The Gap in the Bridge

Contribution by María Belen Antolini

CARTOON: “The gap in the Bridge”

By: Leonard Ravenhill

Date: December 10^th , 1919

I chose this cartoon because I believe this will enlarge the last topic we have seen, which was the US´s impact in the WW1. This cartoon refers particularly to the end of World War 1 and the creation of the League of Nations.

Background:

In 1919 Wilson had the idea of setting up the League of Nations. He was principally concerned with trying to achieve world peace and prevent this previous conflict to happen again. The US joined the World War 1 in 1917, three years after the war had already started. Hundreds of thousands of Americans soldiers fought during WW1 and a hundred and ten thousand lives were lost in a very short period of time. This had a knock on effect on the American views of getting involved in such an organization. Many felt that America should not get involved in this European issue which was thousand miles away from their country. As a result of this some American politicians began to appeal to the American public to stay out of the European affairs. Consequently, the idea of America being involved in the League of Nations was actually rejected by the American Congress, and as a result of this America never joined it.

The idea of the League was to achieve collective security to overcome border disputes and prevent another world war from occurring.

The 'Gap in the Bridge' cartoon tells us several important things. Germany was missing. Russia was missing (because of its communist government). The cartoon doesn't mention Japan (not an industrialised nation). The bridge idea is to show its ability to join countries and provide a means of communication. The importance of the gap is to suggest that the bridge will fall apart without the USA.

I will analize the cartoon by looking at its denotation (what we can see in the image) and its connotation (the effect on its audience).

DENOTATION: The bridge represents the League of Nations with the key stone missing.

CONNOTATION: The League is not complete and will collapse without the keystone.

Meaning: The League is weak.

DENOTATION: The keystone is the US and is not part of the bridge.

CONNOTATION: America not joining the League.

MEANING: Without America the League will fail.

DENOTATION: Under the bridge there is a deep dark cliff.

CONNOTATION: If the bridge collapses, the world will fall into disaster.

MEANING: Without the League, there might be another war.

DENOTATION: A sign says that the bridge was designed by Wilson, but uncle Sam is asleep.

CONNOTATION: Asleep has a connotation of negligence and inconsideration.  

MEANING: America is being hypocritical by failing to join.

As I stated before, the cartoon was published by the magazine Punch and the cartoonist is an English man. This was published three months before the US Senate finally voted to reject the Treaty and the League of Nations. This cartoon therefore was a criticism to the American position and delay in joining. It was an attempt to shame the Senate into joining the League by prophesying disaster if it didn´t.

The Roaring Twenties

CLICK HERE to see the presentation by Marilu and Sofia.

Great work, girls!

IMPERIALISM

CUBA

PHILIPPINES

Yellow Press

DJANGO UNCHAINED

Contribution by Sofia Daireaux

DJANGO UNCHAINED AND THE SCIENCE OF PHRENOLOGY

VIDEO LINK

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwvgbi_django-unchained-old-ben_shortfilms

The movie “Django Unchained” from Quentin Tarantino, takes place in Texas, 1858. In this film, Django (actor: Jamie Foxx), a black slave is promised his freedom by the German bounty hunter King Schultz (actor: Christoph Waltz), if he helps him find his own slaveowners in order to kill them. After achieving this, Django becomes a free slave and Schultz, feeling he owes something to him, accepts to help him rescue his wife, Broomhilda (actress: Kerry Washington), who’s working on “Candyland”. This enormous plantation belongs to Calvin Candie (actor: Leonardo DiCaprio), a slaveholder who also enjoys watching “Mandingo fights”, in which slaves are forced to fight to death.

In this scene, Candie introduces his guests to the skull of Old Ben, a slave who had worked in his family for a long time. He says that he’s been his whole life surrounded by “black faeces” and that he’s always asked himself the same question: “Why don’t they kill us?” Candie uses the science of phrenology in order to justify and “understand the separation of their species”. He shows that in the skull of blacks the area associated with “submissiveness” and “servility” is larger than any other human beings' skulls. On the other hand, he says that the skull of white men has more developed the area associated with creativity.

This topic has to do with the pro slavery theories developed by southerners in order to justify slavery. They tried to give scientific arguments for this institution, such as the “science” of phrenology which gave physical evidence of the blacks’ inferiority.

In fact there was a doctor from Kentucky, Charles Caldwell who “deployed phrenology in almost exactly the same manner as the fictional Candie. In 1837 he wrote to a friend claiming that "tameableness" explained the apparent ease with which Africans could be enslaved. This was a standard phrenological argument. Areas located towards the top and back of the skull, such as "Veneration" and "Cautiousness", were routinely claimed to be large in Africans.” (James Poskett. “Django Unchained and the racist science of phrenology”. The Guardian, Tuesday 5 February, 2013.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained

TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/feb/05/django-unchained-racist-science-phrenology

Reconstruction

CIVIL WAR

TRASNPORTATION 1800-1850

Rather than giving funds directly to the railroads in the form of grants or loans, the government divided the land along the railroad rights-of-way into square sections, and alternate sections were given to the railroads. The remaining sections were sold directly to settlers. The government could command a much higher price for land that would be serviced by a railroad, and many settlers willingly paid a premium for the promising sites. Conversely, the lands granted to the railroads could be similarly sold to settlers in order to raise the necessary capital for the actual building.