---
title: 'The World Cannot Live Half Slave, Half Free: The Prussian Blot'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-world-cannot-live-half-slave-half-free-1917/
description: A map of Europe shades the German-led bloc in red under the heading 'The Prussian Blot' and the figure '100,000,000 people already enslaved by Germany.'
section: Collection
---

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3. The World Cannot Live Half Slave, Half Free: The Prussian Blot

[![The World Cannot Live Half Slave, Half Free: The Prussian Blot, 1917 US poster: A map of Europe shades the German-led bloc](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/the-world-cannot-live-half-slave-half-free-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/the-world-cannot-live-half-slave-half-free-1917.jpg)

# The World Cannot Live Half Slave, Half Free: The Prussian Blot

A map of Europe shades the German-led bloc in red under the heading 'The Prussian Blot' and the figure '100,000,000 people already enslaved by Germany.' Beneath it the poster pairs a quoted statement attributed to President Wilson with a quoted proclamation attributed to the Kaiser, and ends 'There can be no peace.' The tell is the combination of a threat map with an opponent's own words, which frames a negotiated end as impossible.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

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

```
THE WORLD CANNOT LIVE
HALF SLAVE, HALF FREE

THE PRUSSIAN BLOT

EUROPE

100,000,000 PEOPLE ALREADY ENSLAVED BY GERMANY

President Wilson Says of the Germans:
"Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power and political control across the very center of Europe and beyond the Mediterranean Sea into the heart of Asia. They have actually carried the greater part of that amazing plan into execution."

THE KAISER PROCLAIMS:
"Woe and death unto those who oppose my will. Death to the infidel who denies my mission. Let all the enemies of the German nation perish. God demands their destruction."

WHILE GERMANY DREAMS OF
DOMINATING THE WORLD BY FORCE
THERE CAN BE NO PEACE

By Authority of the State Council of Defense
```

[← The Sentry Quits His Post Only When Properly Relieved](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-sentry-quits-his-post-only-when-properly-relieved-1917-1919/) [These Boys Will Look Up to You: Tell Them What It Means to Be an American Soldier →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/these-boys-will-look-up-to-you-1917/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
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- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
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