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From Allies to Enemies: The Two Balkan Wars (1912-1913) in Caricatures
with the devil (Cooper 1986: 10). In the iconology of Cesare Ripa, the monkey is
a symbol of brazenness (1997: 535); therefore, it could be an understandable alle¬
gory of the enemy for Hungarians, easily symbolizing the negative feelings toward
Serbian political and territorial goals. During the period of the Skutari crisis, in
the spring of 1913, Russia was already being depicted as a nanny with the cheeky
boy, Montenegro, spitting on Europe, in order to show that he did not want to
give back Skutari (Borsszem Janké, 6 April 1913). Although Russia did not inter¬
fere in the Second Balkan War, during the war it is depicted as a bear, making the
representatives of the countries of the new Balkan League (excluding Bulgaria but
including Rumania) dance (ill. 127).
In contrast to the different views and symbols of Russia, all of the analyzed satir¬
ical magazines illustrated, through various symbolic scenes, the supposed inability
to do anything about the great powers and their fear for a European war. In one of
the caricatures of Vrac Pogadaë, the powers try to keep the balance on a seesaw (Vrac
Pogadaë, 29 December 1912), whereas the conference of the ambassadors is depicted
as a burned dish (Vraé Pogadaé, 29 January 1913). In other caricatures the powers
argue or play hide-and-seek, while they search for the right king-candidate for Al¬
bania (Vraë Pogadaë, 14 February 1913). The picture of Borsszem Janke is similarly
ironic in which the powers watch a fight between Bulgaria and Turkey in the “Eu¬
ropean circus” (Borsszem Janké, 9 February 1913). In another depiction of the Hun¬
garian magazine, the “Chaos of the Balkans” assumed the place of the “Concert of
Europe,”? suggesting the loss of European influence over the events in the Balkans,
after the Second Balkan War broke out after the peace treaty was agreed upon in
London. In the picture, one can see the Russian tsar, Nicolas, who was unable to
conduct the concert and blamed this on the Serbs (Borsszem Janké, 6 July 1913).
The Targets and Tools of Irony
The main target of irony is different in the various satirical magazines. Der Floh
mocks the Montenegro ruler, Nikita, introducing him as poor, barbaric, and un¬
civilized (Der Floh, 6 April 1913). In a Polish satirical magazine, the Albanian
figure shows up as similarly poor (Mucha [Fly], 6 July 1913): an armed man sits by
a dilapidated house, which symbolizes the Albanian parliament; the clothes of the
Albanian are patched up, and similarly patched clothes hang by the house as well.
‘The depiction mocks the new state and suggests that it is incapable of surviving.
The Viennese weekly did not pay much attention to Turkey: neither the question
of Albania nor the territorial growth or loss of the Balkan states showed up in the
various issues. In the Hungarian magazine’s own depictions the formation of the
new Albania did not appear. The territorial enrichment of Bulgaria was not inter¬
? The nineteenth century passed under the aegis of the “Concert of Europe”: at the beginning of the
century the five great powers (the Habsburg Empire, Prussia, Russia, France, and England) agreed that
they would avoid wars and, instead, solve their conflicts in international congresses.
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