The World's Fair That Wasn't

The Exposition Internationale Urbaine de Lyon, an unofficial World's Fair, was held in 1914 in Lyon, France. The focus was on urban planning and public health. Ironically, the fair was also held in the most tragic of years, 1914, when Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean exploded in what became World War I.

Included here are images of three non-postal stamps sold as a way to help defray the costs of the fair. Buyers could put them on the envelopes of their letters to show their support.

The Worlds Fairs of the 19th and early 20th centuries seem to have been based in the premise that Europe, in particular, had gone past the era of territorial wars and was in an era of peace and prosperity. Before World War I the perception was that Europe had entered an international era, one in which people could travel from one country to another with ease, taking in the cultural opportunities that grand cities had to offer. What wasn't taken into account, tragically, was the plight of the impoverished workers of those countries who never saw relief in terms of better housing, better nutrition, better working conditions, and higher pay.

The exposition opened on May 1, 1914, obviously with no idea that a major war was about to break out. Peace prevailed for a couple of months until June 28, when members of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist group assisted a small group of assassins in carrying out the murders. Gavrilo Princep, a Bosnian Serb, actually fired the fatal shots. After that tensions began to mount in Europe. There had been many rumblings prior to the Sarajevo assassinations, but none of them led to the outbreak of a major war. The assassination is depicted to the left in a print in the Italian newspaper La Domenica del Corriere, July 12, 1914 by Achille Beltrame

It would be naive to say that Europe had been experiencing a golden age of peace in the later 19th century. Localized conflicts and short regional wars had sprung up on a regular basis, the most recent being the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913. Most of these conflicts were related to the fallout from the unification of Germany in 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War that ended in 1871 with the overthrow of Emperor Napoleon III. The Austro Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire expanded their influence into the Balkan Peninsula which became a major focus of smaller conflicts. The Austro Hungarian takeover of Bosnia in 1909 escalated tensions dramatically. 

Peace? It only existed in the minds of those who were not paying attention. Those who focused on cultural accomplishments and ignored repressive colonialism, a massive arms race, and the plight of millions of underpaid worker.

After the assassination the nations of Europe turned their attention toward preparations for war.  The Austrian and German pavilions closed on August 2, 1914. Other nations began closing their pavilions to the extent that by the official closing on November 1 many pavilions had been vacant for some time.

The First World War destroyed any illusion of international peace and opened the twentieth century with a level of violence never seen before in human history.