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Background Guide Sample Template UMMUN 2007 Background Guide British & German War Cabinets UMMUN 2007 UMMUN 2007 Dear Delegates, Welcome to the British and German War Cabinets! We are looking forward to working with you all at UMMUN 2007. Last year, UMMUN included a British War Cabinet. The committee was such a success that we have expanded it into a joint crisis with a German War Cabinet. The cabinets will be responding to one another’s decisions over the course of the conference. The goal of this joint committee is to simulate the political situation of World War Two. We will stick to historical facts prior to our starting point in the spring of 1940, but after that point, you, the delegates, will have the opportunity to rewrite history. Do not assume that certain events will take place in the future – your decisions in committee rather than the facts you have learned in history textbooks will dictate the course of World War Two. There are three directors for BGWC this year at UMMUN. Stephanie Fitton is a sophomore planning to apply to the School of Architecture here at the University of Michigan. Stephanie worked on the British War Cabinet last year at UMMUN and is looking forward to its expansion into a joint committee. Dan Jenkins is a junior majoring in history. He directed the UMMUN’s Security Council last year and hopes to apply his knowledge of history to this more historically-based committee. Dana Chidiac is a junior majoring in English. Last year at UMMUN, she worked with Stephanie on the British War Cabinet and she hopes to explore the issues of World War Two through the perspective of the German Cabinet. Please use this background guide as a starting point for your research. We look forward to meeting you in January! UMMUN 2007 Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... Page Committee Background........................................................................................ 1 Mission Statement................................................................................................ 1 Topic Overview..................................................................................................... 1 Overview of the War.................................................................................. 1 History of the Cabinets .............................................................................. 2 Cabinet Members ...................................................................................... 2 Committee Rules.................................................................................................. 8 References......................................................................................................... 11 UMMUN 2007 1 Topic overview The committee begins in the spring of 1940 with the world at war. On May 10th, Winston Churchill was sworn in as British Prime Minister to replace Neville Chamberlain. Holland has fallen to the Nazis, and the German effort to conquer France is intensifying. The goals of the committees include management of the war but also diplomacy. The United States has officially declared neutrality, Italy has made a pact with Germany but has not declared war, and the Soviets have their own Non-Aggression Pact with the Germans. For the British, diplomacy is necessary to get foreign aid for the war effort and to prevent Germany from gaining other allies, but the diplomacy currently in use does not appear to be working. For the Germans, the cabinet must balance expansionary policy with the politics of self-preservation: how to expand without creating too many adversaries to handle at once. Overview of the War While the origins and causes of this war are many, the commencement of hostile actions by Germany can be traced to the order to reoccupy the Rhineland on March 7th, 1936. From this point until now, Germany under the leadership of Chancellor Adolf Hitler will continue attempting to unify Europe under the banner of the Third Reich. Outside of Europe, troops from Italy seized Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on May 5th, 1936. Benito Mussolini declares the war in Ethiopia over. Also in 1936, Japan signs the Anti- Cominterm Pact, officially declaring their place beside Germany and Italy. In 1938, Hitler focused his attention on his homeland of Austria. Hitler installed a puppet government in Austria and proceeded to send in troops on March 12th, 1938. Later in that same year, a meeting of the 4 big European powers (Germany, Italy, France, Britain) agreed to the turn-over of the Sudetenland to Germany. Less than 6 months later, German troops took control over the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler had conquered two nations in a year without firing a single shot. At this point, other European nations figured out that Hitler was not going to stop at Czechoslovakia and the British and French began forming alliances with the other European nations yet to fall under German or Italian control. On August 30th, 1939, Poland mobilized its armies in preparation for a German attack. A week earlier, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty so any foray into Poland would not start a conflict with the Soviets. On September 1st, 1939, Germany began its invasion of Poland. On the 17th, Soviet troops moved in to claim the eastern half of Poland. By the 27th, the last of the Polish troops surrendered. After the fall of Poland, both the Germans and British wrestled for the alliance of Norway and Sweden. Neither country wanted to do anything to sway favor to the opposing side, so no major military engagements were fought over these nations. Denmark fell in one day (April 9th, 1940) without an army to defend its borders. Eventually, Germany moved against Norway and the Allies (Britain and France) attempted to resist the Germans, but after Germany took Belgium and the Netherlands, the Allies decided to pull out their troops. The now defenseless Norway agreed to an armistice with Germany and the Germans placed 300,000 men in Norway to secure the north. UMMUN 2007 2 On May 10th, 1940, Germany launched a massive assault on the low-lying regions of Belgium and the Netherlands. On that same day, Winston Churchill became the prime minister and defense minister of Great Britain. Brussels became the fifth capital conquered by Germany in 9 months and the port city of Antwerp fell on May 18th. The invasion of France also began on May 10th with the Germans sidestepping the Maginot Line. The Allies offer some resistance in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, but the Allies have their backs against the wall with the superior numbers and tactics of the Germans bearing down upon them. History of the Cabinets German War Cabinet Hitler’s cabinet in the Third Reich underwent numerous changes from Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933 through 1940. The cabinet started out with 11 members including the Chancellor himself in January 1933. By March of that year, Joseph Goebbels had been appointed to the new position of Minister of Propaganda. New ministries were added in the years preceding the outbreak of the war I 1939, including the ministries of Aviation, Science and Education, Forestry, Ecclesiastical Affairs, and finally, in March 1940, the ministry of Armament and Ammunition. In addition to these new ministries, several new ministers without portfolio were added to the cabinet so that by 1940 Hitler’s cabinet included 24 ministers, five of them ministers without portfolio. Hitler used all of his cabinet members as advisers – and especially supporters – on the war and in capacities not necessarily related to their official positions. British War Cabinet When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, he retained his predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, in the British cabinet position of Lord President of the Council. The war cabinet was not hugely powerful in the less action-packed first eight months of the war, which was called the “Phony War” under Chamberlain’s premiership. A British expedition to Norway to counter a German invasion there in 1940 made it clear that the Prime Minister and his cabinet would need to be more active in the war. After this mission, members of the government saw that Chamberlain had proved to be a weak war leader and called for his resignation. After Chamberlain resigned and Churchill assumed the premiership, the British war cabinet became a more powerful force in the war. Cabinet Members BRITISH WAR CABINET – SPRING 1940 Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Minister for Aircraft Production Aitken was a British-Canadian businessman, financier, and politician who moved to London from Canada to establish a lucrative and powerful newspaper business at the turn UMMUN 2007 3 of the century. He offered his considerable services to the Canadian government at the outbreak of the Great War and eventually established the Canadian War Records Office in London. After the war he continued the expansion of his newspaper empire, becoming the first “baron of Fleet Street,” and he was appointed Minister of Information for the British government in 1918. In 1940 Churchill appointed him the Minister of Aircraft Production and eventually the Minister of Supply. John Anderson, Lord President of the Council Anderson (1882-1958) was a Scottish statesman who began his career with the British civil service in 1905 in the Colonial Office. He also served in Ireland and the Home Office, and was eventually appointed as Governor of Bengal in 1932. In 1938 he was elected to the House of Commons as a National MP, or a non-party
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