Napoleon's Campaign In Egypt

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who significantly influenced European history. Born in Corisca on August 15th 1769, Napoleon first rose to prominence as a general in the French Revolution (Hutt, 4). With his “strength of will, character, application, and daring” (Napoleon) characteristics, Captain Bonaparte made a name for himself. Staging a coup d’etat in late 1799, Napoleon managed to install himself as First Consul and within three years, as Consul for life (Hutt, 3-4). Ultimately, Napoleon’s military background and cunning character led him to become a self-crowned emperor of France beginning in 1804(Dziewanowski, 90). Under Napoleon’s new military dictatorship, many of the French Revolution’s reforms were preserved and even strengthened, but at the cost of political freedom (Perry et. Al, 117). Napoleon continued to demonstrate his excellent military tactics through his army, conquering many countries and a series of principalities and duchies. It was not until 1813, when NapolÐ"©on pursued the Russians far into their land, did he suffer his greatest defeat. With the loss of his rule, NapolÐ"©on was exiled and he would die on May 5th, 1821 (Peyre, 29). But before becoming emperor or even First Consul, Napoleon was foremost an excellent general. One of his most memorable campaigns took place in 1798 when Napoleon proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt.

The campaign in Egypt marked a new stage in NapolÐ"©on’s career and represented the conflict that existed between France and Great Britain. Napoleon set out hoping to strengthen his own country by weakening Britain’s economic market through his Egyptian expedition. NapolÐ"©on brought with him to Egypt the finest of scholars, writers, designers, and painters (Rosensweig, 1). His expeditionary force was just under 40,000 members, many who ended up suffering from heat, disease and exhaustion due to the difficult march down the Nile towards Cairo (Rosensweig, 1). However, of the scholars and civilians amongst Napoleon’s expeditionary force many managed to greatly influence modern understanding of Egyptian culture and language, marking a great historical achievement. Enough information and knowledge was collected during Napoleon’s campaign by his collection of scholars and artists to complete generations of encyclopedias (Rosensweig, 1).

With his troops at hand, Napoleon set out for Egypt hoping to undermine Britain’s access to India while gaining more land and extensive knowledge. On his way to Egypt, Napoleon conquered Malta and left approximately 3000 of his crewman there (Hutt, 27). After departing from Malta, Napoleon arrived on the coast of Alexandria on July 1st and encountered his first battle on Egyptian soil against the Mamelukes, fearsome warriors that ruled Egypt in the name of the Turkish sultan (Hutt, 28). Within a day, Napoleon’s forces managed to conquer the opposing army with its outstanding military tactics. Napoleon organized his infantry within small hollow square formations that faced four directions, allowing his army to repel attacks coming from either side (Dziewanowski, 91). This tactic and Napoleon’s military leadership helped the French army to defeat this much larger army. However, the celebration of victory was not long lasted as the British Royal Navy captured all but two of Napoleon’s ships at the Battle of the Nile after Napoleon had left his fleet to travel on foot for Cairo (Rosensweig, 1). The transport ships that had landed Napoleon and his troops in Alexandria sailed away and left them as prisoners of their own conquest (Rosenweig, 1).

After suffering great losses, Napoleon directed his attention to his campaign in Egypt since he could no longer secure the French position in the Mediterranean Sea. Napoleon decided to cast away his losses by consolidating his power in Egypt. In Egypt, Napoleon faced a countless number of revolts and uprisings despite his open policy of religious tolerance in Cairo (Dziewanowski, 92). While Napoleon worked to repress these revolts, England began forming alliances with Russia, Austria, Italia, and the Ottoman Empire in order to crush Napoleon in Egypt (Hutt, 30). Knowing that he would soon be faced with attacks, Napoleon took action and marched his troops toward the Ottoman Province and managed to secure a series of victories. But by 1799, Napoleon’s soldiers were tremendously weakened by disease and poor supplies. So in the August of 1799, after an especially devastating battle in Jaffa and defeating one last invasion at Abukir, Napoleon left Egypt for France and put his army under the control of General KlÐ"©bir (Rosensweig, 1). Weakened without supplies or food, the remaining troops in Egypt would slowly die off and Egypt would fall under English power in 1801 (Rosensweig, 1). This would conclude Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt and give way to his military dictatorship over France.

Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt was an overall failure. One of the main reasons for the expedition was to keep British influence from the advantageous sea route of the Mediterranean. This decisive reason for initiating the campaign was quickly thwarted by the British Royal Navy and not only was the opportunity lost but many casualties became consequence. Moreover,