These were huge gatherings to display and celebrate what was seen as material progress and peaceful international competition. They ranged from massive steam hammers and locomotives to the exquisite artistry of the handicraft trades - not to mention a host of ingenious gadgets and ornaments of domestic clutter. They took place towards the end of the 19th Century. 

Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition on 1st May 1851, at this time her country was the world's leading industrial power, producing more than half its iron, coal and cotton cloth. The Crystal Palace itself was a triumph of pre-fabricated mass production in iron and glass. 

In America the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition made its debut in 1893 to celebrate the 4 00th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of America. 

There was the Paris International Exhibition of 1889 and 1900, and the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.

At these events there were full scale mock ups of scenes from the colonized countries complete with a series of acts portraying the music and dance of various colonies, including those in North Africa. Even though the dancers were fully clothed from head to toe the natural and bodacious movements were shocking to the stiff upper lip mentality of the punters and they certainly clamored for more! Newspapers screamed about the scandal which of course drew more people to see what it was all about and all this served to fuel on the entertainment with the core theme being one to play on the prudery of Western values. 

The term "belly dance" is credited to Mr. Sol Bloom. He was an entertainment impressionario considered to be the first to popularize the dance in the United States by bringing authentic Middle Eastern dancers and musicians to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and using the term "belly dance." Even the words themselves shocked the straight laced punters (in Victorian times, polite society did not use the word "belly", or many other words that are acceptable today) so of course this simply fuelled the thing on still further. 

The Philadelphia 1876 Centennial Exposition featured an Algerian cafe with native entertainers. And in 1889 the great Paris Exposition presented such a panoply of exotic cultures that American organizers, not to be outdone, determined to create ethnological exhibits on an even grander scale for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

The growing appetite for exotica, often expressed in "oriental" style gingerbread houses, was catered to by entrepreneurs like Phineas T. Barnum, who imported a troupe of nautch dancers from India.

The huge success of these events then started off entertainment for the general public what was originally termed as Vaudeville. This was a raucous form of entertainment that "common people" enjoyed, but "decent people" condemned. A typical show consisted of a melodrama, ribald skits, and various song and dance numbers. White people put on black make-up known as "blackface" and did song & dance performances mocking the culture of former slaves. Popular songs were about love and romance.