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.
Bharat Mata ("Mother India"), earlier the goddess Durga. Also the Tiger or the Indian Elephant is used to personify the nation. But strictly speaking of National Personification, the figure of Bharat Mata as a Goddess, wearing a white or saffron sari, holding the National flag, and having a Lion as her Vahana is the most widely popular Personification. The battle cry, "Bharat Mata ki Jai" (Victory for Mother India) is used by the Indian Army and is one of the most popular patriotic slogans used in India.
James Gillray's cartoon on the 1803 Peace of Amiens, features a fat and non-martial Britannia kissing "Citizen François", a personifiaction of Revolutionary France
Albanian caricature from 1913 shows Albania as a woman defending herself from beasts representing neighboring countries seeking at the time to divide Albania's territory between them: Montenegro (monkey), Greece (leopard) and Serbia (snake), saying: "Get away from me! Bloodsucking beasts!"
The woman on the right, holding out a letter of thanks to the enthroned Jonathan Swift, represents Ireland (from the 1735 edition of Swift's works).
Bavaria, an early 19th-century statue made when Bavaria was a fully sovereign Kingdom with a considerable national pride
Political cartoon depicting the tangled web of European alliances in the 1870's, with France being conspicuously isolated.
In this Belarusian caricature commenting on the 1921 Peace of Riga, Russian Bolsheviks (right) and Nationalist Poles (left) are dividing the territory of Belarus.
In a 1897 political cartoon, Uncle Sam lays claim to Hawaii and warns off the figures representing Japan, Britain and France.
The goddess Roma was perceived as a personification of the city of Rome and more broadly, the Roman Empire.
In this cartoon of "Canada's debut at the Council of Nations", the young Canada is under the tutelage of the motherly Britania, Columbia extends welcoming hands, surrounded by figures representing other major nations.
A 1904 French postcard showing Britannia and Marianne dancing together, symbolizing the newborn Entente Cordiale between the two countries. Britannia appears here younger than in most British depictions - a girl rather than a mother.
Statue of "Mother Canada", mourning the fallen Canadian soldiers of World War I, in the Vimy Memorial.
Lionel Gossman. "Making of a Romantic Icon: The Religious Context of Friedrich Overbeck's 'Italia und Germania.'" American Philosophical Society, 2007. ISBN 0-87169-975-3. [1]
^Eric Hobsbawm, "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe, 1870-1914," in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983), 263-307.
^"A Manifesto from the Provisional Government of Macedonia". 1881. Our mother Macedonia became now as a widow, lonely and deserted by her sons. She does not fly the banner of the victorious Macedonian army