Colonial exhibition

Counter exposition to the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris.

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.

The British Empire Exhibition of 1924–5 ranked among these expositions, but perhaps the most notable was the rather successful 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition, which lasted six months and sold 33 million tickets. Paris's Colonial Exhibition debuted on 6 May 1931, and encompassed 110 hectares of the Bois de Vincennes. The exhibition included dozens of temporary museums and façades representing the various colonies of the European nations, as well as several permanent buildings. Among these were the Palais de la Porte Dorée, designed by architect Albert Laprode, which then housed the Musée permanent des Colonies, and serves today as the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration.

An anti-colonial counter-exhibition was held near the 1931 Colonial Exhibition, titled Truth on the Colonies and was organized by the French Communist Party. The first section was dedicated to the crimes made during the colonial conquests, and quoted Albert Londres and André Gide's criticisms of forced labour while the second one made an apology of the Soviets' "nationalities' policy" compared to "imperialist colonialism".

Germany and Portugal also staged colonial exhibitions, as well as Belgium, which had a Foire coloniale as late as 1948. Human zoos were featured in some of these exhibitions, such as in the Parisian 1931 exhibition.

Colonial exhibitions

Exhibitions which may be described as colonial exhibitions include:

Name of exhibition	Date	Location	Country	Image	Notes
Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia (1866)	1866	Melbourne
Intercolonial Exhibition (1870)	1870	Sydney			Included printwork by Helena Scott
Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition	1875	Melbourne
Intercolonial Exhibition (1876)	1876	Brisbane
Internationale Koloniale en Uitvoerhandel Tentoonstelling	1883	Amsterdam		The Internationale Koloniale en Uitvoerhandel Tentoonstelling
Colonial and Indian Exhibition	1886	London		Opening of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition 1886
Exposition internationale et coloniale (1894)	1894	Lyon		Map of the 1894 Lyon fair
Exposição Insular e Colonial Portuguesa	1894	Oporto
Great Industrial Exposition of Berlin	1896	Berlin		Overview of 1896 exhibition
Brussels International	1897	Brussels		Postcard from Brussels International
Hanoi exhibition	1902	Hanoi		Postcard of the Palais d'expositions at Hanoi Exhibition
United States, Colonial and International Exposition	1902
Exposition coloniale	1906	Marseille		Postcard of the Annam Tower built for the exhibition.
Franco-British Exhibition	1908	London		Bird's eye view of the Franco-British exhibition	The exhibition celebrated the Entente Cordiale signed in 1904 by the United Kingdom and France.
Exposition Universelle de Bruxelles	1910	Brussels		Poster for the exposition Universelle de Bruxelles
Colonial Exhibition of Semarang	1914	Semarang, Java		Overview of the colonial exhibition of Semarang.	Intended to "give a comprehensive picture of the Dutch Indies in their present prosperous condition".
International Exhibition of Rubber and Other Tropical Products	1921	London		The Royal Agricultural Hall site of the rubber exhibition
Festival of Empire	1911	London		Replica of Canada Parliament Building at Festival of Empire
Exposition nationale coloniale	1922	Marseille
British Empire Exhibition	1924–5	London		The Palace of Industry building from British Empire Exhibition
Exposition internationale coloniale, maritime et d'art flamand	1930	Antwerp
Paris Colonial Exposition	1931	Paris		"Le Cactus" at the 1931 French exhibition	A six-month exhibition that attempted to display the diverse cultures and immense resources of France's colonial possessions.
Exposição Colonial Portuguesa	1934	Porto
Empire Exhibition, Johannesburg	1936	Johannesburg	Union of South Africa		A continuation of the Empire Exhibition held in Wembley in 1924-25
Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938	1938	Glasgow		A season ticket pass section showing logo
Deutsche Kolonial Ausstellung	1939
Foire coloniale	1948	Brussels

Japanese colonial exhibitions

Entrance to the Korea Exhibition, Seoul, 1929

During the early 20th century, the Empire of Japan was noteworthy in that it not only hosted colonial showcases in exhibitions within the Home Islands, but also held several full-scale expositions inside its colonies of Korea and Taiwan. These exhibitions did however have objectives comparable to that of their European counterparts, in that they highlighted economic achievements and social progress under Japanese colonial rule to Japanese and colonial subjects alike.

Expositions held in Japanese colonies included:

• Korea Trade Fair to Commemorate 5 Years of Government (Seoul, 1915)
• Korea Exhibition (Seoul, 1929)
• Taiwan Exhibition to Commemorate 40 Years of Government (Taipei, 1935)

See also

• Colonialism
• Human zoo
• List of world's fairs
• Impact of Western European colonialism and colonisation

Bibliography

• Alexander C.T. Geppert, Fleeting Cities. Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siècle Europe, Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

External links

• Exposition Coloniale of Paris 1931 photographs