De partijen vechten om Castilië (The Parties Fight Over Castile)

This Dutch engraving depicts the War of Spanish Succession as a fierce contest for control of a fortified tower representing Castile. Political and military figures clamber over and around the structure while ships battle in the background, their struggle rendered as absurd physical comedy. The print belongs to a long European tradition of political satire through engraving—popular especially in the Dutch Golden Age and later perfected by Hogarth and Gillray. Such images circulated widely as broadsheets, combining crude caricature, allegorical symbolism, and visual puns to mock leaders and foreign policy. The composition's layered detail and crowded narrative foreshadow the sequential storytelling of later comic strips, establishing how printmaking became the primary vehicle for public political humor and social commentary.