The History of World Expositions
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Copyright: Kraemer 1900, o.S.

On the opening day, 14th April, 1900, the building work was not yet complete. Critics seized on this fact to cast irony at the French gift for national showmanship, surmising that even the immense scope of organisation for the exposition was to be turned into a presentation piece. Not until June were the visitors able to experience the exposition in its final form.

The exposition's exhibits were divided into 18 subject areas and 121 categories. For the first time at a world exposition, education and teaching from childhood through to scientific theory constituted the first subject area, with art as the second subject area. Means and devices employed in the sciences and the arts - from artistic and photographic techniques, a giant telescope which proved a popular attraction, musical instruments, maps and geographic equipment, medical and surgical devices through to stage equipment - followed as the third group. The next subject areas were dedicated to the three technical fields of mechanics, electricity and engineering and transport. Electrical engineering was celebrated as the "lifeblood" of the exposition, providing light, power and movement. It was rendering industrial manufacturing increasingly more efficient and economical, making transport faster and more effective, and had expanded the available means of communication. The technical field was followed by eight groups involving branches of trade and commerce, such as agriculture, horticulture, forestry and the food industry, metallurgy, decoration and furnishings, the textile and clothing industry, the chemical industry and other branches of industry. The 18 groups were completed by social policy, colonisation and defence.

This array of groups clearly shows that the exposition was no longer a purely industrial exhibition, but had become a general cultural exhibition at which virtually all areas of human life were to be represented. Georg Malkowsky considered this project unfeasible - in his view, only the entire earth could provide a sufficiently large exposition site. Whereby a journey around the world would certainly have produced a different picture of humanity to that presented on the stage of the French exposition. But here it was possible to become seasick on an ocean steamer - a rocking ship's deck, surrounded by a 750 metres long panoramic canvas which unrolled to great effect. And a few minutes later, one transferred without further ado to the Trans-Siberian railway - a wagon between the Russian and Chinese pavilions. Within a few minutes, the window of this wagon offered views of magnificent landscapes, arranged in four prospects.

The Paris Exposition of 1900 was characterised by a retrospective approach which placed no particular emphasis on contemporary innovations. Historical achievements were over-emphasised to render history an instrument of French national self-assertion. As French commissioners were actually responsible for setting up the retrospective departments, a detached view of history could no longer be guaranteed.

The world exposition's capitalist glitter was unable to conceal France's internal and external political problems for long. The Dreyfuss affair had split the entire country into two camps. Relations with Great Britain were strained to such a degree over the Boer War that the British flatly refused to participate in the exposition, citing the universal human aims of technical and economic progress, it followed that the imperialistic crises should gradually be replaced by friendly competition between nations marked by the sharing of knowledge rather than harsh rivalry. The futility of this aspiration was demonstrated only too tragically a few years later.


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The Paris 1900 World Exposition
Electrical engineering celebrated as the "lifeblood" of the exposition
Year: 1900City: ParisCountry: France
Duration: 15th April - 12th November 1900

 

 

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