La guerre est l’industrie nationale de la Prusse WW1 propaganda map Neumont 1917

En 1788 Mirabeau disait déjà: La guerre est l’industrie nationale de la Prusse—Envahie il y a quarante-sept ans l’Alsace-Lorraine ne diffère pas des départements français—Envahis il y a trois ans (Déclaration du Gouvernement français, Chambre des députés, 25 octobre 1917)—À la veille de la guerre la puissante association pangermaniste Alldeutscher Verband déclarait partout: « Il faut que le peuple allemand s’élève comme un peuple de maîtres au-dessus des peuples inférieurs d’Europe »—Attaqués, Nous ne faisons que nous défendre au nom de la liberté et pour sauver notre existence (Général Petain Juin 1917) [In 1788 Mirabeau said: War is the national industry of Prussia — Invaded forty-seven years ago, Alsace-Lorraine is no different from the French departments — Invaded three years ago (Declaration of the French Government, Chamber of Deputies, 25 October 1917) — On the eve of the war, the powerful pan-Germanist association, the Alldeutscher Verband, declared everywhere: “The German people must rise as a people of masters above the inferior peoples of Europe” — Attacked, we are doing nothing more than defending ourselves in the name of liberty and in order to save our existence (General Pétain, June 1917).

A powerful French propaganda map by Maurice Neumont (1868–1930), produced during the final and most ideologically charged phase of the First World War. Issued in 1917, the map presents a polemical vision of Europe designed to argue that German militarism was not a recent aberration but a structural and historical condition. Quoting Mirabeau’s 1788 assertion that “war is the national industry of Prussia”, Neumont frames the conflict as the inevitable outcome of long-standing Prussian expansionism. Portraying Prussia as an Octopus with its tentacles spreading throughout Europe, the map overlays historical annexations, recent occupations, and Pangermanist ambitions, tracing German territorial growth from the eighteenth century to the contemporary war. Alsace-Lorraine is highlighted as French territory unjustly seized in 1871, while surrounding regions are shown as victims of systematic aggression. Textual extracts from the Alldeutscher Verband are used to underline the ideological basis of German war aims, presenting them as explicitly hierarchical, racially motivated and imperial. Produced at a moment of acute war-weariness in France, the map draws on official statements by the French government and General Pétain to reinforce the argument that France is fighting a defensive war “in the name of liberty and to ensure its survival”. Combining cartography, rhetoric and graphic design, the map exemplifies Neumont’s use of maps as persuasive instruments rather than neutral documents. Ironically and sadly, Pétain, who commanded the French Army in World War I, later became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II, for which he was convicted of treason. A rare and visually arresting, this work stands as a significant artefact of First World War political cartography and French wartime propaganda.