Books
Phase
Egyptian Campaign
1798–1801 CE
The French Egyptian Campaign began in 1798 when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt, then formally an Ottoman province dominated by Mamluk elites. French forces won at the Battle of the Pyramids and occupied Cairo, but the destruction of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile left the expedition strategically isolated.
Napoleon’s subsequent advance into Ottoman Syria failed at Acre in 1799. After he returned to France, French forces remained in Egypt until a British and Ottoman offensive compelled their surrender and evacuation in 1801. The expedition combined military conquest with an unusually large scientific mission whose work helped stimulate European Egyptology.
