The Egyptian Expedition

In 1798 the Directory sent Bonaparte with a large army to Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire ruled by Mamluk beys. The aim was to threaten British routes to India, expand French trade, and perhaps keep an ambitious general away from Paris. Bonaparte took Malta, landed at Alexandria and defeated the Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids in July 1798. But on 1 August the British fleet under Nelson destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir Bay, trapping the army in Egypt.

A siege of Acre in Syria failed in 1799, and disease took a heavy toll. Bonaparte left secretly for France in August 1799; the remaining French forces surrendered in 1801. Alongside the army travelled more than 150 scholars, whose work founded modern Egyptology. The expedition was a military failure that Bonaparte's propaganda turned into a personal triumph.