Palestine and the British Empire in US Political Cartoons, 1917-1919

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the process of formation of the image of Palestine and the British Empire at the end of the First World War. On the basis of the materials of American cartoons and periodicals, the main points in the evolution of the attitude of American society to Palestine are considered, the complexities and contradictions in understanding the features of the British Empire are shown. The study of cartoons will help determine the nature of the interaction of textual and visual images in the US media during the discussion of the results of the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations and the mandate system. Based on the study of cartoons, two stages in the perception of Palestine in the United States are distinguished: 1) “romantic” and 2) “critical”. New images of Palestine, the British colonial empire, and the Middle East first appeared in newspaper articles, and only later in cartoons. The debate between apologetic and critical strands of US public opinion regarding Palestine and the British model of internal security in the colonies became in 1919 one element of a more global debate between Democrats and Republicans about the role of the US in the League of Nations.

Keywords

• world war i
• imperialism
• colonialism
• palestine
• public opinion
• cartoons
• usa
• great britain
• internal security
• treaty of versailles