A 1916 propaganda map created by the Allies during World War I.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

[LudwigPastorius]

1. Hah! They presumed that even the Kaiser wouldn't want Florida.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. The Allies? Not the Central Powers?

Was it like 'this will be what happens if we lose', to rally our own guys to fight harder or something?

[Nevilledog]

3. I understand it as "If the Allies don't win, here's your country. Go Allies!"

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. I edited my post as you were writing ;) nt

[Nevilledog]

5. GMTA (after a brief pause)

[Hekate]

6. Propaganda map? Looks like a typical political cartoon, rather skillfully done. The place-names ...

...are humorous, in many cases, though Bismarck, South Dakota needs no change.

Gotterdammerungham on the New Rhine; Wienerschnitzelplatz elsewhere.

The Great Lakes are all named for beers, lagers, pilsners — good enough since in my childhood after WWII beer commercials from that region abounded on TV, and one knows that many if not all of the large breweries were founded by German immigrants like Schlitz, the Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous.

That might be Chicago, “hog-butcher to the world,” as Carl Sandberg called it, renamed Schlauterhaus...

Not everything is as deeply, darkly sinister, as the term “propaganda” implies. Fast forward 50 - 100 years and ask yourself what the political cartoons we consume here daily will look like.

[DFW]

9. If Bismarck is in South Dakota, that is already a change

I’ve never been to North Dakota, so I don’t know if they’d want it back or not.

[Hekate]

10. Ha! Knew I shoulda googled it!

[DFW]

12. There must be a full moon out or something

Last edited Wed Apr 7, 2021, 05:05 AM - Edit history (1)

In another post on another thread someone referred to Senator Markley.

Now there IS a Senator from Massachsetts named Markey, and there IS a Senator from Oregon named Merkley, but a Senator Markley would have to be from either Orechusetts or Massagon, neither of which is easy to find, even on traditional maps.

[yardwork]

15. This is a classic example of propaganda.

As noted in a post below, this image was created by those urging U.S. involvement in WWI. Many Americans felt that was a European conflict that didn't involve the U.S. This image was designed to persuade Americans to get behind the war effort.

[Treefrog]

24. I agree with you. Reading the names is pretty funny.

‘Schlauterhaus’!

[roamer65]

7. You can already see the conflict brewing with Japan.

Japan was an allied power in WW1, but this map is already implying Japanese expansionary interests in North America.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. I find that very strange

Even if that was the feelings of the map creator and the publisher, you'd think they realise that's not the way to urge a country to join on the same side as the Japanese. Does it indicate that open racism was accepted - you could always get away with "don't trust the Japanese, whichever side they say they're on now"?

[Celerity]

23. Yes, raw open racism.

[progree]

8. The Austro-Hungarian Empire didn't get much out of this deal - just Baja California

And the Gulf of Mexico renamed "Gulf of Hate"? Interesting.

[DFW]

11. I find their funniest error in their version of the Great Lakes

“Lake” in German is “See.”

“Laken” means “bedsheet.”

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. So Interlaken really means "between the sheets"?

I see 'Lake' can mean 'brine', but that fits neither the Swiss lakes not the Great Lakes.

[DFW]

25. Interlaken is essentially Latin, not German

"Inter" is Latin for "between." To say "between the lakes" in Latin, that would be "inter lacus," and the ancient Romans were in the area. The Romans called Switzerland "Helvetia," and the country, officially the Swiss Confederation, still uses the abbreviation "CH," for Confœderatio Helvetica, to refer to itself.

Lake Geneva is still called Lac Léman, though the German-speaking Swiss call it the Genfersee, just as they call Lake Zürich der Zürichsee. In fact the two lakes that Interlaken is "between" are the Brienzersee and the Thunersee. Maybe they people just kept the old Latin name, and maybe the Romansch influence had something to do with the town keeping its Latin name centuries ago. After all, Romansch, a direct Latin offshoot, and a language unique to Switzerland, is spoken not too far from there.

[melm00se]

13. Cover of Life magazine

"This map appeared on the cover of Life Magazine on February 10, 1916. It was part of the effort of American internationalists to overcome isolationist sentiment insisting on continued neutrality in the ongoing European War. The U.S. has been renamed New Prussia, and American city names have been replaced with German (or Germanized) versions. Washington is New Berlin, Chicago is Schlauterhaus, and Boston is Kulturplatz. Denverburg and Salzlakenburg are presumably German, but Florida has become Turconia, California is Japonica, and the northwest is dominated by Nagaseattle and New Kobe. New Mexico is an "American Reservation" in Der Grosse Desert."

https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:19343522

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. It was not created by the Allies. It ran on the cover of Life magazine, which was trying to drum up

support for the U.S. entering the war.

http://barronmaps.com/products/life-magazine-february-10-1916-my-country-tis-of-thee/?hcb=1&doing_wp_cron=1617795836.0689649581909179687500

[Solomon]

16. Almost like the map in the series Man in the High Castle.

[machoneman]

21. That was a great show.

[struggle4progress]

18. In WWI Japan was allied with the Triple Entente against Germany;

anti-Asian prejudice, of course, was very widespread in California during WWI: the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) had been made permanent in 1902 and wasn't repealed until 1943. "Province of Mexico" seems consistent with the Zimmerman telegram, which brought the US into WWI. But it's hard to imagine how the Turkish or Austrian empire remnants could have seized Florida or Baja California

I'd guess this didn't originate from the Triple Entente but from pro-war US nativists

ON EDIT. Ooops. I really should read threads before posting: I see melm00se upthread has already tracked it down

[kairos12]

19. Looks like a map for a Marx Brothers Movie.

Ask a Rethug who the President of Turconia is?

[GusBob]

22. Prosit Wisconsin, great name!

There is a New Berlin there

There is also a Bagdad Florida