Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Exposition Universelle of 1889 opened its gates on the 6th of May in Paris France. This massive event was designed to mark one hundred years since the Storming of the Bastille.
Over thirty-two million people walked across the Champs de Mars during the six months of operation. The fair generated a profit margin that made it the last Paris world's fair to generate surplus funds.
Germany Austria-Hungary Belgium Spain Italy Portugal Russia and Sweden issued formal boycotts against the event. These governments opposed the celebration because it marked the overthrow of their own royal families.
Gustave Eiffel won the contract with his construction firm to build the tower three hundred meters tall. Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier created the structural design while Stephen Sauvestre added the curving form and decorative elements.
A large village called a village nègre displayed four hundred indigenous people for visitors to observe on the esplanade of Les Invalides. Samba Lawbé Thiam expressed deep humiliation about the display noting that straw and mud huts did not represent his homeland Senegal.