The French Campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Middle East, ostensibly to protect French trade interests, undermine Britain's access to India, and to establish scientific enterprise in the region. It was the primary purpose of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, a series of naval engagements that included the capture of Malta.
Despite many decisive victories and an initially successful expedition into Syria, Napoleon and his Armée d'Orient were eventually forced to withdraw, after mounting political disharmony in France, conflict in Europe, and the defeat of the supporting French fleet at the Battle of the Nile.
At the time of the expedition, the Directoire had assumed executive power in France. It would resort to the army to maintain order in the face of the Jacobin and royalist threats, and count in particular on general Bonaparte, already a successful commander, especially thanks to his leadership of the Italian campaign.
In August 1797, Bonaparte proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt, a province of the Ottoman Empire since the Ottoman–Mamluke War (1516–1517). In a letter to the Directoire, Napoleon proposed to seek to protect French trade interests by attacking British commerce and undermining Britain's access to India and the East Indies, since Egypt was well-placed on the trade routes to these places. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with his ally Tipu Sultan, who was the ruler of the Sultanate of Mysore. At the time, Mysore was one of the biggest hindrances to the British East India Company and to British influence on the Indian subcontinent. As France was not ready for a head-on attack on Great Britain itself, the Directoire decided to intervene indirectly and create a 'double port' connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, prefiguring the Suez Canal by some fifty years.
At the time the expedition was being mooted, Egypt was an Ottoman province which had collapsed in on itself, with dissension among the Mamlukes. It was at that time out of the Ottoman sultan's direct control. In France, Egyptian fashion was in full swing — intellectuals believed that Egypt was the cradle of western civilization and wished to export the Enlightenment to the Egyptians. French traders already based on the River Nile were complaining of harassment by the Mamlukes, and Napoleon wished to walk in the footsteps of Alexander the Great. He assured the Directoire that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions." According to a February 13, 1798 report by Talleyrand, "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to the Sultanate of Mysore, to join the forces of Tipu Sultan and drive away the English." The Directoire agreed to the plan in March 1798. Though troubled by the enterprise's scope and cost, they readily agreed to the plan in order to remove the popular and over-ambitious general from the center of power, though it long remained a secret that this was one of their main aims for the expedition.
Rumors became rife as 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 sailors were gathered in the ports of the Mediterranean and a vast fleet at Toulon, with 13 ships of the line, 14 frigates and 400 transport ships. To avoid being intercepted by the British fleet under admiral Nelson, the French force's destination still remained a mystery, only known by Bonaparte himself, his generals Berthier and Caffarelli and the mathematician Gaspard Monge. Bonaparte was made the expedition's chief commander, with subordinates including Thomas Alexandre Dumas, Kléber, Desaix, Berthier, Caffarelli, Lannes, Damas, Murat, Andréossy, Belliard, Menou and Zajączek. His aides de camp included his brother Louis Bonaparte, Duroc, Eugène de Beauharnais, Thomas Prosper Jullien, and the Polish nobleman Sulkowski.
The great fleet at Toulon was joined by squadrons from Genoa, Civitavecchia and Bastia and was put under the command of admiral Brueys and contre-amirals Villeneuve, Du Chayla, Decrès and Ganteaume. It was about to set sail and depart when an event of little importance made it come to a complete halt — the hoisting of a tricolor flag on the palais de France in Vienna by Bernadotte, the French Republic's ambassador. That flag caused an uproar in which Bernadotte's character was outraged and he was forced to leave Vienna. The advantages recognized by the Treaty of Campo Formio were thus called into question, shattering the hard-won peace that many had hoped would last longer. Fearing a break with the Austrian emperor, the Directoire could only see one man suitable to lead any force they sent against him — Bonaparte — which would remove him from the Egyptian expedition and possibly end it. However, deals were made after many apologies and explanations and the peace held. Bonaparte received orders to travel to Toulon as soon as possible.
Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9, 1798, lodging with Benoît Georges de Najac, the officer in charge of preparing the fleet. The army embarked confident in their commander's talent and on May 19, just as he embarked, Bonaparte addressed the troops, especially those who had served under him in the armée d’Italie:
Despite many decisive victories and an initially successful expedition into Syria, Napoleon and his Armée d'Orient were eventually forced to withdraw, after mounting political disharmony in France, conflict in Europe, and the defeat of the supporting French fleet at the Battle of the Nile.
At the time of the expedition, the Directoire had assumed executive power in France. It would resort to the army to maintain order in the face of the Jacobin and royalist threats, and count in particular on general Bonaparte, already a successful commander, especially thanks to his leadership of the Italian campaign.
In August 1797, Bonaparte proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt, a province of the Ottoman Empire since the Ottoman–Mamluke War (1516–1517). In a letter to the Directoire, Napoleon proposed to seek to protect French trade interests by attacking British commerce and undermining Britain's access to India and the East Indies, since Egypt was well-placed on the trade routes to these places. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with his ally Tipu Sultan, who was the ruler of the Sultanate of Mysore. At the time, Mysore was one of the biggest hindrances to the British East India Company and to British influence on the Indian subcontinent. As France was not ready for a head-on attack on Great Britain itself, the Directoire decided to intervene indirectly and create a 'double port' connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, prefiguring the Suez Canal by some fifty years.
At the time the expedition was being mooted, Egypt was an Ottoman province which had collapsed in on itself, with dissension among the Mamlukes. It was at that time out of the Ottoman sultan's direct control. In France, Egyptian fashion was in full swing — intellectuals believed that Egypt was the cradle of western civilization and wished to export the Enlightenment to the Egyptians. French traders already based on the River Nile were complaining of harassment by the Mamlukes, and Napoleon wished to walk in the footsteps of Alexander the Great. He assured the Directoire that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions." According to a February 13, 1798 report by Talleyrand, "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to the Sultanate of Mysore, to join the forces of Tipu Sultan and drive away the English." The Directoire agreed to the plan in March 1798. Though troubled by the enterprise's scope and cost, they readily agreed to the plan in order to remove the popular and over-ambitious general from the center of power, though it long remained a secret that this was one of their main aims for the expedition.
Rumors became rife as 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 sailors were gathered in the ports of the Mediterranean and a vast fleet at Toulon, with 13 ships of the line, 14 frigates and 400 transport ships. To avoid being intercepted by the British fleet under admiral Nelson, the French force's destination still remained a mystery, only known by Bonaparte himself, his generals Berthier and Caffarelli and the mathematician Gaspard Monge. Bonaparte was made the expedition's chief commander, with subordinates including Thomas Alexandre Dumas, Kléber, Desaix, Berthier, Caffarelli, Lannes, Damas, Murat, Andréossy, Belliard, Menou and Zajączek. His aides de camp included his brother Louis Bonaparte, Duroc, Eugène de Beauharnais, Thomas Prosper Jullien, and the Polish nobleman Sulkowski.
The great fleet at Toulon was joined by squadrons from Genoa, Civitavecchia and Bastia and was put under the command of admiral Brueys and contre-amirals Villeneuve, Du Chayla, Decrès and Ganteaume. It was about to set sail and depart when an event of little importance made it come to a complete halt — the hoisting of a tricolor flag on the palais de France in Vienna by Bernadotte, the French Republic's ambassador. That flag caused an uproar in which Bernadotte's character was outraged and he was forced to leave Vienna. The advantages recognized by the Treaty of Campo Formio were thus called into question, shattering the hard-won peace that many had hoped would last longer. Fearing a break with the Austrian emperor, the Directoire could only see one man suitable to lead any force they sent against him — Bonaparte — which would remove him from the Egyptian expedition and possibly end it. However, deals were made after many apologies and explanations and the peace held. Bonaparte received orders to travel to Toulon as soon as possible.
Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9, 1798, lodging with Benoît Georges de Najac, the officer in charge of preparing the fleet. The army embarked confident in their commander's talent and on May 19, just as he embarked, Bonaparte addressed the troops, especially those who had served under him in the armée d’Italie:
Soldiers! You are one of the wings of the French army. You have made war on the mountains, on the plains and on cities; it remains for you to fight on the seas. The Roman legions, that you sometimes imitated but no longer equalled, fought Carthage now on this same sea and now on the plains of Zama ... Soldiers, sailors, you have been neglected until this day; today, the greatest concern of the Republic is for you... The genius of liberty, which made you, at her birth, the arbiter of Europe, wants to be genius of the seas and the furthest nations. |
Napoleon's fleet arrived off Malta, where Napoleon demanded from Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim that his ships be allowed to enter the port and to take on water and supplies. The Grand Master, Baron Ferdinand von Hompesch, replied that only two foreign ships could be allowed to enter the port at a time. Bonaparte, aware that such a procedure would take a very long time and would leave his forces vulnerable to Admiral Nelson, immediately ordered a cannon fusillade against Malta.
The French soldiers disembarked in Malta at seven points on the morning of June 11. General Louis Baraguey d’Hilliers landed soldiers and fieldpieces in the western part of the main island of Malta. Throughout this, his soldiers took artillery fire from the Maltese battlements. French soldiers met some initial resistance but it was forced back. The ill-prepared Knights in that region, numbering only about 2,000, regrouped. The French pressed on with their attack. After a fierce gun battle lasting twenty-four hours, most of the Maltese in the west were forced to surrender.The French Revolution had already significantly reduced the Knight's income and their ability to put up serious resistance to Bonaparte was seriously compromised by a lack of resources. Half of the Knights Hospitallers were French, and most of these knights refused to fight.
Napoleon opened negotiations with the fortress capital of Valletta. Faced with vastly superior French forces and the loss of western Malta, the Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim negotiated an end to the invasion.
Thirteen days after leaving Malta and continuing to successfully elude detection by the Royal Navy for the time being, the French fleet was in sight of Alexandria, where it landed on July 1, 1798, although Napoleon's plan had been to land elsewhere. On the day of the landing Napoleon told his troops "I promise to each soldier who returns from this expedition, enough to purchase six arpents of land" and added:
The peoples we will be living alongside are Muslims; their first article of faith is "There is no other god but God, and Mahomet is his prophet". Do not contradict them; treat them as you treated the Jews, the Italians; respect their muftis and their imams, as you respected their rabbis and bishops. Have the same tolerance for the ceremonies prescribed by the Qur'an, for their mosques, as you had for the convents, for the synagogues, for the religion of Moses and that of Jesus Christ. The Roman legions used to protect all religions. You will here find different customs to those of Europe, you must get accustomed to them. The people among whom we are going treat women differently to us; but in every country whoever violates one is a monster. Pillaging only enriches a small number of men; it dishonors us, it destroys our resources; it makes enemies of the people who it is in our interest to have as our friends. The first city we will encounter was built by Alexander [the Great]. We shall find at every step great remains worthy of exciting French emulation. |
Menou had been the first to set out for Egypt, but was the first Frenchman to land. Bonaparte and Kléber landed together and joined Menou at night at the Marabou, on which the first French tricolor to be hoisted in Egypt was raised. Bonaparte was informed that Alexandria intended to resist him and he rushed to get a force ashore. At 2am he set off marching in three columns, arriving by surprise beneath Alexandria's walls and ordering an assault — the enemy gave up and fled. The city had not had time to surrender and put itself at the French's discretion but, despite Bonaparte's orders, the French soldiers broke into the city. Master of Egypt's capital, on July 1 Bonaparte paused before penetrating further into the country and issued a proclamation to the Muslim inhabitants of Alexandria:
For too long the beys who govern Egypt have insulted the French nation and covered their traders in slanders. The hour of their punishment has come. For too long this horde of slaves, bought in the Caucasus and Georgia, have tyrannized the most beautiful part of the world; but God, on whom all depends, has ordained that their empire shall end. People of Egypt, they have told you that I come to destroy your religion, but do not believe it; [tell them] in reply [that] I come to restore your rights, punish the usurpers and that I respect God, his prophet and the Qur'an more than the Mamlukes. Tell them that all men are equal before God; wisdom, talents, virtues are the only things to make one man different from another... Is there a more beautiful land? It belongs to the Mamlukse. If Egypt is their farm, then they should show the lease that God gave them for it... Cadis, cheiks, imans, tchorbadjis, [I ask you to] tell the people that we are true Muslims too. Wasn't it us who destroyed the Knights of Malta? Wasn't it us who destroyed the Pope who used to say that he had a duty to make war on Muslims? Wasn't it us who have at all times been friends to the Great Lord and enemies to his enemies? ... Thrice happy are those who will be with us! They shall prosper in their fortune and in their rank. Happy are those who will be neutral! They will get to know us over time, and join their ranks with ours. But unhappy, thrice unhappy, are those who shall arm themselves [to fight] for the Mamlukes and who shall fight against us! There shall be no hope for them, they shall perish. |
When the whole expeditionary force had been disembarked, Admiral Brueys received orders to take the fleet to Aboukir Bay before anchoring the battle-fleet in the old port of Alexandria if possible or taking it to Corfu. These precautions were made vital by the imminent arrival of the British fleet, which had already been seen near Alexandria 24 hours before the French fleet's arrival. It was wisest to avoid the risks of a naval battle — a defeat could have disastrous results and it was in the force's better interests to go by land, marching at top speed to Cairo to frighten the enemy commanders and surprise them before they could put any defense measures in place.
Louis Desaix marched across the desert with his division and two cannon, arriving at Demenhour, fifteen miles (24 km) from Alexandria, on 18 Messidor (July 6). Meanwhile Bonaparte left Alexandria, leaving the city under Kléber's command. General Dugua marched on Rosetta, with orders to seize and hold the entrance to the port housing the French fleet, which had to follow the route to Cairo down the river's left bank and rejoin the army at Rahmanié. On 20 messidor (July 8), Bonaparte arrived at Demenhour, where he found the forces that had met up, and on 22 messidor they marched on Rahmanié, where they then awaited the fleet with their provisions. The fleet arrived on 24 messidor (July 12) and the army began to march again at night, followed by the fleet.
The winds' violence suddenly forced the fleet to the army's left and straight into the enemy fleet, which was supported by musket fire from 4000 Mamlukes, reinforced by peasants and Arabs. The French fleet had numerical superiority but still lost its gunboats to the enemy. Attracted by the sound of gunfire, Bonaparte ordered his land force to the charge and attacked the village of Chebreiss, which was captured after two hours' fierce fighting. The enemy fled in disorder towards Cairo, leaving 600 dead on the battlefield.
After a day's rest at Chebreiss, the French land force continued the pursuit. On 2 Thermidor (20 July), it arrived half a mile from the village of Embabé. The heat was unbearable and the army was exhausted and needed a rest, but there was not enough time and so Bonaparte drew up his 25,000 troops for battle approximately nine miles (15 km) from the Pyramids of Giza. He is said to have shown his army the pyramids behind the enemy's left flank and at the moment of ordering the attack shouted "Soldiers, see the tops of the Pyramids" - in accounts written long afterwards, this phrase was altered into "Soldiers, remember that from the top of these pyramids, 40 centuries of history contemplate you", though historians later discovered that the pyramids were not visible from the battlefield. This was the start of the so-called Battle of the Pyramids, a French victory over an enemy force of about 21,000 Mamlukes (around 40,000 Mamluke soldiers stayed away from the battle). He defeated the Mamluke cavalry using a larger version of the common infantry square, with cannons and supplies safely on the inside. In all 300 French and approximately 6,000 Egyptians were killed. The battle gave rise to dozens of stories and drawings.
Dupuy's brigade continued to pursue the routed enemy and at night entered Cairo, which had been abandoned by the beys Mourad and Ibrahim. On 4 Thermidor (July 22), the notables of Cairo came to Giza to meet Bonaparte and offered to hand over the city to him. Three days later, he moved his main headquarters there. Desaix received orders to follow Mourad, who had set off for Upper Egypt. An observation corps was put in place at Elkanka to keep an eye on the movements of Ibrahim, who was heading towards Syria. Bonaparte personally led the pursuit of Ibrahim, beat him at Salahie and pushed him completely out of Egypt.
The ships that had dropped off Napoleon and his army had sailed back to France, but a fleet of ships of the line that had come with them stayed and supported the army along the coast. The British fleet had been searching for the French fleet for weeks in vain. It had not found it in time to prevent the landings in Egypt, but on August 1 it discovered the French battleships anchored in a strong defensive position in the Bay of Aboukir. The French believed that they were open to attack only on one side, the other side being protected by the shore. However, during the Battle of the Nile the arriving British fleet under Horatio Nelson managed to slip half of their ships in between the land and the French line, thus attacking from both sides. In a few hours 11 out of the 13 French ships of the line and 2 out of the 4 French frigates were captured or destroyed, with the four remaining ships put to flight. This frustrated Bonaparte's goal of strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean Sea, and instead put it totally under British control.
Louis Desaix marched across the desert with his division and two cannon, arriving at Demenhour, fifteen miles (24 km) from Alexandria, on 18 Messidor (July 6). Meanwhile Bonaparte left Alexandria, leaving the city under Kléber's command. General Dugua marched on Rosetta, with orders to seize and hold the entrance to the port housing the French fleet, which had to follow the route to Cairo down the river's left bank and rejoin the army at Rahmanié. On 20 messidor (July 8), Bonaparte arrived at Demenhour, where he found the forces that had met up, and on 22 messidor they marched on Rahmanié, where they then awaited the fleet with their provisions. The fleet arrived on 24 messidor (July 12) and the army began to march again at night, followed by the fleet.
The winds' violence suddenly forced the fleet to the army's left and straight into the enemy fleet, which was supported by musket fire from 4000 Mamlukes, reinforced by peasants and Arabs. The French fleet had numerical superiority but still lost its gunboats to the enemy. Attracted by the sound of gunfire, Bonaparte ordered his land force to the charge and attacked the village of Chebreiss, which was captured after two hours' fierce fighting. The enemy fled in disorder towards Cairo, leaving 600 dead on the battlefield.
After a day's rest at Chebreiss, the French land force continued the pursuit. On 2 Thermidor (20 July), it arrived half a mile from the village of Embabé. The heat was unbearable and the army was exhausted and needed a rest, but there was not enough time and so Bonaparte drew up his 25,000 troops for battle approximately nine miles (15 km) from the Pyramids of Giza. He is said to have shown his army the pyramids behind the enemy's left flank and at the moment of ordering the attack shouted "Soldiers, see the tops of the Pyramids" - in accounts written long afterwards, this phrase was altered into "Soldiers, remember that from the top of these pyramids, 40 centuries of history contemplate you", though historians later discovered that the pyramids were not visible from the battlefield. This was the start of the so-called Battle of the Pyramids, a French victory over an enemy force of about 21,000 Mamlukes (around 40,000 Mamluke soldiers stayed away from the battle). He defeated the Mamluke cavalry using a larger version of the common infantry square, with cannons and supplies safely on the inside. In all 300 French and approximately 6,000 Egyptians were killed. The battle gave rise to dozens of stories and drawings.
Dupuy's brigade continued to pursue the routed enemy and at night entered Cairo, which had been abandoned by the beys Mourad and Ibrahim. On 4 Thermidor (July 22), the notables of Cairo came to Giza to meet Bonaparte and offered to hand over the city to him. Three days later, he moved his main headquarters there. Desaix received orders to follow Mourad, who had set off for Upper Egypt. An observation corps was put in place at Elkanka to keep an eye on the movements of Ibrahim, who was heading towards Syria. Bonaparte personally led the pursuit of Ibrahim, beat him at Salahie and pushed him completely out of Egypt.
The ships that had dropped off Napoleon and his army had sailed back to France, but a fleet of ships of the line that had come with them stayed and supported the army along the coast. The British fleet had been searching for the French fleet for weeks in vain. It had not found it in time to prevent the landings in Egypt, but on August 1 it discovered the French battleships anchored in a strong defensive position in the Bay of Aboukir. The French believed that they were open to attack only on one side, the other side being protected by the shore. However, during the Battle of the Nile the arriving British fleet under Horatio Nelson managed to slip half of their ships in between the land and the French line, thus attacking from both sides. In a few hours 11 out of the 13 French ships of the line and 2 out of the 4 French frigates were captured or destroyed, with the four remaining ships put to flight. This frustrated Bonaparte's goal of strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean Sea, and instead put it totally under British control.
After the naval defeat at Aboukir, Bonaparte's campaign remained land-bound. However, his army still succeeded in consolidating power in Egypt, although it faced repeated nationalist uprisings, and Napoleon began to behave as absolute ruler of all Egypt. He set up a pavilion and from within it presided over a 'fête du Nil' - it was he who gave the signal to throw into the floats the statue of the river's fiancée, his name and Mohammed's were mingled in the same acclamations, on his orders gifts were distributed to the people, and he gave kaftans to his main officers. In a largely unsuccessful effort to gain the support of the Egyptian population, Bonaparte issued proclamations that cast him as a liberator of the people from Ottoman and Mamluke oppression, praising the precepts of Islam and claiming friendship between France and the Ottoman Empire despite French intervention in the breakaway state. This position as a liberator and Ottoman ally initially gained him solid support in Egypt and later led to admiration for Napoleon from Muhammad Ali of Egypt, who succeeded where Bonaparte had not in reforming Egypt and declaring its independence from the Ottomans. In a letter to a sheikh in August 1798, Napoleon wrote, "I hope...I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Qur'an which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness." However, Bonaparte's secretary Bourienne wrote that his employer had no serious interest in Islam or any other religion beyond their political value.
Even so, thanks to the taxes he imposed on them to support his army, the Egyptians remained unconvinced of the sincerity of all of Bonaparte's attempts at conciliation and continued to attack him ceaselessly. Any means, even sudden attacks and assassination, were allowed to force the "infidels" out of Egypt. Military executions were unable to deter these attacks and they continued, showing that in the end the French were in Egypt but not really its masters. September 22, 1798 was the anniversary of the founding of the First French Republic and Bonaparte organized the most magnificent celebration possible. On his orders, an immense circus was built in the largest square in Cairo, with 105 columns (each with a flag bearing the name of a département) round the edge and a colossal inscribed obelisk at the center. On seven classical altars were inscribed the names of heroes killed in the French Revolutionary Wars, whilst the structure was entered through a triumphal arch, on which was shown the battle of the Pyramids. Here there was some awkwardness — the painting flattered the French but aggrieved the defeated Egyptians they were trying to win over as allies. On the day of the festival, Bonaparte addressed his troops, enumerating their exploits since the 1793 siege of Toulon and telling them:
Under Bonaparte's orders, the scholars drew up a comparative table of Egyptian and French weights and measures, wrote a French-Arabic dictionary and calculated a triple Egyptian, Coptic and European calendar. Two journals were set up in Cairo, one for literature and political economy under the name Décade égyptienne, and the other for politics under the title Courrier égyptien. Its numbers hugely reduced by deaths in action and from disease, the French army could no longer hope for reinforcements from France after the naval disaster at Aboukir, but Bonaparte tried to overcome this problem by levying from among the slaves in Egypt between the ages of 16 and 24 and turning the 3000 sailors who had survived Aboukir into a légion nautique. All the streets in Cairo were closed at night by gates to stop the inhabitants aiding the Arabs in a night attack on the French. Bonaparte removed these fences, since the Egyptians could use them as barricades if they rose against the French — this removal proved to be justified by the events that soon followed.
On October 22, 1798, while Bonaparte was in old Cairo, the city's population was spreading weapons around the streets and fortifying strong points, especially at the Great Mosque. The chef de brigade Dupuy, Cairo's commander, was the first to be killed, then Sulkowski, friend and aide de camp to Bonaparte. Excited by the sheikhs and imams, the Egyptians swore by the Prophet to exterminate all Frenchmen and any Frenchman they met — at home or in the streets — was mercilessly killed. Crowds rallied at the city gates to keep out Bonaparte, who was repulsed and forced to take a detour to get in via the Boulaq gate.
The French army's situation was critical — the British were menacing coastal towns, Murad Bey was still in the field in Upper Egypt, and generals Menou and Dugua were only just able to hold down Lower Egypt. The Arabs and the Egyptian peasants had common cause with those rising against the French in Cairo — the whole desert was in arms. A manifesto of the Great Lord was published widely throughout Egypt, stating:
Bonaparte did not feel threatened by the storm building on all sides. Via his orders the Arabs were beaten back into the desert and the artillery was turned back on the rebel city. Bonaparte personally hunted down the rebels from street to street and forced them to concentrate in the Great Mosque. Luckily for the French the sky was covered with clouds and thunder was rumbling, a very rare phenomenon in Egypt. Many of the superstitious residents considered the thunder as a sign from heaven and they begged for mercy from their enemies. Bonaparte replied "He [i.e., God] is too late — you've begun, now I will finish!" He then immediately ordered his cannon to open fire on the Mosque. The French broke down the gates and stormed into the building, massacring the Egyptians inside.
Back in absolute control of Cairo, Bonaparte sought out the authors and instigators of the revolt. Several sheikhs and many Turks or Egyptians were convicted of participation in the plot and executed. To complete his punishment, the city was hit by a high tax and its divan was replaced by a military commission. To negate the effects of the Great Lord's firman, the French posted a proclamation in all the cities of Egypt, ending in the words:
The most religious of the prophets said "The revolt has fallen asleep — cursed be he who wakes it up!" While Bonaparte remained in Egypt, there was no further revolt.
With Egypt quiet again and under his control, Bonaparte used this time of rest to visit Suez and see with his own eyes the possibility of a canal (known as the Canal of the Pharaohs) said to have been cut in antiquity between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean by order of the pharaohs. Before setting out on the expedition, he gave Cairo back its self-government as a token of its pardon — a new 'divan' made up of 60 members replaced the military commission.
Then, accompanied by his colleagues from the Institut, Berthollet, Monge, Le Pere, Dutertre, Costaz, Caffarelli, and followed by a 300-man escort, Bonaparte set out for the Red Sea and after three days' marching across the desert he and his caravan arrived at Suez. After giving orders to complete the fortifications at Suez, Bonaparte crossed the Red Sea and on December 28, 1798 moved into Arabia to look for the celebrated fountains of Moses 17 kilometers from Suez. On his return, surprised by the rising tide, he ran the risk of drowning. Arriving back at Suez, after much exploration the expedition fulfilled its aim, finding the remains of the ancient canal built by Senusret III and Necho II.
In the meantime the Ottomans in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) received news of the French fleet's destruction at Aboukir and believed this spelled the end for Bonaparte and his expedition, trapped in Egypt. Sultan Selim III decided to wage war against France, and sent two armies to Egypt. The first army, under the command of Jezzar Pasha, had set out with 12,000 soldiers; but was reinforced with troops from Damascus, Aleppo, Iraq (10,000 men), and Jerusalem (8,000 men). The second army, under the command of Mustafa Pasha, began on Rhodes with about eight thousand soldiers. Selim also knew he would get about 42,000 soldiers from Albania, Constantinople, Asia Minor, and Greece. The Ottoman planned two offensives against Cairo. From Syria, across the desert of Salhayeh-Belbays-El Kankah, and from Rhodes by sea landing in the Aboukir area or the port city of Damietta.
In January 1799, during the canal expedition, the French learned of the hostile Ottoman movements and that Jezzar had seized the desert fort of El-Arich ten miles (16 km) from Syria's frontier with Egypt, which he was in charge of guarding. Certain that war with the Ottoman sultan was imminent and that he would be unable to defend against the Ottoman army, Bonaparte decided that his best defense would be to attack them first in Syria, where a victory would give him more time to prepare against the Ottoman forces on Rhodes.
Napoleon prepared around 13,000 soldiers who were organized in divisions under the command of Generals Reynier (with 2,160 men), Kleber (with 2,336), Bon (2,449), Lannes (2,938), division cavalry under General Murat (900), brigade of infantry and cavalry under Brigade chief Bessieres (400), camel-company (89), artillery under Dommartin (1,387), and engineers and sappers under Caraffeli (3,404). Every infantry and cavalry division had 6 cannons. Napoleon took 16 siege cannons which were placed on ships in Damietta under the command of Captain Standelet. He also ordered contre-amiral Perree to Jaffa with siege artillery pieces. The total artillery sent on the campaign was 80 cannon. Regnier and the vanguard quickly arrived before Arish, captured it, destroyed part of the garrison and forced the rest to take refuge in the castle. At the same time he put Ibrahim's Mamlukes to flight and captured their camp. Bonaparte's French forces left Egypt on February 5, 1799 and, seven days after leaving Cairo, Bonaparte too arrived at Arish and bombarded one of the castle towers. The garrison surrendered two days later and some of the garrison joined the French army. |
After marching 60 miles (97 km) across the desert the army arrived in Gaza, where it rested for two days, and then moved onto Jaffa. This city was surrounded by high walls flanked by towers. Jezzar had entrusted its defense to elite troops, with the artillery manned by 1200 Ottoman gunners. The city was one of the ways into Syria, its port could be used by his fleet and a large part of the expedition's success depended on its fall. This meant Bonaparte had to capture the city before advancing further, and so he laid siege to it from March 3 to 7.
All the outer works were in the besiegers' power and a breach could be produced. When Bonaparte sent a Turk to the city's commander to demand his surrender, the commander beheaded him despite the envoy's neutrality and ordered a sortie. He was repulsed and on the evening of the same day the besiegers' bullets caused one of the towers to crumble. Despite the defenders' desperate resistance, Jaffa fell. Two days and two nights of carnage were enough to assuage the French soldiers' fury - 4000 prisoners were shot or beheaded by an executioner taken on in Egypt. This vengeful execution found apologists, who wrote that Napoleon could neither afford to hold such a large number of prisoners nor let them escape to join Jezzar's ranks.
Before leaving Jaffa, Bonaparte set up a divan for the city along with a large hospital on the site of the Carmelite monastery at Mount Carmel to treat those of his soldiers who had caught the plague. A report from generals Bon and Rampon on the plague's spread worried Bonaparte. To calm his army, it is said he went into the sufferers' rooms, spoke with and consoled the sick and touched them, saying "See, it's nothing", then left the hospital and told those who thought his actions unwise "It was my duty, I'm commander-in-chief". However, some later historians state that Napoleon avoided touching or even meeting plague-sufferers to avoid catching it and that his visits to the sick were invented by later Napoleonic propaganda. For example, long after the campaign, Antoine-Jean Gros produced the propaganda painting Bonaparte visiting the plague-victims of Jaffa in 1804. This showed Napoleon touching a sick man's body, modelling him on an Ancien Régime king-healer touching sufferers from the 'King's Evil' during his coronation rites. This was no coincidence, since 1804 was the year Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor.
From Jaffa the army set off for the coastal town of Acre. En route it captured Haifa and the munitions and provisions stored there, along with the castle at Jaffet, the castle at Nazareth and the town of Tyre. The siege of Acre began on 18 March but the French were unable to take it and it was here that the Syrian campaign came to an abrupt halt. The city was defended by newly created Ottoman infantry elites (Nizam-ı Cedid) under the command of Jezzar Pasha and was right on the coast, enabling it to be reinforced and resupplied by the British and Ottoman fleets.
After sixty days' repeated attacks and two murderous and inconclusive assaults, the city remained uncaptured. Even so, it was still awaiting reinforcements by sea as well as a large army forming up in Asia on the sultan's orders to march against the French. To find out the latter's movements, Jezzar ordered a general sortie against Bonaparte's camp. This sortie was supported by its own artillery and a naval bombardment from the British. With his usual impetuosity, Bonaparte pushed Jezzar's columns back against their own walls and then went to help Kléber, who was retrenched in the ruins with 2000 Frenchmen and under his command. Bonaparte conceived a trick which used all the advantages offered him by the enemy position, sending Murat and his cavalry across the River Jordan to defend the river crossing and Vial and Rampon to march on Nablus, while Bonaparte himself put his troops between the Ottomans and the magazines. These manoeuvres were successful, in what was known as the battle of Mount Tabor. The enemy army, taken by surprise at many points at once, was routed and forced to retreat, leaving their camels, tents, provisions and 5000 dead on the battlefield.
Returning to besiege Acre, Bonaparte learned that contre-amiral Perrée had landed seven siege artillery pieces at Jaffa. Bonaparte then ordered two assaults, both vigorously repulsed. A fleet was sighted flying the Ottoman flag and Bonaparte realized he must capture the city before that fleet arrived there with reinforcements. A fifth general attack was ordered, which took the outer works, planted the French tricolor on the rampart, pushed the Ottomans back into the city and forced the Ottoman fire to relent. Acre was thus taken or about to capitulate.
However, one of those fighting on the Ottoman side was the French émigré and engineer officer Phélippeaux, one of Bonaparte's classmates at the École militaire. Phélippeaux ordered cannon to be placed in the most advantageous positions and new trenches dug as if by magic behind the ruins which Bonaparte's forces had captured. At the same time Sidney Smith, commander of the British fleet, and his ships' crews landed. These factors renewed the courage of the besieged and they pushed Bonaparte's force back, with stubborn fury on both sides. Three final consecutive assaults were all repulsed, convincing Bonaparte that it would be unwise to continue trying to capture Acre. He raised the siege in May.
The French force's situation was now critical — the enemy could harass its rear as it retreated, it was tired and hungry in the desert, it was carrying a large number of plague-sufferers. To carry these sufferers in the middle of the army would spread the disease, so they had to be carried in the rear, where they were most at risk from the fury of the Ottomans, keen to avenge the massacres at Jaffa. There were two hospital depots, one in the large hospital on Mount Carmel and the other at Jaffa. On Bonaparte's orders, all those at Mount Carmel were evacuated to Jaffa and Tentura. The gun horses were abandoned before Acre and Bonaparte and all his officers handed their horses over to the transport officer Daure, with Bonaparte walking to set an example.
To conceal its withdrawal from the siege, the army set off at night. Arriving at Jaffa, Bonaparte ordered three evacuations of the plague sufferers to three different points — one by sea to Damietta, one by land to Gaza and one by land to Arish. During the retreat the army picked clean all the lands through which they passed, with livestock, crops and houses all destroyed by sword and fire and Gaza the only place to be spared, in return for remaining loyal to Bonaparte. To speed the retreat, Bonaparte also took the controversial step of killing prisoners and plague-stricken men along the way. His supporters argued that this was necessary given continuing harassment of stragglers by Ottoman forces.
Finally, after 4 months away from Egypt, the expedition arrived back at Cairo with 1800 wounded, after losing 600 men to the plague and 1200 to enemy action. In the meantime Ottoman and British emissaries had brought news of Bonaparte's setback at Acre to Egypt, stating that his expeditionary force was largely destroyed and Bonaparte himself was dead. On his return Bonaparte scotched these rumors by re-entering Egypt as if he was at the head of a triumphal army, with his soldiers carrying palm branches, emblems of victory. In his proclamation to the inhabitants of Cairo, Bonaparte told them:
| He is back in Cairo, the Bien-Gardé, the head of the French army, general Bonaparte, who loves Mahomet's religion; he is back sound and well, thanking God for the favors he has given him. He has entered Cairo by the gate of Victory. This day is a great day; no one has ever seen its like; all the inhabitants of Cairo have come out to meet him. They have seen and recognised that it is the same commander in chief, Bonaparte, in his own person; but those of Jaffa, having refused to surrender, he handed them all over to pillage and death in his anger. He has destroyed all its ramparts and killed all those found there. There were around 5000 of Jezzar's troops in Jaffa — he destroyed them all. |
At Cairo the army found the rest and supplies it needed to recover, but its stay there could not be a long one. Bonaparte had been informed that Murad Bay had evaded the pursuit by generals Desaix, Belliard, Donzelot and Davoust and was descending on Upper Egypt. Bonaparte thus marched to attack him at Giza, also learning that 100 Ottoman ships were off Aboukir, threatening Alexandria.
Without losing time or returning to Cairo, Bonaparte ordered his generals to make all speed to meet the army commanded by the pasha of Rumelia, Said-Mustapha, which had joined up with the forces under Murad Bey and Ibrahim. Before leaving Giza, where he found them, Bonaparte wrote to Cairo's divan, stating:
| 80 ships have dared to attack Alexandria but, beaten back by the artillery in that place, they have gone to anchor in Aboukir Bay, where they began disembarking [troops]. I leave them to do this, since my intention is to attack them, to kill all those who do not wish to surrender, and to leave others alive to be led in triumph to Cairo. This will be a handsome spectacle for the city. |
First Bonaparte advanced to Alexandria, from which he marched to Aboukir, whose fort was now strongly garrisoned by the Ottomans. Bonaparte deployed his army so that Mustapha would have to win or die with all his family. Mustapha's army was 18,000 strong and supported by several cannon, with trenches defending it on the landward side and free communication with the Ottoman fleet on the seaward side. Bonaparte ordered an attack on July 25 and the Battle of Abukir ensued. In a few hours the trenches were taken, 10,000 Ottomans drowned in the ocean and the rest captured or killed. Most of the credit for the French victory that day goes to Murat, who captured Mustapha himself. Mustapha's son was in command of the fort and he and all his officers survived but were captured and sent back to Cairo as part of the French triumphal procession. Seeing Bonaparte return with these high-ranking prisoners, the population of Cairo superstitiously welcomed him as a prophet-warrior who had predicted his own triumph with such remarkable precision.
The land battle at Abukir was Bonaparte's last action in Egypt, partly restoring his reputation after the French naval defeat at the same place a year earlier. However, with the Egyptian campaign stagnating and political instability developing back home, a new phase in Bonaparte's career was beginning — he felt that he had nothing left to do in Egypt which was worthy of his ambition and that (as had been shown by the defeat at Acre) the forces he had left to him there were not sufficient for an expedition of any importance outside of Egypt. He also foresaw that the army was getting yet weaker from losses in battle and to disease and would soon have to surrender and be taken prisoner by its enemies, which would destroy all the prestige he had won by his many victories. Bonaparte thus spontaneously decided to return to France. During the prisoner exchange at Aboukir and notably via the Gazette de Francfort Sidney Smith had sent him, he was in communication with the British fleet, from which he had learned of events in France. As Bonaparte saw (and later mythologized) it, France was thrown back into retreat, its enemies had recaptured France's conquests, France was unhappy at its dictatorial government and was nostalgic for the glorious peace it had signed in the Treaty of Campo Formio. As Bonaparte saw it, this meant France needed him and would welcome him back.
He only shared the secret of his return with a small number of friends whose discretion and loyalty were well-known. He left Cairo in August 1799 on the pretext of a voyage in the Nile Delta without arousing suspicion, accompanied by the scholars Monge and Berthollet, the painter Denon, and generals Berthier, Murat, Lannes and Marmont. On August 23, 1799, a proclamation informed the army that Bonaparte had transferred his powers as commander in chief to general Kléber. This news was taken badly, with the soldiers angry with Bonaparte and the French government for leaving them behind, but this indignation soon ended, since the troops were confident in Kléber, who convinced them that Bonaparte had not left permanently but would soon be back with reinforcements from France. As night fell, the frigate Muiron silently moored by the shore, with three other ships escorting her. Some became worried when a British corvette was sighted at the moment of departure, but Bonaparte cried "Bah! We'll get there, luck has never abandoned us, we shall get there, despite the English."
On their 41-day voyage back they did not meet a single enemy ship to stop them, with some sources suggesting that Bonaparte had purchased the British fleet's neutrality via a tacit agreement, though others hold this unlikely, since many would argue that he also had a pact with Nelson to leave him to board on the Egyptian coast unopposed with the fleet bearing his large army.
On October 1, Napoleon's small flotilla entered port at Ajaccio, where contrary winds kept them until October 8, when they set out for France. When the coast came in sight, ten British ships were sighted. Contre-amiral Ganteaume suggested changing course towards Corsica, but Bonaparte said "No, this maneuvre would lead us to England, and I want to get to France.". This resolute act saved them and on October 8, 1799 (16 vendémiaire year VIII) the frigates anchored off Fréjus. As there were no sick men on board and the plague in Egypt had ended six months before their departure, Bonaparte and his entourage were allowed to land immediately without waiting in quarantine. At 6pm he set off for Paris, accompanied by his chief of staff Berthier. He stopped off at Saint-Raphael, where he built a pyramid commemorating the expedition.
The troops Bonaparte left behind were supposed to be honorably evacuated under the terms of a treaty Kléber had negotiated with Smith in early 1800, but British Admiral Keith reneged on this treaty, sending an amphibious assault force of 30,000 Mamlukes against Kléber.
Kléber defeated the Mamlukes at the battle of Heliopolis in March 1800, and then suppressed an insurrection in Cairo. However, on June 14 (26 prairial) 1800 a Syrian student called Suleiman al-Halabi assassinated Kléber with a dagger in the heart, chest, left forearm and right thigh. Command of the French army passed to Menou, who held command from 3 July 3, 1800 until August 1801. Menou's letter was published in Le Moniteur on September 6, with the conclusions of the committee charged with judging those responsible for the assassination:
| The committee, after carrying through the trial with all due solemnity and process, thought it necessary to follow Egyptian customs in its application of punishment; it condemned the assassin to be impaled after having his right hand burned; and three of the guilty sheikhs to be beheaded and their bodies burned. |
Under continual harassment from the new Anglo-Ottoman land offensive, defeated by the British in the Battle of Alexandria on March 21 and then besieged in Alexandria from 17 August 17 - September 2, 1801, Menou eventually capitulated to the British. Under the terms of his capitulation, the British general Ralph Abercromby allowed the French army to be repatriated in British ships. Menou also signed over to Britain the priceless hoard of Egyptian antiquities such as the Rosetta Stone which it had collected. After initial talks in Al Arish on January 30, 1800, the Treaty of Paris on June 25, 1802, ended all hostilities between France and the Ottoman Empire, resecuring Egypt for the Ottomans.
An unusual aspect of the Egyptian expedition was the inclusion of an enormous contingent of scientists and scholars ("savants") assigned to the invading French force, 167 in total. This deployment of intellectual resources is considered as an indication of Napoleon's devotion to the principles of the Enlightenment, and by others as a masterstroke of propaganda obfuscating the true imperialist motives of the invasion.
These scholars included engineers and artists, members of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts, the geologist Dolomieu, Henri-Joseph Redouté, the mathematician Gaspard Monge (a founding member of the École polytechnique), the chemist Claude Louis Berthollet, Vivant Denon, the mathematician Jean-Joseph Fourier (who did some of the empirical work upon which his "analytical theory of heat" was founded in Egypt), the physicist Étienne Malus, the naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the botanist Alire Raffeneau-Delile, and the engineer Nicolas-Jacques Conté of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. Their original aim was to help the army, notably by opening a Suez Canal, mapping out roads and building mills to supply food. They founded the Institut d'Égypte with the aim of propagating Enlightenment values in Egypt through interdisciplinary work, improving its agricultural and architectural techniques for example. A scientific review was created under the title Décade égyptienne and in the course of the expedition the scholars also observed and drew the flora and fauna in Egypt and became interested in the country's resources.
The Egyptian Institute that Napoleon established saw the construction of laboratories, libraries, and a printing press. The group worked prodigiously, and some of their discoveries were not finally cataloged until the 1820s.
A young engineering officer, Pierre-François-Xavier Bouchard, discovered the Rosetta Stone in July 1799. However, many of the antiquities collected by the French in Egypt were seized by the British Navy and ended up in the British Museum – only about 50 of the 5000 Egyptian objects in the Louvre were collected during the 1799–1801 Egyptian expedition. Even so, the scholars' research in Egypt gave rise to the Description de l'Égypte, published on Napoleon's orders between 1809 and 1821.
Napoleon's discoveries in Egypt gave rise to fascination with Ancient Egyptian culture and the birth of Egyptology in Europe.
In addition to its significance in the wider French Revolutionary Wars, the campaign had a powerful impact on the Ottoman Empire in general and the Arab world in particular. The invasion demonstrated the military, technological, and organizational superiority of the Western European powers to the Middle East, leading to profound social changes in the region. The invasion introduced Western inventions, such as the printing press, and ideas, such as liberalism and incipient nationalism, to the Middle East, eventually leading to the establishment of Egyptian independence and modernization under Muhammad Ali Pasha in the first half of the 19th century and eventually the Nahda, or Arab Renaissance. To modernist historians, the French arrival marks the start of the modern Middle East.
The campaign ended in what some back home in France believed was a failure, with 15,000 French troops killed in action and 15,000 by disease. However, Napoleon's reputation as a brilliant military commander remained intact and even rose higher, despite some of his failures during the campaign. This was due to his expert propaganda, such as his Courrier d’Égypte, set up to propagandize the expeditionary force itself and support its morale. That propaganda even spread back to France, where news of defeats such as at sea in Aboukir Bay and on land in Syria were suppressed. Defeats could be blamed on the now-assassinated Kléber, leaving Napoleon free from blame and with a burnished reputation. This opened his way to power and he profited from his reputation by engineering his becoming First Consul in the coup d'État of 18 brumaire (November 1799).
- 1798
- 19 May (30 Floréal year VI) : Departure from Toulon
- 11 June (23 Prairial year VI) : Capture of Malta
- 1 July (13 Messidor year VI) : Landing at Alexandria
- 21 July (3 Thermidor year VI) : Battle of the Pyramids, French land victory
- 1 and 2 August (14-15 Thermidor year VI) : Battle of the Nile, British naval victory over French squadron anchored in Aboukir Bay
- 10 August : Battle at Salheyeh, French victory
- 7 October : Battle of Sédiman, French victory
- 21 October (30 Vendémiaire) : Cairo Revolt
- 1799
- 7 March : Siege of Jaffa, French victory
- 20 May (1 Prairial an VII) : Siege of Acre, French troops retire after eight assaults
- 8 April : Battle at Nazareth, French victory, Junot with 500 defeats 3000 Turks
- 16 April (27 Germinal year VII) : Bonaparte relieves the troops under Kléber just as the latter are about to be overwhelmed at the foot of Mount Tabor
- 1 August (14 Thermidor year VII) : Battle of Aboukir, French victory
- 23 August (6 Fructidor year VII) : Bonaparte embarks on the frigate Muiron and abandons command to Kléber
- 1800
- 24 January (4 Pluviôse year VIII) : Kléber concludes the convention of El-Arich with the British admiral Sidney Smith
- February (Pluviôse-Ventôse year VIII) : French troops begin their withdrawal, but the British admiral Keith refuses to recognize the convention's terms.
- 20 March (29 Ventôse year VIII) : Battle of Heliopolis, Kléber wins one last victory, against a force of 30,000 Ottomans
- 14 June (25 Prairial year VIII) : A fanatic named Suleiman al-Halabi assassinates Kléber in his garden in Cairo. General Menou, a convert to Islam, takes over command
- 3 September (16 Fructidor year VIII) : The British recapture Malta from the French
- 1801
- 8 March (17 Ventôse year IX) : British landing near Aboukir
- 21 March (30 Ventôse year IX) : Battle of Alexandria, French defeat, army under Menou digs in at Alexandria ready for the siege of Alexandria
- 31 March (10 Germinal year IX) : Ottoman army arrives at El-Arich
- 19 April (29 Germinal year IX): British and Ottoman forces capture Fort Julien at Rosetta after a four-day bombardment, opening the Nile.
- 27 June (8 Messidor year IX) : General Belliard surrenders in Cairo
- 31 August (13 Fructidor year IX) : Siege of Alexandria ends in Menou's surrender
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