Copying the Eiffel Tower
World exhibitions were a platform for European countries to demonstrate their progress and accomplishments to other nations. For engineers, these exhibitions had a greater purpose: to exchange knowledge on international scale.
At 6 May 1889 the ‘Exposition Universelle’ opened its gates in Paris, with proudly standing the new Eiffel Tower, a masterpiece by engineer Gustave Eiffel. This event was part of a trend of world exhibitions where countries tried to impress each other with new technologies.
Simultaneously, this exhibition also provided the framework for 87 of the 97 international scientific and technical congresses that were held that year.
The ‘Exposition Universelle’ became so successful, that other countries wanted to show their own prominence the same way. In 1891, for instance, the Czechs built a replica of the Eiffel Tower to demonstrate their technological independence from the Austrian-Hungarian empire.
Ironically enough, world exhibitions were an inherently European undertaking. The rising trend of nationalism in Europe caused rivalry between these states. The exhibitions were an ideal outlet for their politics of comparison.
Engineers became essential to most of the European governments, because they needed to build great national constructions and infrastructures to enrich their national image. Because of their importance, engineers became ‘national heroes’, but at the same time, these technicians considered it normal to be part of an international knowledge network.
How to cite this page
'Copying the Eiffel Tower', Inventing Europe, http://www.inventingeurope.eu/story/copying-the-eiffel-tower
Sources
- Trischler, Helmuth and Martin Kohlrausch, Building Europe on Expertise. Innovators, Organizers, Networkers, Basingstoke: Palgrave, forthcoming.
