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John Bull, a national personification of the United Kingdom holds the head of Napoleon I of France in an 1803 caricature by James Gillray.

A national personification is an anthropomorphization of a nation or its people; it can appear in both editorial cartoons and propaganda.

Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestations of the majestic wisdom and war goddess Minerva/Athena, and often took the Latin name of the ancient Roman province. Examples of this type include Britannia, Germania, Hibernia, Helvetia and Polonia. Representations of the citizenry of a nation -- rather than of the nation itself -- are Deutscher Michel and John Bull.^[1]

A national personification is not the same as a national animal, although in some cartoons the national animal rather than the human personification is used to represent a country.

Personifications by country or territory

Country	Personification
Albania	Mother Albania
Armenia	Mother Armenia (Mayr Hayastan; lit. "Mother Hayastan")
Australia	Boxing kangaroo
Brazil	Efígie da República, the Candango (only in Brasília), the Bandeirante (only in São Paulo state)
Cambodia	Preah Thaong and Neang Neak
Canada	Mountie, Johnny Canuck, Le Vieux de '37 (French Canada), Adam Dollard des Ormeaux (used during the two World Wars as a military example), Mother Canada (at the Vimy Memorial)
Czech Republic	Svejk
Chile	El Roto, El Huaso, La Carmela, Doña Juanita (an average Chilean woman from the countryside)
Denmark	Holger Danske
Dominican Republic	Anacaona[citation needed]
Egypt	Mother of the World (Om El Donia)
England	John Bull
Europe	Europa
Finland	Finnish Maiden (Suomi-neito)
France	Marianne, Jean Crapaud
Germany	Germany: Germania, Arminius (Hermann der Cherusker), Deutscher Michel, Eagle: Reichsadler / Eagle: Bundesadler [2] Bavaria: Bavaria, Berlin: Berolina, Franconia: Franconia, Hamburg: Hammonia, Prussia: Borussia, Palatinate: Palatia, Saxony: Saxonia
Greece	Athena, "Greece" of Delacroix
Hungary	Hunor and Magor
Iceland	The Lady of the Mountains (Fjallkonan)
Ireland	Ériu, Kathleen Ni Houlihan, Hibernia
India	Bharat Mata ("Mother India"), Golden Bird ("Soney ki chiriyan", especially in Indian poetry)
Indonesia	Ibu Pertiwi
Israel	Srulik
Italy	Italia Turrita
Japan	Amaterasu Omikami, Samurai
Korea	Hong Gildong
Kyrgyzstan	Epic of Manas
Malaysia	Harimau Malaya
Mexico	Miguel Hidalgo, Adelita
Netherlands	Hans Brinker (outside the Netherlands), De Leeuw van Oranje, de Nederlandse Maagd` ("Netherlands Maiden"), (Zeeland: Zeeuws Meisje)
New Zealand	Zealandia, Southern man (for the South Island)
Norway	Ola Nordmann, Kari Nordmann, hist. Nór
Pakistan	Pak Watan is a national personification and a term of endearment for Pakistan.
Palestinian territories	Handala
Peru	The chalán, La Madre Patria
Philippines	Juan dela Cruz, Inang Bayan, Maria Clara
Poland	Polonia
Portugal	Zé Povinho, Eu nacional (National Self), Lusitania, República
Russia	Mother Russia/Mother Motherland, Russian Bear
Scotland	Jock Tamson
Serbia	Saint Sava
South Africa	Van Der Merwe
Spain	Hispania, Juan Español
Sweden	Mother Svea, Svensson
Switzerland	Helvetia
Ukraine	Cossack Mamay
United Kingdom	Britannia, John Bull, Lion and Unicorn
United States	Uncle Sam, Columbia, Bald Eagle, Brother Jonathan (obsolete), Johnny Rebel (The South, obsolete), Billy Yank (The North, obsolete)
USSR	Mother Motherland
Venezuela	Juan Bimba (obsolete)
Wales	Dame Wales, Deffroad Cymru, the Awakening of Wales

Gallery

Britannia arm-in-arm with Uncle Sam symbolizes the British-American alliance in World War I.   Germania representing Germany, from 1848.   Bharat Mata, the personification of India as a mother goddess.   Eugène Delacroix, Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1827)   1914 poster showing Marianne, Mother Russia and Britannia.   Italia and Germania by Friedrich Overbeck, symbolising the friendship between Germany and Italy   French political cartoon from the late 1890s.   Norway, Denmark and Sweden joining hands in a 19th Century poster   Statue of Mother Svea representing Sweden on a building in Stockholm.   World War I recruiting poster featuring John Bull.   Brazilian Constitutionalist Revolution recruiting poster, showing a Bandeirante with the dictator of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas, in his hand.   Zé Povinho, caricature of a Portuguese working class man of the 19th century   In this 1806 French print, the woman with the Menorah represents the Jews being emancipated by Napoleon Bonaparte   James Gillray's cartoon on the 1803 Peace of Amiens, features a fat and non-marital Britannia kissing "Citizen François", a perosnifiaction of Revolutionary France never used by the French themselves   Revolutionary Romania. Painting by C. D. Rosenthal, made in Paris exile in the early 1850's   Romania Breaking off Her Chains on the Field of Liberty. also by C. D. Rosenthal   A later depiction of Romania as a woman in a World War I French caricature   Uncle Sam in a U.S. Army recruitment poster used in both World War I and World War II   The figures in this late 18th century painting by Shiba Kōkan represent Japan, China, and the West.   Columbia, personification of the United States ( WWI patriotic poster)   Mother Canada statue in the WWI Vimy Memorial   Mother Motherland, pesonification of the Soviet Union, at a WWII war memorial in Volgograd (the former Stalingrad)   Polonia (Poland), by Jan Matejko, painted after the failure of the 1863 January Uprising

See also

• Afghanis-tan
• Hetalia Axis Powers
• National emblem for other metaphors for nations

References

External links

• A scholarly case study of the evolution of Deutscher Michel