LibGuides: Primary Sources: Europe

Europe

Age of Exploration This link opens in a new window Explore five centuries (1420 - 1920) of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, new trade routes, and conflict over territories. Featuring rare manuscript and early printed material, highly illustrated maps and documents, diaries and ships' logs from some of the most well-known voyages in history. Note: Scanned documents are in original language and have not been translated.
Allied Propaganda in World War II and the British Political Warfare Executive This link opens in a new window Complete files of the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) from 1941 to 1946. The collection includes the secret minutes of the special 1944 War Cabinet Committee "Breaking the German Will to Resist.", correspondence, agents’ mission files, and all of the airborne propaganda leaflets dropped over mainland Europe during the war by the British and American air forces.
17th and 18th Century Burney Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window Full text news and ephemera from the 17th and 18th centuries, from Britain and the colonies. Holdings complement the Nichols Collection. Digitised article and page scans and OCR text. Date coverage: 1604-1804
Cecil Papers‎ This link opens in a new window The Cecil Papers is a major collection of early-modern historical documents from the reigns of Elizabethan I and James I/VI. More than 150,000 pages have been digitised in full colour to create a definitive online archive of almost 30,000 manuscript documents written by some of the most significant figures of Elizabethan and Jacobean history. These are accompanied by the complete Calendar of the Cecil Papers, featuring summaries and/or transcripts of many documents and two eighteenth-century volumes of selected transcriptions.
Colonial State Papers‎ This link opens in a new window The Colonial State Papers offers access to over 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 40,000 bibliographic records with this incredible resource on Colonial History. In addition to Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals for power, this collection also covers the Caribbean and Atlantic world. It is an invaluable resource for scholars of early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery. Date range: 1574-1757
Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Europe and Latin America, 1960-1969 This link opens in a new window Contains U.S. State Department Central Files, which provide American diplomatic reporting on political, military, social, and economic developments. Resources include reports, interviews, minutes of meetings with foreign government officials, letters, instructions, cables sent and received, as well as reports and translations from foreign journals and newspapers. Countries covered are: Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany); Germany (focusing on Berlin); Soviet Union; Cuba; Mexico; Panama; and Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window Manuscripts, maps, essays, printed and visual historical sources on colonialism and Empire from the 16th to 20th Centuries.
Empire Studies This link opens in a new window This collection offers a rich array of sources for the study of the British Empire. It features material on British colonial policy and government; perspectives on life in British colonies. Content dates from the mid 18th to mid 20th centuries.
Jewish Underground Resistance: The David Diamant Collection This link opens in a new window Original documents collected by the Jewish Communist and WW2 underground resistance member David Diaman dealing with Jewish, Polish and Communist groups in the French underground resistance. Mainly French language with some Yiddish language documents.
Paris Peace Conference and Beyond, 1919-1939 This link opens in a new window Drawn from the National Archives and the British Library, these documents cover the treaties of Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Trianon, Sèvres, Lausanne, and Locarno, as well as the foundation of the League of Nations. Together, these treaties severely curtailed German power and influence, redrew national boundaries in Europe and the Middle East, and led to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
Political Extremism and Radicalism This link opens in a new window Archive of extremist and radical materials from 20th Century Far-Right and Far-Left political groups in the US, Europe and Australia.
Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950 This link opens in a new window Covers the politics and administration of the post war refugee crisis in Europe as well as the day-to-day survival of the refugees themselves. Records are sourced from the UK's National Archives and the Wiener Library in London and contain a vast variety of documents including photographs, correspondence, statistics and other manuscripts.
Psychological Warfare and Propaganda in World War II: Air Dropped and Shelled Leaflets and Periodicals This link opens in a new window Contains over 1,000 air dropped and shelled leaflets and periodicals created and disseminated during the Second World War. Most items in this collection were printed by the Allies and dropped over German occupied territory. Over 10 languages are represented, with a very small number of leaflets (dropped by the Germans on the Allies) in English.
Turkey, Greece, and the Balkan States: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1930-1944 This link opens in a new window U.S. records on Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans, mostly in French and Turkish. Sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. Includes the Greco-Turkish Convention signed at Ankara, 10 June 1930.

Czechoslovakia Crisis (1968): The State Department's Crisis Files This link opens in a new window This collection includes almost a day-by-day record of the events, including the U.S. and the West's response to the Soviet occupation and dismantling of the liberal reforms, collated from a variety of State Department sources.
Czechoslovakia from Liberation to Communist State, 1945-63: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files This link opens in a new window U.S. government documents relating to the creation of the 'Third Republic' in the state of Czechoslovakia, established in 1945 with a coalition government of socialist parties. However, after 1948 Czechoslovakia moved completely into the Soviet sphere of influence and was transformed into a Stalinist state.
Dissent in Poland: Birth of a Social Movement (1939-1989) This link opens in a new window The collection's materials trace Solidarity's emergence from the strike movement of July-August 1980 and the formation of strike committees in the factories and shipyards of Lublin, Gdansk, Szczecin, Jastrzebie, and Warsaw. The collection also documents the role of the party-state and its institutions, especially the courts, the Ministry of the Interior, the local police, and the Polish United Workers' Party.
Dissent in Poland: The Eastern Archives (1939 -1989) This link opens in a new window This archive documents the post-World War II activity of the independence underground, the fates of Stalin's political prisoners, major turning points in Polish history (such as the student and worker protests in Poznan in June 1956) Wladislaw Gomulka's rise to power in October 1956, nationwide student demonstrations of March 1968, the food riots the spread across Poland in December 1970, the strike that initiated the Solidarity movement in Gdansk in August 1980, the martial law period that followed, the takeover of the Lenin shipyards in May 1988, and finally the collapse of Communism in the summer of 1989.
Dissent in Poland: The Opposition Archives This link opens in a new window The collection is divided into three major parts; diaries of the martial law period (1981-1983), diaries and memoirs of the period of the Polish People's Republic (1944 -1989), and documents of Private Initiative (1945-1989). 
Monumenta Germaniae Historica This link opens in a new window Contains primary historical sources from Northwestern and Central Europe, but centring on Germanic countries, covering a time period of the end of the Roman Empire to around 1500.
Nazism in Poland: The Diary of Governor-General Hans Frank This link opens in a new window Dr. Hans Frank (1900-1946), was the Governor-General of German-occupied Poland from October 1939 until early 1945. The journal covers all aspects of Generalgouvernment (GG) administration from its seat in the royal Wawel castle in Krakau (Krakw).

Finland: Records of the U.S. Department of States Relating to Internal Affairs, 1945-1949 This link opens in a new window U.S. government papers relating to Finland, mostly consisting of instructions to and dispatches from U.S. diplomatic staff regarding political, economic, military and social events. Documents in the collection also include reports, memoranda and correspondence.
Finland: Records of the U.S. Department of States Relating to Internal Affairs, 1950-1954 This link opens in a new window U.S. government papers relating to Finland, mostly consisting of instructions to and dispatches from U.S. diplomatic staff regarding political, economic, military and social events. Documents in the collection also include reports, memoranda and correspondence.
Finland: Records of the U.S. Department of States Relating to Internal Affairs, 1955-1959 This link opens in a new window U.S. government papers relating to Finland, mostly consisting of instructions to and dispatches from U.S. diplomatic staff regarding political, economic, military and social events. Documents in the collection also include reports, memoranda and correspondence.
Finland: Records of the U.S. Department of States Relating to Internal Affairs, 1960-Jan. 1963 This link opens in a new window U.S. government papers relating to Finland, mostly consisting of instructions to and dispatches from U.S. diplomatic staff regarding political, economic, military and social events. Documents in the collection also include reports, memoranda and correspondence.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica This link opens in a new window Contains primary historical sources from Northwestern and Central Europe, but centring on Germanic countries, covering a time period of the end of the Roman Empire to around 1500.

Bulgaria: Records of the U.S. Department of States Relating to Internal Affairs, 1945-1949 This link opens in a new window Instructions to and dispatches from U.S. diplomatic and consular staff regarding political, economic, military, social, and other internal correspondences and events in Bulgaria, for the years 1945-1949. Documents also include reports and memoranda prepared by the U.S. State Department staff, communications between the State Department and foreign governments, and correspondence with other departments in the U.S. government, private firms, and individuals.
Bulgaria: Records of the U.S. Department of States Relating to Internal Affairs, 1950-1954 This link opens in a new window The documents in this collection are primarily instructions to and dispatches from U.S. diplomatic and consular staff regarding political, economic, military, social, and other internal correspondences and events in Bulgaria, for the years 1950-1954. Documents also include reports and memoranda prepared by the U.S. State Department staff, communications between the State Department and foreign governments, and correspondence with other departments in the U.S. government, private firms, and individuals.
George H. W. Bush and Foreign Affairs: Bosnia and the Situation in the Former Yugoslavia This link opens in a new window U.S. Presidential documents from 1988-1999 relating to former Yugoslavia, particularly Bosnia, as the region descended into civil war.
Romania: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new window Covers Romania in the post-war Stalinist era. Documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State in the USA.
George H. W. Bush and Foreign Affairs: Bosnia and the Situation in the Former Yugoslavia This link opens in a new window U.S. Presidential documents from 1988-1999 relating to former Yugoslavia, particularly Bosnia, as the region descended into civil war.
Socialism and National Unity in Yugoslavia, 1945-63: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files This link opens in a new window Contains a variety of previously classified files from the USA, covering the establishment of Yugoslavia, the rise of Tito and the break with the USSR.

Albania: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new window Documents sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the U.S. Department of State relating to Albania's Communist regime and one-party system, led by Enver Hoxha, a disciple of Stalin.
Cyprus Crisis in 1967 This link opens in a new window Created by the U.S. State Department's Executive Secretariat, these records were collected and collated from a variety of U.S. State Department sources and represent an administrative history of the crisis from the perspective of the U.S. government and its foreign policy.
Greece: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1950-1963 This link opens in a new window U.S State Department files on Greece in the Cold War era in the aftermath of the Greek Civil War. Records cover all aspects of Greek society including economics, politics, industry, military and social affairs.
Turkey, Greece, and the Balkan States: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1930-1944 This link opens in a new window U.S. records on Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans, mostly in French and Turkish. Sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. Includes the Greco-Turkish Convention signed at Ankara, 10 June 1930.
World War II, Occupation, and the Civil War in Greece, 1940-1949: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files This link opens in a new window Covers the Axis occupation of Greece during the Second World War, the hardships endured by the Greek population, and the ensuing Civil War after liberation. Contains classified files from the U.S. State Department documenting this period.
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: Italian Colonies in North Africa and Aggression in East Africa, 1930-1939 This link opens in a new window Documents from U.S. consulates reporting on the activities of the Italian colonial government and the activities of the native peoples in Africa. The collection includes correspondence, studies, reports, cables and maps.
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: Political and Economic Consolidation of Portuguese Colonies in Africa, 1910-1929 This link opens in a new window Documents from U.S. consulates reporting on the activities of the Portuguese colonial government and the activities of the native peoples in Africa. The collection includes correspondence, studies, reports, cables and maps.
World War II, Occupation, and the Civil War in Greece, 1940-1949: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files This link opens in a new window Covers the Axis occupation of Greece during the Second World War, the hardships endured by the Greek population, and the ensuing Civil War after liberation. Contains classified files from the U.S. State Department documenting this period.
Methodist Episcopal Church Archives: Missionary Activities This link opens in a new window This collection comprises annual reports, correspondence and other materials relating to Methodist Episcopal Missionary activities in Italy from 1819-1952.

Actes royaux français, 1256-1794 (French Royal Acts, 1256-1794) This link opens in a new window French-language pamphlets covering the second half of the 13th century to the end of the 18th century. The documents in this collection deal with the financial and political administration of France, covering topics such as taxation, trade, fiscal affairs, criminal justice, and military administration, as well as other aspects of French life.
Building a New Germany: de-Nazification and political re-education 1944-1948 This link opens in a new window Explore Britain’s efforts to eliminate Nazism and foster democracy among the German people in the wake of the Second World War through Foreign Office documents.
Conditions & Politics in Occupied Western Europe, 1940-1945 This link opens in a new window Intelligence reports received by the British Foreign Office following the breakdown of normal diplomatic relations during World War II. The collection includes detailed information from the German occupied states of Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the Vatican, and the neutral countries Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Dreyfus Affair in the Making of Modern France (L'Affaire Dreyfus: son influence dans la cration de la France moderne) This link opens in a new window Documents relating to the 'Dreyfus affair', the conviction for treason of a French Jewish artillery officer in 1894, which became the most prominent political scandal of the time, divided France and revealed the virulent anti-Semitism rife in Europe. The collection includes writings by key figures and lesser known authors, pamphlets, newspaper clippings and drawings. The documents are mainly in French but also in English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Swedish.
East Germany from Stalinization to the New Economic Policy, 1950-1963 This link opens in a new window Documents from the U.S. government relating to East Germany. Documents included in this collection are predominantly instructions to and dispatches from U.S. diplomatic and consular personnel regarding political, military, economic, social, industrial, and other internal conditions and events in East Germany.
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: Colonialism and Nationalism in the Dutch East Indies, 1910-1930 This link opens in a new window Documents from U.S. consulates reporting on the activities of the Dutch colonial government and the activities of the native peoples in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). The collection includes correspondence, studies, reports, cables and maps.
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: French Colonialism in Africa: From Algeria to Madagascar, 1910-1930 This link opens in a new window Documents from U.S. consulates reporting on the activities of the French colonial government and the activities of the native peoples in Africa. The collection includes correspondence, studies, reports, cables and maps.
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: German Colonies and League of Nations Mandates in Africa 1910-1929 This link opens in a new window Documents from U.S. consulates reporting on the activities of the German colonial government, and later the mandate authorities (after the First World War the Treaty of Versailles mandated former German colonies to the British and French) and the activities of the native peoples in Africa. The collection includes correspondence, studies, reports, cables and maps.
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: German Colonies in Asia and the Pacific: From Colonialism to Japanese Mandates, 1910-1929 This link opens in a new window Documents from U.S. consulates in Asia and the Pacific reporting on the activities of the German colonial government, and later the Japanese mandate authorities (after the First World War the Treaty of Versailles mandated former German colonies in Asia to Japan) and the activities of the native peoples. The collection includes correspondence, studies, reports, cables and maps.
George H. W. Bush and Foreign Affairs: Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Reunification of Germany This link opens in a new window U.S. Presidential documents from 1981-1993 providing in-depth analysis of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and its implications for U.S.-German relations.
German Folklore and Popular Culture: Das Kloster. Scheible. This link opens in a new window A collection of magical and occult texts, chapbooks, folklore, popular superstition and fairy tales of the German Renaissance compiled by Stuttgart antiquarian Johann Scheible, between 1845 and 1849.
German Foreign Relations and Military Activities in China, 1919-1935 This link opens in a new window Documentation on Germany's relations with China during the interwar period, including materials relating to Germany's industrial and military aid to the Republic of China prior to the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Inquisitions: Manuscripts of the Spanish, Portuguese and French Inquisitions in the British Library, London This link opens in a new window Collection of original manuscripts of the Spanish and other Inquisitions from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
Jewish Question: Records from the Berlin Document Center This link opens in a new window Comprises documents (mainly in German) from a wide variety of sources seized from Germany after the Second World War, including records from the Gestapo, local police and government offices, Reich ministries, businesses, etc., pertaining to Jewish communities. Covers 1891-1945, but predominantly 1933-1943.
Jewish Underground Resistance: The David Diamant Collection This link opens in a new window Original documents collected by the Jewish Communist and WW2 underground resistance member David Diaman dealing with Jewish, Polish and Communist groups in the French underground resistance. Mainly French language with some Yiddish language documents.
Life under Nazi Rule: Reports by Anti-Fascists in Occupied Europe, 1933-1945 This link opens in a new window Contains two newsletters published by the Internationale Transportarbeiter-Föderation/International Transport Workers' Federation, a pan-European trade union, between 1933 and 1945. Published in several languages, Germany Under the Swastika (Hakenkreuz über Deutschland) and Fascism (Faschismus) originally intended to document the deeds and misdeeds of the Nazi regime in Germany; their scope expanded during the Second World War to include reports about occupied Europe.
Mercure de France, 1672-1810 This link opens in a new window Political and literary periodical first published under the title Le Mercure Galant to chronicle the activities of prominent individuals in metropolitan Paris, the French provinces, and abroad, while also publishing novels and stories. French language publication.
Military Leaders of World War I: Official and Private Papers of Generaloberst Hans von Seeckt This link opens in a new window Letters and other papers of Generaloberst Hans von Seeckt, prominent German military strategist of World War I, military head of the Reichswehr and "father" of the army of the German Republic.
Newspapers of the French Revolution of 1848 (Journaux de la Revolution de 1848) This link opens in a new window Newspaper and periodical titles published in France from the 1848 revolution to the establishment of the Second Empire in 1852. The collection includes national daily and weekly newspapers, as well as women’s periodicals, literary, musical, theatre and opera reviews, medical and trade titles, regional papers and newsletters. Digitised page scans and OCR text. Date coverage: 1848-1852
Nuremburg Laws and Nazi Annulment of German Jewish Nationality This link opens in a new window This collection consists of index cards listing the name, date and place of birth, occupation and last address of Jews whose German citizenship was revoked in accordance with the "Nuremberg Laws" of 1935, including Jews from Germany, Austria and Czech Bohemia. The cards are generally in alphabetical order. Suffix names "Israel" for men and "Sara" for women were added by law in 1936 to readily identify persons of Jewish descent. Coverage is 1935-1945 and most content is in German.
Occupation and Independence: the Austrian Second Republic, 1945-1963 This link opens in a new window Contains files from the U.S. State Department covering the internal affairs of post-Second World War Austria as described by diplomats. Includes coverage of a wide range of political, social and economic issues via diplomatic reports, studies and correspondence.
Patriotes aux Armes! (Patriots to Arms!): The Underground Resistance in France, Belgium, Holland, and Italy, 1939-1945 This link opens in a new window Newspapers and periodicals, broadsides, leaflets, books and pamphlets and other ephemera produced by or relating to the underground resistance in Belgium, France, Italy, and The Netherlands during the Second World War. French language content mainly as well as some European language content. Digitised page scans and OCR text. Date coverage: 1939-1945
Records of the Deutsches Ausland-Institut, Stuttgart: Records on Resettlement This link opens in a new window German language Nazi records on resettlement seized from the Axis Powers during and after WWII. Covers the implementation and modification of National Socialist race doctrine and includes negotiations and agreements with the Russians, Romanians and Italians, plus other records covering many other aspects of resettlement in the period 1939-1944.
Records of the U.S. State Department: East Germany and Berlin, Political and Governmental Affairs, February 1963-1966 This link opens in a new window Documents comprising RG 59: Records of the Department of State, Central Subject Files, East Germany and Berlin, POL subject category for the years 1963 through 1966.
Voices from Wartime France, 1939-1945: Clandestine Resistance and Vichy Newspapers This link opens in a new window Drawn from the British Library and including perspectives from both the Vichy government and the resistance movement, this collection covers the French press that reached Britain during the Occupation of 1940-44. French, German and English language content. Digitised full page scans and OCR text. Date coverage: 1939-1945