Treaty Of Versailles Cartoon Analysis (no cartoon included)

In the year of 1918, World War 1 ended with German defeat. Countries all over Europe were left ruined and in states one cannot compare with any other defeat. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers faced death or fatal injuries throughout all participating countries in the World War. Social, political and cultural change occurred all across Europe, Africa, Asia and even countries who were not involved in the War. Empires collapsed, new countries were established and old taken down and alliances were formed in hope of many things. One thing in particular was very apparent in a large ‘alliance’. This happened to be peace and the alliance it was part of was the Big Four, who collaborated with 32 other nations from around the world to produce several peace terms which eventually formed The Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was led by the leaders of the four main powers at the time in the treaty. These were Georges Clemenceau of France, Woodrow Wilson of the U.S.A and David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom. These three powers were the main contributors to the treaty and all held their own place in it regarding what they wanted out of it. The whole ‘point’ or reason of the existence of the treaty was to have ‘revenge’ or punish Germany for all that they did in the war and to make sure they never started another war of the heights that World War 1 was. Clemenceau of France had the most involvement in harshness of the punishments in the treaty, whereas Wilson of the U.S.A wanted the least involvement with Germany. Lloyd George was the middle ground of the treaty. Germany had no involvement in the deciding of the harsh terms of the treaty, however was eventually forced to sign it.

Cartoon Examination:
The cartoons provided are based of the events that occurred before and after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, from 1918 to 1919. The Treaty of Versailles was a document of peace terms created by the Big 3 against Germany. The Big 3 are Woodrow Wilson (U.S.A), George Clemenceau (France) and David Lloyd George (U.K). These 3 decided to create the treaty against Germany as a majority of the countries involved in World War 1 thought that Germany was responsible for World War 1 and its aftermath. The treaty consists of quite harsh peace terms against Germany. The treaty was signed on the 28th of June in 1919, leaving Germany left with next to nothing. Their military was cut down, land and territories were taken and the air force was forbidden to operate. The peace terms were meant to disable Germany so another war of the First World War’s kind, could not take place. The treaty did not fill its full potential as Germany rose to have a large hand in the fatalities of the Second World War.
The purposes, messages or reasons regarding the two cartoons are substantially vital towards the overall view of the cartoon. The purpose of the cartoon to show the events that occurred during the certain area of time in an alternative way rather than just having the plain facts spoon fed (get it, refer to cartoon 2) to the reader or studier of the topic. A cartoon form of an event can be used to ‘show off’ or glorify a certain factor or side of the event without using biased text or language. Cartoon alternatives of events are often used in magazines or newspapers as they are short, entertaining and not take up immense amounts of space on the page they are on. The origin of the cartoon or who it was written by plays a large part in analysing the reasoning of why certain things are in the cartoon and for what reason they are in it. In both cartoons, the message the cartoonist is attempting to portray is the period of time in which the signing of the treaty occurred. The main scene in both cartoons is when Germany was being forced to sign the peace terms even though they did not want to. Germany did not want to sign the peace terms as they knew that they’re nation would suffer heavily from the requirements of the terms that they had to fill. Even before the war, the terms would have been a challenge to fill. Both cartoons accurately portray the events that occurred using many items to be shown as real factors of the treaty signing such as: the pill box of peace term pills that cost millions, the spoon being controlled differently by the different countries of the big 3, the large hands in both cartoons, the state of the German character, the ocean, the peace discussion plank and what the big 3 are saying in the second text to Germany.
In the two cartoons, the perspectives of each cartoon are very similar. In both cartoons, the characters representing Germany are being forced to do something they do not want to do. In coordination with the treaty and the events that surrounded it, this is used to portray Germany being forced to sign the treaty back in 1919 by the Big 3. Both cartoons have also attempted to portray Germany as though they were frail, vulnerable, feeble and stripped of their pride. The first cartoon shows this by having the German character dressed in an ‘embarrassing’ or odd form of dress. In the second cartoon, Germany is portrayed as a frail, old man who cannot seem to defend himself, being held down by just a hand. Not only is this just a hand, but one controlled by three very large powers (labelled on the fingers). Regarding hands, the hand pushing Germany over the plank in cartoon 1, is using only two fingers to force Germany to plunge into the ‘water’. This is due to only two of the countries (France & U.S.A) wanting to directly and harshly punish Germany for allegedly being responsible for World War 1. This could imply that the first cartoon has been made from an American or German point of view. A similar message regarding who wants to force the peace terms onto Germany in the second cartoon can be seen with the spoon with who and how the men underneath it are handling it. At the back of the spoon, seemingly holding it back is Wilson. However, at the front of the spoon stands Clemenceau, forcing and urging the spoon with the peace term pill towards Germany. Wilson wanted as little to do with Germany as he could as he did not want to be affected from any repercussions of the harsh peace terms in the future, hence why he is attempting to pry the spoon away from Germany. France and their leader at the time, George Clemenceau, wanted to punish Germany to monstrous heights for the ruining of his country after the war. If it had not been for Lloyd George, who is in the middle of the spoon, the peace terms would have surprisingly been much harsher if he had not set them down a notch. Lloyd George being in the middle of the spoon made him the middle ground of the treaty, wanting to punish Germany but not to the extent that France wanted to. Both cartoons have several pieces of text in them. In the first cartoon, the main piece of text which states “The Finishing Touch” is implying that the finishing touch to the Treaty of Versailles was to force Germany to sign the peace terms. In terms of the cartoon, this would mean pushing Germany over the plank into the plunging depths of debt, pain and struggle. Another piece of text on the first cartoon is the word ‘ALLIES’ on the hand that is pushing Germany into the ocean. This means that the Big 3 were the allies working against Germany to force ‘him’ over the edge of the plank, which is shown in the cartoon as the peace discussions. In the second cartoon, the text above the men says “You’ve got to swallow it whether you like it or not!” this is referring to the pill of ‘peace terms’ being force fed to the German character. Obviously Germany did not want to sign the peace terms and fill their requirements, so they resisted signing the documents until they were eventually forced by the allied countries.

Overall, the cartoons both hold very many items or characters that portray the events that occurred during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Several of these indicate who drew the cartoons and the point of view the illustrators are portraying from his/her head to the paper.
(THIS IS NOT FINISHED AS I AM NOT SURE HOW TO PROPERLY CONCLUDE THE ANALYSIS ARE COMPARATION OF THE TWO CARTOONS)