History
How did Expos come to exist?
The story of how a new kind of international event took shape: from early national exhibitions in France and the United Kingdom, to the Great Exhibition of 1851, to the rules that govern Expos today.
01 Before 1851
The origins of Expos
Expos are frequently described as direct descendants of trade fairs. Trade promotion was certainly one reason behind their creation, and trade fairs and Expos do share some similarities. However, that comparison overlooks a major distinction: the evolution of trade fairs does not fully explain the development of three essential characteristics of Expos.
Many authors move too quickly from trade fairs to Expos, skipping a formative period of more than 55 years during which these and other defining characteristics gradually took shape. In “Ephemeral Vistas” and “Fair World,” Paul Greenhalgh explains in detail how Expos originated and developed as a distinct concept.
During this 55-year period, exhibition organizers in France and the United Kingdom used national exhibitions to promote public education, encourage progress, test different event formats and expand the official and international dimensions of these events. These elements came together for the first time in London in 1851, at the “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations.”
Three defining characteristics of Expos
Non-commercial
Expos are fundamentally non-commercial. Their principal purpose is the education of the public.
No fixed place or schedule
They do not occur at the same location on a regular schedule.
Governments as participants
Their official participants are not businesses, but foreign governments, invited exclusively through diplomatic channels.
NATIONAL EXHIBITIONS IN FRANCE
After the French Revolution, France feared depending commercially on Britain, whose products had been entering the French market aggressively since 1789. At the end of the 18th century, the Marquis d’Avèze and François de Neufchâteau turned an idea into a national exhibition that would promote French products and send a message of self-confidence to French industry.
A national exhibition was held in Paris in 1797, “in the hope that a good showing would not only dispose of stockpiled goods but also show the French public that their industry was still intact and capable of competing internationally,” as Paul Greenhalgh writes. In 1798, France organized a second national exhibition, this time in a temporary building on the Champ de Mars. Selling remained a central goal, but the organizers added a new message for manufacturers: work harder, pay attention to how products are presented and adopt more aggressive marketing.
France held 11 national exhibitions between 1798 and 1849. They grew in size and attendance, carried their message beyond France’s borders and shaped how other countries saw France.
Image: The 1844 French national exhibition of industrial products on the Champs-Élysées, Paris. Public domain.
THE UNITED KINGDOM AND EDUCATION
The United Kingdom held similar national events. They were smaller, but more openly oriented toward education. The Society of Arts promoted the positive impact of the arts on trade and industry. In 1760, it held a national exhibition that Kenneth Luckhurst called “the first fully organized public exhibition of this country.” In that exhibition and those that followed, art was expected to serve a practical purpose: it should improve industry and, as a result, trade. From 1837, the Mechanics’ Institutes followed the Society’s example and organized local art and industry exhibitions, national rather than international in scope, in cities across the United Kingdom. Their purpose was philanthropic rather than economic: to raise the awareness of the working class and promote an industrial culture.
France and the United Kingdom gave their national exhibitions an educational character from two different perspectives. France needed to show techniques to its industry and give it the confidence to compete at home and abroad, so it turned exhibitions into national policy. The United Kingdom was less concerned with selling than with developing technology, so its national exhibitions encouraged experimentation and creativity. In both countries, national exhibitions became a way to enhance trade, promote new technologies and educate the public.
The educational approach changed little during the first half of the 19th century. The biggest changes came in duration and scale: French national exhibitions grew from four days in 1797 to six months in 1849, and from 220 exhibitors in 1801 to 4,532 in 1849.
Image: “Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique,” panoramic wallpaper designed by Jean-Gabriel Charvet, shown at the fourth French national exhibition in 1806. Public domain.
FROM NATIONAL TO INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
Although the first Expo took place in London, Paul Greenhalgh notes that “the idea of making the exhibitions international, evolved not in Britain but in France, some time before 1851.” In 1834, Jacques Boucher de Perthes proposed that French national exhibitions become international, so that French manufacturers could learn from foreign producers.
In 1849, Louis Buffet, the French minister of agriculture and commerce, raised the question again. It would be useful for France, he argued, “to be made acquainted with the degree of advancement towards perfection attained by our neighbors in those manufactures in which we so often come into competition with foreign markets.”
Both proposals met widespread opposition in France, where many distrusted the effects that free trade would have on the national economy.
Image: Louis Buffet, French minister of agriculture and commerce in 1849. Artist unknown. Public domain.
“INTERNATIONAL, CERTAINLY”
Henry Cole, the main organizer of the 1851 exhibition, heard the idea while visiting the French national exhibition of 1849. He took it to Prince Albert, who later presided over the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Cole recalled: “I asked [Prince Albert] if he had considered if the exhibition should be a national or an international exhibition. ... The Prince reflected for a minute, and then said, ‘It must embrace foreign production,’ ... and added emphatically, ‘International, certainly.’”
Queen Victoria invited other countries through diplomatic channels to take part in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. Twenty-five countries took part, and the exhibition received more than 6 million visits between May 1 and October 11, 1851. The three defining characteristics of Expos had come together for the first time.
Image: The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, 1851. Public domain.
On May 1, 1851, a new tradition began.
The Great Exhibition marked the birth of Expos, a tradition that has continued for 175 years.
55 years
National exhibitions in France and the United Kingdom before 1851
1851
The Great Exhibition, London
1928
Convention Relating to International Exhibitions
2027
Next: Expo 2027 Belgrade
02 From 1851 to 1931
Expos spread around the world
The Great Exhibition set a model that other countries adopted quickly. Paris answered with Expo 1855 Paris, and London returned with Expo 1862 London. In the following decades, Expos took place in Vienna, Philadelphia, Melbourne, Barcelona, Chicago, St. Louis and other cities, each trying to surpass the last in size, ambition and attendance.
Success came at a cost. With no common rules, each host set its own dates, categories and conditions, and exhibitions multiplied faster than countries could afford to take part. By the early 20th century, governments and exhibitors were calling for order.
THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS
In the late 1840s, British reformers argued that industrial capacity was not enough, and that design quality and public taste had become central to national competitiveness. Henry Cole and allies, working through the Society of Arts and drawing lessons from French national industrial exhibitions, promoted a large international event that would compare nations’ products, reward excellence through juries and prizes, and educate the public by displaying materials, machines, processes and finished goods.
To move from idea to reality, the project needed legitimacy and protection, which is where Prince Albert’s backing proved decisive. As planning grew, governance shifted into a Royal Commission, bringing status and authority but also friction between practical administrators and elite oversight. Throughout, the organizers had to build support through fundraising, provincial and international outreach, and steady messaging that framed the exhibition as peaceful, orderly and beneficial rather than disruptive or risky.
The sharpest conflicts centered on finance and on building in Hyde Park, where critics feared cost overruns, disorder and the loss of public space. The turning point was Joseph Paxton’s glass-and-iron design, accepted after earlier proposals failed, because it was modular, buildable, fast and instantly compelling. With the Crystal Palace as both solution and symbol, the exhibition became a demonstration not only of industrial modernity but also of modern event-making itself: a successful blend of political sponsorship, private initiative, logistics and public persuasion on an unprecedented scale.
KEY FIGURES
HENRY COLE
The organizer. Civil servant and design reformer who turned the proposal into a working event.
PRINCE ALBERT
The patron. President of the Society of Arts and of the Royal Commission.
JOSEPH PAXTON
The designer. Conceived the Crystal Palace in prefabricated iron and glass.
LYON PLAYFAIR
The classifier. Shaped the system that organized the exhibits.
HENRY COLE
Henry Cole shaped the idea of Expos as educational events for the public: places where exposure to art, science and industry would inspire innovation. That purpose still defines Expos today.
A British civil servant and design reformer, Henry Cole was the driving force behind the Great Exhibition of 1851. After studying the French national exhibition in Paris in 1849, he asked Prince Albert whether the event should be national or international. Albert’s reply, by Cole’s account: “International, certainly.”
Cole drafted the plans for the Royal Commission, proposed Hyde Park as the site, rallied manufacturers across Britain and helped make Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace possible. He believed exhibitions should educate the public and bring nations together.
He went on to serve Britain at Expo 1855 Paris, Expo 1862 London and Expo 1867 Paris, and formed the nucleus of today’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
THE ROAD TO THE 1928 CONVENTION
Exhibition organizers and governments met several times to agree on common rules. National committees for exhibitions, beginning with the French committee in 1902, met in international conferences in Paris and Brussels. A meeting in Berlin in 1912 prepared a first international convention, but World War I stopped it from taking effect. In 1928, the French government invited states to a diplomatic conference in Paris, where the Convention Relating to International Exhibitions was signed on November 22.
03 After 1931
The Convention Relating to International Exhibitions
The Convention Relating to International Exhibitions, signed in Paris on November 22, 1928, gave Expos a common framework and created the International Exhibitions Bureau (Bureau International des Expositions, BIE) to oversee it. The Convention entered into force on January 17, 1931, and the BIE began its work in Paris.
Expo 1935 Brussels, a general exhibition of the first category, was the first Expo of its kind organized under the auspices of the BIE. World War II interrupted the BIE’s activity, but Expos resumed soon after the war with Expo 1947 Paris and Expo 1949 Port-au-Prince, among others.
The rules evolved with Expos. Protocols signed in 1948 and 1966 adjusted how often Expos could take place. The Protocol of November 30, 1972, which entered into force on June 9, 1980, revised the Convention in depth. Amendments signed on June 24, 1982, and May 31, 1988, redefined the categories. Since the 1988 amendment entered into force in 1996, Expos have been either registered Expos or recognized Expos.
THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS BUREAU
Established in 1928 and operational since 1931, the BIE is the intergovernmental organization that oversees the Convention. It has grown from the 31 countries that created it to 184 Member States, and it is headquartered in Paris.
TWO CATEGORIES OF EXPOS TODAY
Under the Convention and its protocols, Expos are organized today as registered Expos and recognized Expos, from Expo 2025 Osaka to Expo 2027 Belgrade and Expo 2030 Riyadh.
Bibliography
Bonython, Elizabeth, and Anthony Burton. The Great Exhibitor: The Life and Work of Henry Cole. London: V&A Publications, 2003.
Bureau International des Expositions. “Expo 1935 Brussels.” Accessed November 1, 2026. https://www.bie-paris.org/site/en/1935-brussels.
Bureau International des Expositions. “What Is the BIE.” Accessed November 1, 2026. https://www.bie-paris.org/site/en/about-the-bie.
Greenhalgh, Paul. Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World’s Fairs, 1851-1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988.
Greenhalgh, Paul. Fair World: A History of World’s Fairs and Expositions from London to Shanghai, 1851-2010. Winterbourne, UK: Papadakis, 2011.
Luckhurst, Kenneth W. The Story of Exhibitions. London: Studio Publications, 1951.
