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Despite early victories in Egypt and an initially successful expedition into Syria, the destruction of a French Navy fleet by the British navy at the Battle of the Nile stranded French troops in Egypt, and the defeat of Napoleon and his Army of the Orient by Anglo-Ottoman forces at Acre forced the French to withdraw from Syria.
The Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a major engagement fought on 21 July 1798, during the French Invasion of Egypt. The battle took place near the village of Embabeh, across the Nile River from Cairo, but was named by Napoleon after the Great Pyramid of Giza visible nearly nine miles away.
In early 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte proposed its annexation as part of a wider plan to weaken British interests in the Middle East. [11] He hoped to use Egypt as the first step in taking Constantinople, then to invade India and assist local uprisings against the British. [12]
He also formed the Commission des Sciences et des Arts, a body of scientists and engineers intended to establish a French colony in Egypt. [9] Napoleon kept the destination of the expedition top secret—most of the army's officers did not know of its target, and Bonaparte did not publicly reveal his goal until the first stage of the expedition ...
On 1 July, Napoleon, aboard the ship L'Orient en route to Egypt, wrote the following proclamation to the Muslim inhabitants of Alexandria: For too long the beys who govern Egypt have insulted the French nation and covered their traders in slanders. The hour of their punishment has come.
At the time of Napoleon's invasion, travelers had long known of Alexandria, Cairo, and other parts of Lower Egypt. The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx were famous. But Upper Egypt wasn't as well known.
The Mediterranean campaign of 1798 was a series of major naval operations surrounding a French expeditionary force sent to Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Republic sought to capture Egypt as the first stage in an effort to threaten British India and support Tipu Sultan , and thus force Great ...
The Battle of Abukir of 8 March 1801 was the second pitched battle of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria to be fought at Abu Qir on the Mediterranean coast, near the Nile Delta. The landing of the British expeditionary force under Sir Ralph Abercromby was intended to defeat or drive out an estimated 21,000 remaining troops of Napoleon's ill ...