Research Paper on:
International Exhibitions and National Identity

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
50 million people in seven months (Cavendish, 2000). More than forty nations provided pavilions and palaces that showcased their nations art and achievements. All of the great European and imperial  powers of the world were represented (Mandell, 1967). While the ostensible reason for this huge worlds fair was to encourage peaceful idealism, it was also an occasion marked by intense  nationalism. The nations that constructed exhibits at this fair, which was the last cultural demonstration of the nineteenth century, did so with little or no thought to international cooperation; they  were there to compete (Mandell, 1967). The national pavilions were located in an eclectic collection houses, pavilions and palaces on the Rue des Nations, and their sole purpose was  to demonstrate the national characteristics of the major world powers (Greenhalgh, 1988). France was particularly concerned with demonstrating its superiority to Germany. After about 1891, Germanys birth rate was  roughly double that of France, which made French officials very nervous concerning Germanys growing ability to conscript a large army (Mandell, 1967). France had hosted a series of exposition throughout  the nineteenth century that were "forceful and serious demonstrations of French pride" and constituted a significant factor in French foreign policy (Mandell, 1967). These festivals were intended to remind Frances  own citizenry of the glory of France and to also demonstrate French glory to foreign visitors. Additionally however, a stroll down the Rue des Nations would expose the visitor to  how the nations of that era saw themselves and what it meant to be German, Belgian, Swedish, etc. Greenhalgh (1988) also points out that the air of national pride  on the Rue des Nations was somewhat strange in that it consisted of an "uneven mixture of bombast, pride, fear, insecurity and confusion" as the world political atmosphere of that