the world as we know it today is overtly connected  in almost every facet whether it's through culture  

media technology or art though throughout the  majority of human history this was not the case  

global interconnectivity was only made possible  through advanced forms of travel and communication  

one cultural marker that points to the  transition from global isolation to inclusion  

is the world's fair which were  also called world expositions  

where people from all around the globe came to  both present and admire scientific cultural or  

artistic creation from their peers there have been  several impactful iterations of the world fair  

throughout history but one edition in particular  was the 1893 world's colombian exposition  

held in chicago for both the city of chicago  and the entire world this event left a lasting  

impact what's more for a city that was  rebuilding itself after a devastating fire  

the exposition proved as a shining example of  chicago's resilience from the ferris wheel to  

chicago-style hot dogs or woodrow wilson to  electricity this edition of the world fair  

often served as a first exposure to things that  would become household names for many originally  

held to commemorate the 400 year anniversary  of christopher columbus's discovery of america  

the world's colombian exhibition in chicago  now serves as a marker within american history  

itself signaling the height of the industrial  revolution and more explicitly a foreshadowing  

for passing the torch from europe to america in  terms of geopolitical and cultural power today we  

discover the world's colombian exposition i'm your  host ryan socash and you're watching it's history

since the mid 1700s the world fair has been  a momentous global event held every few years  

and many feel that the popularity was a  direct result of the industrial revolution  

rapidly advancing technology in terms of  communication and travel as well as exponential  

hyper globalization of the world these expositions  would not be possible without the global trends  

of the time and as these developments became more  prevalent in society the world's fair served as an  

international celebration of technology scientific  artistic and cultural advancements as us president  

william mckinley said in 1901 quote expositions  are the timekeepers of progress they record the  

world's advancement and while the focus is usually  on the technology or science a large part of each  

event was also about the entertainment section  which existed as an exhibition of music food  

performances shows rides and many more in the  united states this gathering was referred to  

as world's fair whereas in europe or asia they  were often referred to as world expositions  

or expos and in the uk the event was called the  world exposition showing how global of an affair  

this really all became each edition  usually lasts for several months  

and was hosted in a single country making it  a window for many to experience the culture  

and the people of a particular nation or singular  city since the mid-1700s there have been over 100  

iterations of the world fair hosted in more  than 20 countries since 1928 the governing  

body which had scheduled and organized the world  fair has been the bureau international death  

or bie which runs out of paris france and  surprisingly the world's fair is ongoing  

with the most recent edition being expo 2020  which was rescheduled due to the pandemic and was  

ultimately held from october the 1st 2021 to march  31st 2022 in dubai the next edition is expo 2023  

and will be held in argentina but let's not get  ahead of ourselves just yet the origin of the  

world fair dates back to the later half of the  18th century in england where fairs and carnivals  

were becoming very popular among the population in  a time which saw the beginning of the industrial  

revolution a lot of change was brought to  europe specifically england and suddenly  

common people were faced with new technology that  was advancing faster than they could keep up with  

so in an effort to spread both the understanding  and the innovations themselves organizations like  

the society of arts held their own events to  display all of their inventions now across the  

english channel in france the french government  saw what england was doing and felt both impressed  

but also intimidated so they sponsored several  similar events to demonstrate french technological  

superiority and with these two competing countries  holding events throughout the rest of the century  

the world's fair was imminent the world fair  as we know it today with the same amount of  

organization and formalization was hosted in 1851  with britain's great exposition at the famous  

crystal palace hall with the underlying goal being  a desire to spread british commerce throughout the  

drawing millions of visitors to each venue which  were held in countries like australia guatemala  

vietnam belgium and so on the expositions held in  the u.s would be particularly impactful as they  

signaled the growing power of the united states  on the international stage with the 1893 fair in  

chicago being a good example of that unfortunately  though after both world wars the cold war and  

various other global conflicts it became an  impossible event to host across the world  

like they normally would and sadly the world fair  fell into obscurity but the legacy it left behind  

will probably never die so now that we have the  context let's discuss what happened in chicago  

as the 1890s approached many americans wanted to  host the next world fair especially in light of  

all the excitement surrounding the groundbreaking  1889 world fair in paris they certainly wanted to  

host the event around the year 1892 to commemorate  the 400th anniversary of christopher columbus's  

discovery of america already at that time both  americans and europeans were aware of the possible  

future in which the u.s became a world superpower  books at the time even described columbus's voyage  

as the most important event in human history  aside from religious events such as the coming  

of messiahs or prophets with the immense amount of  potential power the u.s had those same books went  

as far as comparing the us to the roman empire  this was the mindset that the committee organizers  

of the event had when building this iteration  all they needed to do was choose an american  

city to host and many cities came forward such  as new york st louis washington dc but ultimately  

chicago won out the midwestern city was  chosen partly because of its central location  

but mainly because of its advanced railway system  which could easily transport visitors into and  

around the city but what eventually became the  deciding factor as to why chicago was selected  

was actually the large public desire among  citizens only a few years earlier the whole city  

was rocked by the great chicago fire in the midst  of a massive rebuilding process the population was  

unified and wanted to express their resilience  and ability to prosper to the entire world  

so after chicago citizens raised five million  dollars in funds chicago's world fair was greenlit  

and construction began parts of the city were  redesignated or newly built for the world fair  

chicago's own daniel h burnham was made the  chief architect and with charles b atwood as  

his designer in chief and frederick law olmsted as  the head of landscaping burnham had gathered the  

greatest architects in america at the time  to design and build the facilities to host  

this great world fair some of these architects  included richard morris hunt charles mckinnon  

robert peabody george b post henry van brunt  louis sullivan and so on all of these masters had  

worked on some of the biggest and most important  architectural projects of the time inspired by  

the philadelphia centennial exhibition of 1876  which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the  

united states as a country the designers decided  that the chicago exposition would be held in a  

collection of buildings across a portion of the  city rather than just one hall the exposition was  

planned to cover 686 acres in chicago's south side  lakefront area currently known as jackson park  

all the designers also had a particular interest  in neoclassical architecture a style hearkening  

back to ancient rome or ancient greece involving  an emphasis on marble structures such as columns  

arches domes and large extravagant buildings this  type of architecture was the prevailing style of  

all structures built and overall the complex made  to hold this exposition was four times larger than  

the previous fair in paris in 1889. on october  the 1st president cleveland stood outside the  

administration building and turned on the alice  engine with the push of a button starting the  

power for the entire exhibition the 1893 world's  colombian exhibition finally officially kicked off  

in chicago and people from all across the world  immediately traveled to the city's south side  

to experience the new innovations out on  the lake many different ships were presented  

such as replicas of columbus's ships the nina  pinta and santa maria there was also a japanese  

dragon boat a viking ship from norway and  ventennial gondolas in the neo-classical  

court of honor buildings massive exhibition halls  presented the most cutting-edge technology and  

electricity quickly became the most talked about  topic as electricity was just about to become the  

common commodity that it is today visitors were  enamored with the new electric innovations such  

as incubators for chicken eggs electric execution  chairs the fax machine sewing machines electric  

irons laundry washing machines the light bulb  and various other engines this area of the expo  

was eventually labeled the white city due to all  the marble neoclassical aesthetics as well as the  

fact that the buildings would be lit up at night  with electrical lights other than the white city  

the most illustrious portion of the expo was the  midway section generally the midway section was  

focused more on pure entertainment and audience  enjoyment over time the midway got so popular that  

it actually lured customers away from white city  to which they responded by altering their exhibits  

to accommodate for more crowd engagement soon the  white city now offered contests like tug of war  

tightrope walking parachute jumping as well as  boat and swimming races however the midway was  

most known for introducing the world to the  ferris wheel if the lasting image of the  

1889 world fair in paris was the eiffel tower  designed by french architect gustav eiffel well  

then the chicago world's fair committee wanted  to design a revolutionary structure of its own  

for this addition surprisingly gustav eiffel even  offered to build another tower initially the plan  

was to build a massive 1 500 foot tower made of  wooden logs but in the end the committee wanted  

the landmark structure of chicago's world fair  to be designed by an american so they went with  

george washington ferris who built the ferris  wheel the final structure was a 250 foot diameter  

wheel with seats on the perimeter revolving in  between two 140 foot high towers the ferris wheel  

was extremely popular attracting 1.4 million  rides and selling for 50 cents per two rides  

which was a lot back then the midway also had many  circus acts including dwarf elephants two-headed  

pigs and jugglers alongside other acts like  harry houdini the ragtime piano player scott  

joplin buffalo bill cody and the wild west show as  well as beauty pageants music and food were also  

large attractions for the fair including local  cuisine but also culture found beyond musicians  

bands choirs ensembles orchestras from states  throughout the us as well as turkey egypt algeria  

china indonesia scotland and many more appeared  on stages in chicago displaying different cultures  

was also a center part of the world fair and  there were whole exhibitions dedicated to this  

alongside german and irish villages there were  also algerian belly dancers an indian reservation  

several mosques and a cairo street many political  speakers from all corners of the political  

spectrum came to give speeches such as woodrow  wilson susan b anthony jane adams frederick  

douglass elizabeth stanton and others the legacy  of the 1893 worlds colombian exhibition in chicago  

still stands today as it has affected the world  in many ways overall it cost a total of 28 million  

three hundred and forty thousand seven hundred  dollars to hold the exhibition with eighteen  

million 678 thousand dollars spent just  on construction and landscaping alone  

however including both paid and free attendance  somewhere between 25 and 28 million attended this  

event and after subtracting the cost from the  ticket sales 446 832 dollars were made in profit  

proving that a large event like this celebrating  cultures from across the globe could generate  

a positive income it should also be stated that  the u.s population at the time was only 63 million  

and the country was in the midst of an economic  depression making this turnout number even more  

impressive dubbed the fair that changed chicago  the citizens of this city were able to show their  

strength to the world ultimately proving to  be great hosts for an overall great exhibition  

but chicago was not alone amongst those who  were impacted by the 1893 world fair food was  

one area in particular that this expo drastically  changed without most people even being aware of it  

for example most today would consider hamburgers  and soda as a stereotypical american cuisine  

but the 1893 world fair was the first time that  many americans ever tried this food in their  

entire lives even the famous chicago style hot  dog which many would say is chicago's signature  

dish is claimed to have been created at this world  fair in fact many food items which are commonplace  

today can draw their roots back to this event  such as brownies juicy fruit gum cracker jacks  

and pabst beer as we said before the centerpiece  for all the technological exhibits was electricity  

and while electricity had already been harnessed  as a source of power by european inventors for  

several years prior things like electrical light  electrical appliances or engines were not common  

household items just yet meaning this was the  first time many americans had even laid eyes on  

them the 1893 world fair also had a lingering  influence on architecture with the cultural  

significance of this demonstration leading to a  revival of classical architecture at the turn of  

the century as a result in the next few years many  government and state buildings across the country  

were inspired by the white city incorporating  classical stylistic icons like columns pediments  

statues and heavy use of marble or stone one of  the most critical but also intangible effects of  

the 1893 world fair in chicago was the new role  the u.s was assuming on the world stage from the  

era of european colonization in the 1500s to  this point in the 1890s the european powers  

like britain france and the netherlands spain or  portugal were the undisputed global superpowers  

as kingdoms or empires outside of the european  continent simply could not compete economically or  

were defeated militarily so slowly that they faded  away but now in 1893 the united states of america  

emerged as a rising power with the potential to  topple the european giants especially since the  

u.s had long since overcome internal issues in the  civil war and the mexican-american war with a huge  

growing population and a vast territory containing  seemingly endless resource the sleeping giant was  

awakened during the industrial revolution the  early years of this time frame saw great britain  

tighten its grip on free trade and the world  economy but now the greatest innovations appeared  

in america with this world fair in chicago  serving as proof in hindsight the us did not  

truly become a global superpower until it emerged  as the strongest one standing in the ashes of the  

second world war but the 1890s was certainly  a preview of things to come and with that  

once you get done hitting that subscribe  button anyways this is ryan silkesh signing off