About Napoleon's campaign in Egypt

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Napoleon Bonaparte, who became famous during the siege of Toulon and the campaign in Italy, went to Africa in 1798 to conquer Egypt.

Start of the hike

In the mid-1890s, the young French Republic repelled the intervention and reaffirmed its independence. It's time to take the offensive.

At that time, it had already become clear that the main enemy of post-revolutionary France was Great Britain. Initially, the government of the republic planned to invade England through Ireland, but this plan was not implemented.

Then the French realized that it was quite possible to hit the British economy, disrupting its trade. To do this, it was necessary to beat the colonial possessions of the British.

Guided by this tactic, the young General Bonaparte, popular in the army thanks to the successful hostilities in Italy, undertook to organize an expedition to Egypt. The success of this campaign allowed France to create its colony in Africa, providing a further prospect of moving to Indian territory across the ocean. Napoleon wanted to throw himself a new challenge, and at the same time hit the British.

The representatives of the Directory, fearing the popular military leader, wanted to send Bonaparte "further and further" from France.

Egyptian hike on the map. Source: wikipedia.org

On March 5, 1798, the "little corporal" was appointed commander of the "Egyptian army." The 38,000th expeditionary army was subordinate to the future emperor. The troops concentrated in Toulon, Genoa, Ajaccio and Civitavecchia.

Napoleon, concerned about the success of the campaign in Egypt, personally inspected the ships, selected people for the campaign. Kleber, Dese, Berthier, Murat, Lannes, Bessières, Junot, Marmont, Duroc, Sulkovsky. Lavalette, Burienne - the best representatives of the Republican army of France went to Egypt. Over the years, some of them will participate in the most high-profile battles of the Emperor Napoleon. Bonaparte also insisted on taking on the expedition scientists who would be included in the "Institute of Egypt" in the future.

On May 19, an armada of four hundred transports and warships left the French ports, moving southward. The Orion ship became the flagship of the armada. Europe in those days only talked about the expeditionary plans of France, but what those plans were, no one could say for sure. There were all sorts of rumors, it got to the point that the government of England ordered Admiral Nelson to place the forces of the fleet near Gibraltar. Britain expected the illustrious French general to head towards Gibraltar, but the rumors did not materialize.

On June 9-10, French ships landed on the coast of Malta. Since the 16th century, this island has belonged to the Order of the Knights of Malta. The order was on friendly terms with such powers as Great Britain and the Russian Empire. That is, with the enemies of revolutionary France. At the time of the landing of Napoleonic troops, the island served as a temporary base for the British naval forces.

First, the French troops asked for drinking water. The islanders allowed only one ship to draw water. Bonaparte was infuriated by this audacious response, and the "little corporal", by means of threats, forced the terrified Maltese to surrender without a fight. The locals did not want to fight, so the French flag was raised over the La Valette fortress in those days. This was Napoleon's first victory in this campaign. But the general was not going to celebrate it, and already on June 19, the French fleet went on.

On June 30, the French landed in Africa. First they occupied Marabou, then Alexandria. Napoleon, after defeating the Mamluks in a small clash, occupied Alexandria, protecting his people from attacks by the British fleet. With the help of fiery speech, he lured some of the local population to his side. Napoleon could not stay there for a long time - the British could come at any moment. Therefore, on July 9, he left Alexandria.

French army in Egypt. Source: pikabu.ru

The French had to cross the desert to find themselves in Egypt. Heat and hellish rays of the sun along with hot sand - these are the delights of the African "vacation" of Napoleon's army. Mamluk attacks, dysentery, lack of water - these factors also made life difficult for the French soldier. In order to somehow raise the spirit of his military, Napoleon often dismounted from his horse, giving it to the first soldier he came across. Seeing this behavior of the general, ordinary soldiers continued to march alongside their commander.

Napoleon: "Donkeys and scientists - in the middle!"

On July 13, lined up in a square, the French defeated the cavalry of the hostile Mamluks. Bonaparte's enemies were forced to retreat towards Cairo. This is how the major battles of the Egyptian campaign began.

Soon, French intelligence informed Napoleon that the Mamluks had concentrated an impressive part of the troops near the village of Imbaba, apparently preparing to give battle. Bonaparte announced the preparation of the army for a general engagement.

The Turkish-Egyptian detachments were divided into two wings: the right one was near the Nile, and the left one was near the pyramids. Also in the center, the commanders stationed the Mamluk cavalry.

Antoine-Jean Gros. "Battle of the Pyramids". Source: ru. wikipedia.org

On July 21, before the start of the battle, Napoleon uttered a phrase that became legendary: "Soldiers, forty centuries of history are looking at you!" - in other translations: "These monuments look at you from a height of forty centuries."

This line inspired many to march into battle against the embittered Mamluks. Also, just before the start of the battle at the pyramids, Napoleon said: "Donkeys and scientists - in the middle!" The phrase became winged, and its meaning was the general's desire to keep the scientists taken on the expedition intact and safe, since the forces of the rival (60 thousand) exceeded the troops of France (20 thousand) three times.

Napoleon divided the army into five squares. Intelligence quickly reported on the unpreparedness of the artillery and the lack of communication between the cavalry and the infantry of the Mamluks. Bonaparte considered the defeat of the enemy's cavalry as his primary task.

The artillery of France almost completely destroyed the Mamluk cavalry, and the horsemen who had broken through to the square were stabbed to death with bayonets. The surviving Mamluks were forced to retreat towards the pyramids.

At the same time, the troops of Beaune, Dugua and Rampon repelled the attack of the enemy cavalry from the Imbaba camp. The cavalry retreated to the Nile, in the waters of which many horsemen found their death. Then the French captured the enemy camp.

It was a real triumph for the army in general and Napoleon in particular. The Turkish-Egyptian army lost about 10 thousand soldiers. The losses of Napoleonic troops amounted to 29 soldiers killed, another 260 were wounded. Cairo was taken, on July 24, 1798, Napoleon entered the capital of Egypt. The Mamluks periodically continued to annoy the French, but their forces were small, since most of the troops retreated to Syria.

In Cairo, Napoleon took up politics. He handed over power to the French military commanders of cities and villages. Under these persons, an advisory body ("divan") was established, which included the most authoritative and wealthy Egyptians. Together with the commandants, the "sofa" monitored the observance of order. The police were introduced and tax collection was streamlined. Also, Napoleon was able to achieve religious tolerance and inviolability of private property among the local population.

General Bonaparte in Cairo. Source: i0. wp.com

In August, the British finally made it to Egypt. Thanks to the technical superiority of the fleet, the British, despite their numerical minority, easily coped with the French, defeating their naval forces. Already on August 2, Admiral Nelson celebrated the successful end of the first anti-French operation. The British blew up some of the French ships, and took the other for themselves. The British landed off the coast of Egypt. The defeat didn't just hit the French fleet. It cut off the participants in the campaign from their native land, and also cut off supplies.

The situation became more complicated when the Ottoman Empire declared war on France on September 1. Units of the Turkish army, hostile to Napoleon, were concentrated in Syria. The Turks entered into an alliance with England and were preparing to attack the French-occupied Egypt across the Isthmus of Suez. At the beginning of 1799, the Ottoman vanguard moved towards the El-Arish fort - the key of Egypt from Syria.

Napoleon was informed about the catastrophe that happened to the ships of France only in mid-August. He began to ponder how he could, while in Africa, recreate the fleet. At the same time, the ranks of the French army were getting smaller - by the end of 1798, there were slightly less than 30 thousand soldiers in Egypt, of which one and a half thousand were not capable of fighting. Napoleon took the risk, deciding to arrange a campaign in Syria with four infantry divisions and one cavalry division. The rest of the troops remained in Egypt.

Napoleon at the pyramids. Source: wikipedia.org

The lack of water worn out the French terribly. But this did not stop them from going towards Syria and winning. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the British began to gradually help the Turks, sending their troops as reinforcements to Napoleon's enemies. Bonaparte conquered Palestine, but the further path towards the east was more and more difficult. The local population greeted the French with hostility.

An extremely unpleasant incident occurred in Jaffa. About four thousand soldiers surrendered to the French, all of them had to be shot due to lack of supplies. However, the "spirits of the dead" took revenge on the French - the decomposing corpses infected some of the republican soldiers with deadly diseases. Following the path of Alexander the Great, Napoleon was clearly aware of the disastrous position of his army. But there was no other way, so he continued to storm the fortresses and cities.

For several months the French, who did not have adequate artillery supplies, tried to storm Acre by storm. However, on May 21, 1799, they had to retreat due to the constant reinforcements of the Turks and a lack of shells. By mid-June, the army returned to Cairo, but only a faded shadow remained of it, as the heat and lack of water and food played in the favor of the Ottomans.

Coup 18 Brumaire, or return to France

Napoleon could not stay long in Cairo. There were already hostile Turks not far from Egypt. Also, the British approached Cairo. At the end of June, Napoleon gave battle in northern Egypt. Bonaparte destroyed the Turkish landing - about 13 thousand Ottomans with 200 killed French.

But sooner or later, the exhausted and isolated French army was bound to lose. In addition, terrible news came from France about the loss of the French to the Austrians and the Russians under the leadership of Alexander Suvorov in Italy, which was completely impotent for the Directory. Although the Jacobin terror, which took the lives of about 50 thousand people with the help of the guillotine, was already behind, the government could not solve the economic, social and external problems of the state. Napoleon decided to save the country by taking power into his own hands.

Napoleon during the coup of the 18th Brumaire. Source: ru. wikipedia.org

On 22 August, the Corsican took advantage of the absence of the British fleet and, accompanied by associates, including Berthier, Lannes, Andreosi, Murat, Marmont, Duroc and Bessières, set out from Alexandria for Europe. On October 9, the officers successfully landed in their home country, which needed to be rescued.

Dirt and disorder were everywhere, the worst rumors were confirmed. State structures were mired in corruption, and riots took place in the streets. A month later, on November 9 (or 18 Brumaire in the republican style) in 1799, a coup took place. Napoleon dispersed the Council of Elders and the Council of Five Hundred, becoming the first consul, and later, in 1804, the absolute monarch.

Kleber assumed command of the French troops in Egypt after Bonaparte's departure for Europe. Isolated from France, parts of the remaining army resisted for a couple of years, being in the minority, but at the end of the summer of 1801 they finally went home.

Philip Tkachev