Editing SOAS University of London (section)

===Origins===
The School of Oriental Studies was founded in 1916 at 2 [[Finsbury Circus]], London, the then premises of the [[London Institution]]. The school received its [[royal charter]] on 5 June 1916 and admitted its first students on 18 January 1917. The school was formally inaugurated a month later on 23 February 1917 by [[George V of the United Kingdom|George V]]. Among those in attendance were [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Earl Curzon of Kedleston]], formerly [[Viceroy of India]], and other cabinet officials.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/centenary/the-soas-story/early-years-1917-36/ |title=Early years (1917-36) |publisher=SOAS, University of London |access-date=27 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711200829/http://www.soas.ac.uk/centenary/the-soas-story/early-years-1917-36/ |archive-date=11 July 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:London Institution at the Finsbury Circus.jpg|thumb|left|The former premises of the [[London Institution]] in [[Finsbury Circus]] which originally housed SOAS and was demolished soon after being sold in 1936.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Collections |first1=Special |title=SOAS Picture Archive: Finsbury Circus – Special Collections, SOAS Library |url=https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/archives/2016/09/19/soas-picture-archive-finsbury-circus/ |website=Special Collections, SOAS Library |access-date=29 April 2025}}</ref>]] 
The School of Oriental Studies was founded by the British state as an instrument to strengthen Britain's political, commercial, and military presence in Asia and Africa.<ref name="SOAS Imperial Training">{{cite book| title=The School of Oriental and African Studies: Imperial Training and the Expansion of Learning|last=Brown |first=Ian |date=21 July 2016 | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]], 2016| isbn = 9781107164420}}</ref> It would do so by providing instruction to colonial administrators ([[Colonial Service]] and [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Imperial Civil Service]]),<ref name="SOAS Imperial Training"/> commercial managers, and military officers, as well as to missionaries, doctors, and teachers, in the language of the part of Asia or Africa to which each was being posted, together with an authoritative introduction to the customs, religions, laws, and history of the people whom they were to govern or among whom they would be working.<ref name="SOAS Imperial Training"/>

The school's founding mission was to advance British scholarship, science, and commerce in Africa and Asia, and to provide London University with a rival to the Oriental schools of [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Berlin]], [[Saint Petersburg State University|Petrograd]], and [[Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales|Paris]].<ref>''Nature'', 1917, Vol. 99 (2470), pp. 8–9 [Peer Reviewed Journal].</ref> The school immediately became integral to training British administrators, colonial officials, and spies for overseas postings across the [[British Empire]]. Africa was added to the school's name in 1938.