The Universal Exposition: A Stage for National Pride

The 1889 Exposition Universelle was to be France's moment to shine on the world stage. The young Third Republic, established after the humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, needed to prove that France remained a great power. The exposition would demonstrate French artistic refinement, industrial capability, and republican values to visitors from around the globe.

Prime Minister Pierre Tirard and the exposition's organizers envisioned an event that would surpass all previous world's fairs. The 1878 Paris Exposition had been successful, but 1889 would be grander still. The fairgrounds would stretch across the Champ de Mars, the former military parade ground that had witnessed so much of France's revolutionary history.

Commissioner General Georges Berger, tasked with overseeing the exposition, understood that the event needed a centerpiece—something unprecedented that would draw visitors and remain in memory long after the fair's gates closed. "We must create a monument that speaks to our age," he declared at a planning meeting in 1884. "Something that shows the world what French engineering can accomplish."