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Introduction: The birth of Caricature
The history of Caricature, as part of a discipline in modern graphic design, may be traced back to the cultures of ancient Egypt, Greek and Rome and in the middle ages to Leonardo da Vinci's attempts to comprehend the concept of ideal beauty, by analyzing "the epitome of grotesque".
|An Egyptian funeral boat
|An Unfortunate Egyptian Soul
Caricatures are designed to oversimplify and exaggerate each subject's distinctive features, while still maintaining a recognizable likeness, in order to convey a visual message. According to Thomas Wright, a message has been conveyed to us from the distance of the ages by an Egyptian image in which a small boat with provisions that runs into the back of a larger funeral boat, upsetting the tables of cakes and other supplies. Thus this scene has the characteristics of a caricature. Wright, provides other Egyptian examples in which animals are employed in occupations usually reserved for humans which appear to be humorous , and he discusses examples of the ancient Greeks who were especially partial to representations of monsters, frequently using their images in their ornaments and works of arts.
|The Egyptian God Typhoon
|A Greek Gorgon
|The Roman Sannio, from an engraving in the "Differetatio de Larvis Scenicis" by the Italian antiquary Ficoroni, who copied it from an engraved gem. He wears the Foccus or low shoe peculiar to the comic actors.
In particular, Greeks adapted the figure of the Egyptian god Typhoon to represent their Gorgon, as the above images show the Greek Gorgon was a rather close emulation of Typhoon. The image of Typhoon with its broad, coarse, and frightful face, lolling out his large tongue , appeared frequently on the Egyptian monuments. According, to Pliny in his "Natural History" among the pictures exhibited in the Forum at Rome there was one in which a Gaul was represented, "trusting out his tongue in avert unbecoming manner". Perhaps by using a Gorgon-type caricaturization, Romans were trying to exhibit their displeasure with Gauls. The Roman popular character Sannio, or buffoon, whose name is derived from a similar Greek character and who was employed in performing burlesque dances, making grimaces, and in other acts calculated to excite the mirth of the spectators, was another example of these ancient caricatures.
|An artist studio in Pompeii
|The Oldest drawing in British Museum, 1320 AD. Two demons tossing a monk headlong into a river.
|Luther Inspired by Satan
In the Middle Ages religious anxieties were mixed with carnivals, festivals and enjoyment of the ludicrous. A manuscript from this time provides an example of two demons playfully tripping a monk and throwing him into a river. According to James Parton, "Reformation began with laughter, which church itself nourished and sanctioned ... upon edifices erected before the year 1000 there are few traces of the devil, and upon of those of much earlier date none at all; but from eleventh century he begins to play an important role". Artists competed with each other to give the devil the most hideous looks, and as time passed he looked more and more ridiculous. However, Luther spoke of the devil very seriously, as he thought that devils are present everywhere and in every action. People laughed at clergy, "the clergy, self-indulgent" in the words of Parton "preached self denial; practicing vice, they exaggerated human guilt. " Parton writes " among the curiosities which Luther himself brought from Rome in 1510, was a caricature suggested by the Ship of Fools, showing how the Pope had fooled the whole world with his superstitious and idolatries. ... Luther himself was a caricaturist ... The famous pamphlet of caricatures published in 1521 by Luther's friend and follower, Lucas Cranach, contains pictures that we could easily believe Luther himself suggested."
|The Pope Tossed into Hell, Lucas Cranach, 1521
|Pythagoras with musical devices. In Franchino Gaffurio, Theorica musice (Milan: Filippo Mantegazza for G.P. da Lomazzo, 1492)
|America, Jan Galle after Joannes Stradanus (Jan Van der Straet), ca. 1580, from Nova repetra. In seculum diuersarum imaginaum speculatiuarum a varijis viris doctis adinuentarum, atq[ue] insignibus pictoribus ac culptoribus delineatarum...
|Bibliotheca Publica in Leiden, In Johannes van Meurs, Athenac Batave, Sive, De urbe Leidensi, Academia, virisque claris ... (Leiden: Apud A. Cloucquium et Elsevirios, 1625)
|The Padua anatomy theater designed by Hieronymus Fabricius, 1595. In Giacomo Filippo Tomasini, Gymnasium Patavinum (Udine: Nicolaus Schirattus, 1654)
|A coffehouse in London. In E. Ward, The Fourth part of Vulgus Britanicus; or, British Hudibras (London: James Woodward and John Morphew, 1710), frontispiece.
Between 1490 and 1495 Leonardo da Vinci (1452- 1519) developed his habit of recording his studies in meticulously illustrated notebooks. His work covered four main themes: painting, architecture, the elements of mechanics, and human anatomy. It appears that as much as he was interested in the human anatomy, through his sketches of various facial characteristics he was also interested in understanding of the human emotions and the impact of the ravages of time on the battered faces of various characters. These sketches which are collected into various codices and manuscripts, are indeed real precursors to modern caricatures.
Over time,as Werner Hoffman, in his Caricature from Leonardo to Picasso. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1957) argues artist deviated from Leonardo's approach to the human figure to develop a more exaggerated appearance of their subject. The "principles of form established in part by Leonardo had become so ingrained into the method of portraiture that artists like Agostino and Annibale Carracci rebelled against them. Intended to be lighthearted satires, their caricaturas were, in essence, 'counter-art."
|Study of Aesthetics in Five Rugged Heads, Leonardo da Vinci c. 1495
|The parable of the blind, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1520?-1569), who was from Flanders introduced his imaginative symbolism mixed with a subtle sarcasm in his paintings of various biblical parables and other metaphors, such as the Parables of Blinds, in which a blind is leading the others. His composition, and exaggerations of various human sensitivities are truly stunning and anticipates the best today's political cartoons.
|Annibale Carracci, Sheet of caricatures, c.1595, British Museum
|Annibale Carracci, Various Works
According to seventeenth century sources, the inventor of caricature as an independent art form was, the Bolognese history painter, Annibale Carracci. Mosini recorded Annibale's 'theory' of caricature as being the ultimate antithesis of beauty: 'una bella... perfetta deformità.' Like beauty in art, Annibale held, caricature was based on selection and synthesis. The artist was to devise it, in a playful spirit like that of Nature, whenever She offered him suitable models. The point was to offer an impression of the original which was more striking than a portrait.
In political cartoons the artist reduces the intriguing conceptual complexity of historical events, within a cultural context, into a stark but simple imagery accompanied by a witty and sarcastic statement. When this image is carefully analyzed, it leads to discovery of a number of important historical, social,economical political, and cultural facts that offer authentic and accurate insights into the various cultural biases, human right issues, public anxieties, democratic wishes, and other features of a particular age. They shed light on enigmatic causes of historical events and describe the trajectory of a civilization's journey through time towards achieving humanistic ideals. Since the early eighteenth century, political cartoons have opened a sharp visual communication window into the past. The political cartoon is always informed by an event and speaks to a specific perspective towards that event. Thus to fully comprehend a cartoon, one needs to be well-read about both the event and its impacts on various perspectives.
The key to the caricature is an exaggeration of those aspect of a narrative that the artist wants to highlight. The personage of a tyrant, a charlatan politician or a corrupt clergyman in the hands of an artist turns to a revealing caricature that no amount of censorship can cover up. In this regard political cartoons have become a unique visual communication device since the 17th century, providing political editorials and socio-cultural commentaries. The main aim of this visual communication is to shape public opinion by using a verity of artistic, cultural, and psychological techniques, including resorting to nationalism, symbolism, hyperbolic suggestions, labeling, analogy, and irony. But, most often, they use sarcastic metaphors, satirical comparisons, and over the top description of reality to simplify complex political events so that the general public can comprehend their significance, from a particular perspective.
Perhaps the first political cartoonist was the Dutch artist Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708), who at the service of William of Orange, later King William III of England, repeatedly caricatured James II and Louis XIV, sometimes using pseudonyms on his most audacious images. He painted, engraved, sculpted, designed medals, enameled, taught drawing school, and bought and sold art as a dealer, but above all he was a graphic designer who etched allegories and mythological scenes, portraits, caricatures, political satires, historical subjects, landscapes, topographical views, battle scenes, genre scenes, title pages, and book illustrations.
|Louis XIV as Apollo led by Madame de Maintenon, Romeyn de Hooghe, etching from 1701
|One of the earliest political cartoons was that of Robert Walpole, considered as the first British prime minister (1720 to 1742), who was represented by his exposed rear end. The cartoon did not show his face, because everybody knew you had to kiss his bottom if you wanted a highly paid government job. Walpole's attempts to arrest cartoonists only heightened interest in this medium. Bowing to the inevitable, he commissioned more flattering cartoons in an attempt to outflank his rivals. "
|The farmer crushed by "Taille, Impots et Corvee"; by tithe, taxation and statute-labour. Coloured engraving.
|The Third Estate, the clergy and the nobility shouldering the national debt. French Revolution. Engraving; 1789.
Marie-Antoinette was cruelly lampooned throughout her life in France. She was an Austrian Princess,who at age 15 married the Crown Prince of France in 1770. She and husband Louis XVI were still teenagers when they ascended the throne in 1774.
This anonymous cartoon from around 1791 blames the unfortunate queen for her alleged infidelity, the scandal provoked by her alleged greed in the affaire du collier or the necklace affair, the doomed flight to Varennes and counter-revolutionary intrigue. The image depicts her carrying the Dauphin, her eldest son, and Louis XVI, followed by her daughter Madame Royale and the King's aunt Madame Elisabeth, leaping to safety from the Tuileries. The royal couple are both holding the broken scepter and are encouraged by the King's brother, Comte de Provence (left), holding a purse full of money. Beneath are references to the Queen's alleged sins.
The affaire du collier which was the trigger point for the French Revolution was started when jewelers Böhmer and Bassenge nearly went broke creating a necklace that they presumed King Louis XV would buy for his mistress Madame du Barry. But the king died before he could purchase it and the jewelers hope that the new king, Louis XVI, might agree to buy the necklace for Marie Antoinette was dashed when Marie Antoinette discouraged Louis from purchasing it. Then a desperate, heavy-indebted Comtesse de Lamotte told cardinal Rétaux de Villette that the queen desperately wanted the diamond necklace but that she didn't want to ask Louis for it. Comtesse and her lover, forged letters in Marie Antoinette's hand and send them to the Cardinal, who was disliked by Marie Antoinette, asking him to buy the necklace, and Lamotte slyly suggested that if Cardinal de Rohan could find a way to procure it for her, his good reputation would be restored at court.
At last, the cardinal wrangled the diamonds from Böhmer and Bassenge on credit. The jewelers presented the necklace to the queen's footman for delivery -- only the footman was Comtesse's lover Rétaux in disguise. He seized the necklace and headed to London. When his first payment was due, Cardinal de Rohan couldn't cough up the amount. The jewelers demanded money from Marie Antoinette, who had no knowledge of the necklace. By then, the necklace had been sold. A furious Louis had the cardinal arrested; later, he was acquitted of all charges and exiled. The scheming mastermind Lamotte was imprisoned but broke free and took up residence in England. There, she spread propaganda about the queen.
Luis looks at the empty chests and asks "Where is the tax money?" The financial minister, Necker, looks on and says "The money was there last time I looked." The nobles and clergy are sneaking out the door carrying sacks of money.
Necker's ability to manage the deficit was tested by France's involvement in the American Revolution from 1778 onwards, which would cost the nation more than 2 billion livres. He managed to fund the war effort but, it was through borrowing at rates of high interest, rather than by raising state taxes or revenue. By 1781 disaster was looming as the nation was approaching bankruptcy. Necker produced a document that was stunning in its deceit: the Compte Rendu du Roi (loosely translated, the 'king's balance sheet') was a statement of the nation's financial situation. However the Compte Rendu suggested there was actually a fiscal surplus, not a substantial debt. The publication of these glowing numbers in the Compte Rendu earned Necker hero-status amongst the people; he was hailed as an economic miracle-worker, despite being no such thing. The document concealed the disastrous level of debt and would make subsequent attempts at taxation reform more difficult than they would ordinarily have been. Thus the Compte Rendu du Roi was a catalyst for revolution: it was not a problematic event itself but it nevertheless contributed to the crises of the late 1780s. The opposition of the leading minister, Jean-Frédéric Phelypeaux, comte de Maurepas, and the hostility of the queen, Marie-Antoinette, forced Necker to resign on May 19, 1781.
|"The Awakening of the Third Estate," an aristocrat and clergyman are horrified to see a man casting off the shackles of his class.
The hierarchical society of France was distinguished by her three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners.
The first estate, the clergy, occupied a position of conspicuous importance in France. Though only .5 percent of the population, the clergy controlled about 15 percent of French lands. They performed many essential public functions—running schools, keeping records of vital statistics, and dispensing relief to the poor. The French church, however, was a house divided. Taxpayers hated the tithe levied by the church, even though the full 10 percent implied by the word tithe was seldom demanded. They also complained about the church's exemption from taxation. While the peasants remained moderately faithful Catholics and regarded the village priest, if not the bishop, with esteem and affection, the bourgeoisie increasingly accepted the anticlerical views of the philosopher.
Like the higher clergy, the wealthy nobles of the Old Regime, the second estate, were increasingly unpopular. Although less than 2 percent of the population, they held about 20 percent of the land. They had virtual exemption from taxation and monopolized army commissions and appointments to high ecclesiastical office.
|Confiscation of Churches Lands
The French Catholic Church, known as the Gallican Church, recognised the authority of the pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church but had negotiated certain liberties that privileged the authority of the French monarch, giving it a distinct national identity characterised by considerable autonomy. France's population of 28 million was almost entirely Catholic, with full membership of the state denied to Protestant and Jewish minorities.
The Church's revenue in 1789 was estimated at an immense – and possibly exaggerated – 150 million livres. It owned around six per cent of land throughout France, and its abbeys, churches, monasteries and convents, as well as the schools, hospitals and other institutions it operated, formed a visible reminder of the Church's dominance in French society. The Church was also permitted to collect the tithe, worth a nominal one-tenth of agricultural production, and was exempt from direct taxation on its earnings. This prosperity caused considerable discontent, best illustrated in the cahiers de doléances, or 'statements of grievances', sent from throughout the kingdom to be discussed at the meeting of the Estates-General in May 1789. Calls for the reform or abolition of the tithe and for the limitation of Church property were joined by complaints from parish priests who, excluded from the wealth bestowed upon the upper echelons of the Church hierarchy, often struggled to get by.
On 4 August 1789, when the remains of France's feudal past were abolished in a night of sweeping reforms, the clergy agreed to give up the tithe and allow the state to take over its funding. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, adopted on 26 August, made no recognition of the special position of the Catholic Church. With all authority located henceforth within the nation, the Church now found itself open – and vulnerable – to further reform. On 2 November 1789, France's new National Assembly, known as the Constituent Assembly, passed a decree that placed all Church property 'at the disposition of the nation'. Talleyrand, the bishop of Autun and one of the few clerics to support the measure, argued that all Church property rightfully belonged to the nation and that its return, by helping to bring about a better society, should therefore be viewed as a 'religious act'.
|The runaway royal family busted by French democrats Louis and extravagant Marie Antoinette were apprehended in Varennes, just miles from the Austrian border. Some say the strong scent of the queen's perfume gave their whereabouts away.
In October 1789, the royal family was forced to leave Versailles for the Tuileries palace in the heart of Paris, where they lived in prison-like isolation. Marie Antoinette secretly requested help from other European rulers, including her royal siblings in Austria and Naples. On the night of June 20, 1791, the royal family attempted to flee. Their escape plan was said to have been engineered by Axel von Fersen, the Swedish count who was rumored to be one of the Queen's lovers. It is incontestable that Marie Antoinette's brother awaited the royal family just across the border and that he was accompanied by troops ready to invade.
They were caught in the small town of Varennes, half-way to the border, and brought back to Paris, prisoners now of the Revolutionary government. On the night of August 10, 1792, militants attacked the royal palace where Marie Antoinette and her family were being held and forced the Legislative Assembly to "suspend" the King. Little more than a month later, on September 20, the new National Convention was convened, and two days later it voted to declare France a republic, thus abolishing the monarchy. From that moment on, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were no longer King and Queen, but, like many others, imprisoned citizens suspected of treason.
Edmund-Burke, Radical Arms, The conclusion of the French Revolution
|James Gillray, "The Zenith of French Glory - the Pinnacle of Liberty.(Louis XVI) Religion, Justice, Loyalty and all the Bugbears of Unenlightened Minds, Farewell!", February 12, 1793. Etching
|A French Gentleman of the Court of Louis XVI ; A French Gentleman of the Court of Egalité, James Gillray, 1799.
A sarcastic treatment from England of French manners that contrasts the weakness of the old regime with the vulgar arrogance of the new revolutionary regime. The engraver also seems to be pointing toward two entirely different views of masculinity.
In England, James Gillray (1757-1815) adopted the caricatural style of Bruegel, to create caricatures of his contemporary statesmen that today can be categorized as political cartoons in which his wit was directed not only against the political and legislative abuses of his time but also against the morals of the royal family. Gillray initially supported the French Revolution, and it's principles of liberty , but when the revolution turned violent particularly during the work of the Terror he turned against, nevertheless later on he turned against the tyrannical regime of Napoleon Bonaparte, describing him as "Boney the carcase-butcher" in a number of offensive images.
|George Cruikshank (1792 - 1878) was at his best when he was dealing with socio-cultural issues. His most celebrated of social cartoons were his Monstrosities, which were published annually from 1816 to 1828. As the conservative Victorian era began (1837) most forms of satirical art grew to be unfashionable. George Cruikshank thus turned his talents to the illustrated book, including Dickens's Oliver Twist, which bear testimony to his artistic talent.
|Bonaparte with authority commandeth his soldiers with fixed bayonets during the attack on the Council of Five Hundred. Note the exaggeration of his uniform and his hat feathers trying to give a comic note to the scene. They brandish proudly tricolor on what is written "Long live Bonaparte triumvirate - Seyes - Ducos." On the young drummer boy's instrument is inscribed "Vive la Liberté".
In August of 1794 Napoleon was arrested because he had been a supporter of Maximilien Rosbespierre. He was accused of treason. Although he was released his career seemed to be over. Then in October of 1795, the government was threatened with a revolt in Paris. Paul Barras, commander of the home forces, appointed Napoleon to defend the capital. "With amazing swiftness Napoleon massed men and artillery at important places in Paris The attack of 30,000 national guards was driven back by his men. One year later at the age of 26, he was rewarded with the position of commander in chief of the interior French army in Italy.
When Napoleon accepted the position as the commander of the French Army he received a chilly reception by his generals. Yet, as Augereau one of the generals admitted , something about this Bonaparte frightened them. That day Napoleon issued the following order, "Soldiers! You are badly fed, almost naked. The government owes you a great deal, but it can do nothing for you. Your patience and courage do you honor, but give you neither worldly goods nor glory. I shall lead you into the most fertile plains in the world where you will find big cities and wealthy provinces. You will win honor, fame and riches. Soldiers of the Army of Italy! Could courage and constancy possibly fail you?"
Once Napoleon took over it didn't take long for him to turn the group of ill disciplined soldiers into an effective fighting force. In a series of stunning victories, Napoleon defeated four Austrian generals in succession, each army he fought got bigger and bigger. This forced Austria and its allies to make peace with France. He returned to Paris as a conquering hero. When he returned he received a huge welcome
|The governing Directory was happy to send Napoleon to far-off Egypt. On the paper spread over the table is written "Subject: Send Bonaparte to Egypt to prevent the organizing of the Executive." According to some authors, Bonaparte can also be seen as Banquo in Shakespeare's Macbeth, who encountering the witches hear their prophesy about his future,that his descendants will be kings. Bonaparte, simply dressed in a long white shirt with a tight belt and boots is accusing the Board of wanting to remove soldiers as the only reward for his victories in Italy.
|Bonaparte, depicted in a bizarre military costume, furiously reads a dispatch addressed to "Mounseer Beau-Naperty ", which advising him to be cautious. On the paper dropping from his left hand is written; "The conquest of the Chouans (French royalists), old song called into music.", Signifying that England does not trust the Bonaparte promises of reconciliation. Behind him the second and third consuls are depicted as two buffoons trying to read over his shoulder. On the left, the messenger, carrying the red cap, awaiting Bonaparte's response.
|A courteous Bonaparte is politely welcoming to Paris the vulgar John Bull and his coarse bride Hibernia, representing England and Ireland, that are recently united by the Act of Union 1801. John Bull thanks his host by addressing him as Bonny Party. He also uses the word "gammon", which has the double meaning of "nonsense, humbug," and a cured or smoked ham; implying that for John Bull, this is not a simple courtesy visit. His wife (Ireland) interrupts him, telling him he needs to learn some manners.
English cartoonists are beginning to represent John Bull as squire with top hat, Colorful jacket and culotte, a style of tight pants ending just below the knee, first popularized in France during the reign of Henry III. Bull's conservative instinct is in contrast to the excesses of the Jacobins. Created in 1712 by John Arbuthnot, John Bull became widely known from cartoons by Sir John Tenniel published in the British humor magazine Punch during the middle and late 19th century. In those cartoons, he was portrayed as an honest, solid, farmer figure, often in a Union Jack waistcoat, and accompanied by a bulldog. He was explicitly used as the antithesis of the sans-culotte during the French Revolution.
|The three English visitors bow before Bonaparte. Fox, the first character on left, is wearing a revolutionary cap and has bowed so low that his pants are torn. Erskine, in the middle, dressed in the black habit of lawyers and a paper out of his pocket says "O'Conners Brief." Beside him, bows Harvey Christian Combe, the Lord Mayor of London (recognizable from his gold chain). A paper out of his pocket reads "Essay on Porter Brewing by H. C. " Comb who acquired the Woodyard Brewery, of Castle Street, situated midway between the City and the West End of London was remarkable for his energy and great business ability. He became Lord Mayor in 1799, and was returned five times as the City's representative in Parliament. Sitting on a high chair decorated with elegant revolutionary symbols, Bonaparte receives the homage with one foot on a small stool, the other on the carpet covered raised podium. Note that he wears a director's uniform, not that of the First Consul.
|Napoleon wearing an unflattering military uniform wearing a pirate crown adorned with weapons and a skull. On the 9th of November 1799 (18 Brumaire) General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory and assumed leadership of the French nation. Napoleon's victory at Marengo June 1800 followed by Moreau's at Hohenlinden in December 1800 forced Austria into a separate peace.
Impressed by the exploits and eastern temptations offered by General, now First Consul Bonaparte, Tsar Paul inclined towards France. Along with Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia; Russia formed the Baltic League of Armed neutrality to resist Britain's efforts to enforce the blockade of France. This had added seriousness because of Britain's reliance on the Baltic ports for imports of grain, naval stores and for export markets. Britain was almost completely alone without an ally to be found across Europe. By stroke of good fortune with perhaps a (some have suggested there is a hint of complicity on Britain's part), Tsar Paul was assassinated on March 21st 1801. The new Tsar Alexander was no admirer of Napoleon and the promised Franco-Russian prosperity where they would settle the fate of northern Europe and the near east together, now evaporated like a mirage. Nine days later Nelson destroyed the Danish fleet in Copenhagen ending any potential for a combined fleet to threaten British naval superiority.
In the midst of the Swiss crisis in 1802 France annexed Elba and Piedmont and in October Parma was occupied. To integrate these territories into the national patrimony was going beyond the cherished natural frontiers, and at such a critical juncture! This was flying in the face of all reason.
|The perception of the peace treaty with England. Napoleon had foreign expectations that encouraged him to seek peace. Initially and as Britain feared, he hoped to diplomatically and militarily defeat Britain, but once the opportunity to defeat Britain had diminished there were pressing reasons for peace. For the people of France the revolution had turned out to be a roller coaster ride, and to a large measure the reason General Bonaparte's take-over of the government was so popular was that he was perceived to be strong enough to bring things back under control in peace as he had in war. Victories alone were no longer enough, what was the point of victory if it didn't bring peace?
Here a thin and elegant, but cunning and deceitful Bonaparte who has taken care to place his hat and sword on the floor, implying that he is no longer a warrior but a friend, courts a plump, prosperous, but outrageously dressed England (Britannia) who is depicted as a bit naive. Having set aside, too, her trident and shield, she is captivated by the fellow's charm, knowing that "he will disappoint again." In the background, the portraits of George III and Napoleon's face each others, but the eyes are wary, even-though their outstretched hands seem to merge. It is said that Napoleon was extremely amused by this cartoon.
|In the Treaty of London, signed on the first of 0ctober 1801, the guarantee of a single great power in charge of Malta was first abandoned for the collective guarantee of its independence from all the six European powers: Britain, France, Spain, Austria, Russia and Prussia. Although the last three were not present at the table, the protection and guarantee of Malta's independence was required from all of them. British forces were to be withdrawn, the fortification were to be left intact and for the next year, 1802, Malta was to be garrisoned by Naples from which Napoleon was agreeing to pull his troops out of. Following this the reconstituted Knights of St John would again hold the island.
However virtually none of this ever occurred. None of the other powers ever offered their guarantee (although Russia toyed with the idea); Britain never withdrew her garrison, and when Naples sent the temporary garrison there were denied admission to the fortresses. The nominated Grandmaster could not be persuaded to accede until March when it was already too late, and the Knights of St John were insolvent and unable to govern the island in any case. By March both sides were talking of the possibility of war over Malta. France had never disarmed but further military preparations for St Domingo (or wherever) were in evidence. There was talk in England that French commercial agents had surveyed British and Irish harbours and defences. On March the 6th, Britain began a partial rearmament in response on the 13th of March there occurred a famous scene: At a Sunday afternoon drawing room review in front of 200 other guests Napoleon either staged or actually lost his temper and made a scene. In a voice that everyone in the room could hear he raged, "So you are determined to go to war." The English envoy, Whitworth, was stunned at this impropriety and did not know how best to reply. Napoleon then stormed off to complain further of British warmongering to the Spanish and Russian ambassadors.
Britain was saying plainly that Malta would not be evacuated without some concession on France's part. Whitworth could threaten 'Malta or war' because he believed Napoleon was so determined over Malta that he would offer concessions to obtain this object. One such concession would have been the abandonment of Louisiana. On the 13th of April Monroe arrived from the United States to negotiate the Louisiana purchase. The transaction was completed on the 3rd of May and thus Napoleon gives evidence that his hopes for overseas expansion were gone. The purchase price of $15m (Spanish Dollars) USA 15 years bonds, (less nearly a third deducted by USA for economic damages) was immediately on sold to Dutch and ironically to British bankers at 87.5% raising $8.8m for the coming war. This was a virtual a fire-sale! The Treaty of Amiens was signed on March 25, 1802. The news arrived in London on the 29th. There was intense relief and the populace now gratefully looked forward to falling prices and rising prosperity. Much goodwill had been lost and many were fatalistic or suspicious but peace had been achieved. However, a lack of trust between Britain and France caused the collapse of the Peace of Amiens in the late-spring of 1803. Indeed, by 1804 Napoleon's conduct in Italy and Germany pushed Russia and Austria closer to an anti-French alliance.
Here the drinking companions begin a quarrel: the French soldier draws his sword, while John Bull falls on his back in the middle of his beer and his ham. But with his broken oar (symbolizing the battered British sea power) he threatens to strike back. He has in his hand a map of Malta, and tramples on the Treaty of Amiens. The French has already snatched Hanover. On the wall, a lion, symbolizing France, attacks the English leopard. The turkey, on the counter, represents the English sovereign, George III, who was identified with George Dandin, a Molière character, a fool, who admits his folly while suggesting that wisdom would not help him because, if things in fact go against us, it is pointless to be wise.
|"Plumb Pudding in Danger", James Gillray, 1805
William Pitt and Napoleon dividing the world between them. Pitt takes the ocean: symbolically, his fork resembles a trident. Napoleon takes Europe, with the exception of Britain, Sweden, and Russia. At Trafalgar, the Royal Navy ensured its maritime supremacy for the rest of the war by destroying a combined Franco-Spanish fleet. At Austerlitz, Napoleon crushed an Austro-Russian army to become the master of Europe for the next seven years.
|John Bull worriedly inspects the small workshop of Bonaparte, to see what the kid is up to. He is carving and accumulating wooden vessels. Bull appears reassured because the vessels are accumulated in the trash basket. But the viewer is not fooled: the implications here are quite clear; John Bull will not notice the mischievous action of Bonaparte, and England will sleep peacefully.
|Bonaparte just crosses the Channel. Britannia desperately opens her arms for help from doctors (Addington and Hawkesbury) reminiscent of Shakespeare's Hamlet famous line; "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!".
Their support is of no use, even if Addington tries to revive her with gunpowder. Sheridan's patriotic attitude, who dressed as a clown here, seems to be based on ulterior mercantile motives. As for Fox, with his hat pulled over his eyes, he is unable to see the seriousness of the situation. It appears that nobody assumes responsibility for the peace treaty of Amiens, .
|Napoleon's nocturnal dreams: the massacre of Royalist insurgents during the 13th Vendemiaire, executions of Jaffa, many victims seeking revenge. Bonaparte here is also accused of having sacrificed his soldiers for fearful of being assassinated in a turmoil. He is holding in his hand a map of Malta and England. Campaign plans are on his nightstand.
|"Boney bear Jemmy Wright, who shave as well as any Man, almost not quite." 1806
Napoleon, as a barber, is shaving off the sovereigns of European countries' hair and beards and is described in this cartoon as "shaver general to most of the Sovereigns on the Continent." The bleeding Dutchman and the bleeding Emperor of Austria praise the closeness of their shaves. The Dutchman says: "Yaw Mynheer very close shaver, its nix my doll when you are used to it, " and the German Hanover prince says: "I hope he don't mean to shave me as bare as he has you and my neighbor Austria there? I should to sit here so quietly with my face lathered!!" Francis I addresses John Bull whom is looking through the barber shop window while passing by:"Come Johnny, come in and be shaved, don't be frightened at the size of the Razor, it cuts very clean I assure you!". Bull refuses the Emperor's encouragement to enter and notes the gashes and red marks left by the razor: "By Goes it seems and leaves a dom'd sight of gashes behind as you and Mynheer can testify!!". In the center of the caricature, the Prussian king sits lathered waiting for his turn to be shaved. He has a nervous expression on his face, and his right hand clenches a paper titled "Plan of Hanover." At the right of the caricature, Napoleon and Talleyrand attack the Sultan of Turkey by attempting to shave his beard. The Sultan tries to pull away:"By the Holy Prophet I must not part with my beard. Why my people will not acknowledge me for the grand Signor again at Constantinople!" Talleyrand tries to calm him down: "Come, come don't make such a fuss, and my Master will cut away when he catches anybody in his shop," and Napoleon: "Lather away Talley I'll soon ease him on his superflicities and make him look like my Christian Customers.".
A War of 1812 satire on Anglo-American and Franco-American relations. England's "lesson" is about the seriousness of American determination to maintain freedom on the high seas, while France is warned of Yankee firmness on matters of "Retribution" and "Respect."
On the left, Columbia, as a maiden with staff and liberty cap, a shield with stars and stripes, and an eagle, gestures toward John Bull, saying, "I tell you Johnny, you must learn to read Respect --Free trade -- Seamans rights &c -- As for you Mounseer Beau Napperty, when John gets his lesson by heart I'll teach you Respect -- Retribution &c. &c."
Bonaparte, standing on a hillock in the center: "Ha-ha -- Begar me be glad to see Madam Columbia angry with dat dere Bull -- But me no learn respect -- me no learn retribution -- Me be de grand Emperor."
John Bull, in knee breeches, standing at right: "I don't like that lesson -- I'll read this pretty lesson." He points to the pages of a book that read, "Power constitutes Right."
|Trial of Napoleon Bonaparte, George Cruikshank, 1813
This caricature sneers at Napoleon Bonaparte leaving his army on its horrendous retreat from Moscow and for his betrayal of the ideals of the French Revolution.
Napoleon duels with Gerhard Leberecht von Blücher, while a British sailor judges the match. Ink-and-watercolor by the Prussian artist Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764-1850)The caricature parodies political conditions at the time. Following Napoleon's retreat from Russia, the Germanic states, led by Prussia, reentered the wars against Napoleon. At the time the caricature was made, Prussian incursions were the primary threat to France, and von Blücher was the field marshal who pressed to move the Prussian army into France itself. The work is .
Napoleon's faction includes French generals, while von Blücher's includes German peasants and a Russian cossack.
|Messieurs, avec quel rasoir me faites-vous la barbe ? The British are ready to give Napoleon a close shave.
|Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, who led Prussian forces at the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, alongside his British counterpart, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington trying to put the lid on top of France's Napoleon Bonaparte
|Le Cesar de 1815 - je suis venu, j'ai vu, ... j'ai fui
Napoleon I carrying a broken standard with a dead eagle on top and a piece of paper that states "Vite à Paris"; he is fleeing from a battlefield strewn with dead French soldiers; above, the figure of Fame blows her trumpet and carries a paper that states "il j'est sauvé de l'Egypte, de Madrid, de Moscou, de Leipsic, de Mont-St. Jean"
|Napoleon on St. Helena: "Je fume en pleurant mes péchés." (I smoke and cry about my sins.) - 1815
|The Kings' Cake being Cut at the Congress of Vienna (November 1814-June 1815), L. to R. Emperor Francis I of Austria (1768-1835); King Frederick William III of Prussia (1770-1840); Czar Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825); Joachim Murat, king of Naples (1767-1815); Napoleon II, king of Rome (1811-1832);
On April 20, 1814, the dethroned Emperor left France for the isle of Elba, where he was exiled under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau. Napoleon would be allowed to rule Elba, which had 12,000 inhabitants. He was under the constant watch of Austrian and French guards. Nevertheless, on February 26, 1815, Napoleon managed to sneak past his guards and somehow escape from Elba, slip past interception by a British ship, and return to France. At the Congress of Vienna, where the European powers were meeting to discuss how to rearrange Europe in the aftermath of Napoleon's conquests, news of Napoleon's escape from Elba delivered an intense shock to all. On March 13, 1815, the nations represented there declared Napoleon an outlaw.
On the extreme left stands Francis I, grabbing the Italian side of the map marked 'Lombardie' and 'Etat de Venise'. He says with a sly leer "Les absens ont tort..." (he who is absent is always in the wrong), On his left stands Frederick William, close to the Tsar, he tears at a piece inscribed 'Saxe' which includes an extension to 'Mayence', saying with an imbecile stare, "Prenons bien les choses..." (But let's deal with the issues in the right order.) Alexander, holding a document inscribed 'Pologne', puts his left hand near the 'Duché de Curlande' and 'Lithuanie'. He looks to the right, exclaiming, "Je crains le Revenant!..." (I fear the returned-one!...) On his left, in the centre of the design and a little apart from the others, stands the Regent, with a pyramid of curls on a head like a pineapple. He silently holds up a pair of scales, one weighted by a heap of coins, the other containing a label: 'Le prix du sang!! . . .' (the blood money). On the right is 'le revenant', Napoleon holding the part of the map on which are 'France' and 'Paris'; he slashes at it with his sword, detaching it by a clean cut which reaches to les 'Pays Bas'; on it is inscribed 'Gare à qui y touchera! . . .' ( a reference to Napoleon's coronation on May 26, 1805. In the Duomo he took the Iron Crown and, placing it on his head, uttered the words: «Dieu me l'a domnée, gare a qui y touchera». God gave it to me, beware whoever touches it.) He says: "Qui compte sans son Hôte compte deux fois. . . ." (He that reckons without his host, must reckon over again meaning reckon not your chickens before they are hatched) The little King of Rome clutches his father's overcoat, saying, "Papa garde ma part. . . ." (father take care of mine). On Napoleon's right stands Murat, handsome and imposing. He holds 'Naples', which is next the cut made by Napoleon. Under the map is Talleyrand, grovelling on the ground and holding a profile medallion of Louis XVIII. His club-foot is conspicuous, and he wears many stars and ribbons. He says: "Je vais devenir d'Evêque . . . Meunier! Cachons nous, je suis sur un vilain pied ici bas. . . ." I'll become a bishop. . . Meunier! let us hide ourselves, I'm on a wrong foot down there".
|The Capitulation, caricature of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838) 30th March 1814, French School, (19th century)
Unique in his own age and a phenomenon in any, the enigmatic Charles-Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand, was a statesman of outstanding ability and extraordinary contradictions. He was a world-class rogue who held high office in five successive regimes. A well-known opportunist and a notorious bribe taker, Talleyrand's gifts to France arguably outvalued the vast personal fortune he amassed in her service. Once a supporter of the Revolution, after the fall of the monarchy, he fled to England and then to the United States. Talleyrand returned to France two years later and served under Napoleon, and represented France at the Congress of Vienna.
|The Man with Six Heads', caricature of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838), 1815
The French diplomat and statesman Charles Maurice Talleyrand-Perigod is portrayed as a man "floating with the tide". First published in 1815 as "L'Homme aux six tetes. Le Nain jaune" (the six-headed man [referring to Talleyrands prominent role in six different regimes: As Bishop of Autun during the reign of Louis XVI, as a member of the National Convention during the French Revolution, as Foreign Minister during the Directoire Era, as Foreign Minister of Napoleon the Consul and Napoleon the Emperor and finally as Foreign Minister and Minister President of the re-established Bourbon Monarchy).
A representative of the clergy in the States-General of 1789, Talleyrand sided with the revolutionists. He proposed the appropriation of church lands by the state, endorsed the civil constitution of the clergy, and was excommunicated (1791) by the pope after consecrating two "constitutional" bishops. In 1792 he was sent by the National Assembly on a mission to London to secure Great Britain's neutrality, but the radical turn of the French Revolution nullified his success. A lifelong advocate of constitutional monarchy and peace, Talleyrand sought refuge in England in Sept., 1792, following the fall of the monarchy. In 1794 he went to the United States, where he stayed until after the establishment (Nov., 1795) of the Directory in France, when he returned (Sept., 1796) to Paris.
Peter V. Curl claims that Talleyrand's part in the Revolution was not simply a question of opportunism, as many historians have claimed, but that he was politically on the side of the revolutionaries. He explains that Talleyrand served six successive governments on the basis that the State was a "metaphysical concept" which had to be obeyed and served in the most enlightened manner possible. The diplomatic beginnings of Talleyrand's career go back to the Ancien Régime. Talleyrand, according to Schroeder, "took it for granted that a permanent place and a role for Austria should be found within the international system, and he tried to come up with one which would please Napoleon. Napoleon, very much a criminal with respect to international politics, clearly did not see why he should be obliged to grant any role whatsoever to Austria".
|Negotiation at the Congress of Verona (1822)refusing to recognize the Greek declaration of independence
The Congress of Vienna established an international system of reactionary governments dedicated to maintaining a set of European boundaries, preventing revolutions and changes in government, and stopping any one power from becoming too powerful. To this end, the Congress powers agreed to meet whenever trouble should crop up in Europe to discuss how to fix it. This Holy Alliance, appropriating the name of the coalition of Christian values Alexander had wanted to set up at the Congress of Vienna, was also called the Congress System, and aimed at stopping any revolutionary attempt in any part of Europe. To deal with the revolutionary trends, Metternich called the Congress of Verona in 1822. The congress moved against the Greek revolutionaries, who really did not have the military power to take over Turkey at this time anyway. The Congress also allowed France to send an army into Spain to end the revolt and stabilize the Bourbon king. The revolution in Spain was quickly smashed.
The Greeks were the most privileged minority in the Ottoman State, and enjoyed substantial privileges. As H. Hearder states in his Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 1830-1880, "European Turkey differed from the rest of the continent in one significant respect. Whereas Christian governments in the rest of Europe had permitted no Muslim communities, Christians had been officially tolerated." The Greeks were also the most populous among the non-Muslims, and under the system of "millet" the leader of the Orthodox church, the Phanariot Patriarch, was always elected from the Greeks. Therefore the whole of the Orthodox population, Bulgarians, Serbians, Romanians, and Albanians were under Greek predominance. During the Napoleonic Wars the the French revolutionary ideas came to Greece. After defeating the Austrians in Italy in 1797, the French seized and then annexed the Ionian Islands.
|The Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna did not have the features of a real Congress. Although many European delegates arrived for the Congress, it never sat as one. In fact, most of the business was discussed in private informal sessions between the Big Four (Austria, Russia, Britain, and Prussia) and France, or during decadent feasts and balls. One attendee, Prince de Ligne, who was known for his wit, famously commented "Le Congres danse, mais ne marche pas" (The Congress dances, but does not progress).Prince Metternich's network of spies, frequented salons (drawing rooms where the intellectual, political, and social elite gathered to converse) and intercepted letters, reading, copying, and re-sealing them, before delegates began to catch on and took measures to prevent intelligence from falling into Austrian hands.
At the congress, Metternich's mastery of diplomatic maneuvering earned him the title of "the coachman of Europe." More than any other single leader, he seemed to determine the future direction of the Continent. One observer described him as "not a genius but a great talent; cold, calm, imperturbable, and a supreme calculator." Metternich's main goal at the congress was to promote the idea of the "Concert of Europe": if all the great powers acted together or in "concert," they would be able to prevent the outbreak of any large European war like the Napoleonic Wars. They might also be able to see that "the foundations of a lasting peace are secured as much as possible." The Congress did have a positive and lasting impact on European history. The peace treaty signed on June 9, 1815 resulted in what Henry Kissinger called the longest period of peace Europe has ever known. It was also "the first international peace conference to discuss humanitarian issues" and resulted in a condemnation of the slave trade, and discussions on literary piracy and the civil rights of Jews.
|The inconveniences of a crowded drawing room", George Cruikshank, 1818
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) preferred to deal with socio-cultural issues and satirize morals. Rowlandson worked with Tobias George Smollett, whose radical books resulted in him being sent to prison for libel. Some of Rowlandson's political cartoons also got him in trouble and he was accused by his critics of being "coarse and indelicate".
|Hodges Explanation of a Hundred Magistrates, Thomas. Rowlandson, 1815,
A yokel in a long smock stands before three elderly Justices of Peace. One of the justices says, How dare you Fellow to say it is unfair to bring you before one hundred Magistrates when you see there are but three of us.
The yokel tugs at his hair and replies, Why please your Worship you mun know – when I went to school they taught I that a one and two O's stood for a hundred – so do you see your Worship be One and the other two be Cyphers!
By the nineteenth century, there were three types of courts for a criminal to be brought to justice: Magistrates' Courts ( Quarter Sessions and Petty Sessions), Assize Courts, and the Court of King's (or Queen's) Bench. Courts of Petty Sessions were introduced in the 18th century as there was too much work for the Quarter Sessions (which only met four times a year) to handle. At this time the county of Essex was split into administrative units known as Hundreds. Each Hundred covered a number of parishes. For each Hundred there was a Petty Sessions which dealt with minor criminal offences. Petty Sessions dealt with minor cases such as drunkenness, poaching and vagrancy. After the Summary Jurisdiction Act of 1848, all summary trials had to take place at formally constituted Petty Sessions, before at least two magistrates. Meetings became more regular and laws passed that required the proceedings to be recorded.
|Lord North, Edmund Burke, Charles Fox, the Prince of Wales, and others attempting to break into the royal treasury. Political cartoon by unidentified illustrator from 1787.
Lord North was Prime Minister of Great Britain from January, 1770 to March, 1782. His early successes as Leader of the House and his efforts to cut the national debt brought him the confidence of a faction-ridden Parliament and the favor and friendship of King George III. But his failure to subdue the American colonies and the subsequent loss of the Revolutionary War brought an end to his ministry and forever darkened his name in history. For the first three years of the North ministry, the American colonies appeared calm. North had decided to retain the duty on tea imported into the American colonies. The colonists were of course angered by what they saw as an encroachment upon their own legislatures' prerogatives.Lord North's efforts to rescue the East India Tea Company from bankruptcy lead to the Boston Tea Party. Under the original proposal, the surplus inventories of tea would be shipped directly to the colonies. Consignees would be appointed to sell the tea in America. The duty on tea would have been removed. North, however, was unwilling to remove the tea duty. In May of 1773, the Tea Act passed the House of Commons with little opposition.
As information about the Tea Act filtered into the colonies, public opinion changed from placid to bitter resentment. In Boston, the first tea shipment arrived in November. Patriots would not allow the ship to unload its cargo, and the despised governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, would not permit the ship to sail from the harbor without paying the duty. The impasse came to an end on the night of 16 December when Boston patriots, dressed as Indians, boarded the ship and dumped the tea chest into Boston harbor. Word of the Boston Tea Party reached London on 20 January, 1774. Public opinion turned sharply against the colonists, especially Boston. The news was received bitterly by the North ministry. A policy of coercion was decided upon and Lord North drafted into legislation the Coercive Acts. Lord North intended on making a lesson of Massachusetts with the belief that the other colonies would not support her, but his assumptions were wrong. The moderates in the other colonies pledged their support to Massachusetts and called for a Continental Congress. Tensions mounted between the colonies and Great Britain. General Thomas Gage, now governor of the insolent colony of Massachusetts, warned in his letters of the impossibility of enforcing the Massachusetts Government Act without additional troops. By December, North realized that Great Britain was on the verge of war with her colonies. In January, he proposed a peace commission. He offered to eliminate the tea tax so long as the colonies promised to pay the salaries of civil authorities regularly. But it was too late. Events now overtook the hope of a peaceful reconciliation. On 16 April, 1775, a skirmish on the Lexington Green between Gage's troops and patriots transformed the American crisis into the American war. Bunker Hill followed later that summer. Lord North was forced to declare the colonies in a state of rebellion.
|British officers, in a child-like manner, demonstrate skills in hopes of securing a command for the war with the American colonies. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Britannia lamenting her present state, her shield and broken lance by her side, "What a situation am I in sold by an American purchased by France Spain. Oh, wheres my Pitt." Four men are standing before her, from left, an American holding in his right hand a lance topped with liberty cap and in his left a sword with which he threatens her, next a Frenchman urges him to "frighten her." A Spaniard is standing next to the Frenchman with his back to Britannia, he wears a low hat and a cloak, and on the far right is a Dutchman. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
This Gillray etching is a satire on the suspension of gold payments by the Bank of England. Prime minister William Pitt was forced to implement the issue of paper money when the Bank announced a gold shortage, due to loans it had made to finance the war with France. Rumors circulated that the Bank's coin was merely being held in reserve to send to the Continent in support of the war. Hence the significance of the locked chest, and the coins in the pockets of the lady's paper money dress.
In Gillray's cartoon, he nicknamed the Bank of England the "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street", the first recorded use of the nickname. The tag has stuck ever since – and in his satire, Political Ravishment, the Old Lady's in danger. "Murder! Murder!" she cries. "Rape! Murder! O you villain! What, have I kept my honour so long to have it broke up by you at last? O murder! Rape! Ravishment! Ruin! Ruin! Ruin!!!"
|The Able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught. 1774. London Magazine. British Cartoon Collection.
Following the colonists' defiant display at the Boston Tea Party, the majority of England was surprised, bewildered, and angered by the colonists' actions. After much debate in the Parliament, King George III assumed an active role in deciding punishment for the rebellious and costly colonists by personally advising Lord North, the Prime Minister of Britain at the time. This resulted in the "Coercive Acts," passed in March 1774, which were intended to quell the colonists and force them into submission.
VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION 1775 Lord Bute aiming a blunderbuss at a man representing colonial America; a member of Parliament, pointing at the American, tells Bute "I give you that man's money for my use", to which the American responds by saying, "I will not be robbed". On the right, blindfolded, Britannia is about to stumble into "The pit prepared for others" while behind her, in the background, "The English Protestant town of Boston" is in flames. On the left kneels a monk holding a gibbet and a cross, behind him stands a Frenchman with sword raised; perched on a cliff and forming the backdrop to Bute, the monk, and the Frenchman, is the city of Quebec.
|News from America, or the Patriots in the dumps
Lord North standing on a platform holding letter announcing the British capture of New York by General William Howe. A distraught woman "America" holding a liberty cap, sits at the base of the platform; others present react to the news. Confident that most Americans would welcome him, General Howe arrived in Boston on 25th May, 1775. By then the first shots of the American Revolution had already been fired, and American militia besieged Boston. The town of Charlestown had been destroyed by British naval gunfire and Joseph Warren, the popular President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, had been killed. General Howe was stunned. The battle had made the possibility of a negotiated settlement much more remote by increasing the fury of the colonists while at the same time giving them confidence in their ability to fight the King's regiments on even terms.
When it became obvious that only military force would break the stalemate, General Howe turned his full attention to the occupation of New York. With the arrival of yet more reinforcements, he believed his army was strong enough to successfully assault the rebel defences. In planning his offensive in New York Howe ignored his own often-stated belief that the quickest way to end the war was to destroy the Continental Army. A bloody victory now would not serve his purpose. Instead, he adopted a strategy of conquering ground rather than killing colonists. His strategy was to discourage the rebels by mounting a steady, irresistible advance through their farms and fields and forcing them from New York in much the same way he had been compelled to leave Boston. From Long Island, General Howe forced the rebels from Manhattan, across the Hudson, through New Jersey and to the banks of the Delaware River, not far from the colonial capital of Philadelphia. Here, General Washington's foresight in taking all the boats on the river to the far side with his retreating army forced an end to the pursuit.
The rebel victories, though small, destroyed General Howe's hopes of ending the war by spring. Encouraged by George Washington's success, new recruits came forward to replace those who left his army. The British commander-in-chief abandoned most of New Jersey, along with his plan to pacify its inhabitants. He admitted that there now seemed no hope of suppressing the rebellion without crushing the American army. Washington, however, had already reached the same conclusion and was determined to preserve his troops rather than risk all on the outcome of a single battle. From the spring of 1777 until General Howe resigned his command and returned home in 1778, Sir William won several more victories, but he was never again able to catch the rebel army in the sort of trap he had let it escape from on Long Island.
This cartoon relates to The Treaty of Paris, which marks the official end of The American Revolutionary War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. With the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain acknowledged American independence. John Bull, representing England, is throwing up his arms in despair as a portly Dutchman, a Spaniard, and a Frenchman, are still nagging and a farting devil is flying away with a Map of America in his hands. In the background is a battle scene at Gibraltar. John Bull is teased first by a French man, who offers him snuff. Great Britain relinquished very little to the French, who were to carry their grievances into the Napoleonic Era. The Spaniard gestures toward Gibraltar, where a naval battle rages. In the treaty, Spain gave up Gibraltar, but regained Florida and Minorca. The Dutch, represented by the ill dressed man on the right, continued their negotiations into 1784.
Count de Rochambeau, French General of the Land Forces in America Reviewing the French, 1781
Comte de Rochambeau played a major role in helping America win independence during the American Revolution. He is considered to be one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America for his role in winning the Revolutionary War and securing American independence from Britain.
The presidential election of 1800 is generally considered the nastiest in American history. The race between Federalist John Adams and Republican Thomas Jefferson was raucous, bitter, and unpredictable. The Adams' Federalists were divided and made a poor campaign. According to the Constitution, presidential electors were required to vote for two persons without indicating which office each was to fill, the one receiving the highest number of votes to be President and the candidate standing next to be Vice President.
In the 1796 election Adams had defeated Jefferson in the Electoral College, but only by the narrow margin of 71 to 68. With the second most votes Jefferson became vice president with no responsibilities besides presiding over the Senate. Adams sought to involve Jefferson in his new administration, but Jefferson declined any participation. In the election of 1800, Aaron Burr, the Republican candidate for Vice President, had received the same number of votes as Jefferson; as neither had a majority the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where the Federalists held the balance of power. Although it was well known that Burr was not even a candidate for President, his friends and many Federalists began intriguing for his election to that high office. Had it not been for the vigorous action of Hamilton the prize might have been snatched out of Jefferson's hands. Not until the thirty-sixth ballot on February 17, 1801, was the great issue decided in his favor.
Peter Pencil, Intercourse or Impartial Dealings, 1809
President Jefferson is being held up for money by Napoleon and King George. Critics of Jefferson believed that he had paid too much for Louisiana and was prepared to pay too much for the Floridas. This cartoon also satirizes the failure of Jefferson's use of the embargo and restrictions on trade as a curb on French and British depredations of American shipping.
Cruikshank, The Happy Effects of that Grand System of Shutting Ports Against the English, 1808
President Jefferson stands on a dais addressing a group of disgruntled Members of Congress. Before Jefferson is a table covered with papers inscribed 'Pettition and Pettition New York'. Napoleon is hiding behind Jefferson's presidential chair whispering; "You shall be King hereafter". Jefferson addresses the assembly: "Citizens - I am sorry I cannot call you my Lords Gentlemen!! - This is a Grand Philosophical Idea - shutting our Ports against the English - if we continue the Experiment for about fifteen or twenty years, we may begin then to feel the good 'Effects' - in the mean time to prevent our sailors from being idle. I would advise you to imploy them in various works of husbandry and by that means we may gain the protection of that great and mighty Emperor King Napoleon!! A small dog, John 'Bull' (its collar so inscribed), barks "Bow Wow" at the President. The Congressmen say: "How are we to Dispose of our produce; My warehouses are full; Yea friend thou may as well tell us to cut of our nose to be revenged of our face [a Quaker in a broad-brimmed hat]; My famely is Starving'; my Goods are Spoiling; It was not the case in Great Washintons time; we must speak to him in more 'forceble language'.
William Charles, "A Boxing Match, or Another Bloody Nose for John Bull," Lithograph, New York, 1813.
The Anglo-American War of 1812 or the American'Second War for Independence, was directly related to the Napoleonic conflict. In British eyes the Americans had stabbed them in the back while they they were fighting Napoleon. Britain relied on a maritime economic blockade to defeat France. When American merchants tried to breach this blockade, the British introduced new laws, the 'Orders in Council', to block them, and when British warships stopped American merchant ships, they forcibly impressed any British sailors they found into the Royal Navy.
James Madison's Tax Policies During the War of 1812 .
Madison holds an iron rod bearing a banner which proclaims the War of 1812 popular slogan "Free Trade Sailors Rights." The downtrodden taxpayer on whose back Madison stands replies,
"None of your Boesting / Mr. Jammy say I / Tax, Tax upon our / Backs is the unanimous cry / it was by your Iron Rod that / we became Rule'd. / Till every Cent out of / our Pockets is foold."James Madison (1751-1836) was the principal architect of the United States Constitution, the Secretary of State under President Thomas Jefferson, and the fourth president of the United States. As president, Madison continued to support aggressive trade measures against Britain and requested a declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812 when commercial pressure failed to achieve a change in British policy. The war expenses added to the economic problems, and Congress was forced to find additional sources for funding. Taxes on houses, land, and slaves were enacted in 1813, 1815, and 1816, with additional duties on liquor licenses, auction sales, carriages, and refined sugar, among other items. During the War of 1812, Madison faced almost treasonous opposition from merchants and public officials in New England. But he refused to limit civil liberties or declare martial law, as he was urged to do by supporters
President James Madison fleeing from Washington, D.C., which is being burned by the British, during the War of 1812.
Reaching Washington on the evening of August 24, the British found a city largely deserted, with the only resistance being ineffective sniper fire from one house. The first order of business for the British was to attack the navy yard, which they burned. British troops next arrived at the US Capitol, which was still unfinished. According to later accounts, the British were impressed by the fine architecture of the building, and some of the officers had qualms about burning it. According to legend, Admiral Cockburn sat in the chair belonging to the Speaker of the House and asked, "Shall this harbor of Yankee democracy be burned?" The British Marines with him yelled "Aye!" Orders were given to torch the building. The British troops worked diligently to set fires inside the Capitol, destroying years of work by artisans brought from Europe. With the burning Capitol lighting the sky, troops also marched to burn an armory. At about 10:30 pm, approximately 150 Royal Marines formed up in columns and began marching westward on Pennsylvania Avenue, following the route used in modern times for inauguration day parades. The British troops moved quickly, with a particular destination in mind. By that time President James Madison had fled to safety in Virginia, where he would meet up with his wife and servants from the president's house.
A figurative portrayal of the presidential race of 1824. A crowd of cheering citizens watch as candidates (left to right) John Quincy Adams, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson stride toward the finish. Henry Clay has dropped from the race and stands, hand on head, on the far right saying, "D--n it I cant save my distance--so I may as well "draw up."" He is consoled by a man in riding clothes, "Well dont distress yourself--there'll be some scrubbing by & then you'll have a chance." Assorted comments come from the crowd, reflecting various sectional and partisan views.
A Westerner with stovepipe hat and powder horn: "Hurra for our Jacks-"son."" Former President John Adams: "Hurra for our son "Jack.""
Two men in coachmen's livery: "That inne-track fellow [Crawford] goes so well; that I think he must have got the better of the bots [boss?]." and "Like enough; but betwixt you I--I dont think he'll ever get the better of the "Quinsy.""
A ragged Irishman: "Blast my eyes if I dont "venter" a "small" horn of rotgut on that "bald filly" in the middle [Adams]."
A Frenchman: "Ah hah! Mon's Neddy I tink dat kick on de "back of you side" is worse den have no dinner de fourt of july."
In the left background is a platform and an inaugural scene, the "Presidential Chair" with a purse "$25,000 per Annum" (center) and an imaginative portrayal of the Capitol in the distance.
The major figures in American national politics in 1838 are gently satirized, each characterized as riding a favorite issue or "hobbyhorse." At the lead (far left) is President Martin Van Buren, riding a horse "Sub-Treasury," which he calls his "Old Hickory nag." The artist refers to Van Buren's independent treasury program, a system whereby federal funds were to be administered by revenue-collecting agencies or local "sub-treasuries" rather than by a national bank. The Independent Treasury Bill was perceived as an outgrowth of predecessor Jackson's anti-Bank program. Another hobbyhorse, "United States Bank" (center), is shared by Whig senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, leaders of congressional opposition to Jackson and Van Buren's respective fiscal agendas. Clay says, "Either you or I must get off Dan, for this horse wont carry double!" Webster responds, "Dash my Whig if I get off Hal!" Directly behind Van Buren Democratic Senator Thomas Hart Benton rides a horse "Specie Currency," an allusion to Benton's championing of hard money economics. Benton was identified with administration efforts to curb the use of currency in favor of "specie" or coin, and to increase the ratio of gold to silver in circulation. He says, "My Golden Poney carries more weight than any of them!" Behind Clay and Webster is South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun, advocate of state's rights and the driver of Southern nullification of the "Tariff of Abominations." On the right are William Henry Harrison, in military uniform and riding an "Anti-Masonic" hobby, and Massachusetts Congressman John Quincy Adams on his "Abolition" mount. Harrison's horse is named after the party which supported his 1836 bid for the Presidency. When he says, ". . . unless there is another Morgan abduction, I'm afraid he'll [the horse] lose his wind!" he alludes to the suspicious 1826 death of William Morgan (purportedly at the hands of Masons) which fueled considerable anti-Masonic sentiment in the United States. Adams laments, "This horse, instead of being my Topaz, is my Ebony."
|This 1859 Punch cartoon is captioned ''What? You young Yankee-noodle, strike your own father!''
After the Revolution of July 1830 Charles Philipon (1800-1862), a caricaturist and a talented journalist , founded La Caricature, the first modern illustrated satirical weekly paper. During four years of its publication, the paper was constantly prosecuted, fined, and censored. In 1832, before La Caricature's closure Philipon started a daily paper, Le Charivari , which printed a new drawing every day. Philipon frequently criticized King Louis-Phillipe the "Citizen King" whose pear-shaped head he exploited to the full in the Poire Royale or the Royal Pear series. He wound up in jail several times. The pear quickly became the commonly-recognized symbol of Louis-Phillipe and his entire regime. At the time, in France calling a person a pear was tantamount to calling him a buffoon. As part of his defense, Philipon sketched a series of drawings that transformed the king's head into a pear. He explained that if the king's face resembled a pear, then all pears should be subject to a fine. The sarcastic tone of Philipon's argument was lost on the judge who charged Philipon with a fine of two thousands francs and six months in jail. But the artist was unrepentant and on November 17, 1831, three days after the trial, La Caricature published an account of the proceedings, and in the following week, Philipon published the drawings from the trial as a lithograph. However, the issue was seized by the government.
|Charles Philipon's account of the court proceedings with respect to his portrayal of King Louis-Phillipe as a pear.
Here is a translation; THE PEARS , Made in the Paris Court of Assizes by the Director of LA CARICATURE. Sold to pay the 6000 francs fine of the newspaper Le Charivari. At the request of a large number of subscribers, we present today in Le Charivari, the pears which served as our defense in the case where La Caricature was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a 2,000 francs fine. If, to recognize the monarch in a cartoon, you do not expect it to have a resemblance, you will fall into the absurd [?]. Look at these shapeless sketches, to which I limited my defense.
[Beneath the 1st drawing] This sketch looks like a Louis-Philippe, do you condemn it?
[Beneath the 2nd drawing] Then we must condemn this one, which resembles the first.
[Beneath the 3rd drawing] Then condemn another, which resembles the second.
[Beneath the 4th drawing] And finally, if you are consistent, you can not absolve this pear, which resembles the preceding sketch.
Thus, a pear, a bun, and all the grotesque heads in which chance has maliciously placed this sad resemblance, you can inflict on the author five years imprisonment and a fine of five thousand francs!! Admit it, gentlemen, this is a peculiar freedom of the press!!
|Gargantua, Honoré Daumier , 1831
One of the most important political cartoonists in Philipon's paper was Honoré Daumier (1808-1879). In late 1831 the publishing business La Maison Aubert submitted one of his cartoons "Gargantua" to the "depot legal" for publication and put it on display in the window of the shop. It was soon seized, along with other prints done by Daumier, by the Paris police. They ordered the owner of the publishing house to destroy the lithographic stone and all the remaining proofs. In February 1932 Daumier, the owner of the publishing house, and the printer, were all brought to trial for arousing hatred and contempt of the king's government, and for offending the king's person. In the trial the argument was over whether "Gargantua" represented the king personally or if it was a symbolic representation of the king's swollen budget. All three of the men were convicted, but only Daumier served a prison term.
Philipon's example was followed all over Europe. In 1841 Punch, in Britain was established which introduced cartoonists such as John Leech (1817-1864) and John Tenniel (1820-1914), Harry Furniss (1854-1925). (Edward) Linley Sambourne (1844-1910), Bernard Partridge (1861-1945), and, Leonard Raven-Hill (1867-1942). In 1848 Kladderadatsch was established in Berlin followed by Die fliegende Blätter in 1845, and later on Punsch and Simplicissimus, in Munich. Simplicissimus introduced cartoonists like Olaf Gulbransson, Bruno Paul, Thomas Theodor Heine, and Blix
|Friedrich Wilhelm IV doesn't accept the crown offered by the Frankfurt Parliament. The cartoon shows the allegorical Germania reprimanding the democratic leader Heinrich von Gagern: "What are you whimpering about, you little jack in the box?" to which he replies: "I've carved your little one a crown and he doesn't want it!"
The February 1848 revolution in France, that had overthrew the monarchy of Louis Philippe and established the Second Republic, had also triggered a series of uprisings in South West Germany, spreading unevenly but rapidly to many other German lands and aiming to replace perceived injustices of the old, existing order. Popular grievances, which sustained the insurrections, differed from state to state in accordance with diverse conditions, but they usually included economic deprivation, a desire to abolish seigneurial dues and privileges, resentment of taxes, criticism of officialdom, an expectation of legality and equality before the law, a call for political rights of free assembly, association, speech and conscience, and the demand for a representative government and assembly.
In 1848, National Assembly in Frankfurt was preoccupied with the minutiae of the constitution, including its prefatory declaration of basic rights, but they were, in effect, debating the form which the new Nationalstaat should take.The creation of a nation-state, it was widely believed, required the erection of a suitable political superstructure to suit a pre-existing national culture. The movement of history towards unification seemed inevitable and natural. Friedrich Wilhelm IV linked constitutional and parliamentary concessions to the greater cause of the German nation, but having concurred in the imposition of a conservative Prussian constitution, he proceeded on 28 April 1849 to reject the title of 'Kaiser of the Germans', which he had already confided privately had a 'whorish smell of revolution'.
|Metternich flees Vienna, March 1848
The revolutions of 1848 ignited the countries of Europe in a way that would not be repeated until 1989. Violence broke out because legal and parliamentary movements for change were frustrated. The only countries where revolution was avoided were those where adequate concessions were made in time, such as Great Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands, or where opposition was negligible, such as Russia. Nobilities and middle classes demanded constitutional and representative instead of arbitrary and bureaucratic government. The revolution in France transformed German politics. A mass demonstration at Mannheim on 27 February and a march on Karlsruhe, the capital of Baden forced Grand Duke Leopold to concede a free press, trial by jury, and a people's militia on 29 February, and to appoint liberal ministers on 2 March.
The revolution in Vienna on 13-15 March 1848, as well as the revolution in Paris, helps to explain why Frederick William IV stooped to make concessions.The Lower Austrian Estates, which met on 13 March, were besieged by students and workers, from inside and outside the city walls, to urge them to press for reforms. Finally Metternich, the "last great master of the principle of balance," became the target of angry mobs. Forced to resign, he went into exile in England before returning to Vienna in 1858. He died there a year later.
Der Deutsche Michel bis zum Jahre 1841, after a drawing by R. Sabatky, hand-colored lithograph published in Mannheim, Germany by Korwan.
A sleeping Michel wearing a patchwork shirt with the names of various German states such as Saxony, Baden and Bavaria, is not the government, but the control and exploitation of Michel's land and goods by the neighbouring nations hinges on his innate drowsiness. They do not put him to sleep, but try to make sure that he stays this way.. His mouth is fastened by a padlock. To his right is the Austrian Chancellor Metternich who is drawing blood from Michel's arm, the blood turning to gold in the bowl. A bulldog, representing John Bull of England, removes a money purse from his pocket, while a French soldier cuts off his sleeve. Michel's head is being caressed by a Russian cossack. Above the group is a vignette representing soldiers drilling and marching, a man holding a violin and raising a glass to toast ("Es lebe de Rhein"), a battlefield scene with a man standing with one leg on another man ("Es lebe der deutsche Kraft"), and a large cannon with gun crew. In the clouds, Napoleon can be seen with a spyglass.
A 1843 article in the Berlinische Zeitung had this to say about the cartoon: around "one single figure, which alone is in total passivity, all the others are engaged in the most lively activity, which has no other purpose than to make sure this poor figure remains passive." In other words, the double meaning of Michel's sleepiness and the Powers' efforts to prevent him from waking up was well understood. The cartoon is far from being simply descriptive. Addressed to an audience that was to find itself satirized and shamed for its sleepy absence of patriotic energy required to defend the burgeoning German nation, the image's purpose was to prompt Michel's awakening.
|Dear Fatherland Be at Peace, The German Michel has awakened
Of all national stereotypes, the German Michel has the most ancient lineage. Indeed Michel predates the second oldest, John Bull (in the History of John Bull, 1727), by almost two centuries and Marianne of France and Uncle Sam of America by almost a further century. This is significant, given the remarkably late emergence of Germany as a nation state in Europe. Initially, Michel stood for the oppressed subject of an authoritarian system. This was well expressed in a cartoon, published in the Munich satirical journal, Leuchtkugeln, in the revolutionary period, featuring Michel and his oppressors. The cartoons depicted silhouettes of 'poor Michel', with downcast head and limp cap, chained by the combined forces of the 'system': throne, altar, military and bureaucracy. The graphic images were interspersed with satiric verses, which point to the (political) moral. The motif of der deutsche Michel as the victim of oppression, who, however, internalises the attitudes of his masters, is omnipresent in the literature and cartoons of the 1840s. It was only in the Wilhelmine era (apart from a brief period of weeks in the summer of 1848, when the German revolutionary troops were fighting the Danes in Schleswig-Holstein), that Michel became identified with the ambitions and resentments of German nationalists.
|The Brave Seven!
Following the outbreak of revolution in Germany in March 1848, two features marked what was a new stage in Michel's evolution. Firstly, his figure suddenly slimmed down, his pose and gait were transformed, as the erect figure of a typical young German artisan suddenly confronted his oppressors, prince, army and police. Secondly, as reflected for example, in an extended series of cartoons with accompanying text which had begun to appear in 1847 in the Munich journal Leuchtkugeln and continued until the summer of 1848, 'Michel' began to attribute his political insignificance to the jealous machinations of Germany's neighbours. These neighbours included both the great powers, France, England and Russia, and also a number of smaller states, such as the Netherlands and also Denmark, whose role in Schleswig-Holstein in the summer of 1848 proved to be such a powerful catalyst of nationalist fervour in the German Confederation.
|A German cartoon illustrates what it believed to be the hypocrisy of the British forcing a reluctant China to buy its opium from the Opium Wars of 1839 - 1842.
The first Opium War (1839–42) was between China and Britain, and the second Opium War (1856–60), also known as the Arrow War or the Anglo-French War in China, was fought by Britain and France against China. The Opium Wars arose from China's attempts to suppress the opium trade. British traders had been illegally exporting opium to China, and the resulting widespread addiction was causing serious social and economic disruption in the country. In 1839 the Chinese government confiscated all opium warehoused at Canton by British merchants. The antagonism between the two sides increased a few days later when some drunken British sailors killed a Chinese villager. The British government, which did not trust the Chinese legal system, refused to turn the accused men over to the Chinese courts. Hostilities broke out, and the small British forces were quickly victorious. The Treaty of Nanjing (Nanking), signed Aug. 29, 1842, and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (Humen), signed Oct. 8, 1843, provided for the payment of a large indemnity by China, cession of five ports for British trade and residence, and the right of British citizens to be tried by British courts. Other Western countries quickly demanded and were given similar privileges.
In this line-up, China is just the dead map to be cut up by the Powers; it has no agency of its own. The US commands center stage and establishes a new obstacle for the Powers: its new trade treaty with the Qing dynasty secured the right to trade over the entire Qing territory. The US now had a vested commercial interest in preventing China from being cut up. In this moment of ultimate weakness, the territorial integrity of China is maintained by the antagonism between the Powers and the Americans. This was to play a significant role in a mechanism that the Qing were able to use skillfully and very successfully.
Following the foreign military intervention in 1900 to lift the siege of the Peking legations by the Boxers and Muslim rebels, the court, which had supported the anti-foreign action, fled Peking. In a dramatic reversal, it accepted the proposal from a number of high Han Chinese officials to implement a wide-ranging "reform of governance" Xinzheng. This included the reform (1902) and later abolishment (1905) of the Imperial Examination System 科舉 (Keju); reforms in the schools and the military; a fully-fledged Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and eventually, the first steps toward a constitution and a parliament. While the government tried hard to keep the public discussion under control, it had no control over the key transcultural contact zones such as Hong Kong, Shanghai or Yokohama, where, since 1901, a veritable media explosion had been taking place that swept newspapers, periodicals and even images into those areas of China that were furthest from these centers. These media quickly abandoned the reluctance still visible in Tse Tsan Tai's cartoon and took on the court directly.
|The Real Trouble Will Come with the 'Wake', 1900.
Developing a strategy to deal with a sleeping China was not just a challenge for those committed to the country's betterment, but also for the Powers, because the newcomers, Russia, Japan, Germany and Italy, all rushed to the table thinking in traditional colonial terms. The option of a partition of China was considered far too risky and too costly for the dominant British and their American allies. A flurry of conferences between 1898 and 1900 was designed to find a consensus for the Powers or to impose certain rules how to deal with China.
The Boxers and their Muslim allies had started the siege of the Peking legations in June 1900. After heavy fighting, a relief contingent consisting of units from different Western countries broke through to the city and eventually overcame the Boxer resistance on August 14. The Manchu Court had already fled. This news did not make it into the August 15 issue of Puck, but the defeat of the Boxers, who had the support from the Court, had been palpable. For all practical purposes, Peking was occupied, the Court was on the run and China was as "dead" as the dragon in this image. The title of the cartoon contains a pun. There had been much talk in the past about the sleeping and awakening of China. Now with the death of the dragon, a "wake" ceremony is called for, but instead of the wake's participants being in silent mourning, they confront each other fully armed, especially Russia (the bear) and England (the lion). The real problem that these Powers face is not the awakening of China—this is a threat from the past—but what will happen during the "wake" after its death. The Powers will try to stop each other from taking a chunk of the dragon. The inscription shows the double nervousness about the awakening and the wake. The face of the dragon is reminiscent of contemporary American posters that denounced Chinese immigrants.[172] The perspective of both image and text is that of the foreign Powers—in this case that of the US eagle—sternly looking on this scene from the top left. There is a danger that the Powers will go to war over this dead giant.
|Taking a Neutral Stance 局外中立, 1904.
Russia (on the right) walks off with a preciously adorned horse (Manchuria, part of China's territory), while Japan (in the middle) looks on in irritation. The Chinese Manchu official kneels in front of the foreign powers with an assurance that he will take a neutral stance in this conflict, which was heading towards war. The Chinese "nation/citizens", guomin, in the left lower corner are firmly asleep while Russia walks away with their property.
The capitulation of Sedan; Napoleon III Wilhelm I of Prussia
Since 1866, when Prussia had defeated Austria and won the leadership in Germany, Napoleon III of the Second French Empire had longed to crush Prussia, which he considered an upstart power. Meanwhile Bismarck, the chancellor of Prussia, felt that a war was necessary to unify Germany
The Franco-Prussian War, waged between France and the German states under the leadership of Prussia, from July 15, 1870, dramatically changed European history. The rapid and overwhelming victory of Prussia in this conflict made possible the creation of a unified German Empire. Prussian would first fight and destroy the armies of the emperor Napoleon, then the newly raised armies of the Third republic. The war also marked the final step in Germany's rise to the position of a major continental power . Napoleon III surrendered to Wilhelm I, king of Prussia, on Sept. 2, 1870, after the battle at Sedan. The battle marked the decisive defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War and led to the fall of the Second French Empire, which was replaced by the Third Republic. As part of the settlement, the territory of Alsace-Lorraine was taken by Germany, which would retain it until after World War I. The war provided a rich range of characters for the caricaturists of that era.
|The capitulation of Sedan, Honoré Daumier, 1870
The Capitulation of the French Army at Sedan, September 2, 1870 proved fatal to the French Empire. On Saturday, Count Palikao officially recognized a great disaster, and during a midnight sitting he acknowledged to the Chamber the whole truth, which, on the following morning, was communicated through the Journal Officiel to all Paris. A sitting was ordered for noon on Sunday, and all Saturday night the leaders of parties made their preparations. The idea of Count Palikao was to form a Provisional Government, with himself as its head, and to support the Chamber in assuming the control of affairs. The idea of the Right was to proclaim Napoleon IV., with the Empress as Regent, and the Chamber, protected by Palikao, as the final authority. The idea of General Trochu was to effect a fusion with the Left, turn the National Guards upon the Corps Legislatif, decree the overthrow of the dynasty, dismiss the Chamber, and establish some kind of a Provisional Dictator- ship. On the one side, the troops in Paris were ordered to defend the Legislature ; on the other, the National Guards were ordered to surround it.
Napoleon fell, Russia, Austria, and Italy all arming. It is extremely doubtful, however, if Russia will help a Republic which must sympathize with Poland ; Austria distrusts a State without an army, and Italy seems intent upon taking possession of Rome. The news from Italy is unusually confused and contradictory, but it seems to be certain that the cry throughout Italy is "Rome or a Republic !" that Florentines have been officially warned of a possible transfer of the capital ; that the King has decided on a military occupation of Rome ; and that a considerable army is collecting on the frontier. The Catholic Powers apparently are in no position to interfere, and Prussia, which is not trustworthy about Rome, is too much occupied. There remains England, whose position is as yet scarcely intelligible, unless assurances have been received that Germany will, on territorial questions, be moderate .
|Louis Bonaparte Napoleon III and Wilhelm l of Prussia, 1870.
The two are depicted as drunken buffoons, betraying the moral and spiritual ideals fought for in the French Revolution.
|Un Bain de Sang! Napoléon Charles Louis De Frondat, 1870
The German Emperor, Wilhelm I, sitting in a tub of blood with the head of the French Emperor Napoleon III. The title reads; Bloodbath, you see it will drown both of us!
|This Kladderadatsch cartoon by Wilhelm Scholz is entitled "Good Advice is Costly" --Guter Rath is theuer.
The caption reads: "Bismarck (leading Alsace and Lorraine): Dear Reichstag, we have the two lads back again, but now tell me where and how we should accommodate them!" While Bavaria would have happily taken over custodianship of the two provinces seized from France in 1871, this cartoon correctly foresees a struggle for authority between Germania (representing Germany's martial origins) and the Reichstag, whose members saw an opportunity to import newer, liberal traditions into the governance of the territories. Agreement on a constitution for Alsace-Lorraine was achieved very belatedly in Imperial Germany – in 1911
|Alexandre Dumas, André Gill, Cover of La Lune, December 2, 1866
Dumas' caricature is from The Man of the Day series by André Gill, who became known for his work for the weekly four-sheet newspaper La Lune, edited by Francis Polo. Gill worked for La Lune from 1865 to 1868. When La Lune was banned, he worked for the periodical L'Éclipse from 1868 to 1876. Gill also drew for famous periodical Le Charivari. In 1823, Alexandre Dumas, who was of a mixed race aristocratic background, became the clerk of the Duc d`Orléans -- later King Louis Philippe, because of his elegant handwriting. But, he was liberal and had republican sympathies, as he greeted the Revolution of 1848 with enthusiasm and even ran as a candidate for the Assembly. After the coup d'état in 1851 and the seizure of power by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoleon III, Dumas escaped to Brussels, as he was not looked upon favorably by the newly elected President. Dumas supported Victor Hugo who was also a liberal opponent of Napoleon III and was exiled by him.
The late 1840s and early 1850s were a period of feverish political change. The revolution of 1848 felled the Orleans monarchy and led to the creation of the Second Republic—which, in turn, led to the brief elected presidency, and subsequent installation as emperor, of Napoleon III. In the 1850s, as the old Paris of narrow streets and ramshackle houses gave way to the broad boulevards and uniform apartment blocks planned by Napoleon III and carried out by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Charles Baudelaire wrote an epitaph for the city he remembered:
Paris changes! but nothing of my melancholy as lifted. New palaces, scaffoldings, blocks, old outer districts: for me everything becomes allegory and my cherished memories weigh like rocks.
Then too, before the Louvre an image presses down on me: I recall my great swan with his crazy movements, as if in exile, ridiculous, sublime, gnawed by ceaseless craving! and think of
you, Andromache (from a great spouse's arms, fallen — mere chattel — under superb Pyrrhus's thumb) bent in ecstasy over an empty tomb, Hector's widow, alas! wife of Helenus!
I think of a negress, wasted, consumptive, trudging the mud, wild eyed, looking for faraway palms of glorious Africa behind an immense wall of fog; of whoever has lost what can never be found again, ever! of those steeped in tears, suckling Pain like a kind she-wolf; of starved orphans dried like flowers! So in the forest of my mind's exile an old Memory sounds a clear note on the horn! I think of sailors lost on desert islands, of prisoners, of the vanquished! . . . and of still others!— Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, "Tableaux parisiens
In 1863 Charles Baudelaire wrote three essays on caricature, ' On the Essence of Laughter ', ' Some French Caricaturists ', and ' Some Foreign Caricaturists ', in which he provided perhaps the first sustained defense of the value of caricature as a serious art, worthy of study in its own right. From the theory of the comic formulated in De l'essence du rire to his discussions of Daumier, Goya, Hogarth, Cruikshank, Bruegel, Grandville, Gavarni, Charlet, and many others, Baudelaire suggested that exaggeration reveals what lies beneath the surface of society. It needs to be exposed so that the 'darker workings of human nature can be dealt with' 'The painter [...] will be he who can extract from the present-day life it's epic quality, and make us see and understand [...] how great and poetic we are in our in our cravats and patent leather boots'Baudelaire divided caricature into two types: i). the significative comic who parodied human behavior in polite society whose reliance was on a mere observation of social facts, who is in effect honouring, instead of challenging the status quo, and; ii). the absolute comic , who is driven by the grotesque, revealing a malicious intent, who relied upon the hysterical laughter, that is more interesting, and makes a stronger point . 'He locates its origin in what he calls satanic laughter, or the feeling of superiority one gets when laughing at the misfortune of others'
For Baudelaire the art of modern life with its characteristics; grotesque, ironic, violent, farcical, fantastic, and fleeting reveals what lies beneath the surface of society. This caricatural aesthetic needs to be exposed so that the 'darker workings of human nature can be dealt with'. Fascinated by the dualism and ambiguity of laughter, in relation to human types that he viewed as allegorical figures full of the experience of modern times that could be represented by a pictorial shorthand, of symbolic meaning and moral value, he insisted that this representation has radical implications for such emblems of modernity as the city and the flâneur who roams the streets.
'The modern city is the space of the comic, a kind of caricature, presenting the flâneur , like the laugher, with an image of his own dualism, self- ignorance, and otherness'.
The modern city is the space of the comic, a kind of caricature, presenting the flaneur with an image of dualism, one's position as subject and object, implicated in the same urban experiences one seems to control. This idea that one's experience of life, of existing in a place and contributing to the allegory of a culture invests the idea of modernity with a give and take. If you are both the laugher and the object of laughter you prevent the 'subjective construction and appropriation of the world' that is referred to as modernism.
In this vain, the theory of the comic invests the idea of modernity with reciprocity, one's status as laughter and object of laughter, thus preventing the subjective construction and appropriation of the world that has so often been linked with the project of modernism.
'Comic art reflects what Walter Benjamin later defined as Baudelairean allegory, at once representing and revealing the alienation of modern experience'. For Baudelaire the caricature and the grotesque are not only a visual phenomenon but one of allegory, forms of endless combinations and implausible hybrids. It might be possible, as Walter Benjamin suggested after Baudelaire, that allegory, could take over the role of abstract thought . An allegory is a narrative which has both a literal meaning and a representative one. There are two main types of allegory: i). the historical or political, in which historical persons and events are referred to; and; ii). the allegory of ideas, in which abstract concepts and the story has a didactic purpose. Baudelaire transforms the dualism of the comic into a peculiarly modern unity--- the doubling of the comic artist enacted for the benefit of the audience, the self-generating and self-reflexive experience of the flaneur in a ''communion'' with the crowd.
|Le Chevalier de la Mort (The knight of death), caricature of the German Kaiser Wilhelm 1871. The objects of quite a number of biting caricatures by French artists were the Prussian efforts to become one of the Great Powers in Europe and Bismarck's endeavors to unite the German Reich. The goals of the German politicians were to be revealed with physiognomic and phrenological means.
|L'Homme A La Boule, Jules Renard, 1871. Count Otto von Bismarck balances on a the world with one spurred foot entering France, and wearing only his underpants which are marked with the German imperial eagle.
Having secured the creation of a united German Empire following the successful outcome of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, Bismarck was keen to consolidate Germany's position via the construction of alliances with other major powers.In so doing Bismarck was acknowledging that France would remain a threat, one set upon avenging her humiliating defeat in ceding Alsace and Lorraine to Germany at the conclusion of the 1870-71 war.
Bismarck set about the establishment of numerous alliances with, in 1873, the creation of the Three Emperors League. This agreement tied Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia to each other's aid in time of war. The agreement however only lasted until 1878 with Russia's withdrawal; Bismarck then agreed a new Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879. The Courts of Austria-Hungary, of Germany, and of Russia, animated by an equal desire to consolidate the general peace by an understanding intended to assure the defensive position of their respective States, have come into agreement on certain questions
|Bismarck offers slices of Africa to European powers at the Berlin conference.
Bismarck's life's work was the unification, through conquest and treaty, of an archipelago of German-speaking states (with the conspicuous exception of Austria). In 1870 Prussia humiliated France in the Franco-German War. Bismarck's army took Emperor Napoleon III prisoner and starved Paris into submission. The Prussians did a triumphal march through the streets of Paris. Bismarck was on a roll. In 1871 the hold-out states of southern Germany joined a Prussian-led federation with Kaiser Wilhelm I as head of state. In many ways this prosperous new country was authoritarian, but it was also a democracy with active political parties. Even in the flush of triumph, however, the master politician saw problems ahead. As Prussia expanded and became Germany, it lost its original character – a highly-centralised, largely Protestant state. Catholics – mostly in the Rhineland, southern Germany and in the Polish-speaking East – now constituted about a third of the new nation. Bismarck believed that he needed to press hard for unity of language, religion and education, drawing all of society under government control.
|Caricature "Between Berlin and Rome" from Kladderadatsch, 16 May 1875. The caption reads: "The last move was certainly very unpleasant for me; but that doesn't yet mean the game is lost. I have one more very fine move up my sleeve!" "It will also be the last, and then you are mated in a few moves - at least for Germany."
Although Prussia was an authoritarian society without a bill of rights, it was not a dictatorship. Harsh restrictions on Catholics were passed democratically after debates in a parliament. Prussia's progressive intellectual elite supported something which was clearly unjust: suppression of freedom of religion in the name of protecting freedom of thought. In 1864 Pope Pius IX published the Syllabus, a denunciation of the errors of modern thought, and in 1870 the First Vatican Council proclaimed papal infallibility. The infallibility was interpreted as an attack on the principle of secular government. To Bismarck, the troubled reign of Pius IX seemed like a golden moment to assert control. In July 1871 the assault began with the abolition of the Catholic bureau of worship and control of government-Church relations was handed over to Protestant bureaucrats. In November Bismarck passed the Kanzelparagraph (the Pulpit Law) which severely penalised criticism of the government by the clergy. In March 1872, all schools were placed under government control. In July 1872 the Jesuits (and later other religious orders) were expelled or interned. In December 1872 he broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The pressure on Catholics intensified in May 1873 with the so-called May Laws (or Falk Laws). These were four drastic measures designed to crush the hierarchy and subject the Church totally to government control. At the same time, Bismarck fostered relations with the Old Catholics and tried to establish them as an alternative to the Catholic hierarchy. In 1875 the fight intensified. A "Breadbasket Bill" was passed which suspended all grants to dioceses if the clergy had not complied with the new laws. All religious orders were dissolved, except socially useful ones involved in nursing and social work. Civil marriage was made obligatory. All Church property was confiscated and ownership was transferred to parish laymen acting as trustees. By 1878 the Catholic Church appeared to be in a sorry state. Most of its bishops were in exile; thousands of parishes had no priest. It had lost most of its property and power. But in fact Bismarck's Kulturkampf had run out of steam and most of his measures were about to be dismantled. Although Papal infallibility had not been popular with many German Catholics, nearly all of them closed ranks and presented a united front. In 1870 Catholics formed the Centre Party under the leadership first of Hermann von Mallinckrodt and then of Ludwig Windthorst, two politicians who were remarkable for their eloquence and shrewdness. Their party grew rapidly into a major political force.
|While Chamberlain cries out that the Indian cloth of the royal mantle is on fire - a reference to the outbreak of nationalist violence in India in 1897 - two English officers gleefully stamp it out. Britain's army was mindful of how events spiraled out of country in the lead up to the 1857 Mutiny and decided to become more proactive in using force with even minor political disturbances.
|After revolting against the unpopular regime of King Otto I in October 1862, the question who would succeed that unfortunate monarch on the Greek throne had been discussed with great ardour in Britain – not least since it was likely to recalibrate the European balance of powers in the intractable Eastern Question. But while Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred (1844-1900) had been ruled out by the logics of international power politics, the Greek people had fallen for his middy's uniform and simple dignity, when he had visited Greece and the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands on one of his many cruises in 1859. Prince Alfred never had the slightest inclination to become King of Greece. He loved his life as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and had before him the prospect of inheriting the small, but idyllic duchy of his childless German uncle.
A veritable "Alfred movement" swept the country, equating the "Sailor Prince" with the liberal protection of British super power and in Greece's first modern referendum, they elected the unsuspecting Prince as their sovereign. Queen Victoria's simple reaction that it could "never be" (15 November 1862) "on family and political grounds" decided the matter. Once the Greek throne had been rejected in Alfred's name, it was offered to various other minor princes. Among them was his very own uncle, Duke Ernst, who appeared to be the next best choice given that no son of Queen Victoria's was available. As it turned out, Duke Ernst's conditions were untenable (he wanted to remain Duke of Coburg and install a regency in Greece). But even though the storm passed, both he and Prince Alfred remained alert to the uncomfortable necessity of making arrangements for the future.
After having been advertised to an embarrassing number of princelings, the throne of Greece was bartered away to an inexperienced younger Prince of Denmark in March 1863. King George I, whose main advantages were actually his close relationship with the Prince of Wales and the British gift of the Ionian Islands. In August 1893, Prince Alfred's dynastic fate finally caught up with him. Barely missed by his English countrymen, and tepidly welcomed by his German subjects, he followed the coffin of his uncle to the dull idyll of Coburg. He died there, only seven years later, from the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption and a licentious lifestyle.
|The succession of Queen Victoria by her son King Edward did little to stem the flow of antagonistic commentary on the British role in the Boer War. This cartoon shows"Baby" Edward, a male version of his squat mother, viewing the blood oozing from the South African section of his new toy, the world.
"Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war." This words are said by Mark Antony to Caesar's corpse in Shakespeare's Julius Cesar. English foreign policy was described as "splendid isolationism", a policy of remaining aloof from alliances with other powers while exercising its influence to encourage a balance of power on the continent. So long as the continental powers checked each other, England was secure on the other side of the Channel.
Throughout much of the 19th century, Russia seemed to pose the greatest challenge to English imperial interests. Periodic Russian expansion towards the Balkans and the Straits of the Dardanelles (the Ottoman Empire) posed a potential threat to the English trade route to India. English and Russian imperial interests also clashed in Persia, in Afghanistan and in northern China. There were also conflicting imperialistic goals between England and France in Africa .
War erupted in 1877 when the Bulgars rose up against their Turkish rulers and Russia intervened on their side. The Russians defeated the Turks, and would have driven them almost entirely out of Europe had the other great powers not intervened. England threatened war against Russia, and Bismarck, concerned that Austria and Germany might be drawn in, convened a peace conference. In 1878, at the Congress of Berlin, the Russians were coerced into relinquishing their gains in the recent war with Turkey. Bulgaria's independence was recognized and the Austrian government made a claim for Bosnia.
Bernard Gillam was born in England in 1859. A contemporary of Nast's who drew for the rival Puck magazine. During the 1884 presidential campaign, he did a parody of a famous painting by Gerôme, with Blaine being exposed before Chicago pols with his body tattooed with all his various scandals. This cartoon is believed to have played a significant role in the victory of Grover Cleveland in that election. Blaine threatened to sue but was persuaded by his political friends to back down. Ironically, Gillam was a Republican who voted for Blaine in 1884.
The United States had treaty rights to establish a naval base on the island of Samoa, Presient Cleveland reacted strongly when Germany tried to install a puppet monarch. President dispatched three warships to Samoan waters, a bellicose action that led to a determination by Bismarck that something be done to head off the threat of a confrontation between Germany and the United States. The Germans suspended hostilities against Mataafa, and a new conference on Samoa was called to meet at Berlin in late April. Cleveland and Bayard accepted Bismarck's proposal for a tripartite conference which resulted in a tripartite protectorate over the islands signed by Germany, Britain, and the United States.
|Gunboat Diplomacy, By Raven Hill, 'Punch', September 2, 1911 Britain and France projected strength in their entent cordiale. The Kaiser backed down, and the French occupied Marocco. In exchange, France relinquished a chunk of the congo to Germany.
|Dropping the Pilot, Sir John Tenniel, Punch, March 1890. German Emperor Wilhelm II looks anxiously at the departing of his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The reference to Bismarck as a "pilot" was from an earlier cartoon "The Champion Pilot of the age" from the Puck magazine in which, the cartoonist Joseph Keppler depicted Bismarck on a ship, having brought it out to the high seas. In the background, the cartoonist depicted the French ship of state in distress. This symbolized Bismarck's accomplishment of forming the German Kaiserreich by means of the Franco-Prussian War.
|Cartoon by John Tenniel in *Punch* before war broke out: a Cossack threatens the Turkish sultan (July 23, 1853)
By 1850 Russian hopes of turning Turkey into a protectorate ran high. Had Russia succeeded, it would probably have displaced Britain as the strongest international power. Fear of Russian expansion was almost an obsession among some British policy-makers, including Lord Palmerston and his loyal supporter Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador in Constantinople. Canning had spent most of the previous 20 years encouraging reform in Turkey so that it could resist Russia more effectively. The Russians discouraged change, supporting the traditionalists and anti-reformists at the Ottoman court. One Turkish ambassador was told by the Tsar that the Turks should not bother to learn European languages
|Sultan Abdülaziz was welcomed with great interest in Paris by Napoleon III . From Paris the Sultan went directly to London, where his party was welcomed by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and was received with great applause. The European journey" took 46 days between 21 June 1867 and 7 August 1867.
|Abdul Aziz Sultan of Ottoman empire. Girls on his knees. 'Ote-toi de la que je m'y mette'. Vanity Fair, 1869.
Sultan Abdul Aziz succeeded his brother Abdul Mejid in 1861 and ruled until 1876. The urging of France, Britain, and Austria enabled the progressive ministers Mehmet 'Ali Pasha and Mehmed Fuad Pasha to reorganize the High Council to improve justice and education. In 1868 Midhat Pasha, was appointed president of a Council of State that included Christians to prepare a budget and promote reforms. Husain Awni Pasha worked on education in order to improve the army. Nonetheless Abdul Aziz was reactionary and autocratic. Whereas the Tanzimat had aimed at justice, now the young Turks wanted liberty and constitutional government. The first political party in Turkish history called the Patriotic Alliance or Young Ottoman Society was formed in 1865 as a secret society based on the Carbonari in Italy. In Namik Kemal who came from a family of Ottoman officials, began working for the Institute of Translation and translated and published an open letter to the Sultan by the Egyptian prince Mustafa Fazil demanding a constitution. Exiled to the provinces, Namik Kemal went to London and then to Paris with some other young radicals. In 1867 Abdul Aziz was the first sultan to visit Paris and London, where he came across these radicals. In June 1868 Kemal and Ziya Pasha began publishing their Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, which means freedom.
Namik Kemal translated French works into Turkish, and he wrote a series of "Letters on Constitutional Regime" to expound his liberal philosophy. He believed in the political sovereignty of the people and that the rights of individuals should be based on justice. He argued that Islam is compatible with republican government, and he proposed a council of state to draft bills and administer the laws, a national assembly to legislate and control the budget, and a senate to moderate the legislative body and the executive power by protecting the liberties of the people. Kemal argued that the superiority of modern civilization could no longer be doubted, and he urged Muslims to have faith in liberty and progress. He was the first Turkish writer to point out how the West had penetrated their economy, and he criticized the current financial, administrative, and educational conditions. Although he wanted to apply Western science, technology, economy, press, and education, he criticized the Tanzimat legal reforms for undermining the Muslim community. He argued that adopting the separation of state from religion was a serious error that opened the way for European interference. He became a patriotic romantic and urged an Islamic constitution. His patriotic drama Vatan (Fatherland) portrayed the heroic defense of Silistria and was performed at Istanbul in 1873. The audience was so moved by the play that the first three performances were followed by shouting and public demonstrations, causing Sultan Abdul Aziz to close the play, ban Kemal's newspaper, and deport him to Cyprus for three years.
Mehmed Fuad died in 1869, and after the death of Mehmet 'Ali in 1871 Sultan Abdul Aziz felt he was free from the reformers and could pursue his absolutist tendencies. He made his ministers directly responsible to him instead of to the grand vizier. He emulated the European luxuries he had observed and spent money building ironclad warships and railroads. In twenty years the Ottoman debt had risen from £4,000,000 to £200,000,000. More than half of the empire's revenues were now going to pay its charges. In 1873 drought in Anatolia led to famine, and many taxes could no longer be collected. Tax farming, which had been declared abolished in the reforms of 1839 and 1856, was once again banned. A bad harvest and extortions for taxes erupted into insurrection in Herzegovina in June 1875 and spread to Bosnia, causing civil war between Muslims and Christians. Abdülaziz was deposed by his ministers on May 30, 1876, his death a few days later was attributed to suicide.
|"The Turk and the Christians", The Greco-Turkish War, W. A. Rogers .
The Thirty Days' War, took place against a background of growing Greek concern over conditions in Crete, which was under Turkish domination and where relations between the Christians and their Muslim rulers had been deteriorating steadily. The outbreak in 1896 of rebellion on Crete, fomented in part by the secret Greek nationalistic society called Ethniki Etairia, appeared to present Greece with an opportunity to annex the island. By the beginning of 1897, large consignments of arms had been sent to Crete from Greece.
On January 21 the Greek fleet was mobilized, and in early February Greek troops landed on the island, and union with Greece was proclaimed. The following month, however, the European powers imposed a blockade upon Greece to prevent assistance being sent from the mainland to the island. They took this step to prevent the disturbance from spreading to the Balkans. Thwarted in their attempt to assist their compatriots in Crete, the Greeks sent a force, commanded by Prince Constantine, to attack the Turks in Thessaly (April). By the end of April, however, the Greeks, who were inadequately prepared for war, had been overwhelmed by the Turkish army, which had recently been reorganized under German supervision. The Greeks then yielded to pressure from the European powers, withdrew their troops from Crete, and accepted an armistice on the mainland (May 20, 1897).
A peace treaty, concluded on December 4, compelled Greece to pay the Turks an indemnity, to accept an international financial commission that would control Greek finances, and to yield some territory in Thessaly to Turkey. Subsequently, the Turkish troops also left Crete, which had been made an international protectorate, and an autonomous government under Prince George, the second son of the Greek king, was formed there (1898). Crete was finally ceded to Greece by the Treaty of London (1913), which ended the First Balkan War.
|Peace Rumors. Let Us Have (A) Peace (Piece). [The Turk wishes he was Christian]. Thomas Nast,Wood engraving, 1877. Published by Harper's Weekly. June 30, 1877.
The cartoon , accuses Europe of supporting Russia during the Russo-Turkish War simply because they wanted a piece of the Ottoman Empire. It was not a far cry from the truth considering how the empire was broken up following the end of the war. Nor was it an illusion that the Russian Czar had initiated warfare in order to liberate orthodox Christians from the Islamic empire. In fact, this notion was highly publicized in the Russian news. In this cartoon the Sultan of Turkey can do nothing but watch as the European nations cut up the map depicting his territory - England is shown through John Bull (foreground, back turned), Otto von Bismarck represents Germany (left), and Alexander II represents Russia (right). The figure between Russia and Germany might be Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta and President of France.
By the end of the 18th Century the situation of the Ottoman Empire was deplorable. Nearly all the pachas of Asia were no longer bound to the Sultan except by some tributes and formulae of respect; the Persians and the Kurds menaced the eastern frontiers; the Mamelukes tyrannised over Egypt; Syria was in open revolt; the pachas and peoples of Turkey in Europe appeared to be no better subjected than those of Asia.The implications of the decline of Ottoman power and the vulnerability and attractiveness of the empire's vast holdings became collectively known to European diplomats in the nineteenth century as "the Eastern Question." In 1853 Tsar Nicholas I of Russia described the Ottoman Empire as "the sick man of Europe." The problem from the viewpoint of European diplomacy was how to dispose of the empire in such a manner that no one power would gain an advantage at the expense of the others and upset the political balance of Europe.
Triple Alliance was secret agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed in May 1882 and renewed periodically until World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been closely allied since 1879. Germany had allied itself with Russia and Austria-Hungary in the Three Emperors' League, but Austria-Hungary and Russia were not the best of friends, partly because they were at odds over the Balkans and partly because Russia represented the Pan-Slavic movement, whose program threatened the very existence of Austria-Hungary.
After the slow death of the Three Emperors' League that lasted until 1890 Germany refused to renew its reinsurance treaty with Russia, and Russia in consequence sought a rapprochement with France. Bismarck negotiated the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy. Because of the long-standing hostility of Austria-Hungary toward Russia, however, he also negotiated a secret "Reinsurance Treaty" with the Russians. According to the terms of the treaty, Germany and Russia would remain neutral in the event that either nation was at war. France and Britain were bitter colonial rivals, and Bismarck counted on this rivalry to prevent any French-British co-operation. In an effort to maintain cordial relations with the British, he also refused to involve Germany in any colonial ventures.
In 1890, Kaiser Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck and within five years had abandoned Bismarck's carefully constructed diplomatic policies. He did not renew the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia and embarked upon an ambitious colonial policy and expansion of the German navy that provoked British hostility. By 1895, France and Russia had formed a military alliance. In 1905, Britain and France, both alarmed by Germany's increasing naval power and aggressive colonial policies, negotiated the "Entente Cordiale." This treaty included provisions for military co-operation in the event that either signatory entered a war with Germany. Europe was then dominated by two power blocs, the Triple Entente: France, Russia and Britain, and the Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
When World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, Italy declared itself neutral in the conflict, despite its membership in the so-called Triple Alliance alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary since 1882. Over the course of the months that followed, Italy and its leaders weighed their options; wooed by both sides, they carefully considered how to gain the greatest benefit from participation in the war.
The decision to join the fray on the side of the Allies was based largely on the assurances Italy received in the Treaty of London, signed in April 1915. By its terms, Italy would receive the fulfillment of its national dream: control over territory on its border with Austria-Hungary stretching from Trentino through the South Tyrol to Trieste. In addition, the Allies promised the Italians parts of Dalmatia and numerous islands along Austria-Hungary's Adriatic coast; the Albanian port city of Vlore (Italian: Valona) and a central protectorate in Albania; and territory from the Ottoman Empire.
Persia in the Great Game
Caught between imperialist Russia and British India. Persia played smartly in in their Great Game thus preserving her independence while faced with completely unfavorable odds gainst her. Russia forced Fath-Ali Shah to sign the Treaty of Golestan, acknowledging the Russian annexation of Georgia and surrendering a large chunk of the traditionally-Iranian south Caucasus, in 1813. The Czar using the modern warfare technology with heavy guns was able to compel the Shah to sign this humiliating treaty at the same time as the majority of his army was fending off the Napoleon Bonaparte's army. Russia eyeing the enormous wealth of British India attacked Iran again in the 1820's, and by 1828 had pounded the Iranians so badly that they signed the Treaty of Turkmanchai, in which Persia surrendered all claims north of the Aras River. This area now comprises Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Fath-Ali Shah's grandson, Muhammad Shah, succeeded him in 1834. At the behest of the Russians, he launched two unsuccessful attacks on Herat during the next 15 years.
The Central Asian region including Afghanistan was a zone of triangular contest between British Empires and Russian Czars. Czarist Russia and Britain in India were waging an undeclared war and containing each other in Central Asia and Afghanistan. These powers were struggling for establishing their hold in the region. As the Great Game intensified, the British and Russian demarcated the border between Afghanistan and Central Asia in 1884, when Russia annexed southern Tajikistan. Following its policy of annexation, in 1968, Russia annexed northern portion of present day Tajikistan and made it a part of Turkmenistan, a Russian controlled province.
In the old Great Game Afghanistan was the hub of conflict for British and Russian Empires. Element of uncertainty and distrust prevailed between both powers. The British had fear that Russia may threaten British Balochistan via Turkmen region to Herat and may animate the Kabul against British. On the other hand Russians were viewing that British would undermine them in Central Asia. Nasser al-Din Shah (r. 1848-1896)who modernized Iran's postal and banking systems (there's an irony here, considering the Persian roots of both), and established technical schools, played the European power against each other to preserve Iran's independence.
Finances were re-organized; tariffs on native merchants were increased; and reduced court expenditures affected the 'ulama. Belgian administrators were invited to reform the customs, but Iranian merchants complained that Russians were favored. The Shah sold an oil monopoly to the Australian British subject William Knox-D'Arcy, and new road tolls were granted to the Imperial Bank of Britain. A French company loaned Persia £200,000 to buy arms. The Belgian Joseph Naus mediated a new customs tariff that was signed by Persia and Russia in the Treaty of Erzerum in November 1901, ratified in December 1902, and kept secret until February 1903. People protested against the Belgian administrators and the foreign concessions. In the summer of 1903. Secret societies grew and spread critical literature.
Punch, New crowns for old ones!, 1876
Benjamin Disraeli offers Queen Victoria the crown of Empress of India in exchange for the British crown, and in the process reduces the power of the British monarch.
The Royal Parrot, The Odd Fellow, 1841
In October, 1839, Queen Victoria's cousins Ernest and Albert paid her a visit, bringing with them a letter from their uncle Leopold, in which he recommended them to her care. They were at once upon intimate terms, and the Queen confided to her uncle that "Albert was very fascinating." Four days after their arrival she informed Lord Melbourne that she had made up her mind as to the question of marriage. The Queen described her betrothal as follows:
"At half-past twelve I sent for Albert. He came to the closet, where I was alone, and after a few minutes I said to him that I thought he would be aware why I wished him to come, and that it would make me happy if he would consent to what I wished, namely, to marry me. There was no hesitation on his part, but the offer was received with the greatest demonstrations of kindness and affection. . . . I told him I was quite unworthy of him. . . . He said he would be very happy to spend his life with me."
Thomas Nast, Abraham Lincoln and the Civil WarSome of the most recognizable cartoons were published in Harper's Weekly, a New York City periodical that also featured sketches of war scenes and famous personalities - as well as news and serialized literature. Among its illustrators were Winslow Homer (who also worked for the Illustrated Times) and Alfred Waud. The leading illustrator of Harpers Weekly was Thomas Nast. Nast was the most influential American caricaturist in the mid- to late 19th century. Specializing in political cartoons. He was a staunch opponent of slavery and throughout the Civil War produced patriotic drawings urging people to help crush the rebels. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said: "Thomas Nast has been our best recruiting sergeant. His emblematic cartoons have never failed to arouse enthusiasm and patriotism." Nast was also the artist who created the traditional image of Santa Claus and the Republican party's elephant symbol.
The Spanish-American War is often referred to as the first "media war." During the 1890s, journalism that sensationalized—and sometimes even manufactured—dramatic events was a powerful force that helped propel the United States into war with Spain. Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers--a style that became known as yellow journalism.
The Great War
Dutch artist Louis Raemaekers (1869–1956) has been called the Great Cartoonist of the Great War. According to president Theodore Roosevelt; The cartoons of Louis Raemaekers constitute the most powerful of the honorable contributions made by neutrals to the cause of civilization in the World War. Born in Roermond, in the Netherlands, Raemaekers, unconvinced by reports of German atrocities in invaded Belgium, crossed the border and returned home outraged. In the early years of WWI, Raemaekers, critical of the United States' neutrality, in a number of drawings clearly asked for U.S. intervention. His scathing anti-German political cartoons gained rapid fame at home and abroad. By October 1917 more than two thousand newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic were printing his drawings on a regular basis . Raemaekers's often provocative work resulted in his government's threatening to place him on trial for jeopardizing Dutch neutrality. After the armistice, Raemaekers used his art to champion the League of Nations and, later, to sound the alarm against German and Italian fascism.
This cartoon is critical of America. Although President Wilson had been the originator the the idea of a League, now America is refusing to join -- in spite of the USA being the 'keystone'.
Leslie Gilbert Illingworth's Second World War
Editorial cartoons after WWII
Leslie Illingworth , "There's Nothing In It.", Punch, October 1951
After nationalizing the Iranian oil industry, the ring master, Prime minister Mohammed Mosaddeq of Iran, passes the circus hoop to the Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa el-Nahhas, encouraging him to nationalize Suez Canal, and forcing the British lion to jump through the hoop.
After the Cold War
Steve Benson, Arizona Republic
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
John Sherffius, Boulder Daily Camera
Pete King doesn't look like McCarthy, but he sure sounds like him: Are you now, or have you ever been, a Muslim? The very title of his hearings tells his bias from the beginning: "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community (which presumes such radicalization exists) and That Community's Response" (which presumes it's been anything but cooperative). In fact, long before the hearings began, King had already announced his belief that 80 percent to 85 percent of American mosques are controlled by Islamic radicals; and that American Muslims have refused to cooperate with law enforcement officials in combating terrorism.
U.S. Election 2016
Donald Trump's 'chaos' presidency
On June 14th 2018 Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist, announced that, after a weeks-long conflict with his editors regarding unpublished anti-Trump cartoons, he has been fired from the paper.
... But in the past few weeks, editorial director Keith Burris and publisher John Robinson Block have refused to publish six of Rogers's cartoons, all criticizing Trump or his policies. Block and Burris have also rejected many of Rogers's rough sketch ideas for several months. This wasn't the first time Block has used his position to defend President Trump's actions; in January he demanded an editorial run in the Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade (where he is also the publisher) supporting Trump's use of the term "shithole countries." I realize now I didn't recognize this other danger of an authoritarian president: his enablers and the willing supporters who squash dissent and help attack the free press and subvert the Constitution.(...) The purpose of an editorial cartoonist is to hold politicians and powerful institutions accountable — and we all know how little President Trump thinks he, his family or his sycophants should be held accountable. Rogers was the first American editorial cartoonist to lose his job as a result, but he won't be the last. Trump has many "fixers." -- Democracy Dies in Darkness, Ann Telnaes, The Washington Post, June15, 2018
The Financial Crisis and Great Recession,
Schrank, The Independent, May 2012
David Cameron, François Hollande, Barack Obama, and Angela Merkel at the Delphic temple for oracle of Delphi. Obama asks, "Will Greece crash out of the eurozone, oh oracle?" The oracle replies, "That'll be another 100bn euros".Despite receiving billions of euros in bailout funds, Greece was still in danger of being forced to leave the euro (the famous Grexit). The cartoon relates to the G8 summit at Camp David, where the eurozone crisis was top of the agenda.
Frederick Deligne, Global Financial Crisis, Nice-Matin, Nice, France, 2011
The Snowden Affair
Obama and the Arab Spring,
Asked about the allegations from Kaine and others, Pompeo said they were "dead wrong." "Sen. Kaine is just dead wrong," Pompeo told reporters traveling with him in Budapest. "America is not covering up for a murder."
Saudis Connection,
Pope Benedict's Resignation ,
Bro Jonathan (the old name for Uncle Sam) trying to seduce Miss Canada, while the chaperon, John Bull, falling asleep.
Tom Innes, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's complete focus is on repatriation of Canadian Constitution, Calgary Herald, October 9, 1980
During the 1980 referendum debate in Quebec, Pierre Trudeau had committed to bring Quebec into Canadian confederation. He saw the way to this end through the act of repatriating the Canadian Constitution form Great Britain with an amending formula and entrenched rights for all Canadians. After the Federal forces were victorious in the referendum, Trudeau quickly set to work to come up with an agreement among the Provincial Premiers which could be taken the British Parliament with the request that they pass an act giving recognizing Canada's complete sovereignty over all matters in Canada.
On April 17, 1982 after the Canada Act had been passed in the British Parliament, it was signed into law by the Queen at a ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Canada finally had brought the constitution and the Charter of rights and Freedoms home.
Britain before and after Margaret Thatcher
Keith Waite, "WE'RE MERELY PROTECTING OUR UNDER COVER MEN."
John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in the British government under Conservative Prime Minister Harold MacMillan began an affair with Christine Keeler, a London call girl in 1961. Keeler had been the lover of Yevgeny "Eugene" Ivanov, a senior naval attache at the Russian embassy in London. Profumo was forced to step down from his position on June 5, 1963. An official report was released in September 1963 and a month later Prime Minister MacMillan resigned claiming ill health.
Harold Wilson and Lyndon Johnson, On US entry into Vietnam War ,The New Statesman Magazine April 1965
Paul Rigby, " But, Monsieur, 'se are your Friends?" The Sun, 19th Oct. 1972
The Heath Government was elected in June 1970 determined to take Britain into the E.E.C. The key question was whether the French would agree? Twice before, under De Gaulle, France had vetoed British applications. De Gaulle's successor, Georges Pompidou, was known to be more favourable, but a French "oui" could not be taken for granted. The key question, posed by Pompidou to Heath was; is Britain ready to make "a historic change in (its) attitude", a "fundamental choice" in favour of the European Community?
Edward McLachlan, The SDP - pudding in danger - or - Carving up the votes, Mail on Sunday, 17 Apr 1983
This cartoon depicting Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)and Michael Foot (Labour) carving of Roy Jenkins (SDP) is based on James Gillray's cartoon The plumb-pudding in danger: - or - state epicures taking un petit souper' depicting William Pitt and Napoleon Bonaparte; published 26 February 1805. Michael Foot inherited the leadership at the most difficult time for the Labour party.Two things happened that made it impossible for him to win the 1983 general election. First, in 1981, the party came close to falling apart as the "gang of four" - Shirley Williams, Bill Rogers, David Owen and Roy Jenkins - walked out and formed the SDP in protest at his left-wing polices. Second the Falklands War, which made Margaret Thatcher hugely popular – before then she had been a very unpopular prime minister. Put together, it made it impossible for Foot to carry victory.
Stanley Franklin, Daily Mirror
On 19 January 1976 Thatcher made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union, declaring that "The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen...They put guns before butter..." The Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda ("red star") gave her the nickname "Iron Lady", and this was eagerly taken up by her supporters.
Trog [Wally Fawkes], Observer, 20 Mar 1988,
Thatcher retired from Parliament at the 1992 General Election, but she left a lasting legacy. This cartoon by Brookes shows her as an elderly and surprisingly masculine figure, rejoicing in the success of her offspring - the New Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Steve Bell on the revelation that Tony Blair thought Gordon Brown 'mad, bad and dangerous'
Steve Bell's career at The Guardian started in 1981. He was born in London in 1951, he studied art at Leeds University and worked for magazines including the New Statesman and Time Out before joining The Guardian. His job gives him the chance to comment through humour on some of the biggest events of the past 25 years and mercilessly rib the people that made history. But altogether he was handed such ridiculous looking characters as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev to work with, it was not always easy to produce a daily strip. He recalls struggling with Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader from 1983 until 1992. He said: "Kinnock was very hard to draw, because all there was to him was the fact he was basically ginger. I always used to go big on the freckles, just to add some definition. It wasn't very fair, he wasn't that freckly but that was all I could think of for those nine long years.
Peter Brookes, The Times, May 25, 2010
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne's £6.2 billion of budget cuts included banning first-class travel for government departments, and scrapping chauffeur-driven cars for specific ministers.
Gary Barkers, David Cameron, Rupert Murdoch and Paul Stephenson, snug as a bug political cartoon, The Guardian
Rupert Murdoch's once-commanding influence in British politics dwindled to a new low on July 12th 2012, when all three major parties in Parliament joined in support of a sharp rebuke to his media empire and a parliamentary committee said it would call him, along with two other top executives, to testify publicly next week about the phone hacking scandal enveloping his media empire. The following day, Murdoch's News Corporation announced that it is withdrawing its bid for BSkyB.
Cameron's judgment, and that of the chancellor, George Osborne, in appointing the former editor of the News of the World Andy Coulson as their director of communications looked increasingly inexplicable. Cameron was being accused of an improperly contractual relationship with Neil Wallis, a former News of the World deputy editor, as his meetings with News International executives in a year exceeded those with all other news organisations put together. Not a single figure from the BBC was granted an audience.
Implying that he could not impart operational information to Cameron since he was too compromised with the chief suspects, Sir Paul Stephenson announced he was stepping down as the UK's most senior police officer. Just hours before his resignation, Deputy Prime Minister Clegg, told the BBC that a growing public perception of police corruption was deeply concerning. Stephenson dated his relationship to Wallis back to 2006. From October 2009 to September 2010, Wallis's part-time work at the Met involved strategic communications, advising the commissioner, as the force said there was no need to reopen the investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World.
Libor, the London inter-bank lending rate, is considered to be one of the most crucial interest rates in finance, upon which trillions of financial contracts rest, and the exposure of its rigging has shocked many beyond the world of finance. Every day a group of leading banks submit rates for 10 currencies and 15 lengths of loan ranging from overnight to 12 months. Since the rates submitted are estimates not actual transactions it's relatively easy to submit false figures
At the height of the financial crisis in late 2007, many banks stopped lending to each other over concerns about their financial health with some banks submitting much higher rates than others. Barclays was one of those submitting much higher rates, attracting some media attention. This prompted comment that Barclays was in trouble. Following much internal debate and a controversial conversation with a Bank of England official, Barclays began to submit much lower rates. The Libor scandal has further undermined trust in banks. BBC
Economist David Blanchflower argued there is no longer a credible candidate among top UK bankers to take over as the next governor of the Bank of England in the wake of recent banking scandals. Professor Blanchflower, who served on the Bank's monetary policy committee between 2006 and 2009, believed the escalating Libor crisis meant Sir Mervyn King's replacement could not come from the banking sector. An internal appointment was also out of the question, he argued, with Bank staff such as deputy governor Paul Tucker facing criticism over their actions. He proved to be right.
The Chancellor's New Clothes, 27 November, 2012
George Osborne stunned the markets by announcing that Mark Carney, the Canadian central banker, will replace Sir Mervyn King as the next Governor of the Bank of England. Carney is "the outstanding central banker of his generation with unparalleled expertise in financial regulation" Osborne said." He has got what it takes to help bring families and businesses through these incredibly challenging economic times...my responsibility was to get the best for Britain, and with Mark Carney we've got that."
Canada came through the financial crisis of 2007-8 relatively unscathed, thus boosting Carney's reputation. Under his governorship, the Bank of Canada cut interest rates to record lows and supplied emergency liquidity to the banking system to prevent a collapse.
France and Germany After WWII
Jean Eiffel,"Acceptez vous de prendre pour mari et légitime époux?", L'Express, septembre 1958
De Gaulle returned to power in 1958 thanks to the crisis of May 13. The crisis stemmed from the institutional weakness of the Fourth Republic, concentrating too much power in the parliament at the expense of the executive branch. As a result there were 24 governments in 12 years since the end of WWII. Meanwhile, the French army faced a daunting crisis due to the uprising of French Algeria. De Gaulle agreed to become President in exchange for constitutional reform
Fritz Behrendt, Algemeen Handelsblad, June 1962,
The German cartoonist reflects on the the oversized ego of General de Gaulle, President of the French Republic.
Michael Cummings (1919-*), 'Anything to declare, gentlemen?', L'Aurore, July 1961.
Paris customs officers Konrad Adenauer, German Chancellor, and Charles de Gaulle, French President, ask Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister who tries to smuggle the Commonwealth into the common market despite the warning: 'Common market: imports of special favours for the Commonwealth and agricultural protectionism forbidden.'
William Elias Papas, The Guardian, May 1967,
Charles de Gaulle's action plan towards the United Kingdom's application for accession to the European Communities.
JAK, Raymond Jackson (1927 - 1997), Evening Standard, Dec. 1969
"Well, for a start, Harold, can you do this?" French President Georges Pompidou and Prime Minister Harold Wilson
Lodge, Nevile Sidney, 1918-1989; Evening post (Newspaper. 1865-2002),1973
'Pardon, Monsieur The President, but as he was leaving, the New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister scribbled on your front door!,' A disgruntled Deputy PM has been to visit Pompidou to protest nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific without success. To show his frustration, the visitor has changed the name on the door to President Bombido and the presidential aide is telling the president about the graffiti.
Fritz Behrendt, 'A teaspoonful a day,' 1974.
The French President, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and the German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt's recommended dose of European Economic Community (EEC) medicine for the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson's ailment.
Plantu,'I've even included a catalytic converter, just for you!' , April 1985
The French President, François Mitterrand tries to sweeten the deal for the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl as part of his plan for the Eureka (European Research Coordination Agency) project, coordinating scientific and technological research at Community level .
Walter Hanel, "Welcome", 1993
French President François Mitterrand and the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl are standing at the door to welcome the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden to the European Community, but the quality of life inside the house is not much different.
Steve Bell, Guardian, June 2004
Jacques Chirac gently decried George Bush's plan to reform Arab states with free elections, independent media and improved legal systems. Democracy was not a commodity that could be exported. It had to be an Arab model of democracy not a western one.
Carlo Schneider, 2005
On 4 March, President Jacques Chirac announced that France will hold its referendum on the European Constitution on 29 May 2005. Chirac's statement came less than two weeks after the Spanish people had voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Constitution, albeit with a low turnout. Just a few days before the announcement of the French date, the Dutch government had decided to hold its consultative referendum on 1 June. Against the background of the Constitutional Treaty's rejection in the referendums in France and the Netherlands in spring 2005, the referendum euphoria changed into a referendum phobia. All member states except of Ireland where a referendum was legally required decided to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon via the parliamentary procedure only.
Christo Komarnitski, Apologies to Delacroix, Sarkozy and Carla Bruni.
Carla Bruni- Sarkozy's wife claimed to journalist Nathalie Saint-Cricq that "Nous sommes des gens modestes". This invited ridicule in her bid to recast her husband Nicolas a "man of the people". According to Daily Telegraph reporter Henry Samuel; "The comment from the heiress to a tyre fortune who earned almost £5 million per year at the height of her catwalk fame has turned Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy into a laughing stock on the internet. One commentator on Le Monde's website describing the claim as coming from "Marie Antoinette in Sarkoland."".
Sarkozy's expulsion of Roma gypsies was a dark episode in the history of France. According to Libération: "France stands accused". It stated that "the degraded image of Sarkozy's France isn't just an image. It's a reality as reported day after day in the foreign press."
Dave Brown, The Independent 2012. Nicolas Sarkozy tried to exploit a Toulouse shootings in March to boost his chances of re-election and keep the focus on security.
Hagen, Verdens Gang - Oslo, Norway, 2012.
Sarkozy as the train bearer for the Miss France, who's no other than the far-right candidate Marine le Pen
After his electoral victory Francois Hollande went to Berlin to talk with Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel. He stated "I want growth to be not only a word, not just a word that can be uttered and followed by tangible acts in proof. The best method is to put everything on the table." and Merkel responded: "I am pleased that we have agreed on talking about the different ideas in terms of growth. And I'm not worried that we could not have common ground. Possibly we have some different opinions but I really look forward to our cooperation."
Emmanuel Macron visited Washington in April 2018 that was dominated by differences with the United States over trade and the nuclear accord with Iran. Donald Trump gave his French counterpart a red carpet welcome at the White House. The media called them "An odd couple". According to Bloomberg:
The world seems fascinated by the strikingly warm rapport between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron — one of those relationships that has many reaching for the cliched "bromance" label. Both men like to play up their friendship with long, vigorous hand-shakes and air kisses. They exchange endless smiling pleasantries and talk about how often they speak on the phone, like a cooing young couple.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's Germany
European Debt Crisis
Ukraine Crisis
China of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jantao
|Herbert Block, "Mushrooming cloud," Washington post April 1, 1965,
Communist China exploded its first atomic bomb in October 1964, and the State Department warned in February 1965 that the Chinese, under Mao Zedong, were preparing another nuclear test. The Soviet Union insisted that the Chinese tests did not pose a threat,
Although he brought stability to China, violence was central to Deng Xiaping's formation. As Roderick Macfarquhar and Michael Schoenhals have shown in their epic book "Mao's Last Revolution", Deng was responsible for purges in the later years of the Cultural Revolution that matched the Gang of Four for brutality. In 1975 he ordered the army to crack down on a Muslim village in Yunnan province, an action which resulted in 1,600 deaths including those of 300 children. Deng's response to the student and worker protests 14 years later was hardly out of character.
Deng Xiaoping will be remembered as the man who put China on the path to economic reforms. He launched capitalist-style market reforms in 1978. They helped push China through a metamorphosis from a drab Leninist state solely dependent on its staid state economy to a dynamic economic powerhouse. But according to state media, the Gini Coefficient for China climbed from 0.18 in 1978 to 0.452 in 1995, and reached the warning level of 0.51 in 2002. The index is an economic measurement of the rich-poor disparity used by the United Nations and the World bank and a reading between 0.3 and 0.4 is regarded as normal but 0.4 or above is considered serious.
Tiananmen Square was followed by a period of repression marked by mass arrests and executions. Thousands were jailed, harassed and threatened. Some were executed, shot in the back of the neck, and photographs of the bodies were posted all over the country as warnings. Human rights groups reported that 50 to 100 people were executed in the wake of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, some for things as minor as setting a police motorcycle on fire or taking photographs of tanks around the square. Another 15,000 to 20,000 were detained, with 99 of those still in prison in ten years later.
Jiang Zemin's rise to power stemmed from a politburo purge of liberal leaders in 1989, after the ruthless suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who held all the real power, needed to find a new protege to lead the Communist Party. Jiang, who as Shanghai party chief had weathered the student protests without resorting to violence, fitted the bill. By the time Deng finally died in February 1997, Jiang Zemin had been given enough time to establish himself.
|Ingrid Rice, Vancouver Sun, November 26, 1996
Jiang Zemin who brought China into the World Trade Organization and rebuilt ties to the United States after a breakdown in 1989, favored deeper ties to the West and more opportunities for China's private sector. He did not possess the indomitable behind-the-scenes power of Deng Xiaoping, who ushered in market reforms after the death of Mao Zedong. But a year of division and uncertainty at the end of Hu Jintao's tenure created openings for him to influence the election of Hu's successor, Xi Jinping.
The Tiananmen Square massacre was a pivotal event in Jiang's political career. In 1989, as Party chief of Shanghai, Jiang suppressed the liberal newspaper the World Economic Herald and, while other provincial officials waited, very promptly supported the Central Party's call for martial law in mid-May. According to The Real Story of Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping, pleased at Jiang's show of toughness, secretly made him general secretary in the days before the massacre. After the massacre, Jiang was responsible for chasing down and suppressing the remnants of the democracy movement.
|Hu Jintao succeeds Jiang Zemin
|China's top Communist leaders, including Mao Tse-tung and Deng Xiao-ping, edge out Tibetan deities before a horrified Tibetan monk. This refers to the government's mandate that a photo of the leaders be placed in Tibetan monasteries at a time when monks continue to light themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule.
Hu Jintao ensured that China would not repeat the same mistake as the Soviet leaders, reforming politics before fixing the economy. He and his Standing Committee colleagues focused nearly single-mindedly on economic growth. The question facing him when he came into office was what to do about the huge differences between the rich and the poor across the country. But beginning in 2007, after the dramatic collapse of Western export markets, he and his colleagues decided to focus on economic growth, no matter how unevenly wealth was spread across society. His original plans to lift taxes on farmers and concentrate on social welfare were quickly shelved as the party bet that, by keeping the economy humming above all else, it could stay a step ahead of the lower classes' growing anxieties.
Hu's legacy included creating 96 Chinese billionaires - in US dollar term, but 150 million Chinese still lived in poverty. The country became the second richest in the world on aggregate, but per capita income hovered near 90th, similar to per capita income in Cuba and Namibia. Shanghainese enjoyed a per capita income of more than $12,000 a year. Residents of Guizhou, China's poorest province, earned a mere $2,500 a year.
|"The Dear Leader's Death." Chinese President Hu Jintao wipes tears off the cheeks of Kim Jong Il's successor with a special handkerchief, as leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan anxiously look on.
The Chinese government continues to systematically erase from the public record any mention of the events of June 1989 that do not conform to the government's assessment of the bloody crackdown as a "political disturbance." China's online censors quickly remove any references to the 1989 crackdown, and internet search engines in China are carefully calibrated to filter out any images or references to the deaths of unarmed civilians for search requests on topics including "Tiananmen Square" and "June 4." Web searches for such terms typically yield "page could not be found" messages, and generally do not inform the user that the search has been censored. Under dictates of China's official Propaganda Department, the domestic print media are forbidden to publish articles on the events of June 1989 inconsistent with the government's version. In 2003, then-US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton pulled her memoirs from sale in China after it was revealed that her Chinese publisher had without her approval omitted her references to the 1989 democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
As of June 2012, China was the second largest holder of U.S. securities (after Japan) at nearly $1.6 trillion (down from $1.7 trillion as of June 2011). Her large holdings of U.S. securities have raised a number of concerns in both China and the United States. For example, in 2009, (then) Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stated that he was "a little worried" about the "safety" of China's holdings of U.S. debt. The sharp debate in Congress over raising the public debt ceiling in the summer of 2011 and the subsequent downgrade of the U.S. long-term sovereign credit from AAA to AA + by Standard and Poor's in August 2011 appears to have intensified Chinese concerns. In addition, Chinese officials have criticized U.S. fiscal and monetary policies, such as quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve, arguing that they could lead to higher U.S. inflation and/or a significant weakening of the dollar, which could reduce the value of China's U.S. debt holdings in the future. Some Chinese analysts have urged the government to diversify its reserves away from U.S. dollar assets, while others have called for more rapid appreciation of China's currency, which could lessen the need to hold U.S. assets.
In contrast, the women married to previous Chinese leaders, from Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao, and stayed largely behind the scenes, Peng Liyuan, the wife of Xi Jinping appeared on national television in January 2012 as the closing act of a military-themed Chinese New Year gala. "People are who the Party cares about forever," Ms Peng, wearing a white military uniform, sang to a rapt audience which included President Hu Jintao and her husband. Peng Liyuan was already famous when she met Xi Jinping in 1986.
Nicknamed "The Peony Fairy", Peng Liyuan joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army early in her career and made her name as an entertainer approved by the Communist Party, appearing frequently on state television to sing propaganda songs with titles like Plains of Hope and People From Our Village.Peng Liyuan did not always enjoy a rosy relationship with the Communist Party. Like Xi Jinping, her family was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.In an interview with Chinese television in 2004, Ms Peng said her father was categorised as a "counter-revolutionary" because some of their relatives served in the Taiwanese army.
|The caption refers to Confucius' dictum: "Discretion is the better part of valor!". Angela Merkel tells Chinese President "Great! China will therefore engage billions in euro crisis!" and then asks would it be in "Yuan or U.S. dollar?" to which he replies " we thought more in terms of fortune cookies!"
On September 2015, President Barack Obama announced; that he had reached a "common understanding" with Chinese President Xi Jinping on curbing economic cyber espionage, but threatened to impose U.S. sanctions on Chinese hackers who persist with cyber crimes. The two leaders said they agreed that neither government would knowingly support cyber theft of corporate secrets or business information.
|Peter Brookes, The Times, October 2015
In their visit to Britain Xi Jinping and his wife saw a joint statement describing the trip as opening a "golden era" in UK-China relations, and the Queen hailed the president's "milestone" trip. Ministers expected more than £30bn of deals which many thought that the Chinese president "walked all over" the British establishment, who "kowtowed" to him, ignoring human rights and other trade issues
Mr Trump has no time for the geopolitics that offers choices to nations such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. The opening here for Mr Xi is obvious enough — a US president receptive to the idea of replacing the rules-based international system with one based on bilateral bargains struck between the most powerful nations. Smaller states are left to fend for themselves. Mr Xi coined a phrase for the construct some years ago — "a new model of great power relations". The ambition is to replace US with Chinese leadership in the western Pacific. The logic of Mr Trump's belligerent isolationism runs in the same direction. Philip Stephens, Financial Times, APRIL 5, 2017
|The Chinese government in 2018 admitted that it's forcing religious minorities into "reeducation camps" as part of its crackdown on extremism — but new details show that these centers have a lot more in common with concentration camps. Thousands of guards carrying spiked clubs, tear gas, and stun guns surveil the government's "students," who are held in buildings ringed with razor wire and infrared cameras, according to a report published by the French news service Agence France-Presse.
A United Nations human rights panel estimates that Chinese authorities have imprisoned as many as 1 million Uighurs. But a Hong-Kong based human rights group puts the number even higher: between 2 million and 3 million.
The NATO Campaign in Libya
|Dave Brown from The Independent depicts Tony Blair shaking Colonel Gaddafi's hand during the now-infamous desert tent meeting in 2004 as Britain tried to bring the dictator 'in from the cold'.
Britain helped to capture one of the leading opponents of the Gaddafi regime before he was sent back to be tortured in Libya, according to a secret document discovered by The Independent in the offices of Moussa Koussa, then Muammar Gaddafi's spymaster. London's involvement in the rendition of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, currently the military commander of rebel forces in Tripoli, is revealed in the letter from an MI6 officer. In it, he reminds Mr Koussa that it was British intelligence which led to the capture of Mr Belhaj, then leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, before he was sent to Libya in the rendition process by the Americans.
In saying nothing about genocide of the Rohingya or the imprisonment of journalists exposing massacres, the Nobel prize winner is morally complicit in the crimes committed by Myanmar's military. -- The Guardian
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