Catalogue description Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: American and Latin American Departments: Registered Papers and Digital Files (A and AL Series)

Arrangement is by former file reference within annual file cycles (the first two cycles running from January 1967 to October 1968, and October 1968 to December 1969).

References for born-digital records are automatically generated and display a 'Z' after a forward slash, which distinguish them from traditional references allocated to paper and digitised records.

The United Kingdom's relations with foreign countries and international organisations in the Americas were handled by the American Department until the creation of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, when responsibility was split between two new departments. Relations with independent central and south American states, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic were handled by the Latin American Department, while relations with the United States of America, Puerto Rico, and Dutch and French colonial territories in the Americas passed to the North American and Caribbean Department.

This arrangement lasted until June 1969, when an American Department was reconstituted in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to handle the responsibilities of the former Latin American Department and the United States of America, Puerto Rico and Canada. In 1971 this arrangement was undone, and separate Latin America and North America Departments were again constituted.