Joint Crisis Cabinet: Indian Rebellion of 1857 – British Cabinet
Joint Crisis Cabinet: Indian Rebellion of 1857 – British Cabinet
Dear Delegates,
My name is Peter Bacon and I will be crisis directing the Joint Crisis Cabinet Committee on the Indian Mutiny of 1857 for the British Cabinet. I look forward to meeting you this coming February and I am very excited about working with you to make this an incredible experience. I strongly believe that this cabinet will be an exciting and informative opportunity to engage with an oft-overlooked time in history.
I chose this topic and, specifically, the experience of the British Empire when grappling with the Indian Rebellion due to the exciting historical challenges posed by this incredibly pivotal moment in international history. The British Cabinet will focus on a number of different issues, ranging from pacifying the Mutiny to the changing domestic socio-political situation in Britain in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, to the ever-present threat of international power politics. This historical moment helped to determine much of the British Empire, and the entire West’s, future up until the 21st century: in due course, any potential counterfactual historical scenario engaged by the delegates could offer some insight into some fascinating “what if” scenarios for how the world could have emerged.
I would also like to introduce myself on a more personal level. I am from Baltimore, Maryland, yet have been fascinated by British imperial history for as long as I can remember. After finishing high school in Baltimore, I spent the past two years at Harvard, yet I also took a summer to study at Cambridge University. The time in Cambridge was incredible and offered the opportunity to engage with British history and culture directly.
Besides history, I enjoy debating politics, music, and computer games. Debate, karaoke, and computer games will thus be incorporated in the committee (you will be required, as part of the British cabinet, to sing “Rule Britannia” at some point during the conference). Please do not hesitate to talk with me about any of these topics and any ways these can be incorporated into the committee (and I assure you, we will find a way!).
At Harvard, I am a second-year history concentrator, with a specific interest in international imperial history. Outside of the Model UN Conferences, I remain heavily involved in Harvard’s International Relations Council (the umbrella organization of HNMUN). I am currently a delegate in Harvard’s Intercollegiate Model UN team, which competes at a number of conferences across the United States and Canada each year. I also am a member of Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, where I have chaired the Harvard Political Union, the campus political debate forum. Finally, I am currently working as a video game design consultant on a computer game dealing with World War II. If you want to speak with me about any issues whatsoever (about the conference, the topic, or even yourself), I urge you to contact me. I look forward to seeing you all in February!
Best,
Peter Bacon
Crisis Director, Joint Cabinet Crisis: Indian Rebellion of 1857 – British Cabinet
Harvard National Model United Nations 2010
Topic Area: Maintaining the British Empire
The British Empire in 1857 sits astride the globe as the unparalleled hegemon. The British have been seen as the guarantor of the geopolitical situation within Europe and the whole world: recently, the British gained a major victory in the Crimean War as they created an unholy alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Piedmont-Sardinia, and Britain to defeat Russia’s expansionist tendencies. Furthermore, in other areas of the world, from Africa to Australia to North America, the myriad colonies of the empire form the majestic crown of Her Majesty Queen Victoria.
The crowning jewel of Victoria’s empire is India, yet in recent months unrest has upset the control over the territory exercised by the British East India Company. Indian soldiers of the Company, in addition to the numerous monarchs and princes of the subcontinent, have rebelled and threaten to uproot British control over the region.
In due course, the British cabinet will need to grapple with this crisis that threatens one of the key areas of the British Empire and reassert control over India. Will the Cabinet brutally crush the revolt, or can negotiations prevent a bloody conflict that could decimate the subcontinent? In addition to this threat, the British cabinet will have to face the challenges of European power politics: the Russians and, to a lesser extent, the French remain a direct threat to British ambitions in Asia. In Europe, the shifting alliances and nationalist movements have set up numerous regions such as Italy and the Balkans as tinderboxes for potential conflict. How will the Cabinet also deal with the socio-economic changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution on Britain and its other colonies? The British Cabinet will, during the course of this committee, face these challenges and more in order to ensure that the Sun never will set on the Majesty of the British Empire!