History of Esperanto: from 1887 to today

Esperanto was published on 26 July 1887 in Warsaw by Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, an eye doctor from Białystok, in a short Russian-language booklet now called the Unua Libro ("First Book"). Within two decades it had spread across Europe and beyond. The first World Esperanto Congress met in 1905 and the Universal Esperanto Association was founded in 1908. The movement survived persecution by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, won support from UNESCO in 1954 and 1985, and found a new generation online after 2000.

#How did Esperanto begin?

Zamenhof grew up in Białystok, a city of Poles, Russians, Germans and Jews who often distrusted one another. He came to believe that a neutral, easy second language could reduce such hostility. As a teenager in Warsaw he worked on a language project, Lingwe uniwersala, and presented it to school friends at a party on 17 December 1878.

He spent the next nine years revising and testing it, mostly by translating literature. For the life behind the language, see L. L. Zamenhof.

#What was the Unua Libro?

The Unua Libro was the first textbook of Esperanto. The Russian censor released it for sale on 14 July 1887 by the Julian calendar then used in the Russian Empire – 26 July 1887 in today's calendar, now kept as Esperanto Day. It was printed in Warsaw by Chaim Kelter and paid for with the dowry of Zamenhof's fiancée, Klara Silbernik.

The book was written in Russian and signed with a pen name, Doktoro Esperanto – "Doctor One-who-hopes". Readers soon called the language itself "Esperanto"; Zamenhof's own name for it was Lingvo Internacia, "International Language". Polish, German and French editions followed in 1887, and an English translation by Richard Geoghegan in 1889. The book contained a grammar of 16 rules – see the 16 rules.

#How did the language spread before 1905?

Slowly at first, then quickly. In 1888 Zamenhof published a Dua Libro ("Second Book"), and the world-language club in Nuremberg, Germany – until then devoted to the rival language Volapük – switched to Esperanto. On 1 September 1889 the same city produced the first Esperanto magazine, La Esperantisto.

In 1894 Zamenhof put a set of radical reforms to a vote of the magazine's readers, who rejected them. In 1895 La Esperantisto printed a translation of a text by Leo Tolstoy, and Russian censors banned the magazine. Most of its subscribers lived in Russia, so it closed; a new magazine, Lingvo Internacia, took its place in Sweden in December 1895.

After 1900 France became the centre of growth, with support from scientists, teachers and publishers such as Hachette.

#What happened at the first World Congress in 1905?

In August 1905, 688 people from about 20 countries met in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, for the first World Esperanto Congress. They found they could talk, debate and hold a whole congress in Esperanto without interpreters.

The congress adopted the Declaration of Boulogne. It made the Fundamento de Esperanto (1905) – Zamenhof's grammar, exercises and basic dictionary – the binding foundation of the language, which nobody may change. New words and forms may be added, but the core stays fixed. This stability is one reason Esperanto outlived its rivals. The congress also created a Language Committee, which became today's Academy of Esperanto in 1948.

The graphic counts roots marked as official in the ReVo dictionary. The Academy counts "elements" – roots, affixes, small words and the 11 endings – and arrives at about 5,373; see official Esperanto.

#How did the movement grow before the First World War?

In October 1907 a committee of the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language met in Paris and backed a reformed Esperanto called Ido. Its author, who signed as "Ido", was revealed in 1908 as Louis de Beaufront, until then a leading Esperantist; later historians see the project mainly as the work of Louis Couturat. The split took away some leaders, but most speakers stayed with Esperanto.

On 28 April 1908 the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA) was founded in Geneva by the young Swiss journalist Hector Hodler, the French teacher Théophile Rousseau and others. Two years later, in 1910, the World Congress crossed the Atlantic for the first time, to Washington, D.C. Zamenhof was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 14 times between 1907 and 1917, starting with a nomination by 12 British members of parliament. The congress planned for Paris in 1914 was cancelled when war broke out. Zamenhof died in Warsaw on 14 April 1917, during the German occupation.

#Did the League of Nations consider Esperanto?

Yes. From December 1920, delegations led by Iran proposed that the League of Nations recommend Esperanto. The French delegate, Gabriel Hanotaux, opposed it from the first proposal in December 1920, seeing it as a threat to French as the language of diplomacy. The League's under-secretary-general, Nitobe Inazō, attended the 1921 World Congress in Prague as its delegate and reported favourably.

A League report, Esperanto as an International Auxiliary Language, went to its Third Assembly in 1922, which adopted it but passed the question of schools to a committee; that committee declined in 1923. France had already barred Esperanto from its state schools in June 1922: teachers were told not to promote it, and school buildings could not be lent for Esperanto courses. The 1920s were nonetheless a high point: new magazines, the 1923 congress in Nuremberg with 4,963 participants (a record until 1987), the workers' association SAT (founded 1921) and, from 1927, Esperanto Book Day on 15 December.

#Why was Esperanto persecuted?

Totalitarian regimes saw an international language as a threat. The standard history of this persecution, by Ulrich Lins, is titled La danĝera lingvo – "The Dangerous Language".

• Nazi Germany. Hitler attacked Esperanto in Mein Kampf as a tool of Jewish world conspiracy. Workers' Esperanto groups were banned in 1933, and in June 1936 the political police dissolved all remaining Esperanto organisations. All three of Zamenhof's children were murdered in the Holocaust: Adam was shot at Palmiry in January 1940, and Zofia and Lidia were killed at Treblinka in 1942.
• The Soviet Union. Esperanto was at first tolerated and even encouraged, and an officially recognised Soviet Esperantist Union was founded in 1921. In Stalin's purges its leader, Ernest Drezen, was arrested in April 1937 and shot on 27 October 1937. Esperanto activity was effectively impossible from 1937 until 1956.

#What did UNESCO decide about Esperanto?

On 10 December 1954, the UNESCO General Conference in Montevideo adopted resolution IV.1.4.422–4224. It noted the results achieved by Esperanto in international intellectual exchange and in bringing peoples together, and opened consultative relations between UNESCO and the UEA.

In 1985, at its conference in Sofia, UNESCO adopted a second resolution. It congratulated the movement on its approaching centenary and invited member states to mark it and to encourage teaching about the language problem and Esperanto. The centenary congress in Warsaw in 1987 drew 5,946 participants, still the record.

#How did Esperanto change after 1945?

The UEA moved its headquarters to Rotterdam in 1955, where it remains. Esperanto revived in Eastern Europe after 1956 and grew outside Europe – in China, elsewhere in East Asia, in Latin America and later in Africa. In 1996 the 81st World Congress in Prague adopted the Prague Manifesto, seven principles of the movement such as democracy, linguistic rights and language diversity. The modern organisations took shape in this period.

#How did the internet change Esperanto?

The internet suited a scattered community. Key milestones:

• 2001 – the Esperanto Wikipedia (Vikipedio) was founded; by October 2026 it had about 390,000 articles.
• 21 December 2002 – the free course site lernu! went online.
• 22 February 2012 – Google Translate added Esperanto as its 64th language.
• 28 May 2015 – Duolingo launched an Esperanto course for English speakers; by March 2020, 2.8 million people had started its Esperanto courses.
• 2017 – the Amikumu app began connecting Esperanto speakers nearby.

These tools brought far more learners than any earlier campaign, although most stop early. See how many people speak Esperanto.

#What is happening with Esperanto now?

In 2014 Poland added "the Esperanto language as a carrier of Esperanto culture" to its national list of intangible cultural heritage, and in 2026 Austria added Esperanto culture to its own national inventory. In May 2023 the UEA's historic library was transferred to the National Library of Poland.

The World Congress reached Africa for the first time in 2024, in Arusha, Tanzania. The 110th congress met in Brno in 2025, and the 111th in Graz, Austria, on 1–8 August 2026. The UEA has announced Melbourne, Australia, for 2027.

#Timeline of Esperanto

#Common questions

#When was Esperanto invented?

Zamenhof worked on it from the 1870s and published it on 26 July 1887 in Warsaw. That date is celebrated as Esperanto Day.

#Why did Zamenhof create Esperanto?

He wanted a neutral, easy second language that would let people of different nations communicate as equals. He grew up in multilingual Białystok, where he saw language barriers feed mistrust between communities.

#Was Esperanto ever banned?

Yes. Nazi Germany dissolved all Esperanto organisations in 1936, and in the Soviet Union Esperanto activity was suppressed from 1937 to 1956, with leading Esperantists shot. The Russian Empire also banned the first Esperanto magazine in 1895.

#Did the League of Nations adopt Esperanto?

No. A proposal in the early 1920s had wide support, but France blocked it, and the League's 1922 report led to no recommendation for schools.

#Is Esperanto recognised by UNESCO?

UNESCO adopted resolutions favourable to Esperanto in 1954 and 1985, and the Universal Esperanto Association has had consultative relations with UNESCO since 1954. Esperanto is not an official UN language.

#Sources

• Wikipedia, Unua Libro, History of Esperanto and Declaration of Boulogne; Vikipedio, Unua Libro and La Esperantisto
• Universal Esperanto Association, list of World Congresses
• Vikipedio, 1-a Universala Kongreso de Esperanto
• Nobel Prize, nomination archive: Lazarus Ludwig Zamenhof
• UNESCO resolutions of 1954 and 1985, text compiled by ILEI; UNESCO Records of the General Conference, 1985
• Léon Bérard, circular of June 1922 on Esperanto in French schools, reprinted in Les Langues modernes, July 1922 (scan via Espéranto-France)
• Wikipedia (de), Deutscher Esperanto-Bund (Nazi period); Wikipedia, Ernest Drezen
• Ulrich Lins, La danĝera lingvo (Bleicher, 1988); English edition Dangerous Language (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016–17)
• Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa, Język esperanto jako nośnik kultury esperanckiej (2014); Austrian UNESCO Commission, Esperanto culture in Austria (2026)
• Google Translate Blog, 22 February 2012