This is presumably a follow up to ‘The Serio-Comic War Map For The Year 1877’^1.

John Bull and his Friends
A Serio-Comic Map of Europe
by Fred W Rose
Author of “Angling in Troubled Waters”²
1900

The “Refererence” section on the map reads³:

REFERENCE

Great Britain - John Bull has been attacked by two wild cats. He is however able to rely on the stores of ammunition behind him, as well as his own pluck and great resources. The letter at his feet from his friend Uncle Sam, would be more encouraging were it not for the postscript. The Nationalist section in Ireland takes this opportunity to vent her abuse upon him, but is restrained by the loyalty of the people.

France too, is scolding and threatening to scratch with one hand, while with the other she is beckoning on Germany to help her. Although the Dreyfus affair is thrust into the back-ground she is much occupied with her new doll’s house. She has somehow managed to break all the toys on her girdle and her heart is sore, for she attributes these disasters to John Bull.

Holland and Belgium are also calling him unpleasant names.

Spain, weary with her recent struggles, remembers that John was in no way inclined to help her, and looks up hoping to see him attacked by some of her neighbours.

Portugal is pleased to think he holds the Key of the situation.

Norway and Sweden though still struggling to get free from their mutual leash, turn their attention to John’s difficulties, while Denmark is kindly sending him a present of provisions.

Germany (in spite of the growth of his territories in the present century) still feels cramped, with all the goods he has to dispose of. He is so occupied with his new boats that he scarcely finds time to add a grumble of bitter scolding of his neighbours.

Austria and Hungary will be content with dreadful threats

Switzerland’s satisfaction that her Red Cross has done good service, is marred by the news of John’s victories, which she is reading.

Italy alone holds out the hand of encouragement to his old friend.

In Corsica the shade of her great departed son is wondering why people don’t act, as he would have done, instead of growling and cursing.

Sardinia, Sicily, Servia, Bulgaria, and Roumania only wish to be left alone.

Turkey, resting comfortably on his late foe Greece, is smiling at the thought that these troubles do not hurt him and perhaps he is not sorry that John will not come to much harm.

Russia, in spite of the Tzar’s noble effort to impress her with his own peaceful image, is but an Octopus still. Far and wide her tentacles are reaching. Poland and Finland aleady know the painful process of absorption⁴. China feels the power of her suckers, and two of her tentacles are invidiously creeping towards Persia and Afghanistan, while another is feeling for any point of vantage where Turkey may be once more attacked.

Below is a reworked Russian version of that same map:

‘Europe and the world’s largest monarchy before its overthrow’⁵ (or ‘before the fall’), circa 1917⁶. Remixed propaganda, early 1900s style.

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Hat Tip:

And many thanks to Jason Adams of Indie Squid Kid for spotting the reworked one. I didn’t realise there was more than one Rose Serio-Comic map involving an octopus!

Image Sources:

• Serio-Comic Map: BiblioOdyssey (June 2009): ‘An Incomplete Evolution of the Cartoon Political Map’
• Russian version photographed by: Babs71 (via BibliOdyssey)

Footnotes:

1. There are at least two verisons of this map: the one previously on Vulgar Army and a full-coloured variant Rare Maps.
2. Refers to another map published in 1899 that lacks octopuses.
3. BiblioOdyssey (June 2009): ‘An Incomplete Evolution of the Cartoon Political Map’
4. ‘painful process of absorption’ is odd phrase: a vampire octopus? (And a note to self: Victor?)
5. Translation by P-E Fronning from BibliOdyssey (July 2008) ‘Grab Bag’ (Accessed 15th Feb 2010)
6. ibid

Political octopus in pop culture: “The Grand Map” in Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and art by Keith Thompson. The map shows Northern Africa and the land below (or part of) “Serbia” as depicted by squid-like creatures.

You can see it in its full and glorious detail at Scott Westerfeld’s blog, where it is accompanied by information on how and why it was developed. There is also a version on Keith Thompson’s website that details each of the ‘allegories’ and why they were chosen.

For more cephalopod geographies: see “Of Maps and Octopuses“.

Big thanks to Mark Dominus for submitting this.

Arms Around the World

It is a staple of the octopus metaphor in propaganda and cartoons to plop an octopus on a globe to represent the threat to civilisation that group X presents.

A selection:

• Circa 1938 a German cartoon (Seppla) showed Churchill as a Jewish octopus with his arms around the globe.
• 1945: A French cartoon in showed Hitler as the octopus with his arms around the globe.
• Circa 1950: Stalin was represented as an octopus in such a position in a pamphlet “How Communism Works”
• 2001 Egyptian edition of ‘The International Jew’ by Henry Ford
• 2002: Octopus bearing a Magen David (Star of David) clutching the globe in its tentacles. The caption reads, “Secure borders for Israel” (Al-Ahram, May 25, 2002).

But this metaphor is not restricted to the pictorial world of cartoons. A quote lifted from an US government website from 2006:

“Frank Urbancic Jr., principal deputy coordinator of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Office said that even though Hezbollah portrays itself as a Lebanese nationalist movement it best could be imagined “as almost an octopus with the head in southern Lebanon and the tentacles moving around the world.” With the exception of Iran and Syria, its state sponsors, the tentacles “are for supply and support”. ’ America.gov, Hezbollah “an Octopus” with Tentacles Around World, Officials Say, Bureau of International Programs, U.S. Department of State, 28 Sept 2006 (SOURCE)

Of Maps and Octopuses

The following is a selection of octopuses with maps (or maps with octopuses). States are most typically represented as octopuses when it comes to maps, however, Landlords, Jews and Free Masons have also been shown as octopuses juxtaposed with cartography. I have excluded octopuses on globes for this selection, as the symbolism differs from a perceived regional threat, to a more nebulous ‘global’ threat.

The Maps

Artist unknown. American cartoon of John Bull (England) as an Imperial Octopus with its arms (with hands) in - or contemplating being in - various regions¹. He has eleven arms, just to demonstrate the “octo” part of “octopus” is negotiable when it comes to illustration.

Cartoon is caption “The Devilfish in Egyptian Waters” and was an American cartoon published in Punch in 1888(?).

John Bull is a large landowner. His estate, to which he adds a piece day by day, consists in the first place of the British Isles, to which he gave the name of the United Kingdom. Then he has the Channel Islands, and the fortress of Gibraltar, which enables him to pass comfortably through the narrowest ot straits. The islands of Malta and Cyprus serve him as advanced sentinels in the Mediterranean, If he could have Constantinople he would be satisfied with his share of Europe. In Egypt ho is not quite comfortable ; yet ho is trying to make himself at home there. He took good care not to invent the Suez Canal, and moved heaven and earth to try and prevent the canal from being made ; yet behold him to-day a& a shareholder. He occupies his territory with an army considerably inferior in numbers to that of any other continental Power, in spite of which none of his possessions is in the least danger […] He is a curious mixture of the lion, mule, and octopus.²

“The English Octopus: It feeds on nothing but gold”: “Coin” Harvey, Coin’s Financial School 1894. Sub-title: “‘The Rothschilds own 1,600,000,000 in gold’- Chicago Daily News. This is nearly over half the gold in the Chicago wheat pit.”³ (full article).

Postcard by WB Northrop showing a map of London with the vampiric octopus of “Landlordism” (absent landlord, renting) encircling parts of London⁴.

“Serio-Comic War Map for the Year 1877” by Frederick W. Rose. A British response to the Balkan’s crisis between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Britain sided with the Ottoman Empire as Russia was perceived to be a threat to its interests. ⁵

“A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia” by Kisaburo Ohara, published March 1904 prior to the Japanese-Russian War. Based on the Serio-Comic War Map by F.W Rose (1877) shown above⁶: Part of the text reads: ‘“Black Octopus” is a name newly given to Russia by a certain prominent Englishman. For the black octopus is so avaricious that he stretches out his eight arms in all directions, and seizes up every thing that comes within his reach. But as it sometimes happens he gets wounded seriously even the small fish, owing to his ? covetousness. … Suffice it to say, that the further existence of the Black Octopus will depend entirely upon how he comes out of this war.’⁷.

A 1917 map by Maurice Neumont: “La Guerre est l’Industrie Nationale de la Prusse”, “War is Prussia’s National Industry”. A French poster that shows the expansion of the German and Prussian military. The octopus - wearing a pickelhaube helmet - has a map superimposed over it with its tentacles throughout Europe and Asia Minor (full article).

Den Preussiske Bläckfisken “The Prussian Octopus”: A map of Europe with two octopuses: Prussia and Austria-Hungary ⁸. The text reads:

DEN PREUSSISKE BLÄCKFISKEN. ‘Vi hota icke de små nationerna,’ förklarade tyske rikskanslern den 10 december 1915; ’ vi föra icke det krig, som tvingats på oss, för att underkuva främmande folk, utan for att skydda vårt liv och vår frihet.’ Bildkartan är illustration av hans ord. Den visar hur Preussen har stulit den ena provinsen efter andra från sina granner och likt en olycksbringande bläckfisk fortfarande sträcker ut sina tentakler för att rycka till sig nya förvärv.

THE PRUSSIAN OCTOPUS. ‘We do not threaten small nations,’ declared the German Chancellor on December 10th, 1915; ‘we do not wage war which has been forced upon us in order to subjugate foreign peoples, but for the protection of our life and freedom.’ This pictorial map is a commentary on his words. It shows how Prussia has stolen one province after another from her neighbours and, like a baleful octopus, is still stretching out her tentacles to grasp further acquisitions. ⁹

Anti-Japanese poster by Pat Keely (1944): “Indie Moet Vrij! Werkten vecht ervoor!” (Indies should be free! Work and fight for it!)¹⁰. It shows a Japanese octopus with its arms stretching down to Indonesia.

“Non! La France ne sera pas un pays colonise! Les Americains en Amerique!” (No! France will not be a colonised country! Americans in America!). This is unusual as the American octopus is not squatting in America, but as somewhere in the Atlantic? Published by the French Communist party circa 1950 ¹¹.

The last image is another French poster. It is an anti-semitic, Free Mason octopus. It shows an octopus with a human head on a map of France (more information).

Footnotes

1. http://historymike.blogspot.com/2007/08/profit-providence-and-politics.html
2. Max O’Rell (1887) “More Pictures of John Bull”, Te Aroha News, 4 June 1887 I’d recommend reading: More Pictures of John Bull in conjunction with this image as it provides insight.
3. SOURCED FROM: http://lyndonlarouchewatch.org/larouche-rothschild.pdf
4. Image source: Ebay auction (Accessed: 1st Feb 2009)
5. Harwood, Jeremy, and Bendall, Sarah. To the Ends of the Earth: 100 Maps That Changed the World: Struik, 2006.
6. Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department. 2008. Prints of the Russo-Japanese War. Glasgow University Library, http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/mar2008.html (accessed 15 Feb 2009)
7. Harwood & Bendall
8. VADS, http://tinyurl.com/d46ldj (Accessed: 15th Feb 2009)
9. Text and translation from VADS
10. Translation, and source: University of Washington, Special Collections Division: Content DM Collection, http://content.lib.washington.edu/u?/posters,8 (Accessed: 15th Feb 2009)
11. There appear to be versions of this poster: One has the poster published by “Edité par le Parti Communiste Francais. Cette affiche a été payée avec les fonds collectés par les travailleurs des usines Renault.” (Published by the French Communist Party. This poster was paid with funds raised by the Renault factory workers.). The other has just “Edité par le Parti Communiste Francais” (Published by the French Communist Party)