Mapa Humoristico da Europa em 1953
- Title:
- Mapa Humoristico da Europa em 1953
- Alternate Title:
- Mapa Humoristico da Europa em 1953
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Star
- Other Creators:
- J.R. Silva, publisher
- Date:
- 1953
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2371.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2371_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Communism & Cold War
Pictorial
Satirical - Measurement:
- 57 x 86 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This rare Portuguese satirical map from the Cold War is "astonishing" in several ways. It's said to be "in some ways forty years out of its proper time," because almost all of this genre - satirical European war maps - were produced in the period before 1916. Bryars 2015. And it dramatically portrays the Iron Curtain in September 1953, during the power struggles after Stalin's death and soon after the Soviet Union had announced it possessed the hydrogen bomb. See generally ibid. and Rod Barron, http://www.barronmaps.com/products/mapa-humoristico-da-europa-em-1953/, accessed July 2, 2018.
The nations of Europe and the Americas are each presented as an animal. Behind the Iron Curtain, the Russian bear in Cossack garb is ringmaster, with a whip and gun, presiding over a collection of circus acts by satellite nation performing bears. (Identifying some of the animals requires reference to the text legend; both Bryars and Barron provide extensive detail.) There are jugglers in the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria; a tight-rope walker in Poland; acrobats in Hungry and Rumania. They perform among symbols of Soviet industrial, military and agricultural development.
Two border-state animals have been bloodied by the spikes of the falling Curtain: the German tiger (presaging the final division of Germany) and the Austrian "weasel." The Yugoslavian bear has become a "smart gorilla" and used a hack saw to cut the chains that bound him to Russia, reflecting Tito's break from Stalin in 1948. While most of the world is in sunlight, there is a cloud over the Soviet Union.
The animal-states of Western Europe display varying degrees of interest or concern over the proceedings; the fashionable French female cat is dozing in an easy chair. In contrast, the U.S. lion (apparently having appropriated the symbol of Britain!) is intently monitoring the Soviet "performance" with binoculars from a box seat in the elegant theatre, backed by a menacing Mexican horse and Canadian walrus. Below them are arrayed the Latin and South America animal-states.
As this is a Portuguese map, it's not surprising that the portrayal of Portugal is most interesting of all. The country was still under the authoritarian regime of Antonio Salazar, who had been deeply conflicted during World War II - suspicious of Hitler's imperial objectives and eager to honor his nation's 600-year-old military alliance with Britain (the world's most long-standing), yet profoundly anti-Communist and anti-Soviet. In the end, he skillfully managed to maintain a posture of formal neutrality, selling tungsten (wolfram), badly needed for the production of munitions, to both sides while agreeing in 1943 to allow allies the use of strategically vital Portuguese air bases in the Azores. After the War, Portugal was one of the 12 founding members of NATO. The map portrays Portugal as a fish wearing a theatrical mask with one eye closed, reaching out with its staff to touch the Azores. In the words of the legend, "Appreciated by many, the amiable cod winks across the Atlantic, as if to say: 'I am a faithful friend.’”
The map was created by the pseudonymous artist "Star," and according to Barron it "appears to have been issued as a folding supplement to the popular Portuguese children’s magazine 'Mundo de Aventuras' (series 1, #250)," published by the Lisbon firm of J. R. Silva. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.