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American published propaganda poster encouraging American involvement in World War I by depicting the Prussian army as enslaving Europe.

Includes a map of Europe with the land occupied by Germany in red, with the words: "The Prussian Blot. 100,000,000 People Already Enslaved by Germany." At the bottom it reads: "While Germany Dreams of Dominating the World By Force, There Can Be No Peace."

The text provides:

President Wilson says of the Germans: "Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power and political control across the very center of Europe and beyond the Mediterranean Sea into the heart of Asia. They have actually carried the greater part of that amazing plan into execution."

The Kaiser proclaims: "Woe and death unto those who oppose my will. Death to the infidel who denies my mission. Let all the enemies of the German nation perish. God demands their destruction."

While Germany Dreams of Dominating The World By Force There Can Be No Peace

From the outbreak of World War I until America's declaration of war in April 1917, the official posture of the country had been neutrality. There was concern whether German-Americans would fight against the Kaiser and whether Irish-Americans would fight alongside the British. Even after America entered the war, the public was far from unified behind the cause. There were vocal misgivings from intellectuals, labor leaders, progressive reformers and long-time isolationists.

To meet these concerns, President Woodrow Wilson launched an all-out effort to gain wider public support. On April 15, he created the Committee on Public Information, headed by a former muckraking journalist, George Creel. The Committee conducted a "vast enterprise in salesmanship," in which it "extolled American greatness and condemned German barbarism by using sensational stories of atrocity, which were later discredited."

The Committee was "charged with the task of directing the release and suppression of government news to promote the absolute justice of America's cause, the absolute selflessness of America's aims.'" Other organizations helped in this effort. The Council of National Defense had been created in 1916 to coordinate mobilization efforts, and had created State Councils of Defense to assist it after the war began, "The state councils became primarily propaganda agencies to generate public support for the war effort."

The poster displays a pointed threat from the Kaiser and a quote from Wilson about the reach of German ambition. (Wilson's statement is from a speech he gave on Flag Day, June 14, 1917.) It's interesting to consider how effective the poster would have been without the map, and how effective the map would have been without the splash of blood red (the same color as the Kaiser's statement).