The spectacle of colonial commerce could convert even armed resistance into political submission.

Evidence

One of the rebel chieftains on the northern front, who was keeping up a stubborn resistance to General Henrys, heard a description of the exhibition and was seized with an irresistible curiosity. He requested a truce, and permission to go there and then resume his post of warfare against us. As strange and unacceptable as such a request appeared, it was granted. He was warmly welcomed, and after his visit he and his tribe made submission. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 505

Categorization

• CANDY: A rebel chieftain asks his enemy for a truce just to visit a commercial exhibition, then surrenders — a striking, tweetable anecdote.
• SEED: Essay angle: the modern trade fair as a ‘powerful soft weapon’ predating our assumptions — commerce’s display as pacification, from Lyautey’s Morocco to the Chinese trade shows courting global elites.
• XREF: connects to: Urban spectacle serves as a political weapon for both control and revolt. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 551