Will Dyson's 1919 Cartoon
Veterans Day, once known as Armistice Day, is full of memories, symbolism, pride, and sadness.
When the First World War ended on November 11, 1918, it finished not with a bang, but with a whimper. A declaration not of peace, nor of victory, but a cessation of hostilities, the declaration of an “armistice.”
The terms of the armistice, presented to the German command on November 8, 1918, were lengthy. They were designed not only to assure that the fighting would cease, but that Germany would not pose a future threat of renewing the hostilities.
“The duration of the armistice,” stated the document which the German government signed at 5 am on November 11, 1918 , “is to be thirty days, with option to extend.”
At 11 am that same day, the armistice went into effect.
In his address to the U.S. Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
“It is not now possible to assess the consequences of this great consummation.”
Indeed. While the Allied powers attempted to ensure that Germany would not engage in another war, and that the nation would make reparations for the four years of conflict, as well as pay for the Allied troop occupation of the area known as the “Rhineland” (among other terms), the Armistice was only “prolonged” --or renewed---over the years following its first initial period. Peace was never truly achieved.
Nonetheless, people across the world celebrated “Peace” once the first Armistice agreement went into effect. But it was clear to many that the Great War would be but the first.
In 1919, Australian Will Dyson created his eerily accurate cartoon. “Curious, I seem to hear a child weeping,” the French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau (nicknamed ‘the tiger’) says as he exits the Treaty of Versailles meetings with the other Allied heads of state. That child is a future member of the “1940 class.”
Dyson was off only by one year. The inability of the formerly warring nations to create true peace would lead to the Second World War. The time between the end of the first and the beginning of the second was precisely one generation. Just time enough for those children born out of one war to be old enough to fight in the second. “Future Cannon Fodder,” in Dyson’s words.
In the foreground of the cartoon lies the ineffective peace treaty.
The First World War was an epic failure of humanity. Twenty million people perished as a result.
In 1918, the people celebrating the Armistice represented the force of peace. Pouring out into the streets, cheering, crying, dancing, and embracing each other, they gave physical form to the power of peace. The power of humanity.
But in the halls of power, those granted the magnificent burden of outlining a true peace treaty, failed utterly to see beyond war's blinding hatred and destruction.
Ending war, it might be argued, is a matter of putting pen to paper.
Achieving peace is a matter of holding steadfast to ideals higher than one's own self interest.
When the First World War ended on November 11, 1918, it finished not with a bang, but with a whimper. A declaration not of peace, nor of victory, but a cessation of hostilities, the declaration of an “armistice.”
The terms of the armistice, presented to the German command on November 8, 1918, were lengthy. They were designed not only to assure that the fighting would cease, but that Germany would not pose a future threat of renewing the hostilities.
“The duration of the armistice,” stated the document which the German government signed at 5 am on November 11, 1918 , “is to be thirty days, with option to extend.”
At 11 am that same day, the armistice went into effect.
In his address to the U.S. Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
“It is not now possible to assess the consequences of this great consummation.”
Indeed. While the Allied powers attempted to ensure that Germany would not engage in another war, and that the nation would make reparations for the four years of conflict, as well as pay for the Allied troop occupation of the area known as the “Rhineland” (among other terms), the Armistice was only “prolonged” --or renewed---over the years following its first initial period. Peace was never truly achieved.
Nonetheless, people across the world celebrated “Peace” once the first Armistice agreement went into effect. But it was clear to many that the Great War would be but the first.
In 1919, Australian Will Dyson created his eerily accurate cartoon. “Curious, I seem to hear a child weeping,” the French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau (nicknamed ‘the tiger’) says as he exits the Treaty of Versailles meetings with the other Allied heads of state. That child is a future member of the “1940 class.”
Dyson was off only by one year. The inability of the formerly warring nations to create true peace would lead to the Second World War. The time between the end of the first and the beginning of the second was precisely one generation. Just time enough for those children born out of one war to be old enough to fight in the second. “Future Cannon Fodder,” in Dyson’s words.
In the foreground of the cartoon lies the ineffective peace treaty.
The First World War was an epic failure of humanity. Twenty million people perished as a result.
In 1918, the people celebrating the Armistice represented the force of peace. Pouring out into the streets, cheering, crying, dancing, and embracing each other, they gave physical form to the power of peace. The power of humanity.
But in the halls of power, those granted the magnificent burden of outlining a true peace treaty, failed utterly to see beyond war's blinding hatred and destruction.
Ending war, it might be argued, is a matter of putting pen to paper.
Achieving peace is a matter of holding steadfast to ideals higher than one's own self interest.