“Greetings from one of Your Fair Allies” — Japanese postcard published in ca. 1905 to celebrate the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The postcard was published by the Osaka Beer Brewing Company, with a small logo at the bottom marketing the iconic Asahi beer.
The alliance had first been agreed in London in 1902 and was subsequently reviewed and renewed in 1905 and 1911.
The two had been growing closer through the nineteenth century, with an initial Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty signed in 1854 that opened Japanese ports to British merchants. A further treaty followed four years later.
Naval cooperation also grew as the emerging Imperial Japanese Navy sought to model itself on the Royal Navy, with some of its earliest ships built in British shipyards. British naval advisers also travelled to Japan in the 1870s.
The two also fought together in the Boxer Rebellion in China and had a shared interest in curbing Russian expansion into Asia, which of course was the cause of the 1905 Russo-Japanese War.
In the below, the UK and US egg Japan on against Russia.
The signing of the treaty in 1902 and its renewal in 1905 spurred a huge wave of postcards, cartoons and other publications – in both Britain and Japan – celebrating the alliance.
In this piece from 1902, the French magazine Le Petit Journal has a dig at the alliance: China and Russia stumble upon Japan and Britain (portrayed unflatteringly) as they prepare to carve up China.
"Guiding childish feet" — An illustration published in the Japanese Jijishinpô magazine showing Britain and Japan towering over two children representing China and Korea.
The alliance ended in the early 1920s when the British feared that a close relationship with Japan may jeopardise relations with the United States. Defunct from 1921, the Four-Power Treaty signed between Britain, Japan, the US and France officially voided the earlier treaties.
Oops, this was meant to be "guarding" not "guiding".
'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'