Bringing the map to life: European satirical maps 1845-1945
The map of Europe in the shape of a Queen originally designed by Johannes Putsch (Bucius) in 1537 and later published in Sebastian Munster’s Cosmographia forms an interesting counterpoint to the first separate Continental map of the Europe [1540] from Munster’s companion work, Geographia. These two European maps point to two quite distinct traditions of cartographic representation dating back to the early 14th Century.In the 19th Century the metaphorical tradition of the European Queen witnessed a new and distinctive reincarnation – the political cartoon map of Europe – which reflected and mirrored the momentous political and cultural changes that transformed Europe between 1845 and 1945. Individual nations were caricaturized and distinctive national identities given new and popular symbolic expression. Increasingly politicised, the cartoon map of Europe finally disappeared in the turmoil of World War I, victim to new and more powerful forms of mass media and communication. Its vestiges remain clearly visible in the design and iconography of subsequent propaganda posters of Bolshevik Russia and of World War II.