Good cartoons and the causes of the Second World War

As my year 10s know, I love cartoons. I show them one almost every lesson. This is partly due to the fact that every GCSE exam has a cartoon in it but also because they are a fascinating, ironic and often cynical view on the past. They also shape our views of that past which puts the cartoonist in a really powerful position.

The period between the world wars is probably the best case study for the amazing power of cartoons. Some of them poke fun, some would offer criticism against anyone and others are chillingly accurate.

For those unfamiliar with the period, following the First World War, the world sat down and decided that war was not a good idea and vowed never to do it again (hence, the war to end all wars). 20 years later the Second World War broke out. The spooky thing about this cartoon (right) is the accuracy with which jokes predicted the future. The cartoonist is making the point that decision-makers at the Treaty of Versailles (the treaty which set out the terms for German defeat) were sowing the seeds for a future in which the 1940 class (only a few months off the reality) would be fighting. Whilst this is an interesting coincidence, it also ties into the academic debate, many historians trace the start of the Second World War to the poor decisions made at Versailles.