Paris Colonial Exposition
Encyclopedia
Colonial exhibition
A colonial exhibition was a type of international exhibition intended to boost trade and bolster popular support for the various colonial empires during the New Imperialism period, which started in the 1880s with the scramble for Africa....
held in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1931 that attempted to display the diverse cultures and immense resources of France's colonial possessions
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
.
History
The exposition opened on 6 May 1931 in the Bois de VincennesBois de Vincennes
The Bois de Vincennes is a park in the English landscape manner to the east of Paris. The park is named after the nearby town of Vincennes....
on the eastern outskirts of Paris. The scale was enormous; Sculptor Elizabeth Prophet called it "the most spectacular colonial extravaganza ever staged in the West." Some 33 million visitors came from around the world. The French government brought people from the colonies to Paris and had them create native arts and crafts and perform in grandly scaled reproductions of their native architectural styles such as huts or temples. Other nations participated in the event, including The Netherlands, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The exhibition included a "human zoo
Human zoo
Human zoos were 19th- and 20th-century public exhibits of humans, usually in a so-called natural or primitive state. The displays often emphasized the cultural differences between Europeans of Western civilisation and non-European peoples...
," displaying nomadic Senegalese Villages
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
.
Politically, France hoped the exposition would paint its colonial empire in a beneficial light, showing the mutual exchange of cultures and the benefit of France's efforts overseas. This would thus negate German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
criticisms that France was "the exploiter
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
of colonial societies [and] the agent of miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
and decadence
Decadence
Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...
". The exposition highlighted the endemic cultures of the colonies and downplayed French efforts to spread its own language and culture abroad, thus advancing the notion that France was associating with colonised societies, not assimilating
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
them.
The Colonial Exposition provided a forum for the discussion of colonialism in general and of French colonies specifically. French authorities published over 3,000 reports during the six-month period and held over 100 congresses. The exposition served as a vehicle for colonial writers to publicise their works, and it created a market in Paris for various ethnic cuisines, particularly North African and Vietnamese
Cuisine of Vietnam
Vietnamese cuisine is a style of cooking derived from Vietnam. Fish sauce and paste, soy paste, rice, fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables are commonly used. Vietnamese recipes utilize a diverse range of herbs, including lemongrass, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander and Thai basil leaves...
. Filmmakers chose French colonies as the subjects of their works. The Permanent Colonial Museum (today the Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens) opened at the end of the exposition. The colonial service experienced a boost in applications.
26 territories of the empire participated in the Colonial Exposition Issue
Colonial Exposition Issue
The Colonial Exposition Issue was the first joint issue of postage stamps by the French colonial empire. Issued in 1931, in conjunction with the Paris Colonial Exposition, it consisted of four different engraved designs, denominated in the local currency...
of postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
s issued in conjunction with the Exposition.
Communist counter-exhibition
At the request of the CominternComintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, a smaller counter-exhibition entitled The Truth on the Colonies, organized by the Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
and the CGTU
Confédération générale du travail unitaire
Confédération générale du travail unitaire was a trade union confederation in France. CGTU emerged out of split in the Confédération générale du travail, which had been torn by confrontations between socialists and communists. CGTU was founded at a congress in Saint-Étienne in June 1922, and was...
, attracted very few visitors (5000 in 8 months). The first section was dedicated to abuses committed during the colonial conquests, and quoted Albert Londres
Albert Londres
Albert Londres was a French journalist and writer. One of the inventors of investigative journalism, he criticized abuses of colonialism such as forced labour. Albert Londres gave his name to a journalism prize for Francophone journalists.- Biography :Londres was born in Vichy in 1884...
and André Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
's criticisms of forced labour in the colonies while the second one made an apology of the Soviets' "nationalities' policy" compared to "imperialist colonialism".
Posterity
- Palais de la Porte DoréePalais de la Porte DoréeThe Palais de la Porte Dorée is an exhibit hall located on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil, XIIe arrondissement of Paris, France...
, Former-musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'OcéanieMusée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'OcéanieThe Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie was a museum formerly located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil in the XIIe arrondissement, Paris, France....
, current Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigrationCité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigrationThe Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration is a museum of immigration history located in the XIIe arrondissement at 293, avenue Daumesnil, Paris, France. The nearest métro station is Porte Dorée...
, porte Dorée in Paris, constructed from 1928 to 1931 by the architects Albert Laprade, Léon Bazin and Léon JausselyLéon JausselyLéon Jaussely was a French architect and urban planner.Born in Toulouse, Jaussely studied at the local fine arts school, then to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the ateliers of Honoré Daumet and Pierre Esquié...
. - The foundations of the Parc zoologique de Vincennes
- The Pagode de VincennesPagode de VincennesThe Pagode du bois de Vincennes is the seat of the Institut international bouddhique founded by Jean Sainteny who was the manager of the institute. It is located in a former building of the exposition coloniale de 1931, designed by the architect Louis-Hippolyte Boileau. On this 8 000 m² site on the...
, on the edges of the lake Daumesnil, in the former houses of Cameroon and Togo of Louis-Hippolyte BoileauLouis-Hippolyte BoileauLouis-Hippolyte Boileau was a French architect.Grandson of Louis-Auguste Boileau and son of Louis-Charles Boileau , Louis-Hippolyte studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Gaston Redon...
: Photo - The church Notre-Dame des Missions was moved to Épinay-sur-SeineÉpinay-sur-Seine-Transport:Épinay-sur-Seine is served by Épinay-sur-Seine station on Paris RER line C.It is also served by Épinay – Villetaneuse station on the Transilien Paris – Nord suburban rail line....
(95) in 1932. - The reproduction of Mount Vernon, house of George Washington, moved to VaucressonVaucressonVaucresson is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the Hauts-de-Seine department from the center of Paris.The people who live in the commune are called Vaucressonais. Vaucresson contains abundant parkland; 22 of its 308 hectares are classed as natural zones...
where it is still visible.
Further reading
- Morton, Patricia A., Hybrid Modernities: Representation and Architecture at 1931 International Colonial Exposition in Paris. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000.
- Geppert, Alexander C.T., Fleeting Cities. Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siècle Europe, Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. ISBN 9780230221642.