1913 Puck Magazine Political Cartoon of American Protectorates in Latin America

This is a 1913 Udo Keppler political cartoon lambasting American protectorates in Latin America. The cartoon portrays Uncle Sam in a leisurely position, dressed in a star-spangled waistcoat and rede and white striped pants. His legs extend south toward the Gulf of Mexico and are drawn like the poles of a magnet. This magnet attracts Caribbean, Central, and South American countries (which are all personified as small Hispanic men wearing straw hats and white clothes). Their hats bear the name of the country each man represents. Panama appears in Uncle Sam's pocket, while Cuba grabs the end of one of the magnet's poles. Nicaragua and Costa Rica zoom across the Gulf pulled from the other coast by magnetic forces. Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Colombia cling to the far shore, trying as hard as they can to resist the unwanted advances.

U.S. Protectorates in the Caribbean, Central, and South America Before World War I

The first U.S. protectorate in the Caribbean was Cuba, established by the Platt Amendment, which was passed in 1901 and was incorporated into a treaty with Cuba in 1903. The U.S. also established a protectorate over Panama in 1903, after supporting a group seeking independence from Colombia. U.S. support soon won the Americans possession of the Canal Zone from Panama, which the U.S. held sole possession of until 1977. The Theodore Roosevelt administration tried to establish a protectorate in the Dominican Republic but failed to garner Senate support. President Taft's administration then made Nicaragua a protectorate in 1907. All this American interventionism was based on the Monroe Doctrine, which warned European nations against establishing colonies or other puppet governments in the Western Hemisphere. Theodore Roosevelt established the 'Roosevelt Corollary' in 1904, which stated that the U.S. had the right to intervene in any Latin American conflict that exhibited 'flagrant and chronic wrongdoing by the Latin American country.'

Chromolithography

Chromolithography is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired effect. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it emerged as the dominate method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery.

Publication History and Census

This cartoon was drawn by Udo Keppler and published in the August 13, 1913 issue of Puck. One example is cataloged in OCLC, and it is part of the collection at the Library of Congress.