Napoleon in Egypt
Napoleon in Egypt
Paul Strathern
Bantam (2008)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: History, Military, Naval
Historyttt Militaryttt Navalttt
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, set sail for Egypt with 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, and scientists to establish an eastern empire. He saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians from oppression. But Napoleon wasn’t the first—nor the last—who tragically misunderstood Muslim culture. Marching across seemingly endless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, pushed to the limits of human endurance, his men would be plagued by mirages, suicides, and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor would degenerate into chaos. And yet his grand failure also yielded a treasure trove of knowledge that paved the way for modern Egyptology—and it tempered the complex leader who believed himself destined to conquer the world.
**
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In 1797, eight years after the French Revolution, an obscure general, Napoleon Bonaparte, became a national hero after a brilliant campaign in Italy. Equally impressed with his own genius, he formed the idea of conquering Egypt and, like his idol, Alexander, marching on to India. Nonfiction author and award-winning novelist Strathern (
Big Idea: Scientists Who Changed the World
) turns up plenty of surprises in an enthralling history of the first of Napoleon's world-class debacles. With extraordinary logistical skill and luck, Napoleon led 40,000 men and hundreds of ships across the Mediterranean to Alexandria in 1798. Defeating local armies and occupying the capital, Cairo, proved easy, but difficulties arose despite genuine efforts to replace a corrupt government with French ideals of freedom and justice. A nasty insurgency developed; Admiral Nelson destroyed Napoleon's fleet; and the British also frustrated his invasion of Palestine. Abandoning his tattered army after a year under brutal desert conditions, Napoleon returned to France, pronouncing the invasion an unqualified success. Stories of powerful men making disastrous decisions have an endless fascination, and Strathern makes the most of it in this entertaining account. Illus., maps.
(Oct. 21)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Here is a compelling narrative of an epic collision between two civilizations. In May 1798, Napoléon Bonaparte launched his ill-fated invasion of Egypt. Among his 40,000 invading troops (the Army of the Orient) was a small group of French scholars whom Napoléon included in the expedition for the sole purpose of examining all aspects of Egyptian culture. Although the French fought magnificently, the ravages of disease and British naval power brought them to their knees—but not before Napoléon's "savants" unveiled the grandeur of an ancient civilization and changed forever perceptions of the history of humankind. In this riveting account of that colossal campaign, British writer and philosopher Strathern ("Philosophers in 90 Minutes" series) evokes the incredible hardships endured by French soldiers in an unforgiving land. At the same time, he offers a poignant view of a Muslim society overwhelmed by invaders who brought death and destruction in the name of brotherhood and equality. Strathern's skillful use of memoir and other primary sources brings to life one of the most fascinating campaigns in military history. Libraries that have already purchased Juan Cole's
Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East
should still consider this more cohesive and less didactic account of a long-ignored Napoleonic misadventure. Specialists should also be intrigued by Strathern's analysis of the complex motives for France's invasion of Egypt. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries.—Jim Doyle, Rome, GA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
NAPOLEON IN EGYPT
CONTENTS
Prologue: The Song of Departure
I The Origins of the Egyptian Campaign
V “A conquest which will change the world”
VII The Battle of the Pyramids
IX “Josephine! . . . And I am 600 leagues away!”
XI “We are now obliged to accomplish great things”
XVIII Pursuit into Upper Egypt
XXIII The Battle of Mount Tabor
XXIV “That man made me lose my destiny”
XXVII The Decision of a Lifetime
To Matthias
MAPS
Routes taken by Napoleon’s fleet and Nelson’s squadron
Alexandria
Lower Egypt
Battle of the Pyramids Cairo
Battle of the Nile
Upper Egypt
Syrian Campaign
Siege of Acre
Battle of Mount Tabor
Battle of Aboukir
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Napoleon was of course merely General Bonaparte at the time of his invasion of Egypt. However, he remains for the most part better remembered in history as Napoleon. In accord with this popular conception, I have referred to him as Napoleon throughout (as indeed he did himself in his third-person memoirs of this period).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Once again, I am particularly glad to acknowledge the meticulous and perceptive editing of Jörg Hensgen of Jonathan Cape. I am also indebted to Will Sulkin of Jonathan Cape, who believed in the idea of
Napoleon in Egypt
and encouraged it. However, none of this could have come about but for my indefatigable agent, Julian Alexander of LAW, who as ever played such a leading role in the conception of this book.
Europe is a molehill. . . . Everything here is worn out. . . . tiny Europe has not enough to offer. We must set off for the Orient; that is where all the greatest glory is to be achieved.
Napoleon
The time I spent in Egypt was the most delightful of my life because it was the most ideal.
Napoleon
I saw the way to achieve all my dreams. . . . I would found a religion, I saw myself marching on the way to Asia, mounted on an elephant, a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran that I would have composed to suit my needs. In my enterprises I would have combined the experiences of the two worlds, exploiting the realm of all history for my own profit.
Napoleon
PROLOGUE
:
THE SONG OF DEPARTURE
The invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in the summer of 1798 was the first great seaborne invasion of the modern era. At the time, it may well have been the largest ever launched in the Western world—at least on a par with Xerxes’ vast Persian fleet which attacked Athens at the Battle of Salamis in 480
BC
, and certainly double the size of the sixteenth-century Spanish Armada which attempted to invade Elizabethan England. Yet unlike these predecessors, Napoleon’s invasion involved a long sea voyage of almost 2,000 miles. His armada consisted of 335 ships, ranging from towering battleships and fast frigates to lowly transports, from those bearing a cargo of just forty tons to those carrying over 400 tons. Each of these ships carried full crews, and in all the fleet was loaded with 1,200 horses, 171 field guns and an official roll-call of 35,000 soldiers. In fact, the number of soldiers was almost certainly nearer 40,000: Napoleon exploited the opportunity provided by four separate main embarkation ports—Toulon and Marseilles in France, Genoa and Civitavecchia in Italy—to surreptitiously increase the quota allowed him by the five-man Directory which ruled revolutionary France at the time.
Yet these were not the only unofficial additions to the expedition: as many as 300 women are also thought to have traveled aboard the fleet. A good number of these would have been the washerwomen and seamstresses who normally accompanied the French army at this time, but there were certainly many others smuggled aboard, contrary to Napoleon’s orders. These were mainly the wives of junior and middle-ranking army officers, who were hustled up the gangways dressed in officer’s uniform, their figures disguised by cloaks, their tresses swept up under military caps. As we shall see, these women would prove more than mere supernumeraries, and two in particular would achieve fame: one as Egypt’s new Cleopatra, the other spiritedly opposing a Napoleonic insult to women.
It took little time for Napoleon to become aware that these extra women had been smuggled aboard: he always made it his business to be well supplied with intelligence by spies, as much amongst his own ranks as amongst the enemy. Far from disconcerting him, this discovery meant he felt less compunction about initiating his own covert plan for female company. As arranged, after four days at sea he dispatched the frigate
Pomone
to collect his wife Josephine from Naples—a mission which proved fruitless because Josephine had capriciously decided not to travel to southern Italy.