Chair: Nicholas Howell Director: Alek Gozman Introduction The First World War, or the Great War,as it was known at the time, entirely redrew the borders of Europe and set the historical, economic, and political stage for the remainder of the century. A war involving nations from all around the globe, over disputes which have been developing for decades beforehand, ignited after the death of one person. That one death, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary, evolved the tension between Serbia and Austria Hungary into warfare. This relatively small conflict would have remained at its extent if it wasn t for the arrival of international assistance from allied nations. Both countries were allied with different world superpowers at the time, creating a war of obligation. Allies came in support in the form of heavy warfare and before one could predict what all these events were leading up to, the world saw its first all out world war. After the various battles of the Great War, the coalition of the Allied powers, consisting of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and Italy, reigned victorious over the opposing Central Powers consisting of Germany, Austria Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. However, Victory does not always lead to peace. Although the warfare ended, many of the issues before the war remained while new ones arose. It was in the hands of the victorious nations to deal with the countless outcomes and issues of the war. The allied powers were left to deal with the colonial lands of the defeated, the geopolitical altercations, the punishment and reparations to particular counties, etc. These complex issues have been dealt with in various ways and have greatly impacted, and even directly led to, major historical events that followed in the coming decades. How world leaders at the time dealt with these issues, and how desirable the outcomes of those decisions have been, are very controversial. Such a significant and impactful war can raise the question of how the remainder of the 20th century would have gone if the issues were dealt with differently. Should the details of the peace treaty be different? Should Germany have been the bearer of such reparations and guilt? Knowing how the remainder of the century played out, with respect to the outcomes and effects of the Great War, is there anything that should have been handled in a different way in order to ensure a more peaceful, or at the least, a less hostile world?
History of the Great War The First World War was rightfully called the Great War for its many historical impacts. This global conflict ushered in a new era of warfare, an entirely altered geopolitical landscape, and the setting of new global powers. The world changed in June 1914 when international tensions ignited into international warfare as Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist. This led to an aggressive breakdown of an already fragile and complex relation between the two well allied nations. However, in order to really understand the conflict, we need to go further back in time. The turn of the 20th century was a time of great upheaval, socially, but also in terms of technology, industry, and the political balance of power in Europe. By the year 1900, the German empire was still a very new player on the world stage, but a powerful one. The most industrialized state in Europe, and also able to field a massive army, many German official felt that Germany should dominate Europe. In response, France, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Empire began to ally themselves together. Germany responded by provoking a series of crises in Morocco, while Austria Hungary annexed Bosnia. The crises in Morocco pushed France and the United Kingdom closer, and Austria Hungary annexed Bosnia against the wishes of both Serbia (who felt that because Bosnia had many Serbs living there, Serbia should annex it), and Russia (who feared Austria Hungary getting any stronger), compelled them both, but especially Russia, to make sure it had strong allies. In 1914, several members of a secret society, called Young Bosnia, with connections to the Serbian Black Hand, dedicated to liberating Slavic lands from the rule of Austria Hungary attempted to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria Hungary in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The first attempt to kill the Archduke using a bomb was unsuccessful, but later, a member of the group named Gavrilo Princip, shot and killed the archduke and his wife while they drove through the streets. Austria Hungary responded in a very aggressive manner. Since Gavrilo Princip was a Serbian national, Austria Hungary blamed Serbia, and asked for German support in totally destroying the nation. Germany felt that because a war with the Triple Entente of Russia, France, and the United Kingdom was going to come at some point, right then was as good as any other time. Austria Hungary presented its demands to Serbia on July 23rd, 1914, with a document known as the Austro Hungarian Ultimatum, and on July 25th, 1914 Serbia responded in a diplomatic tone, accepting most of the demands. However, Serbia refused to allow Austria Hungary to control the Serbian investigation into the assassination, and to allow Austria Hungary to control internal Serbian affairs. Austria Hungary s response was to declare war on Serbia on July 28th, 1914. The next domino to fall was Russia. Russia felt that it had to intervene because Austria Hungary had already annexed Bosnia, and Russian prestige and honor could not allow another Slavic state
to fall. On July 29th, 1914, Russia ordered a partial mobilization, and Germany ordered Russia to stand down. Germany had believed that if it ever got into a war with both Russia and France, it would have time to defeat France before Russia fully mobilized, but the current turn of events would prove this plan impossible, unless Russia stopped mobilizing. In response to the German demand, Russia ordered general mobilization on July 30th, 1914. Germany and Austria Hungary also both ordered general mobilization. On the 31st of July, Germany demanded France stay neutral in any conflict, and also demanded France turn over the border fortress towns of Verdun and Toul to Germany. France refused and ordered general mobilization on the first of August; the same day that Germany declared war on Russia. Two days later, on the third, Germany declared war on France, and also demanded right of transit through Belgium. Belgium refused and Germany invaded Belgium, and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the attack on Belgian sovereignty. On the Western Front, a series of bloody, aggressive, poorly planned offensive maneuvers brought about a deadlock via a series of trenches from Nieuport in Belgium, down to the Swiss frontier. Almost all of Belgium was occupied by Germany and large stretches of Northern France were also in German control. In the east, both Russia and Austria Hungary sent out poorly trained, poorly equipped armies. Initially, Russia pushed deep into Germany and Austria Hungary. However, until 1917, the east was to be a mess of trenches, offensives, counter offensives, and starving, freezing soldiers, much like the Western front. Most of the nations fighting in the war became allies with each other using secret documents, before the fighting began. For example, France and Russia signed the Franco Russian Military Convention on August 18th, 1892, which stated that if either country is attacked by a nation of the Triple Alliance (Central Powers), or a Triple Alliance power mobilizes against one of the two nations, the other nation must provide military assistance. This is very similar to the Blank Cheque that Germany sent to Austria Hungary, in which Germany promises to support Austria Hungary no matter what it does to punish Serbia. Documents like these created alliance systems that promised full support. In 1917, the Russian czar, Nicholas II, was in a dangerous place. An incompetent commander, he also refused to work with members of the Duma, or Russian parliament. The first two months of 1917 were full of strikes, lockouts, and food shortages on the home front. March 8th, 1917, women in Russia marched in honor of International Women s day. Russia, following an older calendar, had the day named February 23. The women s march turned into a protest against the czar, and his wartime policies. The army in Petrograd was called out to suppress the revolts, but the soldiers sided with the protestors. Railroads and factories were seized along with military depots. Called the February Revolution, it united Soviets, or councils formed by peasants, soldiers, and workers with the professional politicians of the Duma. On March 1st of the Russian calendar, (really March 14th) the Petrograd soviet called upon all other military units to organize
similarly, the provisional government announced an eight point plan to democratize the government, and the Czar abdicated that same day. The new government, however, did not mean an end to the war. Russia s allies quickly recognized the new government, hoping to keep Russia in the war. The Provisional Government was independently committed to the war, however, because Germany and Austria Hungry both still occupied much of Western Russia, (modern day Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, and Moldova). The Russian army was in its best position since 1914, in terms of being armed and fed, and a new sense of Russian patriotism buoyed the army west. This feeling was short lived and mostly ended around April 16th, 1917, when Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Vladimir Lenin) arrived in Petrograd via train from Zurich. Lenin demanded an end to the war, and that the Provisional Government step down. He gained much favor among the soviets with which he shared a common ideology, communism. He was also popular with soldiers because of his anti war stance. However, the Provisional Government went ahead with two disastrous offensives leading to the October Revolution and the Bolshevik Coup. Under the Provisional Government, inflation was rampant and chaos was never far away. Lenin was even briefly forced to escape to Switzerland by his political enemies. However, he returned in October, as Leon Trotsky led the newly created Red Army to overthrow the Provisional Government. Lenin took control and set up a new, Bolshevik, or Communist, led government with Trotsky as his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. A treaty known as the Treaty of Brest Litovsk,with Germany led to a very pro German border. However, the end of the war gave Lenin and Trotsky time to recuperate and deal with internal issues. Civilians in Germany also suffered during the war, and major reason for this was a blockade set up by the United Kingdom. Germany was unable to deal with the British navy head on due to numerical inferiority, so they turned to another weapon, the unterseeboot, or submarine. German subs were one of the most successful weapons in the war, slowing the transport of troops, materiel, and damaging the British civilian economy. However, German submarine warfare didn t break the British economy. That s not to say that German submarine warfare wasn t one of the most successful German weapons. Using both restricted and unrestricted submarine warfare, Germany seriously hurt the United Kingdom s ability to do business during wartime. As soon as the war began, the United Kingdom set up a blockade of German ports in the English Channel and the North Sea. There were only a few instances in which the German and British fleets actually fought each other, mostly resulting in tactical wins for Germany, but none had a long term impact on the British fleet s ability to maintain the blockade. As early as 1914, Germany was considering using unterseeboots, or U boats, also known as submarines, as its main strength on the seas, but civilian officials were reluctant because the use of submarines could hurt other countries international commerce, thus making Germany even more unpopular on the global stage.
However, by 1915, Germany began restricted submarine warfare. This involved stopping ships, making sure all crew members left the boat safely, and then sinking the boat via scuttling charges or gunfire. On February 4th, 1915 however, Germany declared that all waters around the British Isles were a war zone in which any ship might be sunk without warning. In between the dates of February 18th and April 30th in 1915, 39 merchantmen were sunk carrying 105,000 tons of goods. These ships were mostly sunk by scuttling charges or gunfire. In May of 1915, Germany sunk 120,000 tons of shipping. The boats sunk were of British, Allied, and neutral ships. Though successful in damaging British shipping, the United States of America requested that Germany stop in using unrestricted submarine warfare, due to the fact that many Americans were killed in German attacks. Submarine warfare was similarly successful in the Mediterranean Sea. Ultimately, the introduction of convoys saved Allied commerce. Merchantmen travelled in groups often with both air cover, in the shape of dirigibles, and multiple warships to protect them. Other convoys involved merchantmen traveling in a group or with minimal support from warships. All forms of convoys however, led to a significant decrease in losses. The convoys saved the British economy, and submarine warfare was ultimately, a major reason that the United States joined the war on the side on the Allies. Woodrow Wilson was the American president during the war. In the beginning of the war, American feeling was clear and concise, No war. However, by 1917, the United States was leaning more and more towards joining the allies due to both cultural connections to Britain and France, as well as economic connections. In the beginning of the war, it was forbidden to offer loans to either side, however, the allies held assets in the United States that they liquidated. When they finally ran out of money from those assets, the policy of not offering loans was abandoned so that the US export industry could continue. The Allies took on far more loans than the Central Powers and imported far more goods. This is because the British blockade prevented any ships from entering German ports or even neutral ports, if they suspected that the goods would eventually end up in the hands of Germany or their allies. This policy was created by the Union in the Civil War. While the US government in Washington DC complained about this significantly, the British government responded in an extremely conciliatory manner, even paying back the full price of seized goods. The German sinking of American ships angered the US, the most notable being the sinking of the Lusitania, in 1915. This, combined with other factors such as Zimmerman telegram led to the US joining the war. The Zimmerman telegram was a telegram a German official in Berlin sent to the German ambassador in Mexico, stating that Germany would offer subsidies and would support the Mexican annexation of former territories taken by the US if it joined the war. The fear of the US led Germany to undertake several offensives that drained its manpower and led to its ultimate defeat. In the far east, Japan was also a rising power, albeit one that did not take part in the great war. Originally, from the years 1603 to 1867, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Tokugawa Dynasty in Japan was characterized by its strong policy of isolation. Japan would not
interact or do trade with any Westerners, except for the Dutch in a small harbor in Nagasaki. However, this all changed when Commodore Matthew Perry from the United States of America sailed into the Tokyo harbor on July 8th, 1853. Perry came with huge steamers and sailing vessels, and demanded that Japan sign a treaty permitting trade and interaction with the United States. At first, Japan wanted to resist, however, seeing the power of the United States, Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, opening trade with the United States. Japan then entered into the Meiji restoration period in 1868, beginning to industrialize its nation. Soon, Japan became a fully industrialized nation and imperialized Korea and parts of China. However, the most incredible part of the Meiji Dynasty, was that Japan defeated Russia in the Russo Japanese from 1904 1905. Finally, Japan became a nation that even the West feared. In World War 1, Japan helped the Allied powers by fighting off the German navy. However, it used this opportunity to expand its influence in China. The nation of Bulgaria joined the war on October 14th, 1915. A member of the Central Powers, Bulgaria supported Austria Hungary and declared war on Serbia. Dealing with the terrible aftermath of the Balkan wars, Bulgaria was in disarray. However, the location of Bulgaria in Europe made it a very valuable ally for both the Allied powers and the Central powers. Then, seeing that the Central powers could fulfill more of Bulgaria s demands, it joined them in September 1915. Bulgaria was a great aid to the Central powers, it helped take down Serbia and Romania, and was a way of transport for German soldiers going to the Ottoman Empire. However, in 1919, Bulgaria lost the war and signed the Treaty of Neuilly. The Ottoman Empire had existed since 1300 AD, but by 1914, they were a long declining power, called the sick man of Europe, by other more industrialized nations. The Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire competed around the Black Sea and in the Balkans as early as 1770, but in the 1850s, the Ottomans allied themselves with France and The United Kingdom to defeat Russia in the Crimean War. In the 1820s, Greek nationals rose up and, with the support of some European governments, including Russia, they succeeded in throwing off Ottoman rule. Throughout the 19th century, the Ottomans lost the control of the Balkans to various uprising groups including the Bulgars and the Serbs. The Ottomans did not side with the Central Powers until about three months after the war began, and it not entirely clear why the nation joined the war, seeing as they were not allied with Germany or Austria Hungary. However, the Ottoman Empire joining the Central Powers was a counter to Italy joining the Allied Powers. The Kingdom of Greece had for a long time been rivaled with the Ottoman Empire and the new Bulgarian State. However, in 1914, the King of Greece, Constantine, was sympathetic to the position of the Central Powers because his wife was Prussian. In 1918, however, the prime minister of Greece, Eleutherios Venizelos, overthrew Constantine and joined the war on the Entente (Allied) side. In 1919, Greece signed the Treaty of Neuilly and took land from Bulgaria.
The Kingdom of Italy was also a new state in 1919. While the Italian nationalist movement had existed for a long time, and had considerable weight behind it as early as 1849, Italy was not formulated as a united kingdom with Rome as its capital until 1871. In 1882, Italy created the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria Hungary. And in 1912, Italy renewed that treaty, but in 1914, when Austria declared war, Italy opted for a policy of neutrality. However, in 1915, Italy found it more favorable to themselves to join the Allied Powers, so it declared war on Austria Hungary. Bloc Positions There are three blocs in this committee, the Triple Entente, also known as the Allies. This includes France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Serbia, Greece, and Italy. The Central Powers include Germany, the Austro Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. The last bloc is the Stateless People. This bloc includes the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Czechs and Slovaks. Finally, Soviet Russia and Japan stand alone, with no natural allies. The first bloc is the Triple Entente, also called the Allies. The Triple Entente includes France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Serbia, and Greece. They have the upper hand and are interested in pressing that advantage in order to gain land, money, and power while they have the chance. The Entente also wants to punish the members of the Central Powers, primarily Germany for, according to them, starting such a bloody war. Each individual country has their own specific goals within that overarching structure. The next bloc is the Central Powers. The Central Powers are trying to limit their losses at this point. After the initial agreements, however, the members of the central powers, including Germany, Austria Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire may try to rebuild their domains and foster their own nationalistic hopes. Although the war has not officially ended at the beginning of committee, the Entente has a significant advantage in manpower, money, and material, as well as ability to produce more material, making continuing the war not an option. The third bloc is the Stateless Peoples. The Stateless Peoples are unique in that they can overlap with the Allies, the Central Powers, or Soviet Russia in their goals. The Poles, the Czechs Slovaks, and the Ukrainian peoples are all stateless peoples hoping to carve out a home for themselves. These peoples are also hoping to reunite with lost populations. Larger nations should be wary of these groups, and others in the Balkans and the Baltic region, as popular revolts can cause great havoc, and potentially tear Europe apart all over again. The individual
groups in the Stateless Peoples bloc also are a great opportunity for either the Allies of the Central Powers to switch which side has the majority in committee. Lastly, there are Soviet Russia and Japan. Soviet Russia and Japan are alone at the beginning of committee session due to ideological differences, but could easily swing to any of the other blocs with the right push, or pull. Either of these two nations could form a bloc with the Allies, the Central Powers, or the Stateless Peoples if the share common ideas. Although the Allies most certainly have the advantage going into committee session, they could crumble as soon as they are all called for attendance, and the same goes for another bloc that seizes power. Post Great War Europe is still falling apart and no one can afford to be lax. Committee Mission The United Nations strives to create and maintain international peace and security, to develop amiable relationships among nations, and to promote international cooperation. With these in mind, this committee s purpose is to come to a solution to each major issue facing the finale to the First World War Delegates should maintain the objective of both short term and long term peace, as well as their own country s particular interests and positions during committee sessions. Although knowledge of how events unraveled after the war should be in consideration as they might not have been in the best interest of some countries, it should be avoided during debate due to its untimely nature.
Works Cited "Czechoslovakia Historical Nation, Europe." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 03 Aug. 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/place/czechoslovakia>. "The Ottoman Empire." The Arab Revolt, 1916 18. New Zealand History, n.d. Web. 03 Aug. 2015. <http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/ottoman empire/arab revolt>. "Polish History Chronological History of Poland." Polish History Chronological History of Poland. Stay Poland, n.d. Web. 03 Aug. 2015. <http://www.staypoland.com/poland history.htm>. "Ukraine." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 03 Aug. 2015. <http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/ukraine history.html>. Willmott, H. P. World War I. New York: DK Pub., 2003. Print.
Dias Biographies: Chair Nicholas Howell: Hello, my name is Nicholas Howell, and I m going to be your chairperson for the Post WWI Historical Crisis Committee. I am one of two treasurers on the Brooklyn Tech Model UN team, and I am a second year member of the team. I have been to several major conferences, but this is my first time chairing a committee. I hope that together we can create a fun productive committee and I look forward to meeting you all in person. Director Alek Gozman: My name is Alek Gozman and I will be the Director for this committee. Model United Nations is my favorite club and I love going to conferences. Last year was my first year and I won two Best Delegation awards (one at SciMUN and one at CWMUN), and one Honorable mention (at GCIMUN). In the future, I hope to work as a politician. This year will be my first year as a member of the Dias and I hope together, my Chair and I make this conference extremely enjoyable for you.