The British tended to see their Empire as a God-given instrument for spreading civilization to the backward areas of the earth. Other nations, however, looked upon British territorial control with a more jaundiced, though often equally unrealistic, eye. This cartoon gives a startling picture of one French idea of the British Empire, a Satanic claw clutching the world and in particular Africa which itself was being dismembered and was a target for France's own imperial aspirations. It particularly pours scorn on the Royal Family's French motto of "Honi soit qui mal y pense" which roughly translates as "Shamed be he who thinks evil of it".
