from the cape to cairo cartoon analysis

 

Brewer, Susan. Now there are thirteen on this one street! 1, July 6, 2015. The feminine representations of imperial nations pictured here include Russia, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Spain, and France. Even the language of Life’s caption is subversive, for it picks up a famous pro-imperialist speech by Theodore Roosevelt titled “The Strenuous Life.” Delivered on April 10, 1899, two years before Roosevelt became president, the most famous lines of the speech were these: I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger …. Written over the battle clouds on the right, the “Spanish-American War” would have inspired the depiction of Columbia as an emerging military power. 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. American Imperialism (New York: Arno Press, 1970). 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. Good Will to Nobody.” Life, January 4, 1900, Source: Widener Library, Harvard University, Unlike Puck and Judge, Life was often highly critical of U.S. overseas expansion. 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. The black-and-white drawing by William H. Walker captured the harsh reality behind the ideal of benevolent assimilation, depicting imperialists Uncle Sam, John Bull, Kaiser Wilhelm, and, coming into view, a figure that probably represents France, as burdens carried by vanquished non-white peoples. Newly conquered populations, described in the opening stanza as “your new-caught, sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child” would need sustained commitments “to serve your captives‘ needs.”, Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2014 Visualizing Cultures. In its final issue for 1899—a time when the U.S. suppression of Filipino resistance was at its peak—Puck turned to a feel-good holiday graphic to reaffirm this theme of the bounty promised to newly invaded countries and peoples. Source: Widener Library, Harvard University, The barbarity of imperial war is displayed on a battlefield littered with dead soldiers of many nationalities that stretches from contemporary wars—here, the “Philippines” and “Transvaal” (Boer War)—back through time to “Roman Wars.” The sub-caption of this 1900 Judge cartoon once again asks the disturbing question: “is civilization advancing?”. Twain went along, partly out of concern for his family, and “The War Prayer” was not published until 1916, six years after his death. “A Rival Who Has Come to Stay. “The Great Rapprochement” describes a shift in the relationship of the U.S. and Great Britain that, in the 1890s, moved from animosity and suspicion to friendship and cooperation. China in Convulsion. Title: From the Cape to Cairo Collection: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Boxers practiced spirit-possession rituals, often meeting in Buddhist temples, and attacked Christian missionaries and Chinese converts. Most viewers will probably agree that there is nothing really comparable in the contemporary world of political cartooning to the drafting skill and flamboyance of these single-panel graphics, which appeared in such popular periodicals as Puck and Judge. 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. Ships for American commerce a speciality.”, Right: Uncle Sam proudly displays his new steamship and a sign that reads, “Uncle Sam the ship builder re-established with great success in 1893. I relegated an escort. Puck’s cover for June 8, 1898, celebrated this new Anglo-Saxon solidarity and sense of mission with an illustration of two resolute soldiers standing with fixed bayonets on a parapet and overlooking the globe. — That dragon must be killed before our troubles can be adjusted. "ʻCivilizationʼ and its Discontents: The Boxers and Luddites as Heroes and Villains." Gillam’s sub-caption is “All this for politics—is civilization advancing?”. 367-373 (1998). The following year, Life cartoonist William H. Walker evoked the horror of the Allied intervention in China in a graphic captioned, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian—Acts xxvi, 28.” A Chinese man falls off his chair, the Bible at his feet, laughing at Uncle Sam’s duplicity in preaching Christianity while showing a bloody panorama of Allied soldiers executing and marauding on a screen. “Transatlantic dimensions of the American Anti-Imperialist Movement, 1899-1909.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies. In September 1901, the French artist Jean Veber used the pages of L’Assiette au Beurre to call attention to one of the often-forgotten ironies of the mystique of “the white man’s burden.” His cartoon, depicting a vast field of flat stone grave markers, carried the simple caption “United Kingdom” (Le Royaume-Uni). Declaration of Independence:“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”. Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel, Helen Toribo. “Think It Over. But by the 1890s, emerging industrial powerhouses like the U.S. and Germany reduced Britain’s industrial dominance. — The U.S. must govern its new territories with or without their consent until they can govern themselves.” Veneration of Britain’s treatment of colonies as a positive model attests to the significant shift in the American world view given U.S. origins in relation to the mother country. Kipling offered moral justification for the bloody war the U.S. was fighting to suppress the independent Philippine regime following Spanish rule. She researches visual narrative and digital historiography using the visual historical record.This article was adapted from Visualizing Cultures. Titled “Dream of the Empress of China,” the dream is an obvious nightmare, as the sardonic sub-caption makes clear. The Native: Ever since my home was burned to the ground and my wife and children shot.” Frederick Thompson Richards, Life, October 18, 1900. The weekly magazine Judge, a rival to Puck that was published from 1881 to 1947, opened 1899 with a barbed rendering of the Anglo nations gorging on the globe. The caption refers to a Bible passage in which belief is nearly, but not completely reached. L'humanité de nos soldats est admirable et ne se lasse pas malgré la férocité des Boërs … (Rapport officiel au War Office. Although Wilhelm II was famous for introducing the concept of a “yellow peril,” Germany’s major colonial possessions were in Africa. He was just one of the imperial rulers and national figures to be demonized. "Caption: Though the process be costly, the road to progress must be cut. How such uncivilized behavior fit the rhetoric of the civilizing mission is the subject of the Life cartoon, “A Red-Letter Day.” Against a backdrop of distant flames, a Filipino man—sympathetically drawn as tall, handsome, and heroic in contrast to the usual caricature of a tiny, expressionless savage in a grass skirt—is questioned by a clergyman. To Rhodes civilisation meant the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the vast interior of the African continent. “Advance Agent of Modern Civilization”: Religion & Empire. Jahrhunderts und wird häufig im Diskurs rund um den Wettlauf um Afrika abgebildet. Estimates of civilian fatalities, on the other hand, range from 200,000 to possibly well over a million. On February 15, 1898, the battleship U.S.S. 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.”. Now clad in armor and carrying a spear, she threatens to intervene to stop the anti-foreign, anti-Christian acts of “anarchy, “murder,” and “riot” that have spread to Beijing. In a post-Bismarck era, Germany was a late-comer to the colonial land grab in Africa and the Pacific. Ricard, Serge. 13, No. 27-1-09 (July 6, 2009). The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987). Source: Library of Congress. China’s “Worn Out Traditions”—represented by the queue hairstyle required during the Qing dynasty—are about to be cut with the shears of “19th Century Progress.”, Nearly two years later, in the midst of the Boxer Uprising, Puck was still resorting to the same sort of stereotyped juxtaposition. Shortly after Kipling’s poem appeared, the consistently anti-imperialist Life fired back with a decidedly different view of the white man’s burden on its March 16, 1899 cover: a cartoon that showed the foreign powers riding on the backs of their colonial subjects. 1900) and starlight from a goddess of “civilization”. Each sign is topped by the word “Wanted” and the goods listed include trolley lines, electric lights, water-works, sewers, paving, asphalt roads, watches, clocks, wagons, carriages, trucks, 100,000 bridges, 500,000 engines, 2 million cars, 4 million rails, 100,000 RR stations, cotton goods, telegraph, telephone, stoves, lamps, petroleum, medicines, chemicals, disinfectants, 50 million reaping machines, 100 million plows, and 50 million sewing machines. Here, perfectly mythologized, is yet another graphic rendering of the mystique of Western “civilization.”, “Japan Makes her Début Under Columbia’s Auspices.” Udo Keppler, Puck, August 16, 1899. hier encore nous avons pris un important commando. It allows prisoners to enjoy the view from the outside and have the illusion of freedom ... (Official Report to the War Office. 8, No. Source: Library of Congress, Left: John Bull gapes at a new American steamer. in AP101.P7 1902 (Case X) [P&P] Medium: 1 print : chromolithograph. A pair of 1898 graphics offer “before and after” snapshots related to two major events. Maine exploded and sank in the harbor at Havana. Initially, the camps were conceived as shelters for women and children war refugees. Uncle Sam, armed and dangerous, cocks an eyebrow as he displays his handiwork: countless dead Filipino soldiers laid out in rows. The turn-of-the-century visual record tells us otherwise. 19th Century Editorial Cartoons and the Business of Race." Death to all Schools but Ours.” The last marcher holds up “Drummer’s Samples,” referring to the traveling salesmen of business and commerce. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France. From the Cape to Cairo book. 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. Description: Britannia, carrying a large white flag labeled "Civilization" with British soldiers and colonists behind her, advances on a horde of natives, one carrying a flag labeled "Barbarism. The march of “civilization” against “barbarism” is a late-19th-century construct that cast imperialist wars as moral crusades. Summary Illustration shows Britannia carrying a large white flag labeled "Civilization" with British soldiers and colonists behind her, advancing on a horde of natives, one carrying a flag labeled "Barbarism". Elle permet aux prisonniers de jouir de la vue du dehors et d’avoir ainsi l’illusion de la liberté… (Rapport officiel au War Office. Postwar industrialization and the introduction of new commodities such as steel and electricity gradually transformed the agrarian nation. John Bull and Uncle Sam lift the globe, turned toward Asia and the Pacific, to the heavens. Smith, Arthur Henderson. From the C - ER9554 from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. This early outburst of what we refer to today as clash-of-civilizations thinking did not go unchallenged, however. Mott, Frank Luther. (DOI:10.1080/14664658.2011.559749), Twain, Mark. “Our ‘Civilized’ Heathen. In addition, the U.S. ignored human rights violations in the use of concentration camps. Please use the following steps to determine whether you need to fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room to view the original item(s). Cartoons endorsing imperialist expansion depicted a beneficent West as father, teacher, even Santa Claus—bearing the gifts of progress to benefit poor, backward, and childlike nations destined to become profitable new markets. We had no design of aggrandizement and no ambition of conquest. – wotever 'll become of my ship-building monopoly, if that there Yankee is going to turn out boats like that right along?” Louis Dalrymple, Puck, July 24, 1895. British armies had difficulty stopping mounted Boer commandos spread out over large areas of open terrain. In the storm clouds on the left, the “Eastern Question” looms. Robert L. Gambone in his 2009 book, Life on the Press: The Popular Art and Illustrations of George Benjamin Luks, describes the cartoon as follows: …The Way We Get Our War News (The Verdict, August 21, 1899, front cover) excoriates military press censorship, a supremely ironic development given the appeals to freedom used to justify the war. There, membership in militant secret societies swelled, most prominently in the Yi He Quan (Society of the Righteous Fist), a sect known to Westerners as the Boxers. Tough the Process Be Costly, The Road of Progress Must Be Cut.” Udo Keppler, Puck, December 10, 1902. “Lucky Filipinos.” Life, May 3, 1900. The caption at their feet exclaims “United We Stand for Civilization and Peace!”, “'United We Stand for Civilization and Peace!” Louis Dalrymple, Puck, June 8, 1898. “A Red-Letter Day. The second was the U.S. conquest and occupation of the Philippines that began in 1899. “Leur rêve” (Their dream). Even the Civil War is referenced, in a wall plaque: “The Confederate States refused their consent to be governed; but the Union was preserved without their consent.” Refuting the right of indigenous rule was based on demonstrating a population’s lack of preparation for self-governance. 62, Issue 4, pp. Man’s Burden” William H. Walker, cover illustration, Life, March 16, 1899. Wrapped in Kerosene-Soaked Cotton and Roasted to Death.”, In this same horrified mode, the July 28 cover of Harper’s Weekly—a publication that carried the subtitle “A Journal of Civilization”—depicted demonic Boxers brandishing primitive weapons, carrying severed heads on pikes, and trampling a child wrapped in the American flag. 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. “The Boer War Remembered.” The Journal of Historical Review, Vol. 1898, Donaldson Litho Co. Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II appears as an anointed leader, his angel wings made of swords, astride a cannon dragged by clerics and missionaries toward foreign lands. The argument follows England’s example, as spelled out on the blackboard, that “By not waiting for their consent, she has greatly advanced the world’s civilization.” “An African-American washes windows.” The book on the desk reads: “U.S. 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. Warships steam over the horizon of their chests flying banners of great waterways that would ideally open the world to commerce—“Suez Canal” (completed in 1869) and “Managua Canal” (projected through Nicaragua to link the Caribbean and Pacific oceans—an undertaking later transferred to Panama). — President McKinley at the Conference of Foreign Missions.” The fallen man clasps the flag of the Philippine independence movement, inscribed with the words “Give Us Liberty.” His hat quotes the most famous phrase in the U.S. “Hawaii” and “Porto Rico” are model female students. Source: Library of Congress. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German. The caption reads: “The Stranger: How long have you been civilized? “Case Study: The Boxer War–The Boxer Uprising.” Online Encyclopediaof Mass Violence (July 23, 2008). Simultaneously, the war against Spain in Cuba and the Caribbean saw the U.S. seizure of Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay in June, giving the U.S. a naval base retained into the 21st century. ), In an image titled, “Vers le Camp de Reconcentration” (To the Concentration Camp), women and children are dragged off by British soldiers. Maine. 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. Wilhelm points ahead, where the inhabitants flee. Accusations of atrocities against civilians on the ten-day march to Beijing were made in first-hand accounts of the mission. Geopolitics, Vol. An exceptionally vivid cartoon version of Kipling’s message titled “The White Man’s Burden (Apologies to Rudyard Kipling)” was published in Judge on April 1, 1899. One of his most famous pet projects was a train line that would stretch from Cairo to Cape Town – to achieve this, it meant creating British territories in the heart of central Africa. “The Pigtail Has Got to Go.” Louis Dalrymple, Puck, October 19, 1898. Stark images such as these helped make public a subject that was generally suppressed. Columbia and Uncle Sam pluck gifts from “Our Christmas Tree,” including law and order, technology, and education, for overseas territories “Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines,” condescendingly drawn as grateful children. The belief in racial/cultural superiority that fueled the British empire embraced the U.S. in Anglo-Saxonism based on common heritage and language. Weber, Mark. Thompson, Roger R. “Reporting the Taiyuan Massacre” from The Boxers, China, andthe World. 12, Issue 1, pp. 5 vols. Spencer, David R. "No Laughing Matter. Long-standing personifications and visual symbols for countries were used by cartoonists to dramatize events to suit their message. Illustration shows Britannia carrying a large white flag labeled Civilization with British soldiers and colonists behind her, advancing on a horde of natives, one carrying a flag labeled Barbarism. New Forces in Old China: An Inevitable Awakening (New York: F.H. Mr C-c-l Rh-d-s (The "practical man"). The Life cartoon takes a different view of the barbarism in these events, focussing on Allied brutality against the Chinese. 203–228. 730-735 (2008). As the disturbance escalated, so did news coverage around the world. Imperialists Uncle Sam, John Bull, Kaiser Wilhelm, and, in the distance, probably France are borne on the backs of subjugated people in the Philippines, India, and Africa. Do those benighted wretches fail to realize what we have accomplished in their islands? In a striking Judge graphic, an “Auto-Truck of Civilization and Trade” lights a pathway through the darkness, leading with a gun and the message: “Force if Necessary.” Overladen with manufactured goods and modern technology, the vehicle is driven by a resolute Uncle Sam. The war with the Boers (who were ethnically Dutch and Afrikaans-speaking) took place in the South African Republic (Transvaal) and Orange Free State. ), “Is This Imperialism?”: the Boxer Uprising. He has a somewhat serious but proud expression on his face, as though The Boxer Uprising was a godsend for the righteous exponents of a world divided, between the civilized West and barbaric Others. Source: Wikimedia. Newspapers carried pictures of corpses and stories of rape and plunder, notably in the wealthy merchant city of Tongzhou just before troops reached Beijing. At the time, however, Twain’s family, acquaintances, and publisher feared the piece would be denounced as both unpatriotic and sacrilegious, and urged him not to publish it. The U.S. conquest of the Philippines, coupled with the multi-nation “Boxer intervention” in China, prompted Twain to become an outspoken critic of America plunging into what he denounced as the “European Game” of overseas expansion. 3, pp. (doi:10.1093/cjip/pol005), Faunce, Rev. Religion played a major role in the characterization of others as heathens in need of salvation through education, conversion, and civilizing in the ways of Christian culture. Long-standing personifications and visual symbols for countries were used by cartoonists to dramatize events to suit their message. Puck’s caricature of Germany’s Bible-quoting Kaiser Wilhelm II ready to machine gun foreign non-believers captures the role of Christianity in turn-of-the-century Western imperialism. A chained “War Correspondent” is forced to rewrite his reports under the direction of Major General Elwell Otis during the Philippine-American War. When applied to people and cultures, the “survival of the fittest” doctrine gave wealthy, technologically-advanced countries not only the right to dominate “backward” nations, but an imperative and duty to bring them into the modern world. The Rhodes Colossus, in vollem Titel The Rhodes Colossus Striding from Cape Town to Cairo, ist eine Karikatur von Edward Linley Sambourne, die am 10.Dezember 1892 in der Satirezeitschrift Punch erschien. Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico.” A Native American reads a book upside down and a prospective Chinese pupil stands in the doorway. Cartoonist Victor Gillam turns the tables on American missionary zeal and moral imperative to “save the heathen” by showing how the Chinese might view the “foreign devils” in vignettes of ignorance, racism, and extreme violence in the United States. When the Chinese man raises his sword, it is labeled “barbarism,” but when the French soldier does precisely the same thing it is “a necessary blow for civilization.”. 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. This special issue illustrated by Théophile Steinlen comprises a particularly gruesome mural depicting the bloodshed of contemporary colonial wars in Turkey, China, and Africa. U.S. regiments were transported from the Philippines to join the Allied force. In the caption, Uncle Sam lectures: “(to his new class in Civilization): Now, children, you've got to learn these lessons whether you want to or not! Britain, the more powerful military partner, shows celebrated victories over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and over the French and Spanish navies at Trafalgar in 1805. Chlo? Missionary zeal extends to a threat unfurled in a banner carried by the choir of women, “Come and be saved; if you don’t …”, “The Advance Agent of Modern Civilization.” Udo Keppler, Puck, January 12, 1898. Source: CGACGA, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. In an 1895 Puck cartoon, “A Rival Who Has Come to Stay,” John Bull gapes while Uncle Sam proudly displays his prowess as “Uncle Sam the Ship Builder.” The U.S. Navy moved up from twelfth to fifth place in the world. When this cartoon was published, the foreign Legation Quarter in Beijing was besieged by Boxers and Qing troops. Turning to China, his stinging indictment extended beyond the two Anglo powers to target the Kaiser’s Germany plus Tsarist Russia and France. The cartoon links might with right, as the cannon is pushed and dragged forward by clergy identified by their headgear: skullcap, biretta, clerical hat, top hat, and distinctive English-style shovel hat. The unfulfilled dream of the controversial imperialist and entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes was to connect Cairo in the far north of Africa to the southernmost point of the continent, Cape …