For more than a century the great colonial powers put human beings, taken by force from their native lands, on show as entertainment, just like animals in zoos; a shameful, outrageous and savage treatment of people who were considered subhuman.

At the end of the 19th century, four groups of indigenous people were taken from Chile by a German businessman and were shown as animals in different fairs and public exhibitions in several Europeans cities including Berlin, Leipzig, and symbolic places such as the area surrounding the Eiffel Tower.