1938.09.20 “European Circus”
by Lucius Curtis “Lute” Pease, Jr. (1869 -1963)
15 x 16 in., crayon and ink on board
Coppola Collection
Pease was a cartoonist for the Newark Evening News from 1914 to 1954 and received the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He was a miner in Alaska for 5 years before beginning a career in art. He was an illustrator for the Oregonian and famously interviewed Mark Twain. From his retirement in 1954 until his death in 1963, he devoted himself to fostering his skills as a painter of portraits and landscapes.
The term “Berlin-Rome Axis” was popularized in 1936 by Mussolini, where he used it to refer to the relationship between Italy and Germany, and the next axis on which the world was meant to turn. Later, the term “Axis Powers” was used to more generically represent the Nazi-controlled forces during WW2. The term "London-Paris axis" also emerged, as an analogy, to describe a close relationship or alliance between Great Britain and France.
In 1938, the conflict between these two axes was evident, as Europe experienced significant political instability, primarily driven by Nazi Germany's aggressive expansionist policies and the policy of appeasement pursued by Great Britain and France. Throughout September, the Sudeten crisis was in the news. Hitler demanded the annexation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, where a significant German-speaking population resided. On September 30, 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed. Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany agreed to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a decision widely viewed as a policy of appeasement that failed to prevent further aggression.
As the previous appeasement of Hitler had shown, France and Britain were intent on avoiding war. The French government did not wish to face Germany alone and took its lead from British Conservative government of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He considered the Sudeten German grievances justified and believed Hitler's intentions to be limited. After the agreement, Chamberlain declared “peace for our time,” which is now a phrase linked to the failure of appeasement as a policy. Hitler was emboldened by the display of weakness, and continued persecutions inside Germany and expansionism outside, leading ultimately to the invasion of Poland and the start of WW2 a year later.
