Imperialism Part 2: The "Whimsical" Side of Politics

Political cartoons can be sources of humour, entertainment, scrutiny, public ire, and political insightfulness. Oftentimes, in this medium, they are all one and the same. Here are some political cartoons from the time period that reflect on and poke fun at Imperialism.

1)

This cartoon, published in 1899, portrays Uncle Sam holding his new possessions: Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, and Ladrones (Guam). The author indicates that the U.S. has been Imperialistic in it "conquests" through the impoverished (and Phillippines' and Landrones' unhappy countenances) stature he portrays the countries in. Sam, while being dressed somewhat embarrassingly, is mostly clothed and the men/boys and barely wearing anything at all, showing that they are quite opposed to the takeover or influence of America. Personally, I think this is a brilliant cartoon, even if I don't necessarily agree with its message. It very accurately depicts the way in which many perceived the bold actions of the American government at the time and the visual representation of Uncle Sam holding up the different countries as if they are savage children is very fitting in its depiction.


2)

This Harper's Weekly cartoon by W. A. Rogers encourages an aggressive American military reaction to the Boxer Rebellion in China.The shock of Japan's defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 spurred the Chinese government to initiate reforms and open itself to Western influence. However, the Empress Dowager, Tz'u-hsi, and many other Chinese favored traditional ways, so the reforms were only implemented in one province. The Western powers took advance of this period of turmoil to carve up China into their own spheres of influence. During the Boxer Revolt of Peking, McKinley sent 2500 troops to repress the situation there and was labelled "Imperialistic" because of it. This hadn't happened at the time that the cartoon was illustrated however. The author inteded to wind people up to the crises in China  by portraying the Boxers as weak and sporadically insane, next to the gentleman-ly stature of Uncle Sam preparing to sail his forces to put down the uprising. I think that this work is very important in the span of history that it occupies. I'm not enitrely sure how influential the cartoon was itself, but it is very striking and straighforward in its message. I'm sure many people supported military mobilization because of this.