What did Napoleon look for in Egypt? To answer this question, you need to know what the situation was like in the newly emerged French Republic at the end of the 18th century. She managed to defend her independence and go on the offensive. The main enemy of the French were the British, who were hard to get on their island.
Therefore, it was decided to approach them by disrupting their trade and the security of the colonies. In addition, it was necessary to expand the French colonial possessions, which for the most part were lost. Bonaparte also sought to strengthen his influence, while the Directory wanted to send away a too popular general. Therefore, Napoleon's campaign in Egypt was organized. We will briefly talk about it in our article.
Preparing the event
The preparation and organization of the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon in 1798-1799 were carried out inconditions of the strictest secrecy. No information should have reached the enemy about the purpose for which the French were assembling a fleet at such points as Toulon, Genoa, Civita Vecchia, and where it would go.
The history of the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte brought us the following figures:
- The total number of French troops was approximately 50 thousand people.
- The army included: infantry - 30 thousand, cavalry - 2.7 thousand, artillerymen - 1.6 thousand, guides - 500.
- About 500 sailing ships were concentrated in the ports.
- The flagship Orient had 120 guns.
- 1200 horses were taken, taking into account the replenishment of their number on the spot.
Besides this, the army included a group of scientists - mathematicians, geographers, historians and writers.
Departure
The story of Napoleon in Egypt began with his departure from Toulon in May 1798. Naturally, the British side learned this, but they did not know exactly where such a significant fleet of France rushed.
After two months after the squadron entered the Mediterranean, the French made an amphibious landing in Ireland, which was a red herring. At the same time, rumors were spread that the expedition led by Bonaparte would soon turn through the Strait of Gibr altar to the west.
Chase
Horatio Nelson, Vice Admiral Commander of the British Navy, entered the Strait of Gibr altar at the very beginning of May. He intended to control all movementsFrench. However, the storm that broke out badly damaged the English ships, and when their repair came to an end, the French were already gone.
Nelson had to organize a chase. By the end of May, word had reached him that M alta had been taken by the French the week before and they had moved further east.
Nelson hastened to Egypt. Due to the fact that the British ships were faster than the French, the first arrived there earlier. The English vice-admiral thought that the direction he had chosen was wrong, and set off from Alexandria towards Turkey. Thus, he missed Napoleon by just one day.
Aboukir landing
The first point of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt was the city of Aboukir. It is located a few kilometers east of Alexandria, here on July 1 the French army began its landing. Hungry and tired soldiers moved to Alexandria. By nightfall the next day, the city was taken, after which the French proceeded south along the Nile, in the direction of Cairo.
At that time, the population of Egypt had the following composition:
- Dependent peasants - fellahs.
- Bedouin nomads.
- Mameluke warriors dominate.
Politically, Egypt was dependent on Turkey, but the Sultan did not practice interference in the internal affairs of this territory. But the French invasion was the impetus for him to organize an anti-French coalition.
Appeal to the fellahs
Organizing Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, the French believed thatwill be able to secure the support of the peasant population by promising them equality and freedom. Bonaparte addressed the fellahs with an appeal containing flowery phrases about human rights, equality and fraternity. But these half-starved and illiterate people remained completely indifferent. Their main concern was to feed their families.
This situation became decisive in the further course of Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign. When it was conceived by the French, it seemed to them that the peoples of the East would rise up to meet the army, bringing liberation from British coercion, and would act according to a given scenario. However, in a different civilization, with different values, they had to plunge into a social vacuum.
Mamluks
The main component of Egyptian society - the Mamluks - boldly opposed the intruders. Being skilled warriors and dashing riders, they boasted that they would cut them into pieces like pumpkins.
Not far from Cairo, in the Valley of the Pyramids, on July 21, a meeting of two armies took place. The Mameluke army, consisting of several thousand well-armed soldiers, was led by Murad Bey. They had carbines, pistols, sabers, knives and axes at their disposal. Behind them were quickly erected fortifications with fellahin infantry hiding behind them.
Battle for the pyramids
At that moment, Napoleon's army was a well-coordinated military machine, in which each soldier was a single whole with it. However, the Mamelukes were confident in their superiority and did not expect that the opposing side could withstandtheir rapid onslaught.
Before the battle, Bonaparte addressed his soldiers with a fiery speech, saying that forty centuries of history are looking at them from the tops of the pyramids.
In response to the French attack, the Mamluks moved to close bayonets in scattered groups. Making their way forward, the French flanked the Mamelukes and defeated them, and part of them pushed back to the banks of the Nile. Many of the Mamluks drowned in its waters.
Losses on both sides were unequal. About 50 Frenchmen and about 2,000 Mamluks were killed in the battle. Napoleon won a complete victory. The battle for the pyramids in the Egyptian campaign of Bonaparte was an example of the superiority of the regular army of the late 18th century over, in fact, the medieval army.
The next day the French were already in Cairo. Having settled there, they were amazed by the abundance of jewelry and unsanitary conditions. Bonaparte began to organize the management of Egypt in a European way. He still hoped to find support in the local environment.
French defeat
Meanwhile, on August 1, the fleet of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, not finding an opponent off the Turkish coast, sailed to the mouth of the Nile. In the Gulf of Aboukir they spotted French ships. There were far fewer of them than the English, and their leader made an extraordinary decision. He wedged some of his ships between the French on one side and the shore on the other. The recent Mameluke conquerors found themselves caught between two fires.
But the British also fired from the shore, and their artillery fire was stronger. French flagship "Orient" wasblown up by flying into the air. On August 2, the French fleet ceased to exist, its overwhelming part was either captured or destroyed. Two ships, due to the hopelessness of the situation, were flooded by their own. Only four ships were saved from enemy fire.
The defeat at Aboukir nullified all of Bonaparte's previous successes on land. He learned about this military catastrophe only two weeks later. As it turned out, his organizational talent did not help in this country, where speed and efficiency were not at the forefront. Napoleon realized that due to the loss of communication with France, he was doomed to death.
Skirmishes with the Mamluks
Vice Admiral Nelson, after repairing his ships, left Egypt for Naples. He left his rival without means of transportation along the sea route.
Part of the French troops moved to the upper reaches of the Nile River, while pursuing the remnants of the Mamluks led by Murad Bey. The group of persecutors included scientists who decided not to miss the opportunity and study the secrets of the East.
The extent to which scientists were valued, as well as horse-drawn transport - donkeys, shows the following fact. At that moment, when the Mameluke detachments undertook another attack, a team of scientists and donkeys followed in the middle. Then the soldiers surrounded them to protect them, and only after that did they fight. Although it was the French who most often won the skirmishes, this could not change their hopeless situation.
Desperate move
Looking for a way out of the mousetrap, Bonaparte in February 1799 decided to go to Syria through the desert. The French moved inland, engaging in battles with an elusive enemy along the way and capturing fortresses. In early March, Jaffa was conquered, which until then had stubbornly resisted.
Half of her garrison was killed during the assault, and the other half was captured or destroyed after it. Such cruelty was explained by the fact that among the prisoners there were people who had previously been released by the French during the capture of another fortress.
Then followed the siege of Acre, which lasted two months and ended in nothing. At the head of its defense were English officers and representatives of the French royalists. Meanwhile, losses among the command and rank and file of the French were increasing. One of the terrible episodes of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt was the plague epidemic.
Exhausted by this misfortune, as well as fighting, heat, lack of water, the French army was forced to return to Egypt. The Turks, who landed near Abukir, were already waiting for them there. At the end of July 1799, another battle took place there, on land. Then Napoleon Bonaparte still managed to improve his reputation as a commander. However, by and large, this victory did not give him anything, since the army of the Turks was already moving from Syria.
To the mercy of fate
Plans to create a European-style state were abandoned. Now Napoleon's campaign in Egypt interested him more in how he could raise his popularity in France. That is, he was interested in the situation at home. When Bonapartedeparted for the East, the position of the Directory was very unstable and not completely defined. Judging by the echoes of events that reached him from Europe, her days were numbered.
Historians do not fully understand the logic of the commander-in-chief, who abandoned the sense of duty and responsibility for the army, which at the end of August 1799 left him to the mercy of fate. Napoleon left Egypt on a surviving ship, leaving General Kléber, his second-in-command, with the order to transfer powers. At the same time, the order was received only when the escaped general was already at sea.
Consequences of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign
After the flight of the commander-in-chief, Kleber continued to fight for several months. In the autumn of 1801, he was killed, and the French army in Egypt surrendered to the mercy of the Anglo-Turkish troops.
According to the logic of things, the career of a general who compromised himself with such an unseemly act should have inevitably ended. Severe punishment was to follow from the side of the government, and no less severe moral condemnation from the side of society.
However, everything happened quite the opposite. The French people greeted the fugitive commander with jubilation, as the conqueror of the East. And the thieving Directory did not express the slightest reproach to him. A month after the landing of the fugitive, a coup d'état was carried out in France, he turned into a dictator, becoming the first consul.
However, the strategic goal of the Egyptian expedition of Napoleon, which was mentioned above, was not achieved. the onlythe achievement of this grandiose adventure was the scholarly work on the culture of Egypt. This led to a surge of interest in this issue. As a result of the campaign in France, a large number of historical monuments were taken out. In 1798, the Institute of Egypt was opened.
In addition, Napoleon's campaign in Egypt was an important milestone in relations between the European and the Arab-Ottoman world in modern times. It was from him that the open colonial confrontation between the countries of Europe in the Middle East and North Africa began.
