Alliances Cartoon Reflection

• What are the main visual elements?

People standing around two kings and trading gold with each other. The people represent different countries. On the outside, there are two other 'countries'. One of them is crying, and the other really poor. They're not trading like the other countries but sitting outside.

• What issue is this political cartoon about?

Alliances between countries. How people trade and how some are left out.

• What is the cartoonist’s opinion on this issue?

They think that the powerful countries like Germany have more connections and are able to trade more things and bring stuff into their country.

• What evidence in the cartoon supports your opinion on how the cartoonist feels?

The two most powerful countries are standing in the middle, and they also have some kind of crown on their heads. The countries standing around them are connected buy little tickets that I think say gold on them. The two people on the outside have no connections and are either sad or very poor.

• What other techniques could the cartoonist have used to make this cartoon more persuasive?

Show if some of the countries are in a war, or show some kind of conflict, except the people on the outside, going on.

• How does this cartoon relate to the Great Powers Game?

In the game we had to make connections with people that would help us. During the game we defeated other people and took all their things, leaving them with nothing. There were mainly two powerful countries, Germany and Great Britain, that were sort of controlling everybody else. If either of them went to war against another country, they would surely win because of their many armies and connections to people who would help them. The cartoon shows exactly this.