1798-1800 - Napoleon's Expedition to Egypt
Napoleon urged upon the Directory the Expedition to Egypt. "Once established in Egypt," said he, "the Mediterranean becomes a French Lake; we shall found a colony there, unenervated by the curse of slavery, and which will supply the place of St. Domingo ; we shall open a market for French manufactures through the vast regions of Africa, Arabia, and Syria. All the caravans of the East will meet at Cairo, and the commerce of India must forsake the Cape of Good Hope, and flow through the Red Sea. Marching with an army of sixty thousand men, we can cross the Indus, rouse the oppressed and discontented native population against the English usurpers, and drive the English out of India. We will establish governments which will respect the rights and promote the interests of the people. The multitude will hail us as their deliverers from oppression. The Christians of Syria, the Druses, and the Armenians, will join our standards. We may change the face of the world."
The Directory, at last overcome by the arguments of Napoleon, and also, through jealousy of his unbounded popularity, being willing to remove him from France, assented to the proposed expedition. The directory probably encouraged the enterprise with the object of getting rid of a general whose victories and rapidly increasing popularity it feared. On the 9th of May, 1798, just five months after Napoleon's return to Paris from the Italian campaign, he entered Toulon, having completed all his preparations for the most magnificent enterprise ever contemplated by a mortal.
The disembarkation of the troops was accomplished on 02 July 1797, at Marabout, an anchorage to the east of Alexandria, and on 06 July the whole fleet was moored in the roads before Aboukir. Garrisons were left in Alexandria, Rosetta and Aboukir, and the army, now 30,000 strong, inarched in 5 divisions towards Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Not far from it, near the pyramids of Gizeh, a decisive buttle was fought. After the victory at the Battle of the Pyramids, Bonaparte entered Cairo on 24 July 1797 and established a government there. The defeat of the French fleet at Aboukir by Nelson was in part owing to the negligence of admiral Brueys and vice-admiral Villeneuve, who allowed themselves to be surprised. General Bonaparte saw his communication with France threatened, and himself exposed to the greatest of all enemies, want. Exasperated by the transformation of so important a dependency as Egypt into a French province, the Porte declared war against France, 02 September 1798, and the inhabitants of Cairo rebelled.
After the restoration of quiet, Bonaparte, marched on 27 February 1799 from Cairo to Syria, took the fort of El-Arish, in the desert, then Jaffa, and undertooke the siege of St. Jean d'Acre. On the 16th and 17th of April, the Turks were beaten in the memorable battle of mount Tabor, near the Jordan. After a fatiguing march of 26 days, the troops arrived at Cairo. Bonaparte stationed himself near the fountain between Alexandria and Aboukir, and offered battle to the Turks, July 25. Mustapha Pacha was compelled to surrender unconditionally 02 August 1799. By this victory, general Bonaparte's power in Egypt was again confirmed.
At this period, the French had experienced considerable reverses in Europe. The battle of the Trebia had been lost, the French had evacuated the Genoese territory, Masscnn, in Switzerland, was in great danger. General Bonaparte saw the danger of his country, aud the loss of his conquests in Italy, uud resolved to return, which he did on 23 August 1799. The remaining French forces in Egypt capitulated on 02 September 1800. Alexandria, with all the artillery and ammunition, 6 French ships of war, and many merchantmen, together with all the Arabian manuscripts, all the maps of Egypt, and other collections made for the French republic, were given up. The French army was transported, with its arms and baggage, to a French harbor, which they reached at the end of November 1800.
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