Research Guides: History: Primary Sources in World History

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Primary Source Timeline

See our Primary Source Timeline to browse a selection of primary source databases organized by coverage dates and locations.

Primary Sources in World History

The following databases will help you find some primary sources for world history. Don't forget to check the library catalog and WorldCat as well, to the left.

Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa This link opens in a new window Access Southern African material, including periodicals, local newspaper reports, national publications, United Nations documents, photographs, speeches, interviews and more, that mostly covers the struggle for freedom during the period from 1950 to the first democratic elections in 1994, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Coverage: 1950 to 1994, contains primary sources. Some full text. This purchase was funded in part by the Mary Moser Memorial Library Fund.
Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window Explore primary documents related to the political and social interactions of Westerners in nineteenth century Asia. This collection consists principally of United States and British diplomatic documents, but also contains documents from missionary organizations and journals on socio-economic topics. It is part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO). Coverage: 1790-1949, contains primary sources. Full text.
China, America and The Pacific This link opens in a new window Access primary sources on the history of trade and cultural exchange between America, China and the Pacific region. Documents include manuscripts, rare printed sources, images, objects and maps. Coverage: 18th to the early 20th centuries, contains primary sources. Full text.
China: Culture and Society This link opens in a new window Access rare, illustrated pamphlets on the people and cultures of China. Topics covered include the Chinese Diaspora, foreign presence in China, foreign relations and diplomacy, international conflict and invasion, governance, faith and missionaries, opium, rebellion and revolution, leisure and pastimes, science, medicine, language and writing, and general history. This collection also features secondary resources, including scholarly essays and an interactive chronology. Coverage: 1750-1929, contains primary sources. Full text.
China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window Access English-language primary sources relating to China and the West from 1793-1980. Key topics covered include the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the Boxer War, the Communist Revolution led by Mao, the Korean War, and more. Coverage: 1793-1980, contains primary sources. Full text.

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Confidential Print: Africa This link opens in a new window Access papers generated by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices, covering the modern period of European colonization of the African continent from the British Government’s perspective. Coverage: 1834-1966, contains primary sources. Full text.
Confidential Print: Latin America This link opens in a new window Access papers generated by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices, covering topics such as slavery, immigration, wars and territorial disputes, and British business and financial interests in Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Coverage: 1833-1969, contains primary sources. Full text.
Confidential Print: Middle East This link opens in a new window Access papers generated by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices, tracing events in the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan, including Egyptian reforms in the 1830s, the Middle East Conference of 1921, the 1956 Suez crisis and post-Suez Western foreign policy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Coverage: 1839-1969, contains primary sources. Full text.
East India Company This link opens in a new window Access royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings, reports of expeditions and more, relating to the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond. Coverage: 1595-1946, contains primary sources. Full text.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window Access manuscript and rare printed sources documenting cultural contacts and literature of empire from a number of cultural and ethnic viewpoints. This collection features sources relating to Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism. Coverage: 15th to the 20th centuries, contains primary sources. Full text.

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Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest This link opens in a new window Access primary documents including monographs, manuscripts, and newspaper accounts covering key issues of economics, world politics and strategy during the European powers' "Scramble for Africa." This collection is part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO). Coverage: late 18th century to 19th century, contains primary sources. Full text.
Feminism in Cuba, 1898-1958 (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access primary sources including personal letters, journal essays, radio broadcasts, memoirs and more, on Cuban feminism, women in politics, literature by Cuban women, and the legal status of Cuban women, from the period of Cuban independence to the end of the Batista regime. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1898-1958, contains primary sources. Full text.
First World War Portal This link opens in a new window Access primary sources, from personal collections and rare printed material, to military files, ephemera and artwork. This collection covers the global nature of World War I, personal experiences, propaganda and recruitment, and international visual perspectives and narratives. Coverage: World War I era, contains primary sources. Full text.
Foreign Office Files for China This link opens in a new window Access British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including: 1919-1929, Kuomintang, CCP and the Third International; 1930-1937, The Long March, Civil War in China and the Manchurian Crisis; 1938-1948, Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of Communist victory; 1949-1956, The Communist Revolution; 1957-1966, The Great Leap Forward; and 1967-1980, The Cultural Revolution. Coverage: 1919-1980, contains primary sources. Full text.
Foreign Office Files for China This link opens in a new window Access British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including: 1919-1929, Kuomintang, CCP and the Third International; 1930-1937, The Long March, Civil War in China and the Manchurian Crisis; 1938-1948, Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of Communist victory; 1949-1956, The Communist Revolution; 1957-1966, The Great Leap Forward; and 1967-1980, The Cultural Revolution. Coverage: 1919-1980, contains primary sources. Full text.

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Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan This link opens in a new window Access British Foreign and Dominions Office files focusing on the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, including: independence, partition and the Nehru Era, 1947-1964; South Asian Conflicts and Independence for Bangladesh, 1965-1971; Afghanistan and the Cold War, Emergency Rule in India, and Civilian Rule in Pakistan 1972-1980. Coverage: 1947-1980, contains primary sources. Full text.
Foreign Office Files for Japan This link opens in a new window Access British Foreign Office files dealing with Japan, including: Japan and Great Power Status, 1919-1930; Japanese Imperialism and the War in the Pacific, 1931-1945; and Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952. Coverage: 1919-1952, contains primary sources. Full text.
Foreign Office Files for the Middle East This link opens in a new window Access British Foreign Office files dealing with the Middle East, including: 1971-1974: the 1973 Arab Israeli War and the Oil Crisis, 1975-1978: the Lebanese Civil War and the Camp David Accords, and 1979-1981: the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. Coverage: 1971-1981, contains primary sources. Full text.
Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlements, and Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window Explore the various European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa, and Australasia through documents that reveal the lives of settlers and indigenous peoples in these areas. Coverage: mostly the 18th and 19th centuries, contains primary sources. Full text.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window Explore significant trade commodities through a range of manuscript materials, maps, posters, paintings, rare books, and more. This collection includes information on chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits. Coverage: 1500 to the present day, contains primary sources. Full text.

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India, Raj & Empire This link opens in a new window Explore the history of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan. This collection includes diaries, official and private papers, sketches, paintings, histories and literary works. Coverage: 1615-1947, contains primary sources. Full text.
International Historical Statistics This link opens in a new window Explore key economic and social indicators from the late 18th to early 21st centuries. Access as an e-book or download as PDF or Excel tables. Coverage: 1750-2010. Full text.
International Women's Movement: Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access the Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women's Association's correspondence, minutes, financial materials, scrapbooks, and more, to learn how the organization worked to strengthen international understanding and friendship among the women of Asia and the Pacific and women of the United States. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1938-2006, contains primary sources. Full text.
International Women’s Periodicals, 1786-1933: Social and Political Issues (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access historical women’s periodicals for insight into the lives of women, the role of women in society and the development of the public lives of women as the push for women’s rights—suffrage, fair pay, better working conditions, etc. —grew in the United States and England. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1786-1933, contains primary sources. Full text. This purchase was a gift of the Walter E. Beach Library Fund.
Japan at War and Peace, 1930-1949: U.S. State Department Records on the Internal Affairs of Japan (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access documents on topics relating to Japanese internal affairs in the 1930s and during World War II, including: politics, the rise of Bolshevism and radicalism, militarism, the Sino-Japanese war, trade and tariffs, social control, labor development and unrest, emigration, war, military, armament, economics, industry, trade, and the affects of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1930-1949, contains primary sources. Full text.
Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature This link opens in a new window Access battle and boundary maps, fictional travel narratives, guidebooks, pamphlets, trail and road maps, and more, from several United Kingdom and United States collections. This collection is part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO). Coverage: 19th century, contains primary sources. Full text.

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Meiji Japan This link opens in a new window Access the diaries, correspondence, research files, drawings, lecture notes, publications, scrapbooks, and manuscripts of Edward Sylvester Morse, one of the earliest mediators between American and Asian societies. Coverage: 1850s-1920s, contains primary sources. Full text.
Middle East Online: Arab-Israeli Relations 1917-1970 (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access original documents revealing the workings of colonial administration and British diplomacy toward Israel and the Arab states, from the British Foreign Office, Colonial Office and War Office, as well as Cabinet Papers from the 1917 Balfour Declaration through to the Black September war of 1970-71. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1917-1970, contains primary sources. Full text. This purchase was a gift of the Walter E. Beach Library Fund.
Middle East Online: Iraq, 1914-1974 (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access original documents revealing the workings of the mandate administration, diplomacy, treaties, oil, and arms dealing, from the Foreign Office, Colonial Office and War Office, as well as Cabinet Papers from the Anglo-Indian landing in Basra in 1914 through the British Mandate in Iraq of 1920-32 to the rise of Saddam Hussein in 1974. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1914-1974, contains primary sources. Full text. This purchase was a gift of the Walter E. Beach Library Fund.
Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new window Access personal accounts, shipping logs, correspondence, oral histories, photographs, maps, printed literature, organizational papers and other primary sources for an in-depth look at the emigration of peoples from Great Britain, Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia. Coverage: mostly 1800s-1900s, contains primary sources. Full text.
Rastafari Ephemeral Publications (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access documents that provide an historical time stamp and current affairs commentary on the transitional period in the Rastafari Movement’s development. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1971-2014, contains primary sources. Full text.

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Revolution in Mexico: The 1917 Constitution & Its Aftermath (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access United States State Department records including political and military documents relating to the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1910-1924, contains primary sources. Full text.
Tiananmen Square and U.S.-China Relations, 1989-1993 (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access primary source documents that review U.S.-China relations in the post-Cold War Era, and analyze the significance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, China's human rights issues, and resumption of World Bank loans to China in July 1990. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1989-1993, contains primary sources. Full text.
Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War This link opens in a new window Access rare magazines by and for servicemen and women of all nations during the First World War. Coverage: 1914-1919, contains primary sources. Full text.
Women: Transnational Networks This link opens in a new window Access primary documents such as journals, books, and manuscripts, on topics including social reform movements and groups, high and popular culture, literature and the arts, immigration, daily life, and religion, among other gender and women's studies topics. This collection focuses mostly on European and North American movements, but also includes some resources from other regions. It is part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO). Coverage: 1790s-1910s, contains primary sources. Full text.
Women Organizing Transnationally: The Committee of Correspondence (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access official correspondence, as well as letters to and from correspondents throughout the world, documenting the work of the Committee of Correspondence, an international Western women's organization. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1952-1969, contains primary sources. Full text.
World Digital Library This link opens in a new window Access multi-lingual cultural heritage materials from countries and cultures around the world. Coverage: antiquity to early 21st century, contains primary sources. Full text.

Historical Newspapers and Magazines

Historical Chinese Newspapers This link opens in a new window Access English-language newspapers published in China for first-hand accounts of the politics, society and events of the time. This collection is part of Historical Newspapers. Coverage: 1832-1953, contains primary sources. Full text. This purchase was made possible through a bequest of Eleanor Cogan (Honorary Doctor of Liberal Arts, 2003), library volunteer and longtime friend of the college.
Latin American Newspapers Series I & II (1805-1922) This link opens in a new window Access newspapers published between 1805 and 1922 in Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Coverage: 1805-1922, contains primary sources. Full text.
People's Daily of China This link opens in a new window Access the Chinese language newspaper that is the official voice of the central government of the People's Republic of China. Coverage: 1946 to present, contains primary sources. Full text.
Yomidas (Yomiuri Database Service) This link opens in a new window Access articles from every issue of Japan's major newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun. This collection has four parts: 1) The Meiji, Taisho and Showa Eras section (1874-1989), 2) The Heisei Era section (September 1986 onwards), The Japan News (September 1989 onwards), and 4) The Contemporary Who's Who, with searchable biographical data and articles on prominent individuals. It includes photos, images and advertisements. Search in Japanese or English. English versions of modern articles are available. Coverage: 1874 to present, contains primary sources. Full text.

Waidner-Spahr Library

History: Primary Sources in World History

Library Catalog

WorldCat

Primary Source Timeline

Primary Sources in World History

Historical Newspapers and Magazines