Due to the volatile atmosphere in Europe in the late 1800’s, it was possible for World War I to have occurred much earlier than 1914. The Crimean War (1853-1856) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) were signs of the Great Eastern Crisis in Europe.
Frederick Rose was a British junior clerk in the Legacy Office of the Inland Revenue. He created the 1877 Serio-Comic War Map two months before the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War. The map was so popular, that a revised 2nd edition was published in the same year. A civil servant for life, Rose created several more maps based on political tensions.
Rose depicted the European countries and their various states of anxiety about the political situation with an expansionist Russia. On the map, Crimea is once again in the grasp of the Russian octopus as well as Poland. Tentacles stretch into the Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungary. Meanwhile, as France and Germany prepare for war, Spain is sleeping.
With the creation a new printing method that allowed for mass reproduction, maps could be used to show opinions and to persuade large populations…
For a look at the 2nd Edition of the 1877 Map see “Bending Lines” from the Leventhal Map & Education Center
From the British Library: Satirical Maps of the World
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