Showcasing the Empire

The second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth were remarkable for large-scale international exhibitions of agricultural products, manufactured goods, technological inventions, and artworks that were staged in major cities in purpose-built buildings and visited by very large numbers of people. These events were demonstrations of national pride, functioned as engines of modernity, and promoted the global exchange of knowledge, global competition, and global trade. The chapter discusses how Napoleon III used the Paris exhibitions of 1855 and 1867 to promote himself and his Empire and how Franz Joseph engaged in international diplomacy during the Viennese world exhibition on 1873. Pedro II used his prestige to promote Brazilian exhibits in Paris in 1862 and 1857, in Vienna in 1873 and in Philadelphia in 1876.