Colonial Exhibitions: Empire as Spectacle

The colonial exhibitions brought empire to metropolitan audiences who would never travel abroad. These elaborate productions combined education, entertainment, and propaganda in spectacular displays. The 1906 Marseille exhibition attracted 1.8 million visitors; the 1907 Paris exhibition drew even more.

These exhibitions featured "authentic" colonial villages populated by imported indigenous peoples. Visitors could watch Tunisian carpet weavers, Cambodian dancers, or Congolese drummers performing "traditional" activities. The displays froze colonized cultures in timeless primitivity, denying contemporary realities of change and adaptation.

The human zoos—for that's what they were—revealed imperial racism's depths. Families picnicked while watching Kanaks from New Caledonia in reconstructed huts. Scientists measured skulls and documented "racial characteristics." Photography postcards sold by millions, spreading these dehumanizing images across France.

Yet exhibition participants sometimes subverted intended messages. The Dahomean village at the 1908 exhibition included French-educated Africans who spoke with visitors about colonial injustices. Algerian dancers refused to perform certain movements deemed too sacred for entertainment. These resistances, small but significant, challenged the exhibitions' narratives of passive primitivity.

Women featured prominently in colonial displays, often in ways emphasizing exotic sexuality. Belly dancers, bare-breasted African women, and graceful Indochinese performers titillated audiences while confirming stereotypes about colonized women's availability. The feminist press occasionally protested these displays' exploitation, but most French women accepted them as educational entertainment.