The International Stage

The 1878 Universal Exposition announced France's return to the international stage. Despite occurring only seven years after the Commune's suppression, the exhibition attracted thirteen million visitors. The newly rebuilt Trocadéro Palace, with its Byzantine-Moorish architecture, suggested France's global ambitions. Exhibits showcased colonial products from Indochina, Africa, and the Caribbean, presenting imperialism as a civilizing mission while ignoring its violence and exploitation.

But the Exposition also revealed social progress. A "Women's Pavilion" displayed work by female artists, writers, and inventors. Though segregated from the main exhibits—reflecting persistent beliefs about women's separate sphere—it nonetheless provided unprecedented visibility for women's achievements. Hubertine Auclert used the platform to launch her suffrage newspaper, La Citoyenne, arguing that the Republic's promise of equality remained unfulfilled while women lacked the vote.

Foreign visitors marveled at Paris's resurrection. "One would never know," wrote the American journalist Theodore Child, "that this gay capital had so recently endured siege, starvation, and civil war." But careful observers noticed signs of trauma: the bullet holes in walls hastily patched but still visible, the new trees planted to replace those cut for fuel during the siege, the absence of so many young men who had died in the war or Commune.