TED ANTALYA MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2017 THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE CHAIR REPORT LETTER OF THE SECRETARIAT DISTINGUISHED PARTICIPANTS, ESTEEMED MUN DIRECTORS, It is our utmost honor and pleasure to genially invite you to participate in the second TED Antalya Model United Nations Conference which will take place from 27 to 30 April 2017, in Antalya, Turkey. As many of you know, TAMUN'16 was a great success for which we worked very hard and we intend to make TAMUN'17 even better. With participants from all over Turkey, we expect to provide you with more in depth debates, more culturally diverse discussions and an even deeper sense of satisfaction on the outcome. We invite you to enjoy Antalya's hospitality, our conference venue and our school campus along with the energy and motivation of our TAMUN'17 Executive Board. We are eager to make the conference a huge success. Our main aim is to raise awareness among high school students on the tough problems the world faces today and to use diplomacy to shape the solutions. The MUN experience will provide the basis for our Future Leaders, something we as TAMUN want to be a part of. The TAMUN'16’s theme was “The consensus for the new generation”, TAMUN'17’s theme will be “Designing our Future”. Foreseeing where we are headed and the (irreversible) damage we are causing, it is time to take precautions now! We will have five General Assembly committees, an ECOSOC committee, a Historical Committee, and a Security Council. Please bear in mind that only experienced delegates should attend the Historical Committee and the Security Council, since their formats are very different from General Assembly committees and students should be very familiar with the procedures of GA committees first. We have worked hard to present TAMUN’17’s participants a productive and satisfying conference experience which you will never forget. We are looking forward to seeing you there. May we never forget that the strength we need to make any change comes with unity, thus, it’s time for us to DEDICATE OURSELVES TO BEING UNITED. Mete Erdoğan Tayga Eraybar Taylan Adem Ulusoy Secretary General Secretary General President of the General Assembly Mehmet Durmaz Can Araz Deputy Secretary-General Deputy Secretary-General 2 THE BERLIN CONFERENCE OF 1884 CHAIRS: ZEYNEP EMEL TURGAY, ATA SEREN, EFE YURET INTRODUCTION Europeans viewed the African continent for a long time with awe, curiosity and greed. Enriched with strategic resources and unwoven beauties, Africa has always been in the center of imperialism. During 15th and 16th century many European countries set sail to new continents and oceans. 1450 was the year when Portuguese Navy sailed and found the coasts of Africa. This success encouraged other imperialist countries in Europe and by the mid 19th century Europeans had established colonies all along the African coast. The Berlin Conference of 1884–85, also known as the Congo Conference or West Africa Conference regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power, and called for by Portugal and organized by Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of Germany. Its outcome, the “General Act of the Berlin Conference”, can be seen as the formalization of the Scramble for Africa during the New Imperialism period. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance. To have knowledge on the issue of Berlin Conference in 1884, we should know the reasons of gathering of 14 European countries. The key word of the reason behind the Berlin Conference is "power". At the late 1700s we saw a quick uprising in industrial production, which we knew as Industrial Revolution. Even though the Revolution yields a fast process of production; if you don't have the enough raw materials, the process will be stop. At the beginning of the 19th century Europeans tackled with this problem. In order to continue the production, they needed to find new places to get the raw materials. Fighting with another European country didn't make sense since they were as strong as them. Therefore, what the Europeans did was going to Asia and Africa to exploit the land. Africa was the one of the preference of the Europeans because there were lots of goodies. In 1867 diamonds and in 1886 gold was discovered in the meanings of excessive amounts. In addition to that cupper, rubber, cocoa beans and some expensive resources in South Africa has made Africa to be popular to provide raw material. The other main reason to occupy the Africa was cheap labour. This continent was so unknown that neither Europeans knew them nor Africans knew about the economical systems. This is why Africa was known as "Dark Continent". Since they didn't know the Europe's system, they wouldn't know how much money should they get or how the suitable conditions occur. Therefore, Europeans used unknowledgeable people to ensure the cheapest way to produce. The tension between the countries was high enough that the civilians thought that it would be turned out a war, so every nation in the West was needed to Africa. 14 countries that were called themselves as culturally superior came together to divide the continent according to the natural resources zone. The countries represented at the time included Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway 3 (unified from 1814-1905), the Ottoman Empire, and the United States of America. Of these fourteen nations, France, Germany, Great Britain and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time. Also, we should point out that none of the African leaders were invited to the conference. THE HISTORY OF AFRICA COLONIZATION The Portuguese in Africa In the late 15th and 16th century Portuguese had remarkable maritime achievements by bringing European spotlight onto the Africa beyond its Mediterranean coastline. In the aim of entering Indian Ocean the Portuguese sailors investigated African Western coastline so that they could find a way to round the Continent and plug themselves into the Space Trade and thus not trespassing the Ottoman and Arab strangleholds on this immensely lucrative trade. Bartholomew Diaz was the person who first managed to round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, however he couldn’t manage to see Indian Ocean. Diaz’s fellow countryman Vasco de Gama made the first voyage all the way to the Spice Islands from Europe and return by the same route after a decade later than Diaz’s voyage. This voyage created a shock in Europe and everyone was talking about, but Portuguese didn’t to share their route, naturally. They were also very defensive about the routes and method, which they were able to reach Spice Islands. Series of forts have been built along the route and jealously guarded the maps and charts. Those forts were the first serious European presence on the Continent, but even these tended to hug the coastline and they were resupply bases for ships on the journey to and from Asia. In 1494, Portugal entered into an agreement, Treaty of Tordesilhas, with Spain in attempt to clearly ensure each other’s spheres of influence. The Spanish tend to control the route to America and Portuguese to control the route to Africa. The Americas were land to be worked but there was not much labor at all. Thus slaves to act as manpower catch Europeans eyes’. Early in 1494 the Portuguese had signed agreements with West African leaders to trade slaves rather than seize assets. Interest in slave trade made Portuguese act more active in supporting and supplanting African and Arab kingdoms that might help or hinder their acquisition of suitable manpower. Portuguese supported and influenced with Angola, Guinea and Mozambique to supply slaves, the milestone to the Atlantic Slave Trade. Throughout those years Portuguese managed to hold off British from slavery and become a monopoly. Incursion of the Dutch Due to various dynastic and political marriages, Netherlands has been a part of Spanish Empire for many years. By the end of 16th century, large numbers of Protestant Dutch began a rebellion towards Spain to form a young and dynamic power on Europe. The Dutch East India Company was created in 1602 in the aim of breaking the Portuguese monopoly. The Dutch slowly but surely sabotaged the Portuguese monopoly by establishing new trading routes. Each successful journey increased the profit of the company resulting better ships and armament. 4 Established by Jan van Riebeeck in 1612 as a resupply base, the Dutch foothold was to become Cape of Good Hope. The Dutch then attacked and undermined Portuguese forts in West Africa and across the Atlantic in Brazil in a sustained campaign that went on for decades. At the year 1637 Dutch attack and take the largest Portuguese Fort in Western Africa at Elmina. The Dutch took over many of the trading relationships already established by the Portuguese. The Dutch had effectively cleared the Portuguese out of the Gold Coast and took over much of the lucrative slave trade. However, the Dutch efforts made fellow Europeans attempt to join in with the trade, Swedish, Danish, English, French and even Brandenburg forts were established in the area to facilitate trade during the Sixteenth and in to the Seventeenth Centuries. In order to formalise English interest in West Africa King James I gave a Royal Charter to The Company of Adventurers of London (Guinea Company). Between 1618 and 1621 the company sent three voyages to the Gambia in order to trade gold but they found very few.