1914.05.11 “The Youthful Patriots”
By Stanley Link (1894-1957)
14x17 in, ink on board
Coppola Collection
Link took a correspondence course in cartooning when he was a teenager. When he was sixteen, he began to work with an animation company. In the early 1920s, he became Sidney Smith's assistant. He launched the panel Ching Chow in 1927, and took over after Smith’s death 1935. In 1933, he created his own strip, Tiny Tim.
In 1914, the United States occupied Veracruz, aiming to cut off supplies of ammunition from the German Empire to Mexico at the start of World War I. Twice during the Mexican Revolution, the US sent troops into Mexico, to occupy Veracruz in 1914 and to northern Mexico in 1916 in a failed attempt to capture Pancho Villa.
Mexico–United States relations had been strained by the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The expansionist policies of President Polk, combined with the Mexican government's desire to retain control of Texas and Upper California, led to the outbreak of military conflict between the US and Mexico in 1846. The decisive US victory led to Mexico ceding 55% of its territory to the US and a sense of animosity developing between the two nations.
