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Dear Delegates,
My name is Julia Solomon-Strauss and I will be chairing this year’s continual crisis committee, the Berlin Conference of 1884-85. The Berlin Conference, also known as the Scramble for Africa, was incredibly formative in the future of European and global relations and I’m so excited to have the opportunity to step back in time and give it another chance. This combination of history and global politics has great opportunities for an unparalleled level of discussion and discovery, since the conference represents a transformative moment in the history of international affairs and the future of the world stage.
As for me, I’m a sophomore at Harvard College, studying in our interdisciplinary social sciences concentration, Social Studies. I’ve lived my whole life before college in Chicago, and I’ve been doing Model UN since my freshman year in high school. At Harvard I’m still quite involved in Model UN, staffing our high school and college conferences and traveling on our competitive team. Outside of my academic and extracurricular commitments, I like playing and listening to music, reading vociferously (both fiction and non-fiction), and all things chocolate.
My interest in this committee in part stems from my ardor for European history but also crucially the geopolitics of the continents of Europe and Africa then and now. This committee will give us all a chance to reflect on the causes of issues in international politics today by putting ourselves in the position of the great European diplomats of the late 19th century. The immediate historical aftermath and continuing strains on Africa today affirm how crucial this conference was to the world today, and how much we can learn from recreating (and dare I say reforming?) one of the most fraught times in international politics for understanding today’s world. I can’t wait to meet you and get to know you all at WorldMUN XXI!
Sincerely,
Julia Solomon-Strauss
Chair, Continual Crisis Committee
World Model United Nations 2012
cc@worldmun.org
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In the dusk of the 19th century, the world was in a state of transition. As some European empires gained in strength and others found themselves on a persistent decline, their actions in response to their geopolitical dynamics have shaped the experiences of the continent of Africa until the present day. At the time, the conference opened the floodgates of colonization: in the span of a couple of decades, only two countries remained uncolonized in the entirety of Africa.
Known as the “Scramble for Africa,” the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 represents a pivotal point in international relations and the beginning of a new era of dominance by certain powers and the use of diplomacy to carve out portions of foreign lands, or “spheres of influence,” where that phrase originated. The European continent became captivated by the possibility and reality of more territory and resources in Africa. Diplomatic tensions were so stoked by the prospect of power granted by conquests that a conference was arranged to make the pursuit of land as peaceful as possible—between the European powers, at least—demonstrating the persistent arrogance of the time and their patterns of imperial strength.
Europe was bound together by their self-supported supremacy, and yet imperial competition distinctly tore Europe apart in important ways. From competition from other powers (despite diplomatic agreements) to the role of imperial entrepreneurs, not necessarily tied by patriotism to any country and bent on making a fortune, and the potential of resistance by indigenous powers with the difficulties of governing from afar, colonization was a struggle.
The Berlin Conference was not only critical at the time but remains critical today; representatives from European nations will find themselves challenged by each other and by the dynamics of world history, with an unprecedented opportunity to consider imperial Europe’s role in the future of Africa, and the consequences for the new world order.