EXPO 2005

The History of World Expositions - Part I

The idea of world expositions originated in the environment of Europian civilisation. The transformation of the concept of expositions from the one of expositions held on national level to those involving nations from all over the world was essentially influenced by ambitions of the British Empire supported by its superiority, which later together with the emergence of steam engine made England Nthe workshop of the worldi. The EmpireYs rivalry with France, eager to stay in step, triggered off on the verge of the18th and the19th century a series of national expositions (1798 on Champs de Mars, 1802 in Louvre) held to celebrate the viability of first the republic and later the empire (1806 in Esplanades des Invalides). The organizers of expositions set it their main target to enliven the competition among participants by allowing them to introduce their products, with best products anunciations system.

In this stage of development we can trace an effort to include into the exposition all of a countryYs branches of industrial production, which led to a necessary creation of sections within the exposition premises. Increasements in costs were solved by state grants, which made it possible to start publishing exposition catalogues.

The idea of a world exposition was suggested to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, by Sir Henry Cole, who got inspired during his visit to the 1849 exposition in Paris. Within mere three months a gigantic exposition hall, the Crystal Palace, was constructed, based on plans of Joseph Paxton. France gave a quick response by opening in 1855 a world exposition in Paris, the contemporary largest city of continental Europe. Behind the official scene of this pompous undertaking we can sense the efforts of its initiator Napoleon III. to break his political isolation. The 1862 exposition in London was handicaped by the sudden death of its main organizer Prince Albert in 1861. The next exposition was again held in Paris in 1867. Another European power able to afford opening a world was Austria n Hungary. However, the exposition in 1873 was badly effected by the Wien stock exchange crash. Nowadays the previous exposition premises accommodate the Prater kidland. The exposition made the Strauss waltzes famous first in London from where their fame quickly spread throughout the world. A century of independence was celebrated by the exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. The exposition committee learned through the mistakes of their foregoers and replaced the concept of a single vast compound by a variety of specialised pavilions. The 1878 exposition in Paris surprised the participant nations by the encouragement to build their own pavilions along the Avenue of Nations. The Eiffel tower is a great monument to the ability and creativity of French engineers participing in the Paris exposition in 1889. The exposition in Chicago in 1893 was held at the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The departing century was pompously celebrated in 1899 in Paris. The area of the exposition site in Saint Louis is the largest ever built (515 ha), it would be simply impossible for a visitor to walk and take in more.

In 1915, before the US joined the WWI the Panama- Pacific exposition was held in San Francisco, commemorating the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Francesco Balboa 400 years before. The 1929 exposition in Barcelona stayed in its visitorsY minds as an exposition of light. Each evening the main Avenue of Queen Christina went alight, there were the luminous effects of the Magic Fountain topped by the halo over the Montjuic mountain. A real jewel of the exposition (not recognized as such then) was the German pavilion of the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

The efforts to give the hosting of future exposition some kind of rule led to the establishement of a committee. The committee met in 1902 in Paris to engage in international discussion of the problem. During the meeting of the most active countries in 1908 in Paris the FEdEration des ComitEs Permanents des Expositions was established for the purpose of arrangement of some of the activities connected with world expositions.

In the decade prior to the WWI there were altogether 12 world expositions (in 1907 there were three!). The solution of the problem was however delayed by war. Eventually a resolution was passed in 1928 when 48 nations accepted the invitation of the French government to the congress in Paris (five of them were observers, eg. the US). A permanent International Bureau of Expositions (Bureau International des Expositions, the BIE) was established with its seat in Paris. On 22 November 1928 43 countries signed a diplomatic convention the target of which was the guarantee of a high quality of world expositions, and among others also a restriction in their number. The convention was passed on 17 January 1931.

Mgr. Jaroslav Halada

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