Place | Asia: China |
---|---|
Accession Number | AWM2017.916.9 |
Collection type | Art |
Measurement | Sheet: 101.6 x 74.8 cm |
Object type | Poster |
Physical description | lithograph printed in colour |
Maker |
Unknown |
Place made | China, China |
Date made | 1918 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain |
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This Chinese poster from the final months of the First World War comments on the results of the Second Battle of the Marne and ultimately the breaking of the Hindenburg Line. In newsreel-like fashion, the poster reports: ‘From July 15 to August 31 of this year, the Allied Forces have captured 230,000 German soldiers. More than 4,000 artillery, more than 1,700 men in the trenches, and more than 13,700 infantrymen.’ It goes on to say, ‘The Allied Forces are continuing to gain ground, while Hindenburg's front line has been broken at many points,’ and concludes that ‘Hindenburg has stepped on a nail [an idiomatic expression meaning he has run into an obstacle.]’ On August 14th 1917, China officially joined the First World War and declared war on Germany. One of China's primary reasons for entering the war was to regain sovereignty over German controlled territory in the Shandong Province (in Northeast China). When the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, China was not given the land, and it was given instead to Japan. The two cartoons feature Kaiser Wilhelm and Marshall ferdinand Foch engtangled in the elastic ribbon like border between Germany and France.