---
title: La paix de l'ennemi (Peace on the Enemy's Terms)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paix-de-lennemi-prouve-1918/
description: A spiked-helmet Kaiser tramples a prone man and thrusts a 'Traité de Paix' at a kneeling woman while a dagger points at her; the printed text lists what…
section: Collection
---

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

[![La paix de l'ennemi (Peace on the Enemy's Terms)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-paix-de-lennemi-prouve-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-paix-de-lennemi-prouve-1918.jpg)

# La paix de l'ennemi (Peace on the Enemy's Terms)

A spiked-helmet Kaiser tramples a prone man and thrusts a 'Traité de Paix' at a kneeling woman while a dagger points at her; the printed text lists what befell Russia and Romania and asks readers to 'judge' what France would be offered, ending 'Vaincre d'abord!' The argument runs from two hand-picked cases to a single predicted fate for France.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** French wartime home-front propaganda (sponsor not named on the sheet); signed V. Prouvé; printed by Berger-Levrault
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [France](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=france)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Clemenceau Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=clemenceau-government)
- **Leader:** [Georges Clemenceau](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=georges-clemenceau)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [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/item/99613700/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published 1918, before 1931); LOC record states no rights line Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC2-3997.

## Text on the object

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

```
[on the document in the Kaiser's hand] TRAITÉ DE PAIX

La PAIX de L'ENNEMI.

L'Allemagne a déclaré en 1917
qu'elle désirait une paix sans indemnités ni annexions.
La Russie, pour avoir cru à sa parole, a été dépecée, humiliée et ruinée;
elle a perdu ses provinces, ses alliés, elle subit la famine et l'anarchie.
La Roumanie, sous peine de se voir partagée entre l'Autriche et la Bulgarie,
a dû céder à ses pires ennemis une partie de son territoire
et devenir en fait la vassale de l'Allemagne.
Par les conditions imposées à la Russie et à la Roumanie,
jugeons de celles qui nous seraient réservées
si nous nous laissions prendre au piège.
Vaincre d'abord !

[signature, lower left] V. Prouvé 1918
[printer's line, lower right] Imp. Berger-Levrault, Paris-Nancy
```

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

```
[on the document in the Kaiser's hand] PEACE TREATY

The ENEMY'S PEACE.

Germany declared in 1917
that it wanted a peace without indemnities or annexations.
Russia, for having believed its word, was dismembered, humiliated and ruined;
it has lost its provinces and its allies, and it suffers famine and anarchy.
Romania, on pain of being divided between Austria and Bulgaria,
had to cede part of its territory to its worst enemies
and in effect become the vassal of Germany.
From the conditions imposed on Russia and on Romania,
let us judge those that would be reserved for us
if we let ourselves be taken in by the trap.
Victory first!
```

Read from the 1024-pixel LOC image; the hand lettering is legible but a few words in the body text may be misread. The printer's line at lower right is very small.

[← Kolonial-Krieger-Spende. von Lettow-Vorbeck (Colonial Servicemen's Fund)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kolonial-krieger-spende-lettow-vorbeck-1918/) ["Propheten einer neuen Welt" (Nebelspalter cartoon, 1918) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nebelspalter-prophets-of-a-new-world-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) (Jun 2, 1894 · Fear appeal)
- [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)