“Naughty boy!” — 🇬🇷 Greek cartoon from the Greco-Italian War (1940) showing British and Greek soldiers carrying off Mussolini like a schoolboy by his ears.
The soldier on the right is a Greek Evzone (a member of the Greek Army’s mountain units) and on the left a British RAF soldier, in reference to the Air Force’s role in the conflict.
RAF squadrons stationed in Athens participated in the war from November 1940. Greece’s Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas was initially reluctant to provoke Germany into open intervention and so refused the offer of any British ground intervention.
However, by March 1941 Hitler’s fears of British gains in Greece prompted invasion. British ground forces were deployed in Greece but were quickly overrun, and the Axis occupation began in April.
Image and info submitted by my pal Hellenic History. Not on Twitter but go follow on Insta where he posts on Greek history, ancient to modern: instagram.com/hellenic.histo…
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'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'