French Campaign in Egypt

Also called: Egyptian expedition, Battle of the Pyramids, Battle of the Nile, Battle of Aboukir Bay

To cut Britain’s route to India, Napoleon invaded Egypt; he won the Battle of the Pyramids but lost his fleet at the Battle of the Nile and was cut off.

Rather than invade Britain itself, the Directory decided to seize Egypt, the crossroads between Britain and India. On 19 May 1798 an expedition of about 36,000 men sailed from Toulon, took Malta and landed at Alexandria on 1 July. On 21 July Napoleon routed the Mamluk cavalry at Embabeh opposite Cairo (the Battle of the Pyramids). But on 1–3 August a British fleet under Nelson all but destroyed the French fleet in Abu Qir Bay (the Battle of the Nile), trapping the army in Egypt.

Napoleon advanced into Syria in 1799 but failed to take Acre, and on 23 August he slipped back to France, leaving his army behind; it surrendered to the British and Ottomans in 1801. The scholars who accompanied the expedition founded the Institut d’Égypte and published the Description de l’Égypte, and the Rosetta Stone found at this time later became the key to reading Egyptian hieroglyphs.