Satiric Political Cartoon

American Imperialism

This cartoon is a humorous and witty depiction of American imperialism in the late 19^th century. In the cartoon, Uncle Sam – a symbol of American democracy – is being served at a restaurant, in which the menu lists specific countries as food options. The waiter is President William McKinley (1897 – 1901), who is primarily associated with America’s era of imperialism in the early 1900s. The bill of fare consists of nations targeted by the United States during this era as prospective territories within which it would spread American democratic ideology as a remedy for the political and social strife that plundered these nations at the time.

Elements

These different objects help to denounce American imperialism as they portray it for the joke it is. As Uncle Sam scans the menu and pulls haughtily at his beard, the audience picks up on the arrogance of the United States – the world’s leading economic power – in being able to take a map of the world, target the weakest nations, and decide to take them under its wings simply because it can. America is not concerned with the bettering of these nations but rather with the spread of its democratic ideals in order to expand its influence in the global community. The cartoonist mocks America’s humanitarian front by demonstrating how the United States brazenly “selects” nations on a menu to “devour” them greedily and hungrily. President McKinley waits on Uncle Sam similarly to the way he “serves” his people. In using him as a waiter, the cartoonist mocks the failure of the government to actually address the needs of Americas and its success in preoccupying itself with “serving the needs” of foreign peoples. The cartoon is effective in reproving American imperialism as it cleverly combines these different objects as symbols for American arrogance, hypocrisy, deception, and “democratic tyranny.” In my opinion it is fair because the falsehood of America’s intentions were followed by unjust acts that resulted in the conquering of peoples who refused to be conquered and in the transformation of these peoples’ identity in the image of the United States.

Purpose

The purpose of this political cartoon is to point attention to the heinous nature of American imperialism and to the hypocrisy of American democracy. The United States adopted these nations under the pretense of spreading democratic ideals to more countries and thus contributing to the greater good of humanity. Meanwhile, the ulterior motive was the expansion of America’s territorial control and power in the international community.

Evidence

The United States justified its imperialist acts with the declaration of Manifest Destiny – that it was blessed by the grace of God to spread democracy, as deemed worthy by America, throughout the world; that the United States was destined to expand across the globe just as it was destined to expand across the North American continent. "We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny,” President William McKinley stated during his annexation of Hawaii in 1898. Through warfare and intervention, the United States seized under its command Cuba and Porto Rico (Spanish-American War), the Virgin Islands (1898), and the Philippines. Nothing is democratic about conquering territories and peoples, and subjugating them to a system of government that is not there own. This is purely despotic.

Cartoonist

The cartoonist is against imperialism as expressed by the satiric tone of the cartoon. He ridicules the masked motives of the United States government in rescuing nations that are in a state of strife and thus weak. Nations such as these were easy marks. They would help make the arrival of Uncle Sam in these territories as a purely humanitarian as opposed to schematic act. The cartoonist denounces the fundamental hypocrisy of American democracy in using its “superior” government ideology to conquer other nations. The cartoonist opposes imperialism as it is based on the manipulation of democratic principles to make deceptive ends meet.