Sample Solution

A cartoon drawn by Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling in Iowa 1917 depicts the German-American as a child-like, sneaky figure:

We see a teacher chastising a child saying, “Take a seat up front, where I can watch you and you won’t be looking over anyone’s shoulder.” The child is dressed in overalls that says “German-American,” a copy of the US war plans in one hand and a letter to the Kaiser in the other. This cartoon quickly fostered suspicion and hatred amongst the nation. Germans were characterized as manipulative people eager to gather scraps of news. A mass phobia against German-Americans developed as many were in fear that German spies were everywhere, reporting back all that they overheard to their motherland. Such characterization of the German-Americans was not uncommon. In fact, cartoons like these were what isolated the German-American community. Possibly other examples and quotes of cartoons?

Britain’s blockade across the North Sea and the English Channel cut the flow of war supplies, food, and fuel to Germany during World War I. Germany retaliated by using its submarines to destroy neutral ships that were supplying the Allies. U-boats, boats engineered by Germany, lurked the Atlantic armed with torpedoes. On May 7, 1915, German submarine U-20 torpedoed the Lusitania, causing the death of nearly 1,200 men, women, and children. The Allies and Americans considered the sinking an act of inhumane warfare. An article published in the Morning Olympian on August 6, 1918 describes the Ge