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The Lancaster House Agreement 40 years on
On 21 December 1979 an agreement ended the illegal white-dominated regime that ruled Rhodesia since 1965, and ushered in the newly independent state of Zimbabwe.
Foreign Office Historians
Britain and the Revolutions in Eastern Europe in 1989
Thirty years on from the fall of the Iron Curtain, we look at how British diplomats responded to the revolutions unfolding around them.
The first woman of British parliament
It was not by long-term design that the first woman took her seat in the House of Commons.
The soldier turned diplomat
Harold Alexander may be associated with Italy in the Second World War, but his actions in Latvia in 1919 potentially prevented a civil war.
Reopening the British Embassy following the liberation of Paris
On 13 September 1944 a Dakota aircraft, with an escort of 45 Spitfires, flew across the English Channel towards Paris. The plane carried the new British Ambassador to France, Alfred ‘Duff’ Cooper, with the mission to re-establish a British presence in the newly liberated French capital.
Diplomatic countdown to war
With a flurry of diplomatic activity in the first 3 days of September 1939, was the Second World War inevitable?
What’s the context? Polish cryptologists reveal they have cracked the Enigma code, 26 July 1939
On 26 July 1939, in a forest near Warsaw, Polish code breakers told their British colleagues how they had cracked the German Enigma code. As war against Nazi Germany approached, the meeting symbolised the importance of political, as well as intelligence co-operation in the struggle ahead.
A pyrrhic victory? Victory Day, 1919
Whilst Victory day 1919 was planned as a celebration, the emotions evoked were more diverse and complex.
Forward or backward looking? The Treaty of Versailles
German anger at the Treaty of Versailles between the wars is well known. Hitler, in his rise to power, exploited this deep resentment. So how did such a contentious document come into existence and why was it signed?
D-Day is one of the best known invasions in history, but it did not happen without a high cost
Once the Allies decided to land in Normandy, they identified the need to practice.