H. Beraldi - Un caricaturiste prophète. La guerre telle qu'elle est prévue par Albert Robida

In 1916, battles raged with shocking and unprecedented methods for the time: aerial bombings, toxic gases, and armored tanks radically transformed the art of war, far removed from the practices of the previous century.

Henri Beraldi (1849–1931), a writer, publisher, and renowned bibliophile, published a booklet to remind readers that these innovations had already been imagined as early as 1883 by Albert Robida—a brilliant writer, caricaturist, and illustrator. This richly illustrated work is an excerpt from La Guerre au XXe siècle (War in the 20th Century), in which Robida anticipated modern conflicts with astonishing accuracy.

He described a futuristic war between Australia and Mozambique, featuring revolutionary technologies for the era: armored locomotives, submarines, aircraft, chemical weapons, flying torpedoes, and reservoir rifles. Robida foresaw aerial and submarine battles, chemical bombings, and military strategies of unprecedented complexity. He also explored the devastating consequences of these new forms of warfare on civilians and soldiers alike. The illustrations accompanying the text depict combat scenes filled with visionary and realistic war machines.

Through this work, Robida emerges as a true "prophet," anticipating technological innovations and military strategies that would deeply shape the 20th century.