Foreign and Commonwealth Office: North American and Caribbean Department and Caribbean Department: Registered Files (AN Series)

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): FCO 63

Title: Foreign and Commonwealth Office: North American and Caribbean Department and Caribbean Department: Registered Files (AN Series)

Date(s): 1968 - 1977

Level of description: Series

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 611 file(s)

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s):

Administrative/Biographical history: Upon the formation of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 17 October 1968, the North American and Caribbean Department was one of a number of territorial departments established to unify work formerly carried out by Foreign Office and Commonwealth Office departments.
The Department combined: former Foreign Office American Department responsibilities for relations with the United States of America, Puerto Rico and Dutch and French colonial territories in the region; former Commonwealth Office Atlantic Department responsibilities for relations with Canada, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana; and former Commonwealth Office West Indies A and Associated States Department responsibilities for relations with St Vincent and the Associated States (Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla and St Lucia) .
Relations with Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic were handled by the Latin American Department, and relations with the United Kingdom's remaining colonial territories in the area (British Honduras, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and St Vincent until it achieved associated state status in June 1969) were dealt with by a West Indian Department.
This arrangement of business was not successful, and the Department was split on 23 June 1969, responsibility for relations with the United States of America and Canada passing to the Latin American Department, henceforth the American Department. The Department was renamed Caribbean Department, and assumed responsibility for relations with St Vincent in the same month. The Caribbean Department continued until 1977 when it was succeeded by the Mexico and Caribbean Department.

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, from 1999

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: This series consists of registered files produced by the North American and Caribbean Department and its successor the Caribbean Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The files relate to relations with North American and Caribbean countries.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals: Series is accruing

System of arrangement: Arrangement is by former file reference within annual file cycles (the first cycle running from 17 October 1968 to 31 December 1969).

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:

Interest: Caribbean, Black, Asian

Specific group:

Subjects

Colonial countries

Personal/Corporate names

International relations

Places

Netherlands Antilles

Saint Lucia

Anguilla

Saint Christopher and Nevis

Grenada

Dominica

Antigua

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Jamaica

Barbados

Saint Eustatius, Leeward Islands

Surinam

Leeward Islands

Puerto Rico

Guadeloupe

Martinique

Guyana

Canada