What was Napoleon looking 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 difficult to reach 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 French colonial possessions, which were mostly lost. Bonaparte also sought to strengthen his influence, while the Directory wanted to send away the overly popular general. That's why Napoleon's campaign in Egypt was organized. We will talk about it briefly in our article.

Preparation of the event

The preparation and organization of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign of 1798-1799 were carried out in the strictest secrecy. The enemy should not have received any information about the purpose for which the French were assembling a fleet at points such as Toulon, Genoa, Civitta-Vecchia, and where it would go.

The history of the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte brought to 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, conductors - 500.
• About 500 sailing ships were concentrated in the ports.
• The flagship Orient had 120 guns.
• 1,200 horses were taken, taking into account the replenishment of their number on the spot.

In addition, the army included a group of scientists - mathematicians, geographers, historians and writers.

Departure

The story of Napoleon in Egypt began with his sailing from Toulon in May 1798. Naturally, the English side found out about this, but they did not know where exactly such a significant French fleet was heading.

Two months after the squadron entered the Mediterranean, the French launched an amphibious landing in Ireland, which was a diversionary maneuver. At the same time, rumors were spread that the expedition led by Bonaparte would soon turn west through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Chase

The vice admiral, commander of the English fleet, entered the Strait of Gibraltar at the very beginning of May. He intended to control all French movements. However, the storm that broke out severely damaged the English ships, and when their repairs came to an end, there was no trace of the French.

Nelson had to organize a pursuit. By the end of May, he received information that a week earlier the French had captured Malta, and they went further east.

Nelson hurried 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 only one day.

Landing at Abukir

The first point of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt was the city of Abukir. It is located a few kilometers east of Alexandria, where the French army began its landing on July 1. Hungry and tired soldiers marched towards Alexandria. By the night of the next day, the city was taken, after which the French proceeded south along the Nile, towards Cairo.

At that time, the population of Egypt was as follows:

• Dependent peasants are fellahins.
• Bedouin nomads.
• The predominant layer are Mameluke warriors.

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

By organizing Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, the French believed that they could 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 brotherhood. But these half-starved and illiterate people remained completely indifferent. Their main concern was to feed their families.

This situation became decisive in the entire further course of Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign. When it was conceived by the French, they imagined 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.

Mamelukes

The main component of Egyptian society - the Mamelukes - boldly opposed the uninvited guests. Being skilled warriors and dashing riders, they boasted that they would chop 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. In their rear were quickly erected fortifications with infantry consisting of fellahs hiding behind them.

Battle for the Pyramids

At that moment, Napoleon's army was a well-coordinated military machine in which each soldier formed a single whole with it. However, the Mamelukes were confident in their superiority and did not expect that the opposing side could withstand their rapid onslaught.

Before the battle, Bonaparte addressed his soldiers with a fiery speech, saying that as many as forty centuries of history were looking down at them from the tops of the pyramids.

In response to the French attack, the Mamelukes moved into a formation of closed bayonets in scattered groups. Making their way forward, the French outflanked the Mamelukes and defeated them, and pushed some of them back to the bank of the Nile. Many of the Mamelukes drowned in its waters.

Losses on both sides were unequal. About 50 French and about 2 thousand Mamelukes died in the battle. Napoleon won a complete victory. The battle for the pyramids in Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign was an example of the superiority of the regular army of the late 18th century over, in fact, a 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 establish governance of Egypt in a European manner. He still hoped to find local support.

French defeat

Meanwhile, on August 1, the fleet of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, having not found an opponent off the Turkish coast, sailed to the mouth of the Nile. They spotted French ships in the Gulf of Abukir. There were much 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 victors of the Mamelukes found themselves “between two fires.”

But the British also fired from the shore, and their artillery fire was more powerful. The French flagship Orient was blown up, flying into the air. On August 2, the French fleet ceased to exist, the vast majority of it was either captured or destroyed. Two ships, due to the hopelessness of the situation, were sunk 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 disaster 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 contact with France he was doomed to death.

Skirmishes with the Mamelukes

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 army moved to the upper reaches of the Nile River, while pursuing the remnants of the Mamelukes led by Murad Bey. The group of pursuers included scientists who decided to seize the opportunity and begin researching the secrets of the East.

The extent to which scientists, as well as horse-drawn vehicles such as donkeys, were valued is shown by the following fact. At that moment, when the Mameluke detachments launched another attack, a team of scientists and donkeys followed to put them in the middle. Then the soldiers surrounded them to protect them, and only then did they engage in battle. Although the French most often won the skirmishes, this could not change their hopeless situation.

Desperate step

Looking for a way out of the mousetrap, Bonaparte decided in February 1799 to go to Syria through the desert. The French moved deeper into the country, engaging in battles with an elusive enemy along the way and capturing fortresses. At the beginning of March, Jaffa was conquered, which had previously stubbornly resisted.

Half of its garrison was killed during the assault, and the second half was captured or destroyed after it. Such cruelty was explained by the fact that among the prisoners there were people whom the French had previously released during the capture of another fortress.

Then came 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 scourge, as well as by battles, heat, and water shortages, the French army was forced to return to Egypt. There the Turks were already waiting for them, who landed near Abukir. 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 Turkish army 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 increase his popularity in France. That is, he was interested precisely in the situation at home. When Bonaparte departed for the East, the position of the Directory was very unstable and not fully 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 his sense of duty and the responsibility assigned to him for the army, who at the end of August 1799 abandoned him to the mercy of fate. Napoleon left Egypt on the surviving ship, leaving General Kléber, his deputy, with orders for the transfer of powers. Moreover, the order was received only when the escaped general was already at sea.

Consequences of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign

After the commander-in-chief fled, Kleber continued to fight for several months. In the fall of 1801, he was killed, and the French army located in Egypt surrendered to the mercy of the Anglo-Turkish troops.

Logically, the career of a general who compromised himself with such an unseemly act should inevitably end. There should have been severe punishment on the part of the government, and no less severe moral condemnation on the part of society.

However, everything happened quite the opposite. The French people greeted the fugitive commander with jubilation as a conqueror of the East. And the thieving Directory did not express the slightest reproach to him. A month after the fugitive landed in France, a coup was carried out, he turned into a dictator, becoming first consul.

However, the strategic goal of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, which was mentioned above, was not achieved. The only achievement of this grandiose adventure was scientific works devoted to the culture of Egypt. This led to a surge of interest in this issue. As a result of the campaign, a large number of historical monuments were taken to France. 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 Arab-Ottoman worlds in modern times. It was with him that the open colonial confrontation between European countries in the Middle East and North Africa began.

As we already know, Egypt was a priority goal of French kings, feudal lords and merchants even during the Crusades. As Albert Manfred noted: “From the time Leibniz advised Louis XIV to take possession of Egypt, this idea throughout the eighteenth century never ceased to occupy statesmen and some thinkers of France” (9).

In the 16th - 18th centuries, merchants and shipowners of Marseille, Toulon and other Mediterranean ports of France had extensive connections with Egypt and other countries of the Levant. Charles-Roux believed that on average in the 18th century the volume of annual trade between France and Egypt was close to 5.5 million piastres (10).

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, Talleyrand, in a report to the Institute on July 3, 1797, “Memoirs on the advantages of new colonies in modern conditions,” directly pointed to Egypt as a possible compensation for the losses suffered by France.

Formally, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire. However, in the mid-17th century, the Mameluk beys achieved a significant degree of autonomy from Constantinople. The Sultan had no choice but to automatically approve the appointment of the next bey.

Needless to say, “enlightened sailors” also had their sights on Egypt. Napoleon wrote in his memoirs: “In 1775, the Mamelukes entered into an agreement with the English Indian (East India - A.Sh.) company. From that moment on, French trading houses were subjected to insults and all kinds of humiliation. Following a complaint from the Versailles court, the Porte sent Kapudan Pasha Hasan against the beys in 1786; but since the revolution French trade has again been persecuted. The Porte declared that it could not do anything about it, and the Mamelukes were “greedy, godless and rebellious people,” and made it clear that it would treat the expedition against Egypt with toleration - the same way it treated the expedition against Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli.” (eleven) .

Marmont wrote that since the Italian campaign, the campaign in Egypt had been Bonaparte's favorite brainchild. “Europe is a wormhole! There have never been such great possessions and great revolutions here as in the East, where six hundred million people live" (12).

So, the interests of the trading bourgeoisie and the grandiose plans of General Bonaparte coincided. Well, the Directory was happy with any outcome of the campaign: the occupation of Egypt was good, but the death or capture of an ambitious general was simply great. In the ports of Toulon, Marseille, Corsica, Genoa and Civata Vecchia, 13 ships (of the line), 9 frigates, 11 corvettes and advice notes, as well as 232 transport vessels were assembled. They accommodated a landing party - 32,300 people and 680 horses. But the transports carried harness for 6 thousand horses in anticipation of future trophies.

Bonaparte planned to settle in Egypt seriously and for a long time. Therefore, he did not even forget... a large commission of scientists and engineers. The commission consisted of academicians Monge and Berthollet, Dolomier, Denon; chief engineers of railways Lenaire, Girard; mathematicians Fourier, Costaz, Coransez; astronomers Nouet, Beauchamp and Mashen; naturalists Geoffroy, Savigny; chemists Decostilles, Chalpy and Delisle; draftsmen Dugertre, Redoute; musician Wiyoto; the poet Parseval; architects Leper, Protain. It also included Conte, the head of the aeronaut group. About twenty students of the Polytechnic and Mining schools were attached to this commission (13).

Between 15 and 20 May 1798, the French Armada sailed from five ports. The purpose of the expedition was kept in the strictest confidence. All of Europe held its breath. Newspapers disseminated the most contradictory information about Bonaparte's plans - from the landing in England to the capture of Constantinople. On the banks of the Neva they got scared and decided that the villain “Bonaparti” was planning to take away Crimea. On April 23, 1798, Paul I urgently sent an order to Ushakov to go out to sea with the squadron and take a position between Akhtiar and Odessa, “observing all movements from the Porte and the French.”

To begin with, Bonaparte decided to capture the island of Malta, which controlled the passage from the western to the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. Since 1525, the island belonged to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (colloquially the Order of Malta). The Order, while formally maintaining neutrality, did not recognize the French Republic. The reason is very serious - the Jacobins nationalized numerous land holdings of the order in France.

I note that the revolutionaries not only did not send the knights of the order to the guillotine, but also assigned them large pensions. Nevertheless, the master of the order, Ferdinand von Gampesch, refused to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic. French merchant ships could only enter Malta after lowering the tricolor. But Malta constantly served as the base of the British fleet. 20 thousand pounds of gunpowder were sent from the Grand Master's warehouses to the Corsican separatists. Finally, the order came under the patronage of Paul I. The Orthodox Tsar became the head of the Catholic-Masonic Order... There were so many anecdotes in our long-suffering Russia!

In principle, any of the listed factors, from the point of view of the law of that time, was sufficient to declare war on Malta.

The island was an impregnable fortress, but chivalry had long since decayed. The Order lived off the rent collected from its possessions in Western and Central Europe. So, in 1789 he received from 18 to 20 million francs in the form of rent. In addition, the knights dabbled in piracy - income from the loot plus ransom for prisoners.

It took Bonaparte 48 hours to capture Malta. French losses amounted to 3 people. On June 12 at 2 o'clock in the morning, the surrender of the order was signed on board the flagship Orion. Malta became part of the French Republic. The knights received a guarantee of the inviolability of their property on the island.

The French General Caffarelli, the next day, inspecting the fortifications of Malta, jokingly remarked: “It’s good that there were people in them to open the gates for us.”

The trophies of the French were huge reserves of weapons and food. Napoleon wrote: “There was a 64-gun battleship of the order in the roadstead and another one was on the stocks. To increase the number of light ships in the fleet, the admiral took two half-galleys and two xebecs. He took sailors who served the order on these ships. Three hundred Turks, who were serving as slaves in hard labor, were dressed up and distributed among battleships. The army was followed by a legion composed of battalions called Maltese. It was formed from soldiers who served the order. Grenadiers of the Grand Master's Guard and several knights also entered service (in the French army - A.Sh.). Some residents who spoke Arabic wished to be assigned to generals and various institutions.

Three veteran companies, composed of old soldiers of the order, were sent to Corfu and Corsica. The fortress had 1,200 cannons, 40,000 rifles, and 1 million pounds of gunpowder. The chief of artillery ordered everything that he considered necessary to replenish and equip the equipment to be loaded onto the ships. The squadron stocked up on water and food. The rye warehouses were very large; their contents would last the city for three years. The frigate "Sansible" took trophies and several rarities to France, which the commander-in-chief sent to the government...

By June 18, there was no longer a single knight left in Malta. The Grand Master sailed for Trieste on the 17th. Silver dishes worth a million found in the treasury were minted into coins upon arrival in Cairo” (14).

Out of modesty, Napoleon did not mention the lost treasures of the order.

On June 30, 1798, the French fleet approached Alexandria. Well, what was the famous Admiral Nelson doing? During preparations for the campaign of the French Armada, Nelson's squadron stood at the Strait of Gibraltar - what if the villain goes to Foggy Albion? When Horatio learned about the capture of Malta, he rushed in search of the French and got ahead of them. When Nelson's squadron arrived in Alexandria, no one there had heard anything at all about Bonaparte or the French. Nelson decided that the French fleet was headed for Alexandretta or Constantinople, and also rushed there.

On July 2, the French landing force led by Bonaparte moved to storm Alexandria. After the French captured several fortifications, the city's garrison capitulated. The paratroopers lost about 300 people killed and wounded, and the Egyptians lost 700 - 800 people. The Mamluks who ruled Egypt did not enjoy much love from the townspeople, so immediately after the surrender of Alexandria, Sheikh Al-Shesri, local ulema and sherfi took an oath of allegiance to Bonaparte.

By order of Bonaparte, General Berthier ordered a large number of proclamations in French, Arabic and Turkish to be posted throughout Alexandria and distributed to residents, the content of which basically boiled down to the following: “Qadis, sheikhs, ulemas, imams, Charbojis, people of Egypt! Quite a few beys insulted France; the hour of retribution has come. God, on whom everything depends, said: the kingdom of the Mamelukes has come to an end. They will tell you that I have come to destroy the religion of Islam. Answer that I love the prophet and the Koran, that I have come to restore your rights. In all centuries we have been friends of the great Sultan. Three times happy are those who speak up for us! Happy are those who remain neutral, they will have time to get to know us. Woe to the madmen who take up arms against us, they will perish! Villages that want to surrender under our protection will raise the flag of the Sultan, as well as the army, on the minaret of the main mosque. Villages whose inhabitants commit hostile acts will be dealt with according to martial law; if such cases occur, they will be burned. Sheikh-al-beleds, imams, muezzins are confirmed in their positions.”

Bonaparte wrote a letter to Pasha, which was delivered to him in Cairo by an officer from a Turkish caravel. This letter stated: “The French government has addressed the Sublime Porte several times, demanding the punishment of the beys and an end to the insults to which our nation has been subjected in Egypt; The Sublime Porte declared that the Mamelukes were a greedy and capricious people... and that it was depriving them of imperial protection... The French Republic was sending a strong army to put an end to the brigandage, just as it had done several times in relation to Algiers and Tripoli. .. So, come out to meet me.”

700 Turkish slaves freed in Malta were disembarked from French ships and sent overland to their homeland. Among them were natives of Tripoli, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Damascus, Syria, Smyrna and Constantinople. “They were well fed, well clothed, and treated with respect. They were given sums of money sufficient to cover travel expenses" (15).

Those released spread rumors about Napoleon's power and generosity.

As already mentioned, Napoleon took with him only 680 horses, some of which died along the way. Needless to say, only with them the French army would have died in the desert even without enemy influence. But Bonaparte's proclamations played their role. Already on July 4, 30 sheikhs of the Henadi, Aulad Ali and Beniaunus tribes arrived at Bonaparte’s main apartment. The generals and sheikhs signed an agreement under which they provided the French with 300 horses and one and a half thousand camels. Naturally, this was not enough for such an army, but it was possible to move forward.

Leaving a garrison of 8 thousand people in Alexandria led by General Kleber, Bonaparte moved to Cairo.

It is curious that later Bonaparte was credited with the words: “Islam is the true religion.” He also added that if people read more, they will become smarter. Then they will follow logic and look for arguments. Such people will not worship different gods and blindly follow rituals. They recognize the unity of God. “And so I hope that the time will soon come when Islam will be all over the world, because... It is already predominant.”

However, there is no evidence of the authenticity of these statements.

After the defeat at Austerlitz, Alexander I did not come up with anything smarter than ordering the Holy Synod to declare Napoleon... the Antichrist. The people were told that Napoleon had secretly converted to Islam back in 1799 in Egypt, as well as many equally interesting things. The stupidity of the Tsar and the Synod horrified all literate priests. According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, the Antichrist was supposed to initially take over the whole world and only then die from divine forces, and not from the hands of people. From which it followed that fighting Bonaparte was pointless.

By order of Bonaparte, Rear Admiral Perret formed the Nile flotilla, consisting of two half-galleys, three half-shebecks, four messengers and six armed jermes, that is, 15 pennants with crews of French sailors totaling 600 people.

The Mameluke cavalry was defeated in several battles. On July 21, 1798, in the battle at the foot of the pyramids, all the fierce attacks of Murad Bey’s Mamelukes were broken by an impenetrable French square. Then Bonaparte uttered his famous phrase: “Soldiers! Forty centuries are looking at you! The Mamelukes were completely defeated in this battle.

At the same time, an equally famous phrase was uttered: “Donkeys and scientists - in the middle of the square.” It was them that the general considered most important for the success of the expedition.

A fierce battle took place on the Nile between the French and Egyptian river flotillas. The Mamelukes had about 600 river ships, of which 25 were armed with cannons. The Turkish flotilla began to defeat the enemy. Then General Bonaparte ordered several dozen 8- and 12-pound cannons and 24-pound howitzers to be brought to the shore. The Egyptians were forced to withdraw from the battle. Taking advantage of a fair wind and using oars, they went up the Nile.

Rumors spread around Cairo that the French Sultan is a sorcerer who keeps all the soldiers tied with a thick white rope, and depending on which way he pulls it, the soldiers turn right or left as one person.

On August 1, Nelson finally discovered the French squadron stationed at Cape Abukir at the confluence of the Nile into the Mediterranean Sea. The French squadron, consisting of 13 ships and 4 frigates, was anchored in the Gulf of Abukir. Nelson had 14 ships and one brig (a total of 1012 men).

Purely arithmetically, the French were stronger, but in fact the British had significant advantages. Thus, a significant part of the French ships, such as the Guerrier and Conqueran, were old and dilapidated, the maximum caliber of the guns installed on them was only 18 pounds.

Before the revolution of 1789, the percentage of aristocrats among naval officers was much higher than in the army. Accordingly, the percentage of those who left the fleet in 1790 - 1793. officers was much higher than in the army. By 1798, the Republicans had failed to train a new naval officer corps, which seriously affected the combat effectiveness of French ships.

The commander of the French squadron, Vice Admiral Francois Bruce, acted extremely illiterately. He did not take obvious measures to protect the fleet, which were also possible in Abukir Bay, did not keep patrol ships at sea and did not send scouts to give advance warning of the approach of the British. He did not do this on August 1, when a significant part of the team was sent ashore for fresh water, and the battery decks were cluttered with barrels pulled from the hold for filling with water brought from the shore.

The disposition of the squadron itself was poorly organized. In the first line there were 13 battleships (1 - 120-gun, 3 - 80-gun, 9 - 74-gun), but none of the flanks was so close to the 4-fathom shoal that the enemy could not bypass it and so that he cannot penetrate into the disposition. The passages between the shoal and the flanks were not protected even by groups of frigates, which (4) formed the second line against the middle part of the first. Small vessels (about 30) were located just off the coast, near Cape Abukir.

A battery was built on the island of Abukir, but due to the weakness of the six guns installed on it and the range of the distance, it could not stop the breakthrough of enemy ships between the shoal and the northern flank of the first line.

In the battle, Admiral Bruce received two serious wounds and died three hours after the start of the battle.

Nelson attacked the five ships of Bruce's vanguard with eight battleships. Meanwhile, the rearguard under the command of Rear Admiral Villeneuve calmly watched the destruction of the French vanguard.

As a result, only two French ships and two frigates managed to leave the battlefield. The French lost over 6 thousand people killed, wounded and prisoners. British losses amounted to about 900 people.

The French ship "Guillaume Tell" and the frigates "Diana" and "Justice" went to Malta, and the ship "Genera" near Candia (Crete) met the British 50-gun ship "Leander", sent by Nelson to England with the news of the Abukir victory. "Genera" captured "Leander" and with it came to the French-occupied fortress of Corfu (Ionian Islands). Looking ahead, I will say that after the capture of Corfu, Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, on the instructions of Paul I, returned the Leander to the “enlightened sailors.”

The defeat at Abukir significantly hampered the supply of the expeditionary army. However, the phrase from the Russian Military Encyclopedia - “This defeat, having deprived the French Egyptian Army of communication with France, left it to its own forces” (16) - is misunderstood by all our historians. The French Republic had a fairly large number of warships and thousands of large and small transport ships. Therefore, supplies to the expeditionary army could be successfully carried out from the ports of Southern France, Northern Italy and the Ionian Islands. By the way, not all French ships were destroyed even in Egypt. In addition to the four ships and frigates that went to Malta and Corfu, there were two 64-gun ships, 7 frigates, brigs and corvettes in Alexandria. Most of the transport ships also survived.

Another question is that Barras and Co. simply did not want to supply Egypt with weapons and reinforcements, dreaming of the death of Bonaparte. So it is more correct to say that the Directory, and secondly Nelson, stopped supplying the Egyptian army.

Sultan Selim III hesitated for a long time between an alliance with France and declaring war on it. The Battle of Abukir and the arrival of Ushakov’s squadron in Constantinople helped the Sultan make a choice. On September 1, 1798, the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Republic.

When the population of Cairo learned about the start of the war with Turkey, an uprising began in the city, which lasted from October 21 to 23, 1798. General Dupont and over 100 French were killed. During the pacification of the uprising, up to 5 thousand Arabs died. It should be noted that most of the sheikhs did not take part in the riot, and many townspeople hid the French in their homes.

Meanwhile, the Turks were completing the formation of an army in Anatolia and on the island of Rhodes, which, together with the troops of the semi-independent governor of Syria and Palestine, Jezar Ahmed Pasha, was supposed to expel the French from Egypt.

Napoleon decided to launch a preemptive strike and occupy Palestine and Syria. On January 1, 1799, Napoleon's army consisted of 29,700 combat and non-combatant personnel, including: Upper Egypt - 6,550 people, Lower Egypt - 10,000 people, Syria - 13,150 people. At the beginning of January, Bonaparte set out on the Syrian campaign with four infantry divisions and one cavalry division of Murat (about 14 thousand people in total). The Syrian army needed 3 thousand camels and 3 thousand donkeys to transport food, water and convoy cargo. Namely: a thousand camels to transport a two-week supply of food for 14 thousand people, as well as 3 thousand horses for cavalry, headquarters and artillery; and 2 thousand camels to transport a supply of water for three days.

It was impossible to transport siege weapons across the desert. Therefore, two siege parks, each containing four 24-pounder guns, four 16-pounder guns and four 8-inch mortars, were transported by sea. One fleet was loaded at Damietta on six xebecs (rowing ships), and the other fleet was sent from Alexandria on three frigates (Jupan, Couragez and Alceste).

On February 9, 1799, the French, after a short bombardment, captured Fort El Arish. On February 26, Napoleon was in Gaza, and on March 3, he went to the heavily fortified fortress of Jaffa. On March 7, the Lanna and Bon divisions, having made a hole in the city wall, after a persistent assault captured the city, capturing 40 field and 20 fortress guns.

On March 14, the army, in which the first signs of the plague had already appeared, moved on. On March 19, the French approached Accra and, under the leadership of General Caffarelli, began siege work.

Meanwhile, the English squadron blocked the coast and on March 18 intercepted six French xebecs with one of the siege parks. The British installed the captured guns on the fortifications of Accra. The frigates with a different fleet were unloaded in Jaffa only on June 15.

Meanwhile, the 25,000-strong Turkish army of Damascus Pasha Abdullah was approaching Accra. Kleber's division was moved against her. The revealed superiority of the Turkish forces forced Bonaparte to personally meet them with most of the siege corps, leaving the divisions of Rainier and Lannes in front of Accra.

On April 16, a battle took place near Mount Tabor, in which the Turks were defeated and fled to Damascus, losing up to 5 thousand people and the entire camp.

In April 1799, an 8,000-strong Turkish corps was sent by ship from Rhodes. By the evening of May 7, the Turkish fleet appeared in sight of Accra. Bonaparte, taking advantage of the calm that prevented transports from approaching the shore, immediately launched a desperate attack. On the morning of May 8, the French managed to take possession of the forward lines of fortifications. Commander Sydney Smith, despite the long distance, still transported some of the Turkish soldiers, and at a critical moment, when the French were ready to break into the city, he brought in a landing party, which he led himself.

In this situation, Bonaparte made the only right decision - to return to Egypt. On May 21, he lifted the siege of Accra. The return of the army from Syria was accompanied by complete devastation of the region in order to complicate the Turks' invasion of Egypt from this side. On June 2, the army reached El-Arish, on June 7 - Salagie, from where Kleber's division was sent to Damietta, and the rest of the troops to Cairo.

On July 15, he received news that thirteen 80-gun and 74-gun battleships, 9 frigates, 30 gunboats and 90 transports with Turkish troops had anchored in the Abukir roadstead. The Anglo-Turkish fleet landed a landing force of 16 thousand people under the command of Mustafa Pasha. The Turks occupied the Abukir Peninsula, but did not dare to go further.

Bonaparte decided to throw the Turks into the sea, despite the fact that he could only muster 6 thousand people. The Turkish position consisted of two fortified lines, of which the first rested on both flanks against fortifications located on the seashore. On the morning of July 25, Bonaparte sent Lannes and Desting with a detachment of 1800 people to bypass the flanks along the seashore. When their attention was diverted, Murat and his cavalry broke through the center and attacked the flanks from the rear. In the first hour of the battle, 8 thousand people died: 5,400 drowned, 1,400 were wounded or killed on the battlefield and 1,200 surrendered. The winners received 18 cannons, 30 charging boxes, 50 banners.

Bonaparte decided to immediately attack the second fortified line, in front of which was the village of Abukir and the center of which rested on a strong redoubt. Again it was decided to divert the attention of the Turks with demonstrations on the flanks in order to break through their center.

Lannes, with the support of Murat's artillery and cavalry, managed to penetrate along the coast into the area where the Turks were located, and the French were able to take possession of the village of Abukir. The Turks retreated to a redoubt located on a flat hill. Several attempts by Murat to penetrate further along the coast were unsuccessful due to heavy crossfire from the Turks from the redoubt and from the gunboats.

French attacks on the right flank and center were also unsuccessful. Although the French reached the very fortifications, due to hurricane fire from the Turks they were forced to retreat to the village.

The Turks, for their part, wanting to recapture the village, went on the offensive, which gave the French the opportunity to carry out a brilliant attack. Taking advantage of the effect it produced, Bonaparte sent all his forces to the assault, and he himself led his troops into the attack. The fortifications were taken, and only a small handful of Turks managed to take refuge in the castle.

Mustafa was wounded in the arm by Murat, and in turn the Pasha wounded the general in the head with a pistol. In the end, Mustafa Pasha and a thousand Turks surrendered to the victors. The rest tried to escape in the water, but most drowned.

Sydney Smith was almost captured and had difficulty getting to his boat. Three pasha horsetails, 100 banners, 32 field guns, 120 charging boxes, all tents, carts, 400 horses remained on the battlefield. From 3 to 4 thousand fugitives headed to the fort, settled in the village lying in front of them and entrenched themselves in it. All attempts to knock them out were unsuccessful.

Then the French artillery began shelling the fort. At dawn on August 2, a crowd of Turks ran out of the fort and surrendered. In the fort itself there were 1,200 corpses and more than 1,800 seriously wounded. Bonaparte ordered the wounded to be sent back to the English ships. The British were forced to accept the Turks. The English admiral, as a “courtesy,” handed over bundles of English and Frankfurt newspapers to the French with news relating to April, May and June.

These newspapers shocked Bonaparte: “The second coalition was victorious; The armies of Russia and Austria defeated General Jourdan on the Danube, Scherer on the Adige, and Moreau on the Adda. The Cisalpine Republic was destroyed, Mantua was besieged; the Cossacks reached the Alpine border; Massena barely held on in the mountains of Switzerland" (17). The royalists began an uprising again in the Vendée.

This is how Napoleon later explained his departure. However, the decisive reason for leaving was the complete futility of the war in Egypt. Its outcome was obvious; the only question was the time and conditions of the surrender of the French troops.

In the strictest secrecy, Bonaparte ordered Rear Admiral Gantol to prepare the frigates Muiron and Caraire and the xebecs Revange and Fortune for the campaign.

At 9 o'clock in the evening on August 12 (23), 1799, General Bonaparte left Alexandria on the frigate Muiron and, accompanied by three ships, moved west.

In the event of a meeting with enemy ships, Napoleon planned to flee on xebecs, and the frigate was supposed to engage the enemy ships in battle. The great commander thought through everything down to the details in order to avoid the slightest risk. A detachment of French ships did not travel a direct route, but along the coast of Africa, and then the coast of the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. The underwater part of the hulls of both xebecs was lined with copper, and they had good sailing. Close to the shore, the xebek had every chance to escape from enemy ships and frigates by oars, as well as by using the shallow draft.

Bonaparte took with him the best generals of the Egyptian army - Lan, Murat, Marmont, Berthier, Monge and Berthollet. Napoleon left General Kleber as commander-in-chief in Egypt.

Formally, General Bonaparte’s departure from Paris without orders was pure desertion. However, from the point of view of military strategy, and most importantly - big politics, this was a brilliant move. Stefan Zweig later called it "humanity's finest hour."

At the beginning of September, Ushakov's Russian squadron, which left Palermo, separated from Bonaparte's ships at a distance of about 100 km. The passage in the open sea from the coast of Africa to the coast of Sardinia was the most dangerous part of the route. Had the Russian squadron veered a little to the left, the course of history could have changed significantly. As for the many dozens of British ships and frigates that circulated between Malta, Sicily and the shores of Libya, Nelson “dipped himself” no worse than Mack himself.

But, alas, history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, and the fugitive general landed in France near Fréjus on October 9, 1799. And exactly a month later, on November 9, that is, the 18th of Brumaire according to the revolutionary calendar, General Bonaparte carried out a coup d'etat. The directory was overthrown, and the Egyptian hero appointed himself first consul.

Leaving Egypt, Bonaparte did not even bother to warn his successor as army commander, General Kleber, about this. He was only given instructions. In it, Bonaparte reassured Kleber, promising the arrival of a French squadron in Egypt. But after the “calming pill,” Napoleon moved on to the main thing: “If, due to innumerable unforeseen circumstances, all efforts prove fruitless and you receive neither help nor news from France until May, and if, despite all the measures taken, the plague continues and takes away more than one and a half thousand people... you will have the right to make peace with the Ottoman Porte, even if its main condition is the evacuation of Egypt” (18).

Thus, Bonaparte gave Kleber carte blanche to make peace with the Turks and the British, subject to the evacuation of the French army from Egypt. In the same order, Napoleon openly lied: “The government has summoned me to its disposal.” In fact, the last thing the Directory wanted was to see Bonaparte in Paris.

Meanwhile, an 80,000-strong Turkish army has already been formed in Syria to cleanse Egypt.

On December 30, 1799, the Turks took Fort El-Arish. This forced Kleber to sign the Convention of El Arish on January 21, 1800, according to which French troops were to be transported to France on their own or Turkish ships.

Kleber sent a report about this to the Directory of General Dese and surrendered Katie (Katieh), Salagie (Salehie) and Belbeis to the Turks. The French army was already preparing to clear Cairo when notification was received from Admiral Keith, commanding the British fleet in the Mediterranean, that the British government demanded the surrender of the French army without any conditions.

Kleber decided to continue the fight. On March 20, near Cairo, near the ruins of the ancient city of Heliopolis, he defeated the main forces of the Grand Vizier and pursued them to Salagie. In Syria, the remnants of the Turkish army were destroyed by the Arabs.

After the battle of Heliopolis, Kleber, sending part of his troops to help the Cairo garrison, surrounded by the rebel population and the Turkish troops of Nassif Pasha, pursued the Grand Vizier to Salagie. Leaving Rainier there, on March 27 he and the rest of his forces arrived at Cairo, which was already in the power of Nassif Pasha and Ibrahim Bey. After informing them of the fate of the Grand Vizier's army, Kleber proposed to cleanse the city.

On April 25, 1800, Cairo surrendered to the French. Kleber set about putting internal affairs in order and restoring peace in the country. He took measures to staff the army with the local population. Thus, in Lower Egypt, Copts, Syrians, and Ethiopian slaves willingly joined the ranks of the French troops.

On June 14, Kleber was killed by a fanatic sent by the vizier. By this time, the British government, having somewhat changed its view on the Egyptian question, approved the El-Arish Convention. But General Menou, who took command after Kleber, citing a lack of authority, suggested that Admiral Keith, who informed him about this, contact Paris. Then the British government developed a plan for landing a 20,000-strong detachment of British troops west of the mouth of the Nile for joint actions with the Syrian Turkish Army, which was supposed to advance along the right bank of the river. At the same time, the 8,000-strong English corps from the East Indies was supposed to move from Suez to the rear of the French.

Bonaparte, who became first consul, took all measures to strengthen the army in Egypt and ease its situation.

At the beginning of 1801, a plague epidemic began in the Turkish army in Syria. Despite the landing of English troops in Abukir on March 8, 1801, the war dragged on, and only on August 31, General Menou, who replaced the killed Kleber, signed a convention on the evacuation of French troops from Egypt.

Was Napoleon's Egyptian expedition a gamble? Yes and no. Napoleon planned to create a thriving economy in Egypt. “A thousand floodgates will contain and distribute the flood waters to all parts of the country; The 8 or 10 billion cubic tons of water that are lost every year into the sea would be distributed among all the low-lying regions of the desert, Lake Meris, Lake Mareotis and the Anhydrous River, to the oases and much further to the west, and in an eastern direction would flow to the Bitters lakes and all the low-lying areas of the Isthmus of Suez and the deserts between the Red Sea and the Nile; a large number of pressure pumps and windmills would lift water into reservoirs, from where it could be taken for irrigation; numerous emigrants from the interior of Africa, Arabia, Syria, Greece, France, Italy, Poland, Germany would quadruple the population; the trade with India would return to its ancient course through the irreversible force of natural conditions; Moreover, by dominating Egypt, France would also dominate Hindustan...

After 50 years of Egyptian rule, civilization would spread into the interior of Africa through Sennar, Abyssinia, Darfur, Fezzan; several large nations would be called to enjoy the benefits of the arts, sciences, and the religion of the true God, for it is through Egypt that light and happiness should come to the peoples of Central Africa!!!<...>

Egypt can already now (1799) maintain an army of 50,000 people and a squadron of 15 battleships, partly in the Mediterranean Sea, partly on the Red Sea, as well as a large flotilla on the Nile and on the lakes. His territory can supply everything he needs, except timber and iron, which he will receive from Albania and Syria and from Europe in exchange for his works. His income is 50 - 60 million" (19).

The atheism of the Republican army played an important role in establishing friendly relations with the Arabs. Napoleon wrote: “Since the revolution, the French army has not performed the rites of any religion. She did not visit churches at all in Italy and did not begin to visit them more often in Egypt. This circumstance was noticed by the discerning eye of the ulema, who were so jealous and anxious about everything that had to do with their cult. It had the most favorable influence on them. If the French were not Muslims, then at least it was proven that they were not idolaters" (20).

Many mullahs and even ulemas claimed that Sultan Kebir - as they called Napoleon - enjoyed the special protection of the Prophet.

There is no doubt that in some ways Napoleon fantasized, but on the whole he could realize his plans.

As already mentioned, Napoleon captured three of the four strategic points in the Mediterranean - Malta, Corfu and Egypt. Only Gibraltar remained in the hands of the British.

Alas, General Bonaparte lacked one little thing for success in Egypt and Syria... citizen Bonaparte at the head of the Directory. Under the existing government, talented revolutionary generals suffered defeats not only in Egypt and the West Indies, but also in Italy and Germany.

The Russian army and navy captured Corfu, and separate landing detachments successfully operated in Southern and Central Italy.

The garrison of Malta under the command of General Vaubois withstood the siege of the British for 20 months and only surrendered on September 5, 1800 on honorable terms. The entire garrison was transported to Toulon on British ships.

War 1798 - 1809 in the Mediterranean Sea ended with the defeat of France, Russia and Turkey and the brilliant success of Foggy Albion. The reader, brought up on patriotic books and films, will be indignant - after all, Ushakov took Corfu! Yes, I took it. But then the Ionian Islands had to be evacuated, and the huge Russian fleet, consisting of several squadrons that came from the Baltic and Black Sea, became a trophy of the French and British.

The death of the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean Sea occurred not through the fault of the sailors and admirals, but because of the mediocre policies of Paul I and Alexander I, who four times dragged Russia into war with France - a state that from 1789 to 1812 did not lay claim to an inch of Russian land .

Well, far-sighted London annexed not only Malta, but also all the Ionian Islands, including Corfu, to its possessions.

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Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Oleg Sokolov about Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign

✪ Oleg Sokolov about the Egyptian campaign and the Battle of the Pyramids

✪ Oleg Sokolov about the Egyptian campaign: The Battle of Aboukir, Cairo and the Desaix campaign

✪ Why was Napoleon sent to conquer Egypt?

Subtitles

Expedition planning

Egypt was legally subordinate to the Ottoman Empire, but actually pursued an independent policy. Turkey, through diplomatic channels, made it clear to France that it would favor any French actions against Egypt. In addition, with France's seizure of the island of Corfu and France's signing of favorable agreements with the Kingdom of Naples, England lost all of its permanent naval bases in the Mediterranean. At the beginning of 1798, Napoleon conducted a reconnaissance of the northern and western French coasts. The demonstrative actions were successful: Great Britain was sure that a landing in Ireland was being prepared, so the English fleet was busy blockading Gibraltar and northern French ports, leaving the French an open path through the Mediterranean to Egypt.

Beginning of the expedition and capture of Malta

Preparations began in March 1798, and in order to mislead England as to their real goals, a rumor was spread about an impending landing in Ireland. The expeditionary army included 24 thousand infantry with 4 thousand cavalry and 300 horses (the rest of the horses were supposed to be purchased in Egypt), 16 companies of artillery, 8 companies of sappers, miners and workers, 4 park companies; only 32,300 people. The troops consisted of 5 divisions (generals Kleber, Deze, Rainier, Menou and Bon). Chief of Staff - Berthier; among the brigadier generals were Lannes, Murat, Davout and at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief Junot, Eugene Beauharnais and others. 309 ships with a total displacement of 47,300 tons were prepared to transport these troops. (58 in Marseille, 72 in Toulon, 73 in Genoa, 56 in Civita Vecchia and 50 in Corsica). A flotilla under the command of Admiral Brues of 55 ships (13 battleships, 6 frigates, 1 corvette, 9 flutes, 8 brigs and messengers, 4 mortars and 12 gunboats and 2 feluccas) was intended to escort the expedition. Most of the troops located in Toulon and Marseille were to be accommodated on military ships. The flotilla's crew consisted of 10 thousand sailors. Many scientists, researchers, engineers, technicians and artists (up to 100 people in total) took part in the expedition with the aim of studying the ancient country.

On May 10, Bonaparte addressed the troops with a proclamation. “Soldiers, you form one of the wings of the French army. You have fought in the mountains and on the plains and besieged cities, it remains for you to experience war at sea. The Roman legions, which you have repeatedly imitated, but with which you have not yet fully equaled, defeated the Carthaginians, first on this sea, and then on the fields of Zama. They constantly won because they were brave, resilient, disciplined and unanimous. Soldiers, Europe is looking at you. There is a great future ahead of you; there are battles, dangers and labor to overcome. You will do more than ever for the good of your fatherland, the happiness of the people and your own glory."

From July 10 to July 12, French troops (about 20 thousand in total) were at Romagne. On July 13, they attacked and defeated the Mamelukes at Shubrahit (Chebrace). Perret's flotilla, which had joined the French the day before, took part in this battle. Here the French had to use unique formations against the disorganized hordes of cavalry. Each division was formed in a square with artillery in the corners, with a pack train and horsemen in the middle. Sappers with an artillery depot occupied two villages in the rear, turning them into strongholds in case of failure. The Mamelukes, defeated at Shubrahit, fled to Cairo.

Battle of the Pyramids

On July 21, near the Pyramids of Giza, near Cairo, the French army again met the enemy. The troops of Murad and Ibrahim occupied a position with their right flank adjacent to the Nile and their left flank to the pyramids. Its right wing consisted of 20 thousand Janissaries, and 40 guns were located in the fortifications; in the center and on the left flank there was a 12,000-strong cavalry corps of Mamelukes, sheikhs and noble Egyptians, each of whom had 3-4 infantry for services that amounted to only about 50 thousand. To the left of the Mamelukes stood 9 thousand Bedouin Arabs. There were about 300 ships on the Nile. On the right bank of the river the entire population of Cairo gathered to observe the defeat of the infidels.

Bonaparte, touring the troops, addressed them with a historical phrase: “Soldiers, forty centuries of greatness look at you from the heights of these pyramids.” The French army, which set out on July 21 at 2 a.m., attacked the enemy after a 7-hour march. The Mamelukes were completely defeated. The wounded Murad Bey fled to upper Egypt with only 3 thousand Mamelukes, and Ibrahim with 1200 people went to Syria through Cairo, capturing the Egyptian Pasha Abu Bakr. The Arabs scattered across the desert. The French lost no more than 300 people.

To monitor Murad Bey, Dese was sent with a division, which was tasked with forcing him to peace. Ibrahim Bey, who had retired to Belbeis, waited there for the return of the Mecca caravan in order to, intensified, carry out an attack on the French together with Murad. Bonaparte entered Cairo on July 25 and began organizing the government of the country, taking measures to calm the residents. Aware of the danger of the proximity of Ibrahim Bey's troops, Bonaparte advanced Leclerc's brigade along the road to Belbase. On August 2, it was attacked at El Canka by 400 Mamelukes and Arabs, who, however, were repulsed.

On August 7, having entrusted control of Cairo to Desaix, Bonaparte moved with the divisions of Lannes and Dugas to Belbase. On August 9, Ibrahim Bey retreated to Salagiya (Salehiya). On August 10, a cavalry affair took place here between the French vanguard of 300 cavalrymen with a rearguard of a thousand Mamluks covering Ibrahim Bey’s retreat to the Syrian border. Leaving Rainier at Salagie, with orders to strengthen this point, and Dugas at Mansura, Bonaparte with the rest of the troops went to Cairo. On the way, they received news of the destruction of the French fleet on August 1 at the Abukir roadstead. Nelson, having received reliable information about the purpose of the French squadron on June 24, hurried a second time to Alexandria and defeated it in an open roadstead near the Abukir coast. This defeat, depriving the French Egyptian Army of communication with France, left it to its own forces. Türkiye, which had been hesitant until this time, declared war on France on September 1.

Nevertheless, Bonaparte set about strengthening his position in Egypt with even greater energy. Desaix was sent against Murad Bey, who was in Upper Egypt, and defeated him on October 7 at Sediman and established himself in this part of Egypt. To restore order and destroy Arab gatherings in Lower Egypt, a number of expeditions were undertaken. At the same time, scientific expeditions worked. The administration of Egypt was organized on the basis of legality, which the country so desperately needed, languishing under the yoke of arbitrariness. All these measures attracted the population to the side of the French, especially since Bonaparte declared himself the protector of the Sultan’s loyal subjects and the enemy of the Mamelukes.

But still, after Turkey declared war, an uprising broke out in Cairo, lasting from October 21 to 23. General Dupuy and several hundred French were killed by the Arabs. Bonaparte, who was in Giza, took decisive measures to suppress the rebellion, and during the pacification, up to 5 thousand rebels were exterminated. When calm came, Bonaparte began preparing for a campaign in Syria, from where the invasion of Turkish troops threatened.

By this time, he formed a regiment mounted on camels for operations in the desert against the Arab cavalry. One camel carried two people with full weapons, equipment and food for several days and could travel up to 25 miles per day.

Trek to Syria

Turkey, having concluded an alliance with England, began to form an army in Anatolia, which, with the troops of the Tripolitan, Damascus and Saint-Jean d'Acre pashas, ​​was to advance to Egypt through the Isthmus of Suez. At the same time, it was planned to land an amphibious army at the mouth of the Nile. Murad Bey was to launch an offensive in Upper Egypt. Saint-Jean d'Acre Pasha Jesar, having captured Taza and Jaffa in early January 1799, advanced his vanguard to the fort of El-Arish, the key to Egypt on the Syrian side.

Bonaparte decided to go to Syria with 4 infantry divisions (Kleber, Rainier, Bona, Lanna) and 1 cavalry division (Murat), a total of 13 thousand people. Two siege parks, each consisting of 8 guns and 4 mortars, were ordered by Admiral Perret to be delivered to Jaffa from Alexandria and Damietta with a squadron of 3 surviving frigates. A pack train of 3 thousand camels carried a 15-day supply of food and a 3-day supply of water; 3 thousand donkeys - infantry luggage of 5 kilograms per person, Deza, who remained in Upper Egypt, was tasked with holding back the Mamelukes. The administration of Cairo was entrusted to General Dugas; Menou ruled Rosetta. Marmont was appointed to Alexandria. In total, about 6,500 people remained in Upper Egypt, and 10 thousand people in Lower Egypt.

The divisions of Kleber and Rainier arrived at El-Arish on February 9 and, while waiting for the rest of the troops, besieged it. On February 19, when the entire army arrived, the fort surrendered after a small cannonade. From here the French moved towards Gaza, where they arrived on February 26 after a difficult trek through the desert. On March 3 we approached the fortifications of Jaffa. On March 7, the Lannes and Bon divisions, having made a breach in the city wall, after a persistent assault, captured the city, capturing 40 field and 20 fortress guns. On March 14, the army, which had already shown signs of plague, moved on.

On March 19, the French approached Acre and began siege operations, under the leadership of General Caffarelli. Meanwhile, the 25,000-strong Turkish army of Damascus Pasha Abdullah was approaching Acre. Kleber's division was moved against her. The revealed superiority of the Turkish forces forced Bonaparte to personally meet them with most of the siege corps, leaving the divisions of Rainier and Lannes in front of Acre. On April 16, a battle took place near Mount Tabor, in which the Turks were defeated and fled to Damascus, losing up to 5 thousand people and the entire camp.

Meanwhile, the siege of Acre was unsuccessful. The period of time was approaching when a landing on the shores of Egypt became possible, and Bonaparte decided to return to Egypt. On May 21, having lifted the siege of Acre, the army moved back. The main goal of the Syrian campaign (the destruction of the Turkish army) was achieved, and so far nothing threatened Egypt from Syria.

Operations in Egypt

The return of the army from Syria was accompanied by complete devastation of the region in order to make it difficult for the Turks to invade Egypt from this side. On June 2, the army reached El-Arish, on June 7 - Salagie, from where Kleber's division was sent to Damietta, and the rest of the troops to Cairo.

Bonaparte, who arrived in Cairo on July 14, was solemnly greeted. Here he again showed vigorous activity: he managed to win over the Mohammedan clergy, who declared him “the favorite of the great prophet.” During the entire Syrian expedition, Lower Egypt was calm, with the exception of 2 outbreaks, which were quickly suppressed. In Upper Egypt in January 1799, Murad Bey attempted to go on the offensive, but on January 23 at Samanhud he was defeated by General Dese and fled to Nubia. But calm was not restored; the remaining beys, led by Hassan, continued to gather troops and funds on the right bank of the Nile to fight against the French and even captured part of the French transports. Only by the time Bonaparte returned to Cairo was Upper Egypt cleared of them.

Meanwhile, Turkey was preparing an army, which, under the command of the High Vizier, was intended to land in Lower Egypt. The corps (18 thousand people) of Said Mustafa Pasha, which formed the vanguard, was supposed to gather the Mamelukes and all those dissatisfied with the rule of the French in Egypt after the landing. Having information about this plan, Bonaparte, entrusting Kleber with the defense of the Mediterranean coast, Rainier with the surveillance of Syria, and Deza with Upper Egypt, hoped to concentrate the remaining troops in Cairo. The Mamelukes again began to gather in detachments under the leadership of Osman Bey and Murad. The first intended to unite with Ibrahim Bey, and the second intended to move to the Natator Lakes.

Having learned about this in June, Bonaparte sent Lagrange's detachment against Osman Bey, who defeated him in the Sababiat oasis, forcing him to flee into the desert. Bonaparte moved from Cairo to cut off Murad's route of retreat, but the latter retreated safely to Upper Egypt. Meanwhile, on July 11, the Turkish fleet arrived at the Abukir roadstead, on July 14, the Turks landed on the Abukir Peninsula and on July 17 captured the fort.

Upon receiving news of the arrival of the Turkish fleet, Bonaparte went to Romagnia, ordering Lannes, Rampon and half the cavalry of Deze's detachment to move there. Kleber's division is ordered to concentrate towards Rosetta. Deza, who allocated a detachment to pursue Murad and supplied food to the forts of Quene and Kesseir, was entrusted, together with Dugas, with maintaining peace within Egypt. Rainier was supposed to guard the Syrian border. On July 20, French troops (6 thousand) gathered in Romagna, and on July 23 they were already in the vicinity of Alexandria.

On July 25, Bonaparte attacked Mustafa, who had previously remained inactive under Aboukir. The battle ended on July 26, after the capture of the Abukir fort, with the complete defeat of the Turkish army, which lost 11 thousand killed, wounded and prisoners. The Turkish fleet returned to Constantinople, and only 2 English frigates Sydney Smith remained in front of Alexandria. The Abukir victory gave the French a moral and material advantage in Egypt.

In Europe, at this time, France was suffering setbacks (in Italy and on the Rhine), and within it discord and discouragement reigned. Due to the news of this and the consciousness of the impossibility, thanks to the loss of the fleet, with the real forces of the army to retain Egypt, Bonaparte decided to return to France. On August 22, taking advantage of the absence of the English fleet, accompanied by generals Berthier, Lannes, Andreosi, Murat, Marmont, Duroc and Bessières, he sailed from Alexandria on the frigates La Corriere and Murion and on October 9 landed safely in Fréjus. Command over the troops and administration of Egypt was entrusted to Kleber.

At this time, the Turkish army (up to 80 thousand) of the Grand Vizier had already been organized in Syria, and Kleber was clearly aware that with his weak forces, without good assistants, he would not be able to hold out for long in Egypt. Having sent a report to the Directory about this, he entered into negotiations with the Grand Vizier about leaving Egypt.

Meanwhile, on December 30, Fort El-Arish was taken by the Turks, which prompted Kleber to conclude the El-Arish Convention on January 24, 1800, according to which French troops were to be transported to France on their own or Turkish ships. Kleber sent a report about this to the Directory of General Dese and surrendered Katie (Katieh), Salagie (Salehie) and Belbeis to the Turks. The French army was already preparing to leave Cairo when notification was received from Admiral Keith, commanding the English fleet in the Mediterranean, that the English government demanded the surrender of the French army as prisoners of war. Kleber decided to continue the fight.

On March 20, near Cairo, near the ruins of the ancient city of Heliopolis, he defeated the main forces of the Grand Vizier and pursued them to Salagie. In Syria, the remnants of the Turkish army were destroyed by the Arabs.

After the battle of Heliopolis, Kleber, sending part of his troops to help the Cairo garrison, surrounded by the rebel population and the Turkish troops of Nassif Pasha, pursued the Grand Vizier to Salagie. Leaving Rainier here, on March 27 he and the rest of his forces arrived at Cairo, which was already in the power of Nassif Pasha and Ibrahim Bey. Having informed them of the fate of the Grand Vizier's army, he proposed to leave the city. But the rebels forced the Pasha and Ibrahim to break off the negotiations. Kleber, deciding to take Cairo by force, ordered Rainier to join him.

Meanwhile, Rainier sent the Rampon and Belliard brigades to Damietta, captured by the fellahs. Rampon was ordered to turn towards Cairo. Belliar defeated the fellahs near the village of Shuar and, leaving garrisons in the coastal forts, arrived at Cairo following Rampon's brigade. But even before their arrival, Kleber concluded an agreement with Murad Bey, who was given control of the regions of Jirje and Aswan with the obligation to pay tribute to the French. On April 25, Cairo surrendered and once again French power was restored.

Kleber set about putting internal affairs in order and restoring peace in the country. He took measures to staff the army with the local population, from among whom Copts, Syrians, and Ethiopian slaves willingly joined the ranks of the French troops in Lower Egypt. On June 14, Kleber was killed by a fanatic sent by the vizier.

By this time, the British government, having somewhat changed its view on the Egyptian question, approved the El-Arish Convention. But General Menou, who took command after Kleber, citing a lack of authority, suggested that Admiral Keith, who informed him about this, contact Paris. Then the British government developed a plan for landing a 20,000-strong detachment of English troops west of the mouth of the Nile for joint action with the Syrian Turkish Army, which was to advance along the right bank of the river. At the same time, 8 thousand British troops from the East Indies were supposed to move from Suez to the rear of the French.

Bonaparte, who became the first consul, took all measures to strengthen the army in Egypt and ease its situation: he entered into an alliance with Emperor Paul I, and the Russian fleet no longer harmed France in the Mediterranean; declared war on Portugal, which delayed the dispatch of General Abercrombie's English corps to Egypt from the island of Minorca and generally influenced the number of English troops sent to Egypt; moved Soult's corps to the Kingdom of Naples to occupy the ports of Brindisi, Otranto and Taranto, so that the British would not use them, as the most convenient for sending troops to Egypt; entered into negotiations with Turkey, which, however, were unsuccessful, and finally ordered a 5,000-strong detachment of troops to be transported to Egypt.

All these measures, however, brought little benefit to the Egyptian army. General Menu turned out to be completely inappropriate for the role that fell to his lot. The measures he took to govern the country only aroused hostility among the population. At the beginning of March 1801, out of 25 thousand, minus the sick, garrisons in cities, depots and non-combatants, about 16 thousand could be taken into the field. Senior generals tried in vain to persuade Mena to give the army a more convenient starting position to counter the naval landings and attacks from Syria and to supply the fortresses and forts with food. Just before the outbreak of hostilities, a 3-month supply of food was prepared in Cairo.

The appearance of plague in the Turkish army in the vicinity of Jaffa delayed the implementation of the Allied plan of action in Egypt until 1801. Abercrombie's corps (17 thousand), sent on December 22, 1800 to the shores of Anatolia, remained there until February 22, 1801, when Keita's squadron set off for the shores of Egypt. The British arrived at the Abukir roadstead on March 1, but the landing, due to bad weather, took place only on March 8.

On March 1, Friant sent Menu a report on the arrival of the English fleet and, leaving part of the troops in Alexandria and Rosetta, with 1,600 infantry, 2 cavalry squadrons and 10 guns, took a position on the dam of Lake Madie (near Abukir). On March 8, the British, after landing, drove Friant back to Alexandria. Menu limited himself to expelling one half-brigade. In addition, General Lannius came from Romagna on his own initiative with a division, thanks to which about 4 thousand with 21 guns gathered near Alexandria. The French, attacked on March 12 by all of Abercrombie's forces, retreated to Alexandria. Only on March 19 did Menu arrive there with new reinforcements; On March 19, the Abukir fort surrendered to the British. The English army (consisting of 16 thousand infantry and 24 guns) was located opposite Alexandria in a fortified position. Menu, having only about 9 thousand with 46 guns, attacked the British on March 21 at Kanop, but was forced to retreat to Alexandria with the loss of 2 thousand people. The British suffered the same losses, and General Abercrombie, who was replaced by General Utchinson, was mortally wounded.

During April, the combined detachment of Colonel Spencer (7 thousand British and 4 thousand Turks) occupied the city of Rosetta. Only having received 3 thousand reinforcements, Utchinson decided on May 9 to move to Romagnia, leaving a 6 thousand-strong detachment of General Kut against Alexandria. Colonel Spencer's detachment also moved there from Rosetta. General Lagrange, who stood with 4 thousand in El Afet, retreated to Cairo, where General Belliard was with 2.5 thousand.

After the plague had almost ceased at the end of March, the Grand Vizier Yusuf Pasha with an army of 15,000 marched into Egypt and occupied Katie on April 23, and in early May camped at Karainna. Belliard, fearing to be cut off, returned to Cairo. Then the allied forces besieged Cairo. Belliard, who was unable to get through to a connection with Menu, signed a convention on the abandonment of Cairo on June 27. On July 9, his entire detachment was sent from Abukir to France.

After this, only Menu’s 5,000-strong detachment remained in Egypt, occupying Alexandria. The whole of July passed in inactivity, and only in August did the British begin to blockade the city. On August 31, Menou signed a convention for the abandonment of Alexandria and the return of French troops to France.

Bonaparte's plans. In the mid-90s. XVIII century the newly emerged French Republic defended its independence and went on the offensive. It was obvious that the main enemy of France was Great Britain, sheltered from attacks by French divisions by its island position. The planned invasion of England through Ireland was never carried out. England could be harmed by disrupting its trade and jeopardizing the security of its colonial possessions. By the way, it was worth thinking about expanding French colonial possessions, most of which were lost in the last decades of the “old order”, i.e. under Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI.

Taking this into account, General Bonaparte, who gained enormous popularity after the Italian campaign, proposed organizing an expedition to Egypt. If this enterprise was successful, it was possible to create a French colony in Egypt and then move towards India. By proposing this plan, Bonaparte hoped to strengthen his influence, and the Directory government hoped to send the restless and already dangerously popular general “longer and further away” from Paris. So, for various reasons, different forces were interested in carrying out a campaign in North Africa.

Organization of the trip. They tried to keep the organization and preparation of the event strictly secret. The enemy should not have known why such a significant fleet was gathering in Toulon, Genoa, Civitta Vecchia and Ajaccio, and where this fleet intended to go. To transport a huge army (in total, the forces gathered under General Bonaparte amounted to about 50 thousand people), about 500 sailing ships were assembled in French Mediterranean ports. The flagship battleship "Orient" carried 120 guns, and it was supposed to carry Commander N. Bonaparte and Admiral Bruy. The army included 30 thousand infantry, 2,700 cavalry, 1,600 artillerymen, and about 500 guides. The command staff was headed by the best generals of the republic, such as Berthier, Deze, Kleben, Lannes, Murat, Sulkowski, Lavalette. They took only 1,200 horses, hoping to compensate for their shortage on the spot. In addition, a “detachment” of scientists was seconded to the army, consisting of specialists in a wide variety of fields, from mathematicians and geographers to historians and writers. Among them were the famous Berthollet, the chemist Conte, the writer Arno, the mineralogist Dolomier, and the physician Degenette.

Bonaparte sailed from Toulon on May 19, 1798. This fact, quite naturally, became known to the British, but they did not know where the French fleet was heading. Two months after the large squadron entered the Mediterranean Sea, a diversionary landing was launched in Ireland. Rumors spread that Bonaparte's expedition should turn west through Gibraltar.

The pursuit of Bonaparte. The English Admiral Nelson entered the Mediterranean Sea through Gibraltar in early May to control the movements of the French. It so happened that a strong storm pretty much battered the British ships, and when they completed the repairs, the French had already departed in an unknown direction. Nelson had to go in pursuit of the missing enemy. On May 22, he learned that a week earlier the French had captured the island of Malta and left in an easterly direction.

Nelson's squadron headed for Egypt. Since the English ships were faster than the French, she arrived there on June 28, ahead of the enemy. The English admiral decided that he had chosen the wrong direction and sailed from Alexandria towards Turkey, missing Bonaparte by one day.

Landing at Abukir. At noon on July 1, the French army began landing at Abukir, located a few miles east of Alexandria. The next night, the commander inspected the landing part of the troops. After this, the soldiers, hungry and unrested, marched towards Alexandria. The dilapidated defensive structures of the city could not withstand the assault, and by the night of July 2 the city was taken. Meanwhile, the landing of the French army near Aboukir was completed only on July 5. After this, Bonaparte moved along the Nile to the south, towards Cairo.

The country's population was made up of fellahins (dependent peasants), Bedouin nomads and Mameluke warriors, representing the dominant stratum of Egyptian society. Politically, Egypt was a vassal of Turkey, but the Sultan did not interfere in the internal affairs of this territory. However, the unscrupulous invasion of the French, who did not even bother to officially announce the start of the war, pushed the Sultan towards an anti-French coalition.

Fellahi and the Declaration of Rights. The French hoped that by entering Egyptian soil they would secure the support of the fellahs if they promised them freedom and equality. An appeal from General Bonaparte was drawn up and read out, promising the fellahs to “punish the usurpers and restore their rights.” The fellahs gloomily listened to the educational slogans addressed to them and remained completely indifferent. Flowery phrases about equality and human rights did not find any response in the souls of these illiterate and half-starved people, preoccupied with such prosaic problems as the need to feed their families. The words of the appeal, so pleasing to the Europeans of the Enlightenment, hit above and beyond their target in Egypt. This situation, in essence, determined the entire course and outcome of the campaign: Bonaparte had to act, in the words of the historian Manfred, “in a social vacuum,” without response and support among the mass of the local population. When conceiving this campaign, Napoleon, who was still thinking in terms of revolutionary times, hoped that the French would act according to the scenario worked out in Europe: the peoples of the East would rise up to meet the army bringing liberation from the oppression of the British. Meanwhile, he and his soldiers found themselves in the sphere of a different civilization, living by different values, by different rules.

Mamelukes. As for the brave Mamelukes, they bravely advanced to meet the uninvited guests. These dashing riders and skilled grunts boasted how they would chop foreigners into pieces, “like pumpkins.” On July 21, two armies met in the Valley of the Pyramids near Cairo. Murad Bey's army consisted of thousands of well-armed (carbine, two pairs of pistols, a saber, a stiletto, an ax tied to the pommel of the saddle) horsemen, desperately brave, excellent command of horse and weapon and accustomed to act at their own peril and risk, as in a single duel . In their rear there were hastily erected earthen fortifications, behind which the infantry, consisting of hastily armed fellahs, took refuge.

Battle in the Valley of the Pyramids. They were opposed by a well-coordinated military machine, where each soldier was part of a single whole. The attacking Mamelukes did not expect that the enemy would withstand their rapid and unstoppable onslaught. Tradition ascribes to General Bonaparte words that he allegedly said when addressing his soldiers before the start of the battle. We will leave their reliability to the conscience of Napoleonic historiographers, but it sounds expressively: “Soldiers, know that forty centuries are looking at you from the tops of these pyramids!” When the French moved towards the Mamelukes, they attacked their closed formation of bayonets in separate detachments. Moving forward, the French squares outflanked the Mamelukes, defeated them, and partially pushed them back to the Nile, where many of the Mamelukes drowned. The losses of the parties were as follows: about fifty French and about two thousand Mamelukes. Bonaparte's victory was complete. The Battle of the Valley of the Pyramids is a representative example of armed conflict between medieval warriors and the regular army of the late 18th century.

A day later, the French entered Cairo and settled there, marveling at the abundance of dirt and jewelry. Bonaparte took up the task of establishing governance of the country “in the European style,” still hoping to organize support and support for himself in the local environment.

Defeat at Aboukir. And then an event occurred that dramatically changed the whole situation. By the evening of August 1, 1798, Nelson's squadron, having wandered in vain in search of a rival along the coast of Turkey, returned to the mouth of the Nile and discovered the desired French fleet in the Gulf of Abukir. There were more French ships, so the English naval commander, famous for his bold and unexpected decisions, did this: he wedged some of the English ships between the shore and the line of French ships. Thus, the French found themselves literally “between two fires.” True, the British were fired upon not only from the sea, but also from the shore, but the British artillery fire was stronger. Admiral Bruy was killed by the cannonball, and after that the flagship Orient, on which he was located, flew into the air. By noon on August 2, the French fleet ceased to exist. Most of it was destroyed or captured. The crews of the two ships, seeing the hopelessness of their situation, chose to sink their ships themselves. Vice Admiral Villeneuve managed to take four ships away from enemy fire. The naval battle of Abukir (another name is the Battle of the Nile) nullified all the successes achieved by Bonaparte in military operations on land.

The Mameluke conqueror learned of the disaster that had befallen him only two weeks after the Battle of the Nile: even his organizational genius was unable to establish communications in this country, where time and speed did not matter. Bonaparte realized that he was cut off from communication with France, and this meant a delayed but inevitable death.

"Donkeys and scientists to the middle!" Nelson, having repaired his ships, left Egypt and went to Naples, leaving his rival deprived of naval means of transportation. Part of the French army, led by Dese, headed to the upper Nile, pursuing the remnants of Murad Bey's troops. Among the units of Deza there were also scientists who decided to take advantage of the opportunity to study the secrets of the East. When Mameluke detachments attacked the French troops, the command was heard: “Donkeys and scientists to the middle!” The soldiers placed these two expeditionary assets in the center of the square - inquisitive two-legged intellectuals and reliable long-eared porters - and entered into battle. In skirmishes with the Mamelukes, the French emerged victorious, but this did not change their hopeless situation.

A desperate decision. To escape the mousetrap, in February 1799 Bonaparte made a desperate decision to move to Syria “overland,” that is, through the desert. The French advanced inland, capturing fortresses and skirmishing with the elusive enemy. At the beginning of March, the stubbornly resisting fortress of Jaffa was taken, half of its garrison was killed during the assault, the other half was captured and also killed. The reason for such cruelty was that among those captured were people whom the French had released after capturing another fortress. The two-month siege of the coastal fortress of Acre (Saint-Jean d'Acre), the defense of which was led by European officers from the British and French royalists, ended in vain. Losses among the rank and file and command personnel grew. The plague epidemic became a terrible scourge for the French army.

Exhausted by battles, plague, lack of water and heat, the French army was forced to return to Egypt, where the Turks, who had landed near Abukir, were waiting for them. On July 25, 1799, another land battle took place near the same Abukir, during which Bonaparte managed to restore his military reputation. But this victory did not give anything to the winner - another Turkish army was approaching from Syria.

Bonaparte abandoned his plans to create a state in Egypt, organized in a European manner. The Egyptian campaign interested him largely in how much it could increase his popularity in France. It was the situation in France, where at the time of his departure to the East, the position of the Directory government was precarious and uncertain, that occupied him in the first place. Echoes of events taking place in Europe reached Bonaparte. Now, a year and a half after he left Paris, it was obvious that the Directory was finally “ripe” to fall.

It is difficult to guess the logic of Bonaparte’s thoughts, but his actions were as follows: discarding as unnecessary the sense of duty and responsibility for the troops entrusted to him, on August 22, 1799, Bonaparte fled from Egypt on one of the remaining ships, leaving his army to the mercy of fate. He left his deputy, General Kleber, with a written order transferring command to him. Moreover, the order was received by the deputy when Bonaparte was already at sea. For several more months, the brave Kleber continued the hopeless task until he was killed, and in the fall of 1801 the French army in Egypt was forced to surrender to the Anglo-Turkish troops.

Bonaparte's coup d'etat. Common sense dictates that a general who committed such an act should say goodbye to his career. The government was obliged to punish him severely, and the public was obliged to subject him to no less severe censure. Everything happened, however, exactly the opposite: the French welcomed the conqueror of the mysterious East with hope and jubilation, and the thieving Directory did not dare to reproach the hero for anything. A month after Bonaparte landed on the French coast, he carried out a coup d'etat and became an absolute dictator, "citizen first consul."

The Egyptian campaign, which showed how great the distance is between a military victory and the consolidation of its results in society, left a glorious mark on the development of European science and culture. The works of the scientists accompanying Bonaparte's army became the only achievement of this grandiose adventure. The Egyptian campaign contributed to changing the world in the sense that it was upon returning from there that Napoleon Bonaparte turned the French Republic into Napoleonic France.

In the mid-90s of the 18th century, the newly emerged French Republic defended its independence and went on the offensive. It was obvious that the main enemy of France was Great Britain, sheltered from attacks by French divisions by its island position. The planned invasion of England through Ireland was never carried out. England could be harmed by disrupting its trade and jeopardizing the security of its colonial possessions. Taking this into account, General Bonaparte, who gained enormous popularity after the Italian campaign, proposed organizing an expedition to Egypt. If this enterprise was successful, it was possible to create a French colony in Egypt and then move towards India. By proposing this plan, Bonaparte hoped to strengthen his influence, and the Directory government hoped to send the restless and already dangerously popular general “longer and further away” from Paris. Thus, different forces were interested in carrying out the campaign in North Africa.

On March 5, 1798, Napoleon was appointed commander of the "Egyptian army." 38 thousand the expeditionary army was concentrated in Toulon, Genoa, Ajaccio and Civitavecchia. Napoleon, in a short period of time, did a tremendous amount of work preparing the expedition, inspecting the ships, and selecting people for the expedition. The flower of the generals of the Republic went on a campaign - Kleber, Deze, Berthier, Murat, Lannes, Bessieres, Junot, Marmont, Duroc, Sulkowski. Lavalette, Bourrienne. Scientists also went on the campaign - the future “Institute of Egypt”, the famous Monge, Berthollet, Saint-Hillaire, Conté, Dolomieu, etc.

On May 19, 1798, an armada of four hundred transports and warships left the ports and, united, moved south. Its flagship was the battleship Orion. All of Europe knew that an expeditionary force was being prepared in France, and that its commander was the famous Bonaparte. The question was: where will it be sent? To capture Malta, Sicily, Egypt? To Ireland? No one, except the narrowest circle of military leaders, knew where the fleet was heading. Newspapers spread all sorts of rumors. At the beginning of May, there was a popular rumor that the fleet would pass the Strait of Gibraltar, circle the Iberian Peninsula and land on the Green Island. The British also believed this rumor; Nelson was guarding Gibraltar at the time the French fleet left the harbor for Malta.

2 Capture of Malta

On June 9-10, advanced French ships reached Malta. The island belonged to the Order of the Knights of Malta since the 16th century. The Order maintained friendly relations with England and Russia, enemies of France. The island was used as a temporary base for the British fleet.

The French made a request for a supply of drinking water. The Maltese gave permission for only one ship to take on water at a time. Considering the size of the French fleet, this was audacity. The delay could lead to the appearance of the British fleet. General Bonaparte demanded the surrender of the island. The Maltese began to prepare for defense. However, the knights had long lost their fighting spirit and were incapable of fighting, the mercenaries did not show a desire to die the death of the brave and capitulated or went over to the side of the French, the local population also did not express a desire to fight. The Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Ferdinand von Gompesch zu Bolheim, was unable to organize a defense; on the contrary, he readily surrendered to the French, explaining his actions by saying that the order’s charter prohibited hospitallers from fighting Christians. As a result, the French fleet easily landed several troops, which quickly occupied the entire island. The French banner was raised over the La Valette fortress.

Napoleon won his first victory. On June 19, the French fleet moved on, favorable winds blew, and the British were not visible. A small garrison was left on the island.

3 Landing in Egypt

On June 30, the shores of Africa appeared. On July 2, at Marabou, near Alexandria, the army was hastily, but in perfect order, landed. The troops immediately set out and a few hours later were at Alexandria. The French entered the city. The French fleet under the command of Admiral Brueys d'Aigallier remained near Alexandria, having received orders from the commander-in-chief to find a passage deep enough for battleships into the city's harbor, where they would be safe from a possible attack by the British fleet.

Egypt at this time was de jure the possession of the Ottoman sultans, but in fact it was ruled by the military caste-estate of the Mamluks. These were Turkic and Caucasian warriors by origin, who formed the guard of the last Egyptian rulers from the Ayyubid dynasty. In 1250, the Mamluks overthrew the last Ayyubid sultan, Turan Shah, and seized power in the country. The Mamluk beys paid some tribute to the Ottoman sultan, recognized his supremacy, but were practically independent of Constantinople.

Bonaparte, after a minor skirmish, occupied Alexandria. Here he pretended that he was not fighting the Ottomans, on the contrary, he had deep peace and friendship with Turkey, and the French came to free the local population from oppression by the Mamluks. Bonaparte already addressed the Egyptian people with an appeal on July 2. In it, he said that the beys ruling over Egypt were insulting the French nation and endangering its traders, and the hour of vengeance had come. He promised to punish the “usurpers” and said that he respects God, his prophets and the Koran. The French commander called on the Egyptians to trust the French, to unite with them in order to throw off the yoke of the Mamluks and create a new, more just order.

4 Transition to Cairo

Bonaparte did not linger in Alexandria; a strong force of 10 thousand was left there. garrison under Kleber. On the night of July 4, the French vanguard (4.6 thousand Dese division) set out towards Cairo. Of the two roads: through Rosetta and further up the Nile River and through the Damangur (Damakur) desert, connecting at Romagne, the French commander-in-chief chose the latter, shorter route. Behind the vanguard were the divisions of Bon, Rainier and Menou. The latter took command of the Rosetta district, and 1 thousand were left in Rosetta itself. garrison. At the same time, the division of General Dugas (formerly Kleber) went through Abukir to Rosetta, so that it was supposed to proceed from there to Romagna, accompanied by a flotilla of light ships that carried ammunition and provisions along the Nile. On July 9, Bonaparte himself left Alexandria with his headquarters. Before this, he ordered Admiral Brues, who was heading towards Abukir, not to linger there, but to move towards Corfu or enter the port of Alexandria.

The transition through the desert was very difficult. The soldiers suffered from the scorching rays of the African sun, the difficulties of crossing the hot desert sands, and lack of water. Local residents, who were informed that they wanted to turn everyone into slaves, left their wretched villages. Often the wells were damaged. Dysentery was the scourge of the army. The Mamelukes occasionally disturbed the French army with their raids. Napoleon was in a hurry, he knew that the enemy had to be defeated before the Nile flooded, since during the flood the entire area in the Cairo area would be a swamp, which would extremely complicate the task of destroying the main forces of the enemy.

On July 9, the French reached Damacourt and the next day advanced to Romagna. On July 13, the French defeated the Mamluks near the village of Chebreys. Here, the French commanders used formations in a square against the brave enemy cavalry - each division was lined up in a square, on the flanks of which there was artillery, and horsemen and convoys inside. The Mamluks retreated to Cairo.

5 Battle of the Pyramids

When the minarets of Cairo were already visible in the distance, in front of the French 20 thousand. The Mameluke cavalry appeared as an army. On July 20, 1798, the French army reached the village of Vardan, here the commander gave the troops a two-day rest. The soldiers needed at least a little refreshment and to get themselves in order. At the end of the second day, intelligence reported that the Mamluk army under the command of Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey was preparing for battle at a camp near the village of Imbaba. Napoleon began to prepare the army for a general battle. French troops, having completed a 12-hour march, saw the pyramids.

The Turkish-Egyptian army of Murad and Ibrahim occupied a position with its right wing adjacent to the Nile and its left wing to the pyramids. On the right flank, the fortified position was occupied by Janissaries and foot militia with 40 cannons; in the center stood the best forces of Egypt - the cavalry corps of the Mamelukes, noble Arabs, and on the left flank - the Arab Bedouins. Part of the Turkish-Egyptian army under the command of Ibrahim was on the eastern bank of the Nile. The river itself was blocked by about 300 ships. Residents of Cairo also gathered to watch the battle.

Before the battle, Napoleon addressed the soldiers with a speech in which he uttered his famous phrase: “Soldiers, forty centuries of history are looking at you!” Apparently, the hope for a quick holiday in Cairo played no small role in the high morale of the soldiers. The army was divided into 5 squares. Napoleon's headquarters conducted reconnaissance and quickly found out the enemy's weak points: the main Mameluke camp at Imbaba was poorly fortified, the artillery was immobile, the enemy infantry could not support the cavalry, so Napoleon did not attach much importance to the enemy infantry. It was necessary first of all to defeat the Mameluke cavalry in the center.

At approximately 15:30, Murad Bey launched a massive cavalry attack. The advanced divisions of Rainier and Deze were surrounded by masses of enemy cavalry, led by Murad Bey himself. Mamelyukov began to mow down the rifle and artillery fire. Those individual horsemen who were able to break through to the square itself died under bayonet attacks. One detachment of Mamelukes, having suffered huge losses, was able to break through the defenses of Deze and break into the square, but it was quickly surrounded and killed. For some time the Mamelukes circled around the impregnable squares, but then, unable to withstand the destructive fire, they retreated. Murad and part of the detachment retreated to the pyramids of Giza, while other Mamelukes headed to the fortified camp.

At the same time, the divisions of Bon, Dugua and Rampon repelled an attack by enemy cavalry from the camp from Imbaba. The cavalry retreated to the Nile, in the waters of which many found their deaths. Then the enemy camp was captured. The Egyptian infantry from the camp at Imbaba, realizing that the battle was lost, abandoned the camp and began using improvised means and swimming to the other side of the Nile. Murad's attempts to break through to the camp were repulsed. The Bedouins, who stood on the left flank and practically did not participate in the battle, disappeared into the desert. Towards nightfall, Murad also retreated, ordering the ships on the Nile to be burned.

It was a complete victory. The Turkish-Egyptian army, according to Napoleon, lost up to 10 thousand people. The losses of the French army were insignificant - 29 soldiers were killed, 260 were wounded. The Muslim clergy, after Napoleon's victory, surrendered Cairo without a fight. On July 24, 1798, Napoleon entered the Egyptian capital. Murad Bey with 3 thousand. the detachment retreated to Upper Egypt, where he continued the fight against the French. Ibrahim with a thousand horsemen retreated to Syria.

Bonaparte, having captured Cairo, was able to begin reorganizing the Egyptian system of government. All main power was concentrated in the French military commandants of cities and villages. Under them, an advisory body (“divan”) was established from the most eminent and wealthy local residents. The commandants, with the support of the “divans,” were supposed to maintain order, perform police functions, control trade and protect private property. The same advisory body was to appear in Cairo under the commander-in-chief; it included not only representatives of the capital, but also the provinces. Mosques and Muslim clergy were not subject to oppression, were respected and were inviolable. It was planned to streamline the collection of taxes and taxes, as well as organize delivery in kind for the maintenance of the French army. All land taxes that the Mameluke beys levied were abolished. The land holdings of the rebellious feudal lords, who fled with Murad and Ibrahim to the south and east, were confiscated.

6 Battle of Abukir

By the evening of August 1, 1798, the squadron of the British Admiral Nelson, having wandered in vain in search of a rival along the coast of Turkey, returned to the mouth of the Nile and discovered the French. The French squadron, consisting of 13 ships and 4 frigates, was anchored in the Gulf of Abukir. Nelson had 14 ships and one brig. The French had the numerical superiority, but in fact the British had significant advantages. Thus, a significant part of the French ships, such as the Guerrier and Conqueran, were old and dilapidated, the maximum caliber of the guns installed on them was only 18 pounds.

The commander of the French squadron, Vice Admiral Francois Bruet, did not take obvious measures to protect the fleet, which were possible in Abukir Bay, did not keep patrol ships at sea and did not send scouts to give advance warning of the approach of the British. On August 1, a significant part of the crew was sent ashore for fresh water, and the battery decks were cluttered with barrels pulled from the hold for filling with water brought from the shore. The disposition of the squadron itself was poorly organized. There were 13 battleships in the first line, but none of the flanks was so close to the 4-fathom shallows that the enemy could not bypass it, and that he could not penetrate into the disposition. The passages between the sandbank and the flanks were not protected even by the groups of frigates that formed the second line against the middle part of the first. Small ships were located just off the coast, at Cape Abukir.

The British admiral took advantage of the opportune moment and seized the initiative into his own hands. He attacked the French from two directions - from the sea and the coast. The British were able to surround a significant part of the French fleet and subjected them to fire from both sides. By 11 a.m. on August 2, the French fleet was completely defeated: 11 battleships were destroyed or captured. The French flagship Orient exploded and sank to the bottom along with the treasury - 600 thousand pounds sterling in gold bars and precious stones, which were seized from Rome and Venice to finance the Egyptian expedition. The French lost 5.3 thousand people, killed, wounded and prisoners. Admiral Francois-Paul Bruet also died along with his fleet. Only the commander of the French rearguard, Admiral P. Villeneuve, with two battleships and two frigates, was able to go to sea. The British lost 218 people killed and 677 wounded.

This defeat had very serious consequences for the Egyptian expedition. Napoleon's troops were cut off from France, and supplies were disrupted. Istanbul, which had been hesitant until that time, ceased to support the fiction spread by Bonaparte that he was not at all at war with the Ottoman Empire, but was only punishing the Mamelukes. On September 1, the Ottoman Empire declared war on France and the concentration of the Turkish army began in Syria.

7 Trek to Syria

The Ottomans, having concluded an alliance with England, were preparing an army to attack Egypt through the Isthmus of Suez. At the beginning of 1799, the Pasha of Acre, Jesar, occupied Taza and Jaffa and advanced the vanguard to the fort of El-Arish, the key to Egypt on the Syrian side. Simultaneously with the attack of the army from Syria, Murad Bey was supposed to attack the French in Upper Egypt, and they planned to land an amphibious corps at the mouth of the Nile.

Napoleon learned of the destruction of the French fleet only on August 13, 1798. When he received this terrible message, he did not become despondent. Bonaparte began to outline urgent measures to recreate the fleet. He did not give up his plans. However, the strength of the French army was melting away - at the end of 1798, Egypt was left with 29.7 thousand people, of which 1.5 thousand were unfit for combat. For the campaign in Syria, Napoleon was able to allocate only 13 thousand corps: 4 infantry divisions (Klébera, Rainier, Bona, Lanna) and 1 cavalry division (Murat). The remaining troops remained in Egypt. Desaix was left in Upper Egypt, in Cairo - Dugas, in Rosetta - Menou, in Alexandria - Marmont. A detachment of three frigates under the command of Perret was supposed to deliver a siege park (16 guns and 8 mortars) to Jaffa from Alexandria and Damietta. The corps was accompanied by a pack train of 3 thousand camels with a 15th supply of food and a 3rd supply of water.

The Syrian campaign was terribly difficult, especially due to the lack of water. On February 9, 1799, units of Kleber and Rainier arrived at El-Arish and besieged it. On February 19, when the rest of the troops arrived, the fort, after a small skirmish, capitulated. On February 26, after a difficult journey through the desert, the French reached Gaza. Initially, the operation was successful. On March 3, French troops reached Jaffa. On March 7, having made a hole in the wall, the Lanna and Bona divisions took the city. Several dozen guns were captured in the fortress. Palestine was conquered. However, the further the French went east, the more difficult it became. The resistance of the Turkish troops intensified, and the British loomed behind them. The population of Syria, on whose support Napoleon hoped, was as hostile to the infidels as in Egypt.

During the assault on Jaffa, the city was severely defeated; the French soldiers were extremely cruel to the vanquished, exterminating everyone. Napoleon, before the assault, told the townspeople that if it came to an attack, there would be no mercy. The promise was kept. A crime was committed against prisoners of war in Jaffa. About 4 thousand Turkish soldiers surrendered on the condition that their lives were spared. The French officers promised them captivity, and the Turks left the fortification they occupied and laid down their arms. Bonaparte was very annoyed by the whole affair. “What should I do with them now?” - the general shouted. He had no supplies to feed the prisoners, no men to guard them, no ships to transport them to Egypt. On the fourth day after the capture of the city, he ordered everyone to be shot. All 4 thousand captives were taken to the seashore and here they killed every single one. In Jaffa, plague appeared in the army. The dead population of the city “took revenge” on the French - unburied corpses were lying all over Jaffa.

The war did not turn out the way Napoleon dreamed, but he still hoped to turn the situation around. On March 14, the army moved on and on the 18th approached the walls of the old fortress of Saint-Jean d'Acre (Acre). The fortress was defended by 5 thousand. garrison (initially, then increased) under the command of Ahmed Al-Jazzar. Napoleon believed that the capture of this fortress would open up a direct route to Damascus and Aleppo, to the Euphrates. He saw himself following the path of the great Alexander the Great. Beyond Damascus, Baghdad and a direct route to India awaited him. But the old fortress, which at one time belonged to the crusaders, did not succumb to Napoleon’s troops. Neither the siege nor the assaults produced the expected results.

The Turkish command sent a 25 thousand army under the command of the Damascus Pasha Abdullah to the rescue of the fortress. Napoleon initially sent Kleber's division against it. But having learned about the significant superiority of the enemy forces, Bonaparte personally led the troops, leaving part of the corps to besiege Acre. On April 16, at Mount Tabor, Napoleon defeated the Turkish troops, the Turks lost 5 thousand people, all their supplies and fled to Damascus.

The siege of Acre lasted two months and ended unsuccessfully. Napoleon did not have enough siege artillery, and there were few people for a massive assault. There were not enough shells and ammunition, and their transportation by sea and land was impossible. The Turkish garrison was strong. The British helped the Ottomans: the defense was organized by Sidney Smith, and the British brought reinforcements, ammunition, weapons, and provisions from the sea. Acre crushed the small French army. Napoleon could not replenish the ranks of his army, and the Turks constantly received reinforcements.

Early in the morning of May 21, French troops withdrew from their positions. The soldiers marched quickly, shortening their rest time so as not to be overtaken by the enemy, along the same road from which they had come, after three months of suffering and sacrifice that were in vain. The withdrawal was accompanied by the devastation of the region in order to complicate the Ottomans' offensive operation. The retreat was even more difficult than the advance. It was already the end of May, and summer was approaching, when the temperature in these parts reaches its maximum level. In addition, the plague continued to haunt the French army. Those with the plague had to be left behind, but the wounded and sick were not taken with them because of the plague. Napoleon ordered everyone to dismount and provide the horses, all carts and carriages to those incapacitated. He walked on foot, like everyone else. It was a terrible transition, the army was melting before our eyes. People were killed by the plague, overwork, heat and lack of water. Up to a third of its members did not return. On June 14, the remnants of the corps reached Cairo.

8 Return to Europe

Before Bonaparte had time to rest in Cairo, news arrived that a Turkish army had landed near Abukir. On July 11, the Anglo-Turkish fleet arrived at the Abukir roadstead, and on the 14th 18,000 troops were landed. landing Mustafa Pasha had to gather the Mamelukes and all those dissatisfied with French rule in Egypt. The French commander immediately set out on a campaign and headed north to the Nile Delta. By July 25, Napoleon gathered about 8 thousand soldiers and attacked Turkish positions. In this battle, the French washed away the shame of the French fleet for the recent defeat. The Turkish landing army simply ceased to exist: 13 thousand dead (most of them drowned trying to escape), about 5 thousand prisoners. The losses of the French troops amounted to 200 killed and 550 wounded.

After this, Napoleon decided to return to Europe. France at this time was suffering defeat in Italy, where all the fruits of Napoleon's victories were destroyed by Russian-Austrian troops under the command of Suvorov. France itself and Paris were threatened by an enemy invasion. Turmoil and complete disorder in affairs reigned in the Republic. Napoleon received a historic chance to “save” France. And he took advantage of it. On August 22, taking advantage of the absence of the British fleet, accompanied by his fellow generals Berthier, Lannes, Andreosi, Murat, Marmont, Duroc and Bessières, the commander sailed from Alexandria. On October 9 they landed safely at Fréjus.

The command of the French troops in Egypt was entrusted to Kleber. The troops cut off from France resisted for some time, but by the end of the summer of 1801 they were forced to clear Egypt and return to France.