Artwork

The "Internationalists" Are to Make the World All One Millennium - (Chaos)

The "Internationalists" Are to Make the World All One Millennium - (Chaos) is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Thomas Nast. It dates from 1878 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

Inscription: Inscribed:caption in letterpress, lower center: THE "INTERNATIONALISTS" ARE TO MAKE THE WORLD ALL ONE MILLENNIUM-(CHAOS); signed in block, lower right: Th. Nast.

About this work

Overview

Thomas Nast’s 1878 wood engraving, titled The “Internationalists” Are to Make the World All One Millennium – (Chaos), appeared in Harper’s Weekly. Executed in black on newsprint, the image presents a crowded, disordered tableau of figures tangled in webs and teetering over a precipice, underscored by a caption that warns of a chaotic, unified world.

Subject & Meaning

The composition depicts a crowd of individuals ensnared in a tangled mass, some clinging to a rope while others plunge or hang precariously. The accompanying caption frames the scene as a cautionary vision of internationalist ambitions leading to worldwide disorder, reflecting contemporary anxieties about political unification and the loss of national autonomy.

Technique & Style

Nast employed traditional wood engraving methods, carving fine lines into a block and printing the image in stark black on yellowed newsprint. The high contrast and dense hatching create a sense of movement and tension, while the exaggerated, almost caricatured figures amplify the cartoon’s urgent, polemical tone typical of 19th‑century editorial illustration.

History & Provenance

Published in the 1878 issue of Harper’s Weekly, the print circulated widely among the periodical’s readership. As a product of the era’s mass‑media press, it was reproduced in subsequent collections of Nast’s political cartoons and now resides in several institutional holdings that document American visual commentary of the post‑Reconstruction period.