Euro-American nations, culturally "other" among themselves, were represented by industrial products that demonstrated their level of progress and, conversely, artworks said to embody their distinctively "national" genius. Placed at various stages on the evolutionary yardstick of progress were the ethnically "other," represented by artifacts and even " living exhibits." The political reality and ideology of imperialism were as central to the idea of international exhibitions as nationalism and global capitalism. The governments of Britain and France spared no expenses to extol the importance of their imperial possessions in the eyes of metropolitan audiences, who were able to marvel at the Indian cultural artifacts and the replicas of Khmer monuments and even taste the dishes and smell the fragrances of their overseas colonies without ever setting foot there. International exhibitions also helped promote diplomatic ties, as with the Franco-British Exposition of 1908, which cemented the new friendly climate in the relations between the two countries following the Entente Cordiale of 1904.