Records of American, Caribbean and Atlantic departments

Records of American, Caribbean and Atlantic Departments relating to the provision of aid to certain American, Caribbean and Atlantic island countries.

Records of the Caribbean and Latin America Department, OD 28.

Records of the Caribbean Department and successors, OD 50.

Records of the Caribbean, Pacific and Latin America Department, OD 115 and OD 138.

Records of the South Atlantic Department, OD 133.

There are no records for 1971-1978.

Records relating to aid and development in the Americas and the Caribbean and Atlantic Islands can also be found in the various OD series dealing with topics and types of aid, as opposed to territorial regions.

Topics

Caribbean

Americas

Following the creation of the Ministry of Overseas Development, a hybrid Finance and Western Hemisphere Division was established, which consisted of departments dealing with financial, accounting and communications matters, and a Caribbean and Latin American Department, which handled development and aid business for all of mainland Latin and Central America and the islands of the Caribbean and the Atlantic. In 1966 a British Development Division in the Caribbean was established with an office in Bridgetown, Barbados, and this was controlled by the Caribbean and Latin America Department. In 1969, finance and accounts matters were transferred to another division.

New departments were joined with the Caribbean and Latin America Department dealing with natural resources, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, voluntary organisations, science, technology and medicine to form the Western Hemisphere, Natural Resources and Medical Division.

Following the establishment of the Overseas Development Administration in 1970, the Caribbean and Latin America Department was split in two. A Latin America Department dealt with mainland south and central America, and a new Caribbean and Pacific Department handled development and aid to island territories. In 1972, responsibility for UK dependent territories in the Caribbean and the Atlantic was withdrawn from the Caribbean and Pacific Department, which was merged with the Latin America Department in a reformed Caribbean and Latin America Department (dealing with mainland south and central America, except for Guyana and Belize, and with Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

A separate Middle East, Mediterranean and Caribbean Department in the Asia Division handled development aid and relations with Caribbean regional organisations, the rest of the Caribbean islands, and Guyana. Meanwhile the affairs of the remaining dependent territories (Belize, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Anguilla, the Falkland Islands, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Ascension Island and the British Antarctic Territories) were handled by a new Joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Overseas Development Administration West Indian and Atlantic Department in the Dependent Territories Division.

From 1976 development matters in the Falkland Islands were handled instead by the Latin America Department, and from 1977 to 1978 the joint department also handled matters relating to the remaining French and Dutch dependent territories in the Caribbean. This joint department handled both political and development matters, but reported to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the former, and to the Overseas Development Administration on the latter. From 1973 the Caribbean and Latin America Department was renamed the Latin America Department, though it continued to deal with the same geographical area.

In 1974, all development matters relating to non-dependent territories in the Caribbean were united in a single Caribbean Department in the Western Hemisphere, Science and Technology Division (which had replaced the Western Hemisphere, Natural Resources and Medical Division in 1973).

In 1979 science and technology departments were formed into a separate division, and the Latin America Department and a new Caribbean and Pacific Department was formed in a Western Hemisphere and General Division, the geographical split between the two departments and the joint West Indian and Atlantic Department remaining as before. The Western Hemisphere and General Division was abolished in 1981, and matters relating to non-dependent territory America, Caribbean and Atlantic territories passed to the Asia and the Oceans Division and the Caribbean, Pacific and Latin America Department.

The Dependent Territories Division was abolished in 1982, and the West Indian and Atlantic Department was moved into the Asia and the Oceans Division, though it remained a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Overseas Development Administration department. At the same time the other American department was renamed the Latin America, Caribbean and Pacific Department. In 1984 the joint West Indian and Atlantic Department was abolished and responsibility for the Caribbean islands absorbed into the Latin America, Caribbean and Pacific Department.

A new South Atlantic Department was formed to deal with the Falkland Islands, St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, and in 1986 it assumed responsibility for Gibraltar and became the South Atlantic and Gibraltar Department. The two departments were reorganised in 1989 into a Latin America and Pacific Department and a Caribbean and Atlantic Department (which also dealt with Guyana and Belize), but this arrangement only lasted until 1990 when a single Latin America, Caribbean and Atlantic Department was created. This department was itself moved into the Establishment Division in 1992, and again in 1994 to the Eastern Europe and Western Hemisphere Division.