"The Reckoning."
"PAN-GERMAN: 'MONSTROUS, I CALL IT. WHY, IT'S FULLY A QUARTER OF WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE MADE THEM PAY, IF WE'D WON.'"

This cartoon is about the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919, at the end of World War I published in the British Magazine Punch right after the terms were announced. The knowledge issue of this cartoon is the double standards of the German. Britain had been badly weakened by the First World War. Her economy was in a ruin and hence the main mood after the war was very anti- German. The British people wanted Germany to be punished for her sins. The cartoon since British has been obviously written in a British point of view and thus becomes a biased and misleading. The cartoon shows a German man holding a newspaper that has just announced the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The Pan- German looks shocked and outraged by face yet it is not the £6600 reparation fee the Germans have to pay. After the terms of the treaty were announced the instant reaction in Germany was one of anger. The terms of the treaty with the reparations also stated that Germany was to lose all its overseas colonies, a lot of its own land (making 13% of her population a part of another country who perhaps was anti- German), 16% of her coalfields and half of her iron and steel industry. Worst of all was the clause that blamed them for starting the entire war. The artist of the cartoon is one of the many who initially believed that Germany was crying more than she ought to have. As the statement below states, he believes that Germany would have made Britain and France pay 4 times the amount in case she had won the war thus signifying the cruel nature of the Germans. The German portrayed in the cartoon is also pretty fat showing that Germany had still enough money to feed her people. This however the artist has really taken this fact for granted. The truth as shown many photographs were that women, children and men were starving and living on the street. The aftermath of the treaty included Hyperinflation (1923) where money became worthless paper. The artist is more driven via his emotion of anger against the Germans that reason to see how harsh the treaty really was. Hence this knowledge issue is really important as it signifies how emotion can blind people from seeing clearly. The results of the treaty on Germany were terrible and its’ harshness ended up being a cause for the Second World War. It is important to understand this inorder to learn from the mistake that was committed and hence avoid future wars.