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I. Britain’s Great Exhibition of 1851
- a. 1851: British organized world’s first industrial fair in Kensington, London in Crystal Palace, an enormous structure made of glass and iron, a tribute to British engineering skills
- i. Contained 100,000 exhibits showing numerous products created by industrial Revolution
- 1. 6 million visitors in 6 months
- a. Most Britons who traveled to London by train, but also foreigners
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Great Exhibition
- i. Great Exhibition displayed Britain’s wealth to the world; symbol of British success
- ii. Even trees brought inside Crystal Palace as visible symbol of how Industrial Revolution had achieved human domination over nature
- 1. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s hub, expressed sentiments of age when he described exhibition as sign that man is conquering nature to his use, as well as divine will
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Crystal Palace Exhibition
- a. Aside from demonstrating Britain’s enormous industrial growth, the Crystal Palace exhibition represented British imperial power
- i. Goods from India= highlight of exhibition, and East India Company drew attention to its role in India with exhibits of cotton, tea, and flax
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Display of Indian Things
- 1. But it was display of Indian silks, jewels, shawls, and an elephant canopy that captured the attention of the British press and visitors
- 2. Despite public interest to awesome works from India, many British commentators, were less complimentary
- a. Indian handmade goods typical of a system in which thousands worked for few despots
- i. Moreover, these goods were examples of wasteful and ridiculous excess of labor
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By year of Great Exhibition
- a. By year of Great Exhibition, Great Britain had become the world’s first industrial nation and its wealthiest
- i. Produced ½ of world’s coal and manufactured goods; its cotton industry was equal in size to all other European industries combined
- 1. Quantity of goods produced growing at 3x rate of that in 1780
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