What was Napoleon looking for in Egypt?

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

At the end of the 18th century, France was covered by the shadow of a new national idol - Napoleon Bonaparte. A brilliant artillery officer within a short period declared himself as an outstanding commander, capable of solving the biggest tasks, the main of which was the defeat of the worst enemy of Republican France - Britain. But instead of implementing this plan, Napoleon suddenly set out to conquer Egypt for some reason.

What for? Why? The secret of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign is still hidden under the thickness of inventions, falsifications, and even outright deception …

On December 7, 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte returned in triumph from the Italian campaign. This was the first full-fledged military campaign of the twenty-eight-year-old commander. His army brought gigantic booty captured from wealthy Italian cities to France. The Directory pretended to be extremely pleased with the appearance of a military leader of this magnitude, but in fact was frantically looking for an excuse to get him out of sight. For example, to send to the conquest of England - a longtime enemy of France, which in every possible way poisoned her existence. But then Bonaparte himself offered her a plan for a new military campaign - the conquest of Egypt! And the leadership of republican France happily seized on this idea. More precisely, for an adventure: after all, reasoning soberly, starting a war with England by conquering Egypt is like flying to the moon through Mars.

African mirages

Usually, when talking about the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt, several underlying reasons are cited, which, upon closer examination, do not hold water. The first reason: France did not have a normal fleet to resist the ruler of the seas - Britain. Therefore, after returning from Italy, Bonaparte went to the north of France, where he carefully examined all the possibilities for an attack on Britain. As a result, he came to the conclusion: the English fleet would easily defeat the French expedition, so attacking England across the sea is pure delirium!

Of course, one could agree with this if after this followed a proposal to continue the conquests using land routes: for example, to go to Spain, Austria or to the same Russia. But abandoning the plan to attack Britain, Napoleon immediately proposes something similar (in any case, again related to the sea and the use of the fleet), only even more difficult to implement - to put the army on ships and go to conquer Egypt!

Agree that the plan of an attack on Britain through Ireland, where Bonaparte would clearly be supported by the local population, who hated the British, was much more pragmatic. Indeed, if sent to Egypt, one would certainly have to meet the "warm welcome" of Horatio Nelson and his charges, who ruled not only in the English Channel, but also in the Mediterranean Sea. In the end, Napoleon could have demanded money for the construction of new ships, as Peter I did in his time, who, unlike the French, created a fleet - and completely from scratch. Didn't have money? But they were found on the expedition to Egypt.

From this one can draw only one conclusion: the expedition to Egypt promised Napoleon and France something much more than even an attack on England!

Risk or Calculation?

Another "serious" reason explaining Napoleon's Egyptian campaign is that the cunning Corsican wanted to disrupt the colonial trade of England and use Egypt as an outpost for the conquest of India. But this is a pure bluff: Napoleon, of course, was an adventurer, but not to the same degree! For all his dreamy nature, the Corsican was a very sober strategist. A man with excellent mathematical abilities, a brilliant analyst, he could not dream so much, imagining that a 32-thousandth army (120,000th army was allocated to conquer Britain), starting from Egypt, would march without any obstacles in a victorious march through the eastern sands, through the heat, plague and lack of water, and will hoist the tricolor French flag in the coveted Calcutta.

So there is no need to sin on Bonaparte's "adventurism", on his megalomania - they say, a man dreamed of becoming the second Alexander the Great, conquering the East, this Pandora's box full of jewels, silks and spices!

Moreover, knowing how the Egyptian campaign turned into a fiasco (the army and the navy ceased to exist), it is completely incomprehensible how Napoleon managed to turn things around so that this shameful page of his biography is considered one of the illustrations of his victories, the stage of his triumphant ascent?

No, Bonaparte was well aware of the difficulties of what lay ahead, because there is evidence from Stendhal, who pointed out that in 1796 the Directory instructed Bonaparte to consider a plan for an invasion of Egypt. He studied it and returned it to the government with the conclusion: it's impossible!

But two years passed, and the young commander suddenly resolutely changed his position. Why? The answer is obvious: during this time he learned something that blinded even such a sober and pragmatic commander like Napoleon. What mirage made him forget about the difficulties of the sea route, about the lack of weapons, about the heat and the decisive attitude of the Egyptian Mamluks and the Turkish Sultan?

There is no doubt that this secret must have been absolutely wonderful, surpassing in its significance everything that has been known so far!

And judging by the results that Bonaparte eventually achieved, the goal of the campaign, despite its complete failure in military and strategic terms, was fully justified.

Under the rustle of sand

Napoleon prepared for this campaign with great care. He not only selected individual units for him, but looked at each soldier. Having an exceptional memory, Napoleon knew almost all of his soldiers, remembered the merits and demerits of most of them.

On May 19, 1798, 32,000 soldiers embarked on 350 ships and sailed south from Toulon. On the way, Bonaparte conquered Malta, and on June 30, French ships landed on the coast of Egypt.

The commanding staff, attracted by Napoleon, amazed the imagination. The best generals of the republic were here: Berthier, Deze, Kleben, Lannes, Murat, Sulkovsky, Lavalette. But the most interesting thing is that, in addition to the army units, the French were accompanied by a "detachment" of scientists, which consisted of specialists of various profiles. There were mathematicians and geographers, historians and writers, whose names were quite famous in Europe: for example, the famous Berthollet, chemist Conte, writer Arno, mineralogist Dolomieu, physician Degenet.

At noon on July 1, a French army landed at Aboukir, a few miles east of Alexandria. The commander inspected the disembarked part of the troops, after which the soldiers, hungry and not rested, moved towards Alexandria. The defensive structures of the city, dilapidated from old age, could not withstand the assault. By the night of July 2, the city was taken. After that, Bonaparte moved along the course of the Nile to the south, towards Cairo.

The population of the country was made up of fellahs (dependent peasants), Bedouin nomads and Mamluk warriors. Politically, Egypt was dependent on Turkey, but the sultan did not interfere in the internal affairs of this territory. However, the shameless invasion of the French, who did not even bother to officially announce the start of the war, pushed the Sultan to an anti-French coalition.

On July 21, 1798, Bonaparte met with the main forces of the Mamluks.“Soldiers! Forty centuries are looking at you today from the height of these pyramids! - said Napoleon, addressing his army before the start of the battle.

The battle of the pyramids was won, but then a series of setbacks followed - Nelson's fleet destroyed the French fleet, and this could prevent the army from returning home. The Turkish sultan, having learned about the landing of Napoleon, sent troops to Egypt through Syria. Napoleon, learning about this, moved to meet them.

The Syrian campaign was extremely difficult. Terrible heat, lack of water, plague caused much more damage to the army than the attack of enemy soldiers. In early March 1799, after a fierce battle, the French took Jaffa, the brutalized warriors of Bonaparte staged a massacre in the city. The commander himself ordered the execution of a detachment of Albanians who surrendered in exchange for a promise to keep them alive. The French spent two months under the walls of Acre (Akka), and on May 20 they had to end the siege and withdraw.

Despite Napoleon's promise to convert to Islam, the local population took the French with hostility. They attacked lagging soldiers and officers, poisoned water wells, and destroyed food supplies. That is, from the very beginning it was obvious that the official plans of the campaign were practically impracticable. A sober-minded commander, such as Bonaparte, would have immediately realized that he had fallen into a trap, and would have looked for a way out (perhaps he would have tried to negotiate with the Turkish sultan or the Mamluks), but in this situation the Corsican behaved completely incomprehensibly, clearly intending to destroy the army … What was the reason for the apparent "inadequacy" of the commander?

Undeclared targets

In fact, Napoleon was not interested in either the establishment of a French protectorate over Egypt, or the repetition of the exploits of Alexander the Great, or the Egyptian saltpeter necessary for the production of gunpowder, as some historians believe - Bonaparte came to Egypt for "secret knowledge"! This can be called a colossal array of knowledge accumulated over several millennia, created by the great Egyptian civilization. Everything that Egypt was known for - astronomy, astrology, engineering, mechanics, in a word, the keys to the secrets of the universe - all this was kept in the pyramids covered with sand and abandoned temples.

And Napoleon, this brilliant seer, was the first of the greats to understand what advantages will be gained by the one who takes possession of these keys. Figuratively speaking, Bonaparte was the very Jason who led his Argonauts in search of the golden fleece. But it was not a piece of sheep's skin, even with gold rings, but something much more powerful and wonderful. No wonder the outstanding French mathematician Monge, a member of the expedition, jokingly said: "So I turned into an Argonaut!"

The scientific part of the expedition was the core of this trip. It was not for nothing that at the moments of battle the officers immediately gave the command: "Scientists and donkeys - in the middle!" That is, scientists were protected like the apple of an eye, covering them from accidental bullets, from Bedouin spears and sabers: after all, without them the expedition would lose all meaning.

And the scientists did not disappoint: this guard, consisting of 175 people, brilliantly coped with its task! While the main army was fighting in Egypt and then in Syria, a 5,000-strong detachment under the command of the Corsican's favorite - General Deze - marched into Upper Egypt to the island of Elephantine. There were ancient temples that were examined and examined, and all the most valuable were immediately taken out. According to some historians, on the islands of Elephantine and Philae, located in the Nile Delta, all the most valuable, on which the wealth of Ancient Egypt was based, was hidden. However, others believe that Bonaparte's "learned guard" discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun and brought out many secrets buried under the thickness of time.

Plundered Elephantine

Did the Egyptian mummies share their secrets with the warlike Corsican? His incredible biography speaks for itself …

The commander himself did not waste time in vain. There is testimony from the participants in the campaign, according to which Napoleon personally examined the Cheops pyramid and even spent almost three whole days there! When he, pale and sad, was taken out of the stone labyrinths and asked: "What did you see?" And the famous date with the mummy of Ramses II, alone with which the Corsican spent more than two hours!

It is impossible to overestimate what was collected by French scientists in Egypt - this load of knowledge and secrets led not only to the emergence of many new scientific fields (for example, Egyptology, which revolutionized history), but also to a turning point in the life of mankind.

So Napoleon won his battle against the background of the Egyptian pyramids, despite the fact that on August 23, 1799, together with his closest circle, he boarded a ship and departed for his homeland, leaving the army to fend for itself. But the commander, who had ruined the army and the navy, for some reason returned home as a triumphant. He was greeted as a winner and a hero, and after a while a loser who had failed a military campaign made an unprecedented rise to become the first consul of France.

The secret knowledge stolen from the Egyptian civilization - this is what became his true army, leading from victory to victory.