Atlantik-Charta
- Title:
- Atlantik-Charta
- Alternate Title:
- Atlantik-Charta
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Date:
- 1942
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2503.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2503_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Imperialism
Pictorial
Satirical
World War II - Measurement:
- 33 x 57 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- Persuasive maps are rarely so powerful as to provoke a cartographic response, but this is such a case.
In August 1941, four months before Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met secretly aboard ship in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The most important result of the meeting was an agreement on the eight explicit joint goals of Great Britain and the United States for the post-war world, which the press promptly named "The Atlantic Charter." The promise of the Charter "served as a propaganda weapon against the Axis," broadcast widely by the Voice of America, and eventually the basis for the United Nations declaration. Brewer 2009, 95-96, 102; Patterson 2015, 189-192.
Equally significant, because of "its demonstration of Anglo-American unity against totalitarianism, the declaration of the Atlantic Charter served to boost British morale during one of the most difficult phases of the war." Ellis 2009, 48. As part of the "morale-boosting" effort, the British magazine "Time & Tide" commissioned the well-known artist MacDonald Gill to produce a map highlighting the Charter in 1942. ID #2015. The text of the agreed Charter is reproduced in full, along with the signatures of Roosevelt and Churchill, and the balance of the map is dense with sunny pictorial images and uplifting text.
The Germans had long criticized the hypocrisy of the British on issues like colonialism and freedom of the seas. Outraged, they prepared a satirical cartographic response mocking the Charter in a format patterned after Gill's widely acclaimed map. The text at the upper right reads, "The Atlantic Charter is our sacred will. We are the only ones able to carry this cross. This is proven by the many beautiful results we can show in our countries. Whoever laughs at this is unworthy of our control." As in Gill's map, the signatures of Churchill and Roosevelt are set out below.
At the lower left, four emaciated women representing Roosevelt's famous "four freedoms" (freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear) are shown tied to the Statue of Liberty atop a base bristling with armaments. Below are a scrawny, sad American eagle and a bedraggled British lion. The Cape of Good Hope is labeled "The only bit of hope Anglo-Americans can show their people."
Stalin and the Soviet Union feature prominently on the map. The compass rose is labeled "Comintern wind!") and shows Stalin blowing the hammer-and-sickle emblem in all directions. Western Europe is missing entirely from the map, and in its place is the statement: "Unexplored Areas (Already Sold to Mr. J. Stalin)."
The map reprints each of the eight points of the Atlantic Charter alongside cartoon figures and in some cases humorous text mocking the hypocrisy or dishonesty of the Anglo-American agreement.
The text of point one of the Charter (neither the U.S. nor the U.K. seek territorial gains) is set out as a legend in South America, alongside multiple images of Americans seizing power at gunpoint or with moneybags and one American aviator spitting on a Brazilian.
The second point (no territorial change incompatible with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned) appears in the South Atlantic, next to a group of penguins who are saying "we are the only ones who still believe this."
Point three (all people will have a right to self-determination) appears in the middle east, below a picture of American and British diplomats negotiating with Stalin and confirming "It can permanently affect small nations, well yeah." To the right are images of people being enslaved, exiled and murdered by Soviet soldiers.
Point four (trade barriers will be lowered) is set in Southeast Asia and observed by a puzzled Australian saying "Theoretically, then, we don't want any kind of war" as his countryman machine guns natives.
Point five (global economic co-operation and advancement of social welfare) appears in North America next to images of police brutality, a southern lynching, homeless men, Hollywood glamour and New York moneybags.
Point six (the U.S. and U.K. will work for a world free of want and fear) is set in the Indian Ocean, next to images of dead Indians and a puffed up figure in a white uniform announcing, "We English geniuses are unsurpassed in colonial administration."
Point seven (freedom of the seas) is shown in the North Atlantic, an ocean filled with images of American ships rejecting and attacking foreign vessels.
Point eight (disarmament of aggressor nations) appears in Africa alongside multiple pictorial vignettes of enslavement and violence by the Americans, British and French. Two white colonialists lead away four chained Black captives at gunpoint, remarking "to fight the violence."
I am aware of only one copy of the German-language version of this counter-propaganda map, shown and discussed in Curtis 2016, 164-67. That copy is printed in a rough, black-and-white format that Curtis attributes (in a private communication) either to a shortage of necessary chemicals or perhaps as an early stage of a photo-reproduction process.
The map in the collection has been translated into Hungarian and printed in vivid color. It is likely that the original German plan was to use this map to counter the Atlantic Charter not only among German speakers but in occupied territory like Hungary. I am not aware of any other copy of this map as well, and the rarity of these two versions suggests that the Germans may have abandoned this cartographic approach altogether.
Much of the foregoing courtesy of Philip Curtis, The Map House, London.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.