Half Past D'Annunzio

After the events of this week, Sconfittaback Saturday very much would like to return, at least for a few minutes, to a supposedly simpler time a century ago.

"D'Annunzio, der Unersättlische" by Theodor Leisser in Ulk, Berlin, Dec. 17, 1920

Before we move on to 1921, there are just a few odds and ends left over from the final days of 1920 to take care of. Italy had joined the Entente powers in World War I with the expectation of being awarded some Italian-populated regions of Austria-Hungary along the Adriatic. The Treaty of Versailles gave Italy less than some had expected, particularly one Gabriele D'Annunzio.

"No Mere Flight of Fancy This Time" by Dorman H. Smith for NEA, Dec. 1920/Jan. 1921

Prior to the war, D'Annunzio was a famed poet and playwright, so most of the cartoons here make at least passing reference to his poetry. Keenly interested in flight from the earliest successes of the Wright Brothers on, he dropped propaganda leaflets over Vienna in what became known as "The Flight Over Vienna" ("il Volo su Vienna"). This act of derring-do was more symbolic than it was effective; his poetry on the leaflets didn't translate into German particularly well. But it was ballsy enough to make him a hero in some quarters and to burnish his delusions of grandeur.

"At the End of His Rope" by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1920/Jan. 1921

After the war, as American, British and French occupying forces prepared to hand the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) over to what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, D'Annunzio led an uprising of 2,000-2,600 irregulars to seize the city. The population of the urban center at the time was majority Italian, but surrounded by Slavic peoples.

"Back to Earth" by Bob Satterfield for NEA, Dec. 1920/Jan. 1921

D'Annunzio expected the Italian government of Giovanni Giolitti to annex Fiume; but instead, Italy blockaded the city to pressure his surrender. D'Annunzio then declared independence for "The Italian Regency of Carnaro," publishing a charter that presaged the fascism of the next decade. Meanwhile, Giolitti negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with what would later become Yugoslavia, establishing "The Free State of Fiume." Failing to win foreign allies to his cause, and pummeled by shelling by the Italian Navy, D'Annunzio and his Italian Regency surrendered in December, 1920.

"The Theatre of War" by Paul Plaschke in Louisville Times, Dec. 1920/Jan. 1921

Many of the American cartoons upon D'Annunzio's defeat play off Roman mythology and classical themes. (I'm not sure why Bob Satterfield felt it necessary to label Pegasus, but I especially like Gale's "Literary License" plate on the flying horse.) Plaschke is inspired by a considerably lower class of theatre; "Punch and Judy" derives from the Venetian "Pulcinella."

"Stranded" by Rollin Kirby" in New York World, Dec. 1920/Jan. 1921

In Paul Plaschke's Punch and Judy cartoon, the "Italian Government" is represented by a caricature of King Vittorio Emanuele, who would be more recognizable to American readers than would Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti. So here is an Italian cartoon of Giolitti, who was Prime Minister five times between 1892 and 1921.

"Questione Fiumana" by Gabriele "Rata Langa" Galanta in L'Asino, Rome, December 12, 1920

Giolitti's fifth government lasted from June, 1920 to June, 1921, during which time he tolerated the increasing strength of the armed Fascist squadrici and welcomed their support, out of fear of the Italian Socialist Party. Giolitti was not a Fascist himself, but continued to believe that Benito Mussolini and his party would moderate over time once they participated in governance. He lived long enough to learn how mistaken he was.

"A Fiume" by Gabriele "Rata Langa" Galanta in l'Asino, Rome, January 9, 1921

This last cartoon highlights cartoonist Gabriele Galanta's socialist outlook, here in spite of his anti-fascist and anti-war stance. But hey, why let a little thing like Antifa pacificsm interfere with one's perfectly healthy irredentism?

Settling Scores

Last Saturday's post started (sort of) with Poland, so let's begin there today.

"Inconsiderate" by Gilbert Wilkinson (?) in The World, London, ca. April, 1919

I'm not absolutely positive of the identity of the cartoonist of "Inconsiderate," but I can make out enough of his signature to consider Gilbert Wilkinson its likely author.

"Die Schlächtergilde von Paris" by uncredited cartoonist in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, April 13, 1919

Our topic this Spoilsback Saturday is the settling of scores in the Paris peace negotiations at the end of World War I. In the above parody of Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the cartoonist predicts an unpleasant outcome for the surgeons planning to slice off Danzig (present-day Gdansk, Poland) and the Saar region (now in France) from the German patient.

To the extent that Europe would fall back into World War II over German attempts to reclaim those territories, I suppose the cartoonist was not terribly far off the mark.

"Just a Guess at the Terms for Turkey" by Bill Sykes in Philadelphia Evening Ledger, May 5, 1919

The victors at the Paris peace negotiations also considered how to carve up the Ottoman Empire, and their solutions have given rise to a whole century of wars, refugees and terrorist attacks since then.

"Anything He Would Do Is an Improvement" by William Hanny in St. Joseph (MO) News-Press, April 23, 1919

Bill Sykes and William Hanny here draw a rare pair of cartoons that do not hinge on depicting Turkey or its leader as a meliagris gallopavo.

Of course, Hanny had used that pun less than a week before.

"Vor der Proklamierund des Völkerbundes" by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, April 26, 1919

When it came to carving up the Austro-Hungarian Empire, members of the Entente had competing claims.

"More!" by John Cassel in New York World, April 20, 1919

Both Italy and the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes laid claim to Fiume (the present-day port city of Rijeka, Croatia) at the north end of Kvarner Gulf. As shown in John Cassel's cartoon, the allies awarded the former Austrian territories of Trentino and Trieste to Italy, but Italian irredentists claimed Fiume and environs by virtue of the fact that Italians made up nearly half of its residents. Not quite a third of the remainder were Croatian; Italians made up a majority of urban dwellers while Croats were the majority of rural folk.

"Mi sento Come se Fossi di Nuovo sul Piave" by "Luccio" in Il 420, Firenze, Italy, ca. April, 1919

Students of history and followers of this blog will recall that the Piave is the river where the Italian army was finally able to push back against Austrian and German advances into their country.

I have no explanation of why the Yugo-slav in this Italian cartoon has a supersized tampon dangling from his teeth.

"Get Your Cart Out from the Middle of the Street" by Leo Thiele in Sioux City Tribune, ca. April, 1919

Fiume/Rijeka is a significant seaport for Croatia, situated as it is at a deep, sheltered harbor near the narrowest stretch of the Dinaric Alps. Roads and railways from inland Croatia naturally converge there. But being so far removed from the boot of Italy, its importance to Italy was more a matter of prestige than commerce.

"I Due 'Wilson' alla Conferenza de la Pace" by Gabriele "Rata Langa" Galantara in L'Asino, Rome, May 11, 1919

The Italian government viewed President Woodrow Wilson's failure to side with Italy on the Fiume Question as a betrayal of his idealistic lectures about self-determination of peoples. Their cartoonists quickly switched from depicting him as Santo Woodrow to drawing him as a duplicitous moralizer. Above, "The Two 'Wilsons' at the Peace Conference" brandish an umbrella labeled "Direction toward self-determination" and a whip labeled "Interests of Capitalism."

"Woodrow in der Klamme" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatch, Berlin, May 11, 1919

German cartoonists were happy to join in ridiculing the American president. Arthur Johnson's Italian, on the left, points to the British promises of territory that had prompted Italy to abrogate its treaty with Germany and to declare on the side of the Entente. His Serbo-Croatian, on the right, points to similar British promises. I would note that Serbia was in the war at the outset, relying on Russian promises of support rather than any promises from the British who weren't even in the war yet.

"It Happens in the Best Regulated Families" by Jay "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, May 9, 1919

Wilson's proposed compromise — which was the short-lived solution — was to establish Fiume/Rijeka as a free city, perhaps even the home of his League of Nations. Italy's Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando stormed out of the peace negotiations, protesting that he was personally insulted by the allies' failure to uphold British promises. "Ding" Darling correctly predicted that Italy would eventually return to the table.

"Their Vision" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1919

Peace negotiations faced a similar dilemma of conflicting promises in the Far East. Japan and China had both declared war against Germany, betting on the Entente to be the eventual and more magnanimous victors. Japanese forces ousted Germany from the Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory on China's Shandong peninsula early in the war. China wanted the territory back, but was repeatedly pressured to accept Japanese sovereignty there. Wilson sided with the Chinese, but Britain and France had given their assurances to Japan, and the Paris Treaty gave Shandong to Japan.

"The Penalty of Pacifism" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1919

Student-led protests against foreign imperialism and the Beijing government's fecklessness broke out in China on May 4 and spread across the country. The university students demanded the resignation of three government officials they blamed for selling out the country; they even burned down one of the officials' houses and assaulted his hapless servants.

"Mrs. Japan and Her Infant at the Peace Table" by R.O. Evans in Baltimore American, March, 1919

After some protesters were beaten and thrown in jail, a general strike in support of the students succeeded in gaining their release. China refused to sign the Versailles treaty, eventually negotiating a separate peace with Germany in 1921 and regaining possession of Shandong province a year later. But the May Fourth movement would lead to the development of the Chinese Communist Party. And another protest one month and seventy years later.

"You Can't Blame Japan for Feeling It an Insult" by Jay "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, March 23, 1919

I was going to end this post on the topic of China (just like last Saturday's episode), but I ought to bring up one more issue that Japan brought to the negotiating table. Japan wanted the League of Nations charter to require that member countries grant "equal and just treatment" to all aliens in their borders who are nationals of other member states.

The Japanese proposal did not make it into the League charter, thanks to opposition from the Europeans and the American Congress, but it did inspire an unusually sympathetic response for the time from "Ding" Darling.

War Is Over, If You Want It

In last Saturday's post about Teddy Roosevelt, I mentioned that German cartoonists were probably too preoccupied with domestic problems to take note of the passing of an American president; so it behooves me this Saturday to fill you in, dear reader, on those pressing matters over in die Vaterland.

"Übergangswirtschaft" by Wilhelm Schnarrenberger in Simplicissimus, Munich, January 7, 1919

With the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm and the renunciation of the throne by his son Crown Prince Wilhelm, Germany was thrust into a fundamental identity crisis. A republican government was established with social democrat Friedrich Ebert as chancellor, but labor strikes and partisan strife from the far left and far right threatened to overthrow the Weimar Republic from the outset.

"Berlin in War and in Peace" by Albert J. Taylor in Los Angeles Times, January, 1919

Taking advantage of a general strike declared on January 6, the Spartacist League (Spartakusbund), a faction of the German Communist Party led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, sparked a violent uprising hoping to establish a communist state.

"Liebknecht" by Erich Schilling in Simplicissimus, Munich, January 21, 1919

As a member of the Reichstag, Liebknecht had been a prominent opponent of the Great War. His opposition got him sentenced to prison for high treason, but he was released as part of a general amnesty in October, 1918. Luxemburg, a Polish-born German citizen, taught Marxism and economics in Berlin, where Ebert had been among her students. She had also opposed the war, advocating general strikes in German and France to prevent it. She had misgivings about the Spartacist uprising, but supported it once it was underway.

"Pandora Has Nothing on This!" by Fred O. Seibel in Knickerbocker Press, New York, January, 1919

Seibel's crow's worries would be about 20 years premature; Ebert's government and paramilitary units made up of military veterans loyal to him succeeded in quashing the Spartacist uprising in a little over one week. 156 rebels and 17 of Ebert's men were killed in the fighting. Liebknecht and Luxemburg were arrested, beaten, and executed on January 15.

"Die Zerbrochene Waffe" by Werner Hammann in Kladderadatch,  Berlin, January 19, 1919

Meanwhile: after a rousing patriotic speech by the famed Polish pianist Ignacy Paderewski, an uprising against German rule broke out in the Prussian city of Posen (present-day Poznań, Poland) on December 27, 1918. Werner Hammann's Michel (the German equivalent of Uncle Sam, John Bull, or Marianne) vainly brandishes his broken "militarism" rifle against the wolves and crows devouring Posen, his dying horse.

"Come On, Put 'em Up!" by Harry Tuthill in St. Louis Star, Dec. 1918/Jan. 1919

"A Little More Self-Determination..." by Guy R. Spencer in Omaha World, January, 1919

By January 15, the Polish "Citizens' Guard" had seized control of most of the province of Posen, and engaged in heavy fighting with the regular German army and irregular units. Paderewski was appointed Polish Prime Minister on January 18.

"Paderewski's Latest Composition" by Edward W. Gale in Los Angeles Times, January, 1919

The Greater Polish Uprising, as it came to be known, resulted in Poland winning most of the Prussian provinces of Posen and West Prussia, plus eastern portions of Upper Silesia and the area of Działdowo at the peace negotiations at Versailles. Germany retained a section of  East Prussia disconnected from the rest of Germany by a narrow corridor at the port of Gdansk (German Danzig) that provided Poland's only access to the Baltic Sea.

"Klassische Forderung" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, January 26, 1919

Poland, when it had any territory at all, had been landlocked since Napoleonic times, so granting it the Polish Corridor prompted Arthur Johnson to suggest sarcastically that perhaps the newly independent Czechoslovakia would demand a seaport, too. His cartoon refers to Act III, Scene 3 of The Winter's Tale, in which Antigonus's ship lands in Bohemia, described by Shakespeare as "a desert Country near the Sea."

Any mariners relying upon Shakespeare for navigation deserve, like Antigonus, to exit, pursued by a bear.

"Overlapping Claims" by Neal D. McCall in Portland (OR) Telegram, January, 1919

Down south at the Adriatic, the Entente had promised Italy Trieste and much of what is now the Croatian coastline in exchange for Italy declaring war on Austria-Hungary. The promises made in the secret Treaty of London in 1915 ran counter to the ideals of ethnic self-determination in Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and broke American cartoonists of the habit of drawing Italy as the Little Guy.

"Tut, Tut!" by Edward W. Gale in Los Angeles Times, January, 1919

Upset at what it perceived as a betrayal of those promises, Italy walked out of the Paris peace negotiations, insisting that it would only negotiate with Serbia. Italy would gain territory in the eventual Treaty of Versailles, but not nearly as much as it felt it was due. (Cue ominous foreshadowing music here.)

"Ho paura che il mio progetto per la Società delle Nazione..." by Gabriele "Rata Langa" Galanta in L'Asino, Rome, January 19, 1919

Rata Langa's assessment of the League of Nations aside, his caricature of the U.S. President is a far cry from the cartoon of the beatific portrait of St. Woodrow from a couple month's earlier.