The 1889 Paris World Expo

Plan général de l'Exposition Universelle de 1889

Map of the 1889 World Fair. The top image represents the Champ-de-Mars, from the Trocadéro Palace to the Galerie des machines (next to the École Militaire, which still exists today). The bottom print represents the Esplanade des Invalides, about half a mile from the Champ-de-Mars. This second site of the World Fair housed the Exposition coloniale as well as an agricultural fair.

Admission to the exposition cost forty centimes, at a time when the price of an "economy" plate of meat and vegetables in a Paris cafe was ten centimes. Visitors paid an additional price for several of the exposition's most popular attractions. Climbing the Eiffel Tower cost five Francs; admission to the popular panoramas, theatres and concerts was one franc. Visitors from the French provinces could buy a ticket which included the train fare and entry into the exposition.

Because of the theme of the exposition, celebrating the overthrow of the French monarchy, nearly all European countries with monarchies officially boycotted the exposition. The boycotting nations were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and Sweden.

Nonetheless, many citizens and companies from those countries participated, and a number of countries had their participation entirely funded by private sponsors. They included Germany and Alsace-Lorraine, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, the United Kingdom and its colonies, Haiti, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Finland and Sweden