Compared to Britain's Great Exhibition, the British wanted a Great Exhibition that belonged to the world.
Where the Great Exhibition was held did not matter; what mattered was who held the reins of the Great Exhibition.
In Prince Albert's view, all they needed was to establish a committee, and they could use the Great Exhibition as a lever to pry open the doors of countless nations.
If Britain could remain strong, then the long-term benefits of openness brought by the Great Exhibition would have no upper limit.
What Prince Albert did not say was that even if Britain declined, the Great Exhibition as an organization could still turn a profit. That was why the British royal family cared so deeply about it.
Prince Albert secured an enormous amount of investment for the committee, including investment from the House of Habsburg. The one who decided to invest was naturally Franz. There was no shame in making money.
This also counted as a path he had left for his descendants. After all, Franz's own road was not an easy one.
Just as Franz had said before, the royal houses of Europe were entwined with one another; exchanging interests was the norm.
But the British government's ambitions went far beyond that. At the 1851 Great Exhibition, all official documents, exhibit catalogues, and visitors' guides were in English.
One had to know that at nearly all high-level European summits and political negotiations in the past, French had been used. Even at the several Vienna Conferences and Saint Petersburg Conferences, French had been used in public settings and multilateral negotiations.
It was not merely because French was comparatively rigorous, but because of France's immense political, military, and cultural influence over the past several centuries. History carried on; even after Napoleon's defeat, French remained the sole