{"id":3926,"date":"2024-10-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mapasmilhaud.com\/?p=3926"},"modified":"2026-01-02T16:43:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:43:25","slug":"humorous-map-of-europe-1953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mapasmilhaud.com\/en\/mapas-propagandisticos\/mapa-humoristico-de-europa-1953\/","title":{"rendered":"Humorous map of Europe (1953)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Humorous<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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This map, created by J. R. Silva \u00abStar\u00bb, was published in Lisbon in 1953.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a satirical map within the context of the Cold War, from Portugal's point of view. Portugal was a country under the dictatorship of Ant\u00f3nio de Oliveira Salazar, which had a very marked anti-communist stance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the map, Silva depicts Europe as if it were a circus, with the American continent on the left as spectators, and the different countries represented as animal figures. Through a fence, the author shows the division of the Iron Curtain, behind which Russia appears with a whip subjugating all the countries within its orbit. That same fence helps to show the harsh division of Germany, represented as a tiger that has lost its left leg (East Germany) and cannot get up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1953, the spheres of influence of the United States and the Soviet Union were still being defined. Four years earlier, in 1949, NATO had been founded, with Portugal as a founding member, and a year later, in 1954, the Soviet Union requested its annexation, although this was rejected by the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work by Silva is clearly influenced by the satirical maps published during the early years of the First World War, such as this one by Louis Raemaekers<\/a>, by Lucas Gr\u00e4fe<\/a> o Johnson, Riddle and Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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