Records of the Political Geographical Departments

Records originated by the various Foreign and Commonwealth Office departments which handled the United Kingdom's political relations with foreign, commonwealth and colonial countries. The correspondence produced by these departments, while it deals principally with political and diplomatic matters, can also touch on economic, fiscal and industrial affairs, technology, agriculture and fisheries, communications and travel, social affairs, cultural and educational matters, defence, natural resources, aid and disaster relief, legal affairs, information and royal matters for the country concerned.

For each series, the selected records typically include, within each file cycle, a number of pieces for each country and a general section where questions affecting the whole region were dealt with.

Consists of the following departments' records:

• American and Latin American Departments, FCO 7.
• Arabian Department, FCO 8.
• Atlantic Department, FCO 23.
• Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department, FCO 83.
• Central Department, FCO 9.
• Central African Department, FCO 106.
• Central and Southern African Department, FCO 169.
• East Africa Department, FCO 31.
• Eastern Department, FCO 17.
• Far East and Pacific Department, FCO 24.
• Far Eastern Department, FCO 21.
• Gibraltar and General Department, FCO 86.
• Gibraltar and South Atlantic Department, FCO 42.
• Hong Kong and West Indian 'C' Department, FCO 40.
• Mexico and Caribbean Department, FCO 99.
• Middle East, Western and United Nations Department, FCO 27.
• Near East and North Africa Department, FCO 93.
• North America Department, FCO 82.
• North American and Caribbean Departments, FCO 63.
• North and East African Department, FCO 39.
• Northern and East European and Soviet Departments, FCO 28.
• Pacific and Indian Ocean Department, FCO 32.
• Republic of Ireland Department, FCO 87.
• Rhodesia Political Department, FCO 36.
• South Asia Department, FCO 37.
• South East Asian Department, FCO 15.
• South Pacific Department, FCO 107.
• Southern Africa and Swaziland Departments, FCO 45 and FCO 105.
• West African Department, FCO 65.
• West and Central African Department, FCO 25.
• West and General Africa Department, FCO 38.
• West Indian 'A' and Associated States Departments, FCO 43.
• West Indian 'B' Department, FCO 44.
• Western Department, FCO 33.
• Zambia, Malawi and Southern Africa Department, FCO 29.

For information on the appraisal and selection decisions applied to records produced by these departments see Operational Selection Policy OSP13, Britain's Diplomatic Relations, 1973-1996.

Topics

International

Asia

Caribbean

Europe and Russia

Australia and Pacific

Resources

Ireland

Aid and development

Fishing

Americas

Middle East

Communications

Disasters and emergencies

Farming

Africa

On the formation of the FCO, many of the departments previously existing in the Commonwealth Office and the Foreign Office were reorganised and merged to account for the new organisation in which responsibility for political relations was dealt with in a single department for a region, rather than in parallel foreign/commonwealth departments. For example, a single South Asian Department was created in FCO, which handled relations both with Afghanistan and Commonwealth South Asia.

There were initially 21 separate FCO departments dealing with political relations with other countries, but the number, and the distribution of countries within departments' responsibilities, has changed over time.