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.
Diplomatic countdown to war
Posted by:
Tara Finn, Posted on:
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Categories:
Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, Second World War
With a flurry of diplomatic activity in the first 3 days of September 1939, was the Second World War inevitable?
Forward or backward looking? The Treaty of Versailles
Posted by:
Tara Finn, Posted on:
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Categories:
Defence and conflict, First World War, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians
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
Posted by:
Tara Finn, Posted on:
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Categories:
Defence and conflict, Foreign Office Historians, Second World War
Once the Allies decided to land in Normandy, they identified the need to practice.
History at the heart of diplomacy
Posted by:
Dr Richard Smith, Posted on:
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Categories:
Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians
On 15 November, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Historians gathered in the Locarno Suite of the Foreign Office to mark our centenary. Joining us were former and current members of staff.
A very British catastrophe: Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s final journey
Posted by:
James Southern, Posted on:
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Categories:
Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians
Captain Robert Scott’s legacy will forever be an irreconcilable contradiction. At times, he has been venerated as an icon of Edwardian masculinity: a stoical, humble pioneer whose Antarctic expeditions discovered the Polar Plateau and made many significant contributions to scientific …
The raids on Zeebrugge and Ostend
100 years ago this day saw the execution of one of the most daring amphibious raids of the First World War, in an attempt to stop German U-boats from attacking British ships. German submarines posed a constant threat to British …
They seek him here… the life and death of the Red Baron
Posted by:
Tara Finn, Posted on:
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Categories:
First World War, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians
21 April marks the centenary of the death of the highest scoring fighter ace of the First World War, Baron Manfred von Richthofen.[1] Known to the French as the Red Devil, because of the colour of his aircraft, it was …
President Wilson’s Fourteen Points: A recipe for world peace?
One hundred years ago today US President, Woodrow Wilson, gave his famous speech to Congress articulating the Fourteen Points and principles that he believed should be the foundation of post-war peace. The speech When he declared war on Germany in …
What’s the Context? 20 December 1917: formation of the Cheka, the first Soviet security and intelligence agency
Posted by:
Gill Bennett, Posted on:
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Categories:
Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series
‘The Soviets would not last two days without the activities of the Cheka, but with the Cheka, the Soviet State was safe’: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Defending the Revolution Before the October Revolution in 1917 that put the Bolsheviks in power …