There should be no problem designing a flag for the conquered Philippines, he opined in drawing his biting essay to a close: “we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.”. All this for politics—is civilization advancing?” Victor Gillam, Judge, February 3, 1900. Source: Wikimedia. It was founded in 1871 as a German-language publication by Joseph Keppler, an Austrian-born cartoonist. The imperialist rhetoric of “civilization” versus “barbarism” that took root during these years was reinforced in both the United States and England by a small flood of political cartoons—commonly executed in full color and with meticulous attention to detail. Despite several victories in the battle for Tianjin, chaotic Chinese forces melted away before the Allied advance. Its colonies were acquired through purchase, agreements with other world powers, and economic domination. The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons (San Francisco: TBoli Pub. Britain’s John Bull leads Uncle Sam uphill as the two imperialists take up the “White Man’s Burden” in this detail from an overtly racist 1899 cartoon referencing Kipling’s poem. In this French cartoon from a special issue titled, “La Guerre” (War), a missionary and a Red Cross representative lament the violent and un-Christian behavior of Westerners overseas. French Satirical Drawings from “LʼAssiette au Beurre” (New York: Dover Publications, 1978). The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, CGACGA, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University, CGACGA, The Ohio State University, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, William H. Walker Cartoon Collection, Princeton University Library, The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library. In May 1900, for example, artist William Bengough scathingly debunked a speech by President McKinley—once again justifying the U.S. actions in taking of the Philippines by force—by depicting him as a parson standing on the face of a dead Filipino. Civilization and barbarism were vividly portrayed in the visual record. Looming just ahead for the two Anglo nations were turbulence and intervention in such widely dispersed places as Samoa, China, and Africa. Boxers practiced spirit-possession rituals, often meeting in Buddhist temples, and attacked Christian missionaries and Chinese converts. Along with his burden of steel, trains, sewing machines, and other industrial goods, Uncle Sam carries a book titled “Education, Religion” in a nod to the rhetoric of moral uplift that accompanied the commercial goals of the civilizing mission. Appelbaum, Stanley. Britannia—Daughter! It wasn’t like anything I’d seen, and it wasn’t like anything I realized could have been accomplished then. The Stranger: How long have you been civilized? But by the 1890s, emerging industrial powerhouses like the U.S. and Germany reduced Britain’s industrial dominance. On the contrary, they reflected intense debates about “civilization,” “progress,” and “the white man’s burden” that took place on both sides of the Atlantic. In this 1898 cartoon, Britannia (Great Britain) welcomes Columbia (the United States) as an estranged daughter and new imperialist partner. However, the new student are shown as displeased or unhappy with their new authority figure (the U.S). What did the public back home know about the fighting of these far-off wars? The Boxers, China, and the World (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). Mott, Frank Luther. SET C : Cartoon 2 Life, … Leonhard, Robert R. The China Relief Expedition: Joint Coalition Warfare in China,Summer 1900 (Laurel, MD: Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University). I know that Puck was more influenced by European political cartoonists than previous American cartoonists, and that some of the best, most famous cartoonists in American history produced for Puck. In all likelihood, it was an internal malfunction, but many Americans blamed the Spanish and rallied behind the slogan “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain.” The United States declared war on Spain on April 20, and the fury kindled by the sinking of the Maine was appeased by a great U.S. naval victory on the other side of the world two and a half months later. And the third was the anti-foreign Boxer Uprising in China in 1899–1901, which led to military intervention by no less than eight foreign nations including not only Tsarist Russia and the Western powers, but also Japan. It is much more than the black and white sketches we see today in The New Yorker (not to delegitimize those gems). Vol. Asking only the open door for ourselves, we are ready to accord the open door to others. Presence of a German fleet lent evidence to one of the justifications the U.S. gave for war with Spain, that is, to protect the Philippines from takeover by a rival major power. Although usually associated with the pro-expansionist proponents of “civilization” and “progress,” Puck on occasion turned a discerning eye on the double standards of America’s so-called noble mission in the Philippines and China. As the U.S. moved into the Pacific, “China’s millions” represented an enticing new market, but the eruption of the anti-Christian, anti-foreign Boxer movement threatened the civilizing mission there. ( Log Out / Source: Library of Congress. Heine provided Simplicissimus with what has become a justly famous image: an armed knight, representing the West, pours a torrent of blood over Asia, while his sword drips blood on Africa. “Der Traum der Kaiserin von China” (The Dream of the Empress of China), Simplicissimus, July 3, 1900. It was just much more successful than the last few. The satirical weekly, Simplicissimus, flourished from 1896 to 1967 with a hiatus from 1944 to 1954. The blackboard contains the lessons learned from Great Britain on how to govern a colony and bring them into the civilized world, stating, “... By not waiting for their consent she has greatly advanced the world's civilization. Titled “Dream of the Empress of China,” the dream is an obvious nightmare, as the sardonic sub-caption makes clear. As the cartoon record of these turn-of-the-century years repeatedly demonstrates, moreover, it was taken for granted by the imperialists that the people on whom they were bestowing the light of civilization were literally—and often grotesquely—of various shades of darker complexion. Vol. “Les Camps de Reconcentration au Transvaal. On May 1—a month before the celebratory second magazine cover reproduced here was published—Commodore George Dewey destroyed a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines. 27-1-09 (July 6, 2009). Who, they asked, was the real barbarian? War on Earth. Jones, Toby Craig. Source: Library of Congress, In this 1902 cartoon, Britain’s Boer War and goals on the African continent are identified with the march of civilization and progress against barbarism. (doi:10.1080/14650040802275644). In Kipling’s often-quoted phrase, this noble mission required willingness to engage in “savage wars of peace.”. Theory and Society 16(5):675 (1987). Close behind them lie corpses from the “Franco-Prussian War,” “Russia and Turkey,” “Napoleon and Austria.” Far off in the distance, with labels reading “Roman Wars” and “Alexandria,” the artists carries his viewers back to ancient times, when the civilization myth first emerged to mask the brutal realities of politically-motivated conflicts. Looking through the Puck cartoons made me think that although our current political climate in Washington seems crazy now, it is nothing particularly new. Study the political cartoon published in Puck in 1899: All of the following are aspects of U.S. foreign policy during the Progressive Era represented in this political cartoon EXCEPT _____. “Europeans,” this reads, “Pour the Blessings of Their Culture over the Globe.”, “Der Europäer giesst die Segnungen seiner Kultur über den Erdball aus” (The Europeans pour the blessings of its culture over the globe). The North American Review. Around 1904 or 1905—in another impassioned response to the American war in the Philippines (which officially ended in 1902 but in practice dragged on for many years thereafter)—Twain penned a short essay titled “The War Prayer.” The essay is now regarded as an exemplary indictment of blind patriotism coupled with religious fanaticism.
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