---
title: 'The Modern Civilization of Europe: France in Morocco & England in Egypt (Cairo Punch supplement)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cairo-punch-modern-civilization-of-europe-1908/
description: A special colour supplement to the Cairo Punch shows a French and a British soldier clinking champagne glasses across a field of skulls, with burning…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Allegorical colour cartoon with skeletons, a bloodied corpse and a hanged figure, depicting French and British colonial violence. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![The Modern Civilization of Europe: France in Morocco & England in Egypt (Cairo Punch supplement)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cairo-punch-modern-civilization-of-europe-1908.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cairo-punch-modern-civilization-of-europe-1908.jpg)

# The Modern Civilization of Europe: France in Morocco & England in Egypt (Cairo Punch supplement)

A special colour supplement to the Cairo Punch shows a French and a British soldier clinking champagne glasses across a field of skulls, with burning Casa Blanca on one side and the Denshway gallows on the other. Two selected episodes, Casablanca 1907 and Denshawai 1906, stand for the whole of 'modern civilization', and the toast is the tell.

- **Date:** 1908
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** The Cairo Punch (al-Siyasa al-Musawwara), Cairo; artist and editor A. H. Zaki
- **Region:** [Middle East and North Africa](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=middle-east-north-africa)
- **Country:** [Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=egypt)
- **Medium:** [Print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=print)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Khedivate of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=khedivate-of-egypt)
- **Leader:** [Abbas II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=abbas-ii)
- **Audience:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=mixed)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2013645587/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published in Egypt 1908-1914, before 1931) A. H. Zaki, special supplement to The Cairo Punch, Cairo, c. 1908-1914; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC2-1379

## Text on the object

Original (Multiple) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
THE MODERN CIVILIZATION OF EUROPE
FRANCE IN MOROCCO & ENGLANIN IN EGYPT

CASA BLANCA  الدار البيضاء
فظاعة . ظلم . استبداد .
MOROCCO  مراكش
DENSHWAY  بلدة دنشواي
EGYPT  مصر
[on the British soldier's helmet band:] JOHN BULL [small, partly legible]
[small Arabic words on each soldier's tunic, illegible]

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE CAIRO PUNCH
[Arabic line beside it: illegible]

ذكرى دنشواي او مدنية اوربا الحديثة
انجلترا في مصر وفرنسا في مراكش
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
THE MODERN CIVILIZATION OF EUROPE
FRANCE IN MOROCCO & ENGLANIN [sic] IN EGYPT

CASA BLANCA  The White House (Arabic name of Casablanca)
Atrocity. Injustice. Tyranny.
MOROCCO  Morocco
DENSHWAY  Town of Denshawai
EGYPT  Egypt
[on the helmet band:] JOHN BULL

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE CAIRO PUNCH

Memory of Denshawai, or the modern civilisation of Europe:
England in Egypt and France in Morocco
```

Read from an enlarged 640 px image. The Arabic supplement line beside the English imprint and the tiny words on the tunics and helmet band are too small to read with confidence.

[← The Cairo Punch: The English Councillors (Sir Eldon Gorst and the ministers)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cairo-punch-english-councillors-1908/) [Yaşasın Vatan, Yaşasın Millet, Yaşasın Hürriyet! (Long Live the Fatherland, the Nation, Liberty!) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/young-turk-constitution-postcard-1908/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (May 7, 1898 · Card stacking)
- ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/) (1899 · Card stacking, Name-calling). Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers.
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-every-one-over-ten-1902/) (May 5, 1902 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad.