Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign

 

Egypt

Egypt items

Egypt History

Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign

Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign

He shall capture Egypt, will expel, wherever possible, the English from all their possessions in the Orient and most notably destroy all their trading posts on the RedSea

February 23rd: the government, upon the advice of Bonaparte, persuades the Directory to cut the route to the Indies off to the English by declaring war in Egypt.

March 5th 1798: the Direcrtory give General Bonaparte the responsibility of leading the expedition in Egypt. Worried about his growing popularity, they hoped to rid themselves of him by sending far away.

April 1798: the 'Armée d'Orient' is formed and placed under the orders of Bonaparte together with Generals Kléber, Desaix, Murat, Lannes, Davout and Caffarelli. Scientists making up the 'Institut d'Egypte' accompany him too.

May 19th 1798: Bonaparte's army leave Toulon and takes Malta on June 11th. He leaves a small garrison on the island and takes to the sea for Alexandria.

July 1st 1798: the fleet reaches Alexandria. The town is taken in two days and, for the French, the cost was just 40 dead and around 100 injured, including General Kléber. The day after the fall of the town, Bonaparte entrusts its running to Mohammed el-Koraïm. Here again he leaves only a small garrison and heads up to Cairo following the Nile.

July 13th 1798: Bonaparte's army defeats the Mamluk cavaliers at Chebreïs and then again on July 21st at the Battle of the Pyramids.

« Soldiers, from the top of these pyramids, 40 centuries of history are looking down upon us. »

July 24th 1798: Bonaparte enters Cairo victorious.

After the loss of almost his entire fleet at Aboukir, he decides to make Egypt a true autonomous state. In order to do this, Bonaparte sends General Desaix to Upper Egypt in pursuit of Murad Bey and takes total control of the country.

October 21st 1798: the population of Cairo revolts against the French troops, however it fails and there follows a ruthless repression.

February 1799: Bonaparte leaves for Syria to take on the Ottoman troops sent toattack the French in Egypt.

May 17th 1799: Bonaparte returns to Egypt. He defeats the Turks at Aboukir on July 25th.

He arrives back in France on August 23rd 1799 on board the frigate 'La Muiron' after having left the commanding of the army in Egypt to General Kléber.

March 20th 1800: Kléber defeats the Turks at the Battle of Heliopolis. He is assassinated in Cairo on June 14th 1800.

His successor, General Menou, capitulates on August 31st 1801 faced with the Turks and British after having lost 13,500 men, most of whom were victims of epidemics during peace negotiations. The remaining French are repatriated back to France on British vessels.
Follwing their return, the scientists from the expedition are convoked by the interior minister upon the request of Bonaparte.

February 18th 1802: he names eight amongst them responsable for gathering and publishing all the scientific material from the expedition.

This is the birth of the work entitled 'Description of Egypt, or the collection of observations and research which was made in Egypt during the expedition of the French Army'.

The 'Description of Egypt' comprises ten volumes of 974 plates, of which 74 are in colour, a cartographic atlas and nine volumes of text. The typographic quality of the texts, the beauty of the engravings and the formats (the largest measures 39 inches by 32) make the 'Description of Egypt' a monumental work which would be published for the first time in 1809.

Category : Egypt History
items Date : 22/08/2009
Author of items : Senakht