UNE bAGUETTE SANS PAIN: THE FRENCH DIRECTORY, 1799
Topic Summary
It is 1799, and the Directory, the newly formed government of France under the constitution proposed by the National Convention, grapples with the aftermath of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. France is a nation on the brink, as inflation spirals out of control, people face starvation, and monarchies across Europe threaten to invade the fledgling republic. The Directory, however, struggles to manage the crisis. With the fast approaching return of Napoleon Bonaparte from his successful campaign in Egypt and the growing power of the monarchist faction, the future of the Directory hinges on the decisions made by this committee. Will the Directory change the course of history and regain the favor of the French people while combatting internal and external enemies? The challenge of balancing democracy and stability in the face of adversity will forever shape the destiny of France and its future in the world.
Director’s Letter
Dear Delegates,
Welcome to The French Directory, 1799 at HMUN 2024!
My name is Alice Yang and I look forward to serving as your Crisis Director over a fun and chaos-packed weekend. I am a sophomore at Harvard College, currently studying Economics with a secondary in History. I grew up in Edmonton, a city in Canada known as the northernmost city with a population of over 1 million in North America! I began competing in MUN in high school and was immediately hooked. Since then, I participated in my high school MUN team, eventually becoming captain, and continued competing in MUN on the college circuit, traveling with ICMUN(Harvard’s competitive MUN team). I am so excited to meet new friends and meet up with old friends on the circuit. I was also an assistant director of UNSC HMUN and HNMUN 2023 and am excited to be back in helping run committees!
As the title—Une Baguette Sans Pain—suggests, there is no bread, among many other issues that exist in France at this time. This is a committee for those familiar and unfamiliar with this topic and only requires you to bring your adaptability, creativity, and energy. The historical committee should not follow what has happened already in history, but rather will challenge you to solve the problems that the original Directory of France could not solve. These obstacles will include the spiraling inflation, growing discontent with the republic government, threats with other countries, and even the rise of a certain military general.
This is a committee in which you will have the power to change the course of history itself. Whether you use your powers for good, evil, or neither, I expect creative, and possibly chaotic solutions! I look forward to meeting you and seeing what you come up with!
Sincerely,
Alice Yang
Director of Une Baguette Sans Pain: The French Directory, 1799
Harvard National Model United Nations 2024
Crisis Director’s Letter
Dear Delegates,
My name is Oscar Berry, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the committee of the French Directory, 1799.
I am a senior at Harvard College studying History and International Relations with a focus on military history. I currently reside at Eliot House on campus, but am from Boston Massachusetts and have grown up there my entire life. My first introduction to Model UN was in the 6th grade at the age of 12, where I began competing in regional conferences around my hometown, and I’ve been involved in MUN in the United States and around the world ever since. Throughout high school, I helped to run and manage our competitive team as well as began to get involved in staffing and running conferences of our own. At Harvard, I’ve served in many roles including Head Delegate of our traveling MUN team, in Director and Crisis Director roles at our Boston high school and college conferences, as well as in the corporate leadership of our International Relations Council. Internationally, I’ve been privileged to be a director for HMUN India for two years and last year in 2022 served as Secretary General of the conference. Apart from revolving my entire life around Model United Nations, I’m also a huge fan of tennis, old comedy movies, standup, and map making.
On to the specific committee, I am very pleased to be staffing my second committee with the delightful Alice Yang, and excited to bring the world of Paris at the turn of the 19th century to life. This venture we are embarking on will be intricate, dynamic, and historic, and of course no doubt a source of great entertainment for us all.
France in 1799 is a state in crisis, and the Directory, the head of the Republican regime since the fall of Robespierre, is a regime in crisis even more so. After the outburst of hope and passion in the Revolution, France has had to slog its war through war, civil war, counter revolution, and chaos, and still has yet to build the institutional stability to maintain and exercise power. While monarchist and reactionary factions have been put down in the Vendee, Provence, and in Paris, the regime struggles to fulfill the promises of the Revolution as discontent continues to rise amongst the population. At the same time, France remains embroiled in a continental war against the leading European powers of the age, and as these wars drag on, ambitious Generals at the front become a looming threat to the Directory and to Republican democracy. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the committee will have to fight to survive and make true on the ideals of liberté, egalité, and fraternité.
We hope that this committee will challenge delegate’s to bring the very best of their Model UN and negotiation skills to the fore. I am committed to making this committee as dynamic and meaningful experience as possible to all involved while maintain the good-fun nature of college Model UN as a basis for the committee. We will ask a lot of delegates during this conference. To approach the history of early Republican Paris with a critical eye; to represent their character’s to the utmost; and to act with the perspective of figures that would have inhabited this time. All of these acts are critical to the success of the project, and to the greater learning to be had by all delegates involved.
The fate of the French Republic, quite literally, is in your hands. I look forward to seeing what this committee shall do with it.
Oscar Berry
Crisis Director