“Save Dubrovnik! Stop the Genocide!” — 🇭🇷 Croatian poster from the War of Independence (1991) denouncing the Yugoslav People's Army’s siege of Dubrovnik.
The poster was sent to prominent individuals and institutions abroad in an effort to sway opinion against Serbia. This particular one was faxed to the American scientist and activist Linus Pauling, who had recently signed a letter published in the NY Times for ‘Peace in Croatia’.
The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) lay siege to the famous Croatian city of Dubrovnik for several months in 1991-2. Croatia was quick to capitalise on the images of JNA ships firing on an already smouldering Dubrovnik in the propaganda war with Serbia.
The JNA ended the siege in May 1992, pulling its forces back to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Croatian army attacked from the west and fighting around Dubrovnik gradually died down in the following months.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
'The Yellow Peril' — American cartoon published in Puck magazine (23 March 1904) comparing an oppressive and backwards Russia with a modern and progressive Japan. Artist: Udo Keppler.
Russia is depicted with a flail labelled 'Absolutism', 'Persecution' and 'Tyranny', while Modern Japan is depicted in the rays of 'Justice', 'Progressiveness', 'Humaneness', 'Enlightenment', 'Tolerance' and 'Religious Liberty'.
Clouds reading 'Finland' and 'Poland' are also depicted in the distance on the Russian side, and victims of the 1903 Kishinev pogrom appear at the bottom left. Beneath Japan is the vanquished figure of 'Medievalism'.
Panamanian illustrations published in 1989 by the Panama Defense Forces.
'The Canal is ours!'
Soldiers of the elite Macho de Monte Infantry Company, one of them wearing a t-shirt reading 'Hasta la muerte comandante coño' (which I'm told in this context means 'Until death, Commander, damn it!')
'What Germany Wants' — British propaganda map from the First World War (ca. 1918) showing a German-dominated 'Central Europe' and 'Central Africa'.
The map was adapted from a similar map published in 'The German Plot Unmasked', an anti-German propaganda book written by French journalist André Chéradame in 1916.
Some details. Area shaded red is territory allegedly sought by Germany as part of its 'German Central Europe and Central Africa Scheme'. Hamburg-Constantinople-Baghdad railway is also shown, plus 'Other Railways', 'Former Colonies' and 'Uncompleted Railways'.
'Does the bicycle make women cruel?' — American cartoon published in the Los Angeles Herald newspaper (13 June, 1897) showing a woman callously cycling over another.
The cartoon illustrated an article about an alleged 'new mania which is afflicting women who ride bicycles', with the author reporting on cases of the mania developing in France.
'The physicians found that the first known case of the mania developed last January … That it was cycling that brought the mania on there seems no question. Only wheelwomen have been afflicted with it, and oddly enough, in every instance, they have been over 30 years of age'.
'Colonizability of Africa' — British map (1899) showing Africa shaded according to its suitability for European colonisation.
Created by prominent cartographer John Bartholomew (left) for a book by British explorer and colonialist Harry Johnston (right) titled 'A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races'.
According to the key:
Pink denotes 'Healthy colonizable Africa, where European races may be expected to become in time the prevailing type, where essentially European states may be formed'