Great Britain

Prince Henry offers bouquets of flowers labeled “Visit of Prince Henry,” “Christening by Miss Roosevelt,” and “Yacht built in America,” to Columbia who is holding a paper that states “British Canal Concessions.” In the background, on the left, John Bull is watching from a small, rocky island.

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Comments and Context

In 1902, and especially growing from military and commercial lessons learned from the recent Spanish-American War, public sentiment grew in the United States to build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The two likely routes through the years were considered to be through either Nicaragua or the Panama region of Colombia. As America drew closer to playing a role in an Isthmian canal, it purchased concessions granted by each of those countries to England and France. Britain expected some courtesies in return, but as Keppler’s cartoon shows, the nascent German Empire (embodied by Kaiser Wilhelm) worked hard to seduce the United States, evidenced by the labels of the bouquets. John Bull, symbol of Great Britain, stands on his tiny home base, jealous and suspicious. In short order it was the French, and her old construction companions, unable to duplicate their previous Suez Canal success, who turned over greater concessions and rights to the Americans.

Illustration showing the British Lion, wearing a military uniform, aghast by the tattered look of a female figure labeled “Peace,” her clothing torn, head and left arm bandaged, and walking with a crutch, the dove at her feet looks plucked. In the background is a sign stating “The last Boer ditch” stuck in ground labeled “South Africa.” Caption: Great Britain. — Didn’t you tell them the war was over? Peace. — “Yes; – and they immediately filled me full of lead; – said it was only a rumor of war!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-02-20

A woman representing China struggles with the Russian Bear, while the German emperor and the British Prime Minister, Lord Robert Cecil Salisbury, implore Russia not to be so greedy and to share some of China with them. Uncle Sam sits on a fence in the background, whittling a stick. Caption: England and Germany (to Russia). — Hold on there! Don’t be so selfish! If she’s going to be saved, we want to have a hand in it!

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Comments and Context

Just as Germany was comparatively late to the major nations’s scramble for colonies, Russia sought to capitalize on the disorder and crumbling central government in China at this time. A German-Anglo alliance, formed to check Russian expansion was, obviously, short-lived, but Russia’s primary frustration was its timing: the Boxer Rebellion, growing furious at this time, targeted all foreigners in China.

Illustration showing John Bull standing at the gate to South African markets as figures representing Germany, Italy, Austria, France, and Russia protest. Caption: John Bull. — When I open a door I leave it open freely to all of you. I have given you about all the foreign trade you have! What are you mad about?

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Comments and Context

Dalrymple’s cartoon betrays a subtext that unapologetically accepts the aggressive colonial policies of the British Empire, that British hegemony was beneficially neutral in world trade, and not detrimental to the freedom of economics and commerce of other nations. 

Illustration showing John Bull as a sailor, floating in a life-preserver labeled “British Navy 800 War Ships,” surrounded by huge waves labeled “Germany,” “France,” and “Russia.” There are cannon barrels pointing in all directions from the life-preserver.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-02-28

The mythological figure Hermes/Mercury, as “Commerce,” stands atop a cliff, extending his arm to “Peace” standing on a cliff opposite, with the Nicaragua Canal separating them. On the cliff below Hermes, Uncle Sam stands on a ladder supported by John Bull. Uncle Sam is placing a sign that states, “Notice No Fighting on These Premises.” Another man labeled “Jingo” is pulling on the tails of Uncle Sam’s coat.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Three years prior to the successful revolution and secession of Panama from Columbia, a Nicaraguan canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans seemed as a likely a prospect as any. Many in the United States favored such a route, and international forces including the French who had invested and abandoned efforts to build a Colombian canal, and Great Britain. Keppler’s cartoon betrays the mindset, in pre-Roosevelt times, that American foreign policy was inextricably tied with England’s. The adornments of the figure of Hermes asserts that trade, commerce, and travel — domains which the Greeks assigned to the god — was a natural ally of Peace. The figure labeled “Jingo” (traditionally, a hyper-nationalist) is meant to attack those Americans who opposed an American-backed canal of any sort; or those who militated for the Colombian alternative. By his hat and sword he possibly was meant by Keppler to be French; the French government and surviving Franco-American financial interests, argues against a Nicaraguan canal — hoping at least to salvage their investments.

Illustration showing the Russian bear looking across a river to Afghanistan at a large beehive labeled “British Beehive Herat Honey” on a building with minarets. Caption: Russia. — I would like to have the honey, but I’m afraid of the bees!

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Comments and Context

Keppler’s cartoon illustrates a snapshot in time of a centuries-old and virtually intractable conflict played out in Central Asia, specifically Afghanistan. Included are traditional trade routes, East-West geopolitical ambitions, British colonial expansion and a desire to insulate its “jewel in the crown,” India, the claims of Persia (now Iran) on Herat and other territory, and Russian desires for a warm-water port. The “Charge of the Light Brigade” and Rudyard Kipling novels have tried to romanticize the bloody friction in history. Some trivialized the momentous factors as “The Great Game,” many of which persist today. Herat, Afghanistan’s third-largest city, is one of the world’s oldest, and connected by roads to Kabul and Kandahar. At the moment of Keppler’s cartoon, Imperial Russia was not dissuaded from meddling in Herat by geography or other factors, but by British military presence.

John Bull, the symbol of Great Britain, shovels British soldiers into the “British Empire Shute.” They end on the shoulders of “Oom” Paul Kruger who sits on a rock with a rifle across his lap, on soil labeled “Dutch Republic.” Overwhelmed by the soldiers, he has dropped his copy of the Bible that he was reading.

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Comments and Context

By 1900 the notable failures of the British Empire to defeat the “Farmers” (Boers) in South Africa were reckoned to result in British defeat or an outright campaign of attrition. The latter strategy, recorded by Winston Churchill and others, was adopted with reasonable success despite much of world opinion on the side of the longtime Dutch settlers. Oom Paul was a beloved leader who rallied his followers in the South African Republic and the neighboring Orange Free State. Their language and identity was “Afrikaans,” closely related to Dutch. Paul Kruger and his followers were quite religious, and had support around the world from Christian and missionary groups, hence the Bible falling from his lap in this symbol-laden cartoon.

The British Lion runs on a path toward “Pretoria” while four figures representing Russia, France, Germany, and Italy hide. At the time of this cartoon, the British Empire stepped up its campaign to suppress rebellion of its colonial rule in South Africa.

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Comments and Context

Pughe’s cartoon could illustrate the admonition against “fishing in troubled waters.” By 1900 most of the globe had been carved up by colonial powers or controlled by spheres of influence. South Africa was recalcitrant, a thorny problem for the British who regarded the Horn of Africa with special importance. Only 15 years before this cartoon’s publication, Germany had gobbled up lands, largely comprising the present Tanzania, and established German East Africa, and British colonial fears were heightened. The cartoon suggests that Great Britain simultaneously doubled its resolve to quash the Boer Rebellion, and kept rival powers from intervening themselves.

Illustration showing President Paul Kruger of the South African Republic as a frog attempting to make himself as big as the British John Bull, here actually shown as a bull. The cartoon makes light of the South African Republic, a small country, attempting to fight Great Britain in the South African War for independence.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-04-11

The British Lion confronts two vultures labeled “France” and “Russia” who have come to see if the lion, labeled “England,” is dead. In 1907 the Lion was reassured when Imperial Russia, the French Republic, and the United Kingdom agreed to form the Triple Entente, a pincer that threatened, or potentially prepared against, Germany in the years before World War I.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-01-17

President Roosevelt is seen frantically looking at the claims of allies, international law, and various foreign language dictionaries as various countries clamor in more demands from doors, windows, and walls.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-12-23

President Roosevelt is dressed as Santa Claus and trying to decide Yes or No to the question waiting in the stocking, whether he will arbitrate the Venezuelan Crisis or not. Great Britain, Germany and France look on anxiously from their hiding places under the bed. Caption: An anxious moment for the parties under the bed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-12-25

President Roosevelt smiles as England and Germany look at a saw labeled Monroe Doctrine. Hanging above the saw is a sign, “Don’t Monkey with the Buzz-Saw.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-1903

Edward VII, King of Great Britain, thanks President Roosevelt for the letter, delivered by Ambassador Whitelaw Reid. He has been following the progress of the Great White Fleet in the Pacific, and admires the undertaking. Edward VII agrees that “the interests of the English speaking peoples are alike in the Atlantic & the Pacific,” and empathizes with the questions of immigration and emigration with which Roosevelt has to deal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-05

President Roosevelt reviews his position on the Alaska boundary question and believes the Canadian claim to be “outrageous and indefensible.” He will not submit to arbitration but is willing to appoint three commissioners to decide upon the border. However, Roosevelt would insist upon the entire claim and instruct the commissioners not to yield any territory.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-10

President Roosevelt is opposed to arbitration in the Alaska boundary dispute but is willing to appoint three commissioners to meet with commissioners from Canada and Great Britain. However, Roosevelt believes that the Canadian claim is “wholly false” and he does not want to yield on American claims. Secretary of War Elihu Root has been secretly strengthening the garrisons near the disputed territory.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-16

President Roosevelt opposes a delay in the Alaska boundary proceedings. He does not want the matter pending during the presidential election and believes that if an agreement cannot be reached this fall it will be due to bad faith by the British. Roosevelt wants the British to understand that American representatives have come to negotiate a definitive agreement and that unilateral action could be taken if an agreement is not concluded.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-06-29

President Roosevelt found Baron Takahira’s letter to be remarkable and believes that Ambassador Jusserand’s comment is due to jealousy. He hopes that the British will act with “sanity and propriety” in the Alaska boundary business. If they do not, it will be a misfortune for the United States and a greater misfortune for Great Britain and Canada.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-08-21

President Roosevelt encloses a letter and clipping that show political pressure is being used to prevent an impartial decision in the Alaska boundary matter. If necessary, Roosevelt is willing to end negotiations and seize the disputed territory. He believes that such action would be unpleasant but mostly for the British and Canadians.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-09-21