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From Allies to Enemies: The Two Balkan Wars (1912-1913) in Caricatures
Summing up the findings of the paper, we can conclude that despite the differ¬
ent political attitudes, some long-standing symbols appeared in a number of satirical
magazines: the Balkan nations as children, the angel of peace, the skeleton, animals,
“the sick man of Europe,” and the great powers. The symbols of territorial losses
were depicted most directly in the Serbian satirical magazine; while the losing or
gaining of territories was depicted in the Serbian and Hungarian magazines (how¬
ever, in the pictures of Borsszem Janké reprinted from western European magazines,
one cannot find these motifs). The maps and the motif of cutting off body parts are
missing from the western European papers, but the European powers and the al¬
legory of Europe appear more often in their caricatures.
To return to the questions asked in the introduction, independently of the
changes of enemies, the symbols of territory loss and those of the enemy were
similar, although one can find one motif, the image of cutting body parts from
the king, which was typically used in reference to Bulgaria in Vrac Pogadac. As
is visible in his portraits as well as in caricatures, King Ferdinand had a long
nose, which offered a natural target for mocking. The change of the enemy did
not mean a change in its visual representation, and the political orientation of
the satirical papers did not have an effect on the use of emblems either, only the
targets of their irony and mockery were different. In order to create an under¬
standable caricature that the reader could decode quickly, caricaturists employed
well-known symbols to the topic of the Balkan wars too, but the emphases were,
naturally, different.
While the Balkan magazines depicted the struggles for independence and ter¬
ritories, the Hungarian and western European magazines focused on their con¬
tempt toward the Balkan states and their goals. The Hungarian fears about Serbian
goals also played a part in making fun of the Other, but this was not the only way
of Othering. The juxtaposing of animals and humans expressed Otherness in a
stinging way, thus, all of the satirical papers used it. One’s own group appeared
as human, while the others, as the animals with negative associations (pigs, toads,
rats, or monkeys, etc.). Similar juxtapositions are the sick, dying enemy with grave
injuries versus the very much alive own group, or the killing of the enemy versus
the peacefully observing European powers. An expressive way of Othering in the
caricatures of western European and Hungarian satirical papers was the depiction
of one’s group as adults versus the Balkan nations as children. Finally, another
means of depicting the enemy differently from one’s group was the representation
of its supposed negative characteristics: physical appearance (for example, a gaunt
Turk or Austrian versus a strong Serb in Vrac Pogadac; the mean-faced and barbaric
Nikita versus the strong and civilized Ferdinand in Borsszem Janké) or other nega¬
tive characteristics (the poverty and barbarism of the Montenegrins in Der Floh or
in Borsszem Jankó).
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