• FO 65: Foreign Office and predecessor: Political and Other Departments: General Correspondence before 1906, Russian Empire, 1781-1905
• FO 106: Foreign Office: Political and Other Departments: General Correspondence before 1906, Central Asia,1899-1905
• FO 371: Foreign Office: Political Departments: General Correspondence from 1906-1966
• FO 539: Foreign Office: Confidential Print Central Asia, 1834-1971
• FO 371: 508 volumes of general correspondence relating to Afghanistan, 1923-1949

Material types include correspondence, foreign office reports and dispatches, newspaper articles, diaries, and maps. The original files are located in the National Archives of the United Kingdom.