A Continent at Its Zenith
In the summer of 1913, the medieval Flemish city of Ghent hosted the Exposition Universelle et Internationale, a grand world’s fair celebrating human progress and European civilization’s perceived dominance. Visitors strolled along the Avenue des Nations, marveling at pavilions from Holland to Persia, from classical Parisian displays to modernist German architecture. Electric lights illuminated the fairgrounds at night, creating a dazzling spectacle that seemed to embody Europe’s technological and cultural supremacy.
Yet this triumphant display masked deeper tensions. Just eighteen months later, German troops would occupy Ghent, and the continent would descend into the cataclysm of World War I. The fair stood as Europe’s final, glittering self-portrait before the old order shattered.
The World’s Fair as Imperial Showcase
World’s fairs in this era served as monuments to industrial achievement and imperial power. Belgium—a small, neutral, bilingual nation—presented itself as the epitome of European integration. Its own pavilion celebrated colonial “heroism” in the Congo, glossing over the brutal exploitation that had enriched Belgium through forced rubber extraction. The fair’s official literature proclaimed Belgium’s duty to “civilize” Africa, ignoring the international outcry over King Leopold II’s atrocities.
Other European powers followed suit, using their pavilions to project strength. Germany showcased its industrial might; Britain displayed craftsmanship; France presented its cultural refinement. The fair’s very structure reinforced a hierarchy of nations, with Europe firmly at the top.
The Illusion of Permanent Peace
Beneath the surface, contradictions abounded. That same year, the Peace Palace opened in The Hague, funded by Andrew Carnegie and built with materials from across Europe—a symbol of international cooperation. Nobel Peace Prize winner Henri La Fontaine championed arbitration over war. Elite Europeans like Anglo-German aristocrat Harry Kessler moved effortlessly across borders, dining with British royalty, Russian ballet impresarios, and French intellectuals who dismissed war as “impossible.”
Middle-class tourism flourished. Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev toured Berlin, Paris, and London; economist John Maynard Keynes traveled from Milan to Cairo. Europe’s upper classes treated the continent as their playground, from Swiss sanatoriums to Venetian lidos.
Yet militarism simmered. German General Friedrich von Bernhardi’s Germany and the Next War argued conflict was inevitable. Crown Prince Wilhelm scorned pacifism as “utopian.” Nationalist rhetoric painted rival cultures—French “civilization” versus German “Kultur”—as incompatible.
The Fracturing of European Unity
Cultural movements reflected these tensions. While avant-garde artists like Picasso and Kandinsky formed a transnational creative community, reactionary voices grew louder. Italian Futurists glorified war as “the world’s only hygiene.” Philosophers distorted Darwinism and Nietzschean ideas to justify racial struggle.
Even the fair’s celebratory atmosphere couldn’t conceal anxiety. Belgian workers staged strikes, challenging the establishment. Socialist leader Jean Jaurès warned that nationalism could unravel working-class solidarity. When war came in 1914, many found themselves stranded in enemy countries—Serbia’s military commander vacationing in Austria-Hungary, Winston Churchill visiting German naval bases.
Legacy: The Fair as Epitaph
The Ghent Expo’s legacy is one of tragic irony. It showcased a Europe convinced of its eternal progress, blind to the fragility of its peace. The fair’s technological marvels—electric lighting, industrial displays—would soon be repurposed for destruction. Its grand pavilions stood as the last monuments to a vanishing world.
As Austrian writer Stefan Zweig later recalled, Europeans in 1913 believed borders were obsolete, that shared culture made war unthinkable. The fair’s gleaming facade hid the fault lines that would soon plunge the continent into darkness. Today, it serves as a reminder of how civilizations can mistake their zenith for permanence—and how quickly empires can fall.