Anonymous Photographer

The 1931 Exposition Coloniale International de Paris was one of many colonial exhibitions held, from the 1880s onwards, in order to further trade and increase support for colonial empires. From 7^th May to 15^th November 1931, the exhibition welcomed close to 34 million visitors to the bois de Vincennes and was one of the most successful of its kind. The 1914-18 War had left France in possession of an extensive colonial empire, with some 47 nations whose official language was French and whose governments were under some degree of obligation to France. The primary goal of the Exposition Coloniale was to bring these peoples together in the capital and to educate the French nation as to the importance of the colonies. Pavillions relating to the various colonies were constructed as ‘Human Zoos’, in which the display of people and animals in their ‘natural’ or ‘primitive’ state was used to illustrate the cultural differences between the West and its colonies.