You may know them The Great Race takes place in the 1930s. A troubled period in European history. The Western powers shared the world and colonization plundered its wealth with impunity.
The document below written by the King of the Belgians says a lot about the Western state of mind at that time and explains in part why we got to the ecological devastation of today.
In France, in Paris, the black magazine by Joséphine Baker attracts crowds. Exhibitions celebrate "primitivism".
Les croisières Citroën
André Citroën has understood that the French fascinated by this caricatural imagination feeds on exoticism and the unknown sells. It is with this in mind that he will launch the black cruise.
Imagine: Seeing motorized vehicles move in the African jungle or in the steppes of Central Asia with adventurers wearing colonial helmets. See the nomadic tribes, "primitive" men living half naked, ignorant of "civilization". How could the French public resist it?
Yet, once again ahead of its time, André Citroën gathers around him scientists, humanists, like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
geologist specializing in China, theoretician of evolution, he will participate in the yellow cruise. But whether it is the black cruise or the yellow cruise, the expedition has real humanist objectives with 4 scientific goals:
1 - Economic report on the territories crossed, establish maps, define air routes, discovery of resources.
2 - Health report, carry out an epidemiological study of the territories crossed.
3 - Hunting report, make a zoological, entomological and ornithological inventory under the aegis of the Museum of Natural History of Paris
4 - Ethnological report, before the "leveling" march of civilization, the observation of tribal customs is essential before their potential disappearance.
And in terms of play?
We are currently working on an extension highlighting this humanist mission by seeking to gain prestige points in these different areas during the journey. This extension would profoundly transform the game by reducing the racing aspect in favor of more in-depth exploration.