{"id":3721,"date":"2024-07-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mapasmilhaud.com\/?p=3721"},"modified":"2026-01-02T16:45:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:45:38","slug":"europe-at-this-moment-a-political-and-geographical-fantasy-1872","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mapasmilhaud.com\/en\/mapas-propagandisticos\/europa-en-este-momento-una-fantasia-politico-geografica-1872\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe at this moment, a political-geographical fantasy (1872)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Europe<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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This satirical map of Europe was most likely published by French cartoonist Louis Ernest Lesage in 1872.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map delves into the situation in Europe after the end of the Franco-Prussian War (1870\u20131871). France had been defeated in the war and, as a result, Alsace and Lorraine had become part of the newly formed German Empire, with Prussia at its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of fourteen European countries are caricatured and accompanied by texts that explain, in a comical and satirical way, the position and situation of each of the states. Among other things, it discusses how Germany had undoubtedly become the leading power in Europe; how England still claimed to be the defender of the weak despite being a weak country itself; and how Spain was too busy with castanets and its own civil wars to worry about anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very interesting detail, and one that is particularly critical from the French perspective, is how a puppeteer appears in Germany controlling the marionettes of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary with strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n