after the event

Poland wins the Poll

Cara Peacock 14/11/02

With 6 out of 6 motions passed, (4 of which were 6/0/0 passed) we can say that Poland gained the most from INTST’s reinactment of the Treaty of Versailles. So congratulations to Poland for their overall triumph.

            With these motions passed, how different would Poland be? I think we can safely say very! Not only did they make themselves independent, but made themselves a democracy, built themselves a new economy with money from Germany, changed borders back to the way they were before the Napoleonic war, they gained land from upper Silesia and now have the port of Danzig, the outcome being a much stronger Poland. How did this happen? Poland was a lesser power at this conference, but together with Serbia, and Italy they made up 50% of the vote, meaning at the conference the bigger powers and the lesser powers were equal.

            On the other hand the country I think lost the most was Italy, because they only passed two motions, neither of which were unanimous votes. It seemed that the conference started well for them, their first two motions passing easily, but after that their motions failed, and one was even rejected for being too vague. It was an unexpected turn as they had issued some interesting aims that they neglected to mention on the day.

            So in ascending order, working on the basis of motions passed, and to what level they passed we have:

5^th Place – Italy (2 passed, none unanimous)

4^th Place – Britain and the USA drew (2 passed, 1 unanimous)

3^rd Place – Serbia (4 passed, 1 unanimous)

2^nd Place – France (6 passed, 1 unanimous)

1^st Place – Poland  (6passed, 4 unanimous)

            Relations between the countries on the day were very interesting, and as the day drew on the tension increased. The most disliked country was the USA, as many countries believed that they had nothing to do with European affairs. However the USA did set up the League of Nations, which would undoubtedly change international relations in the future, so their presence on the day was not worthless. The USA’s reluctance to support motions of other countries causes a great deal of dispute and anger on the day, and could even account for lack of support for her own motions.

          The best story line of the day was the feud between Great Britain and France. Even before the day there was news of rivalry and deception, and this didn’t stop on the day itself. Raised voices and furtive looks continued through out the day, which possibly changed the final scores by the end of the conference. Each country was actively opposing the other, and openly admitted that they were trying to foil the others motions.