French campaign in Egypt and Syria

French campaign in Egypt and Syria
Part of the War of the Second Coalition
Click an image to load the appropriate article. Left to right, top to bottom: Battles of the Pyramids, the Nile, Cairo, Abukir (1799), Abukir (1801), and Alexandria (1801)
Date 1 July 1798 – 2 September 1801 (3 years, 2 months and 1 day) Location Ottoman Empire Result Anglo-Ottoman victory End of Mamluk rule in Egypt Formal end of the Franco-Ottoman alliance Failure of French expedition to Syria Capitulation of French administration in Egypt
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Eyalet of Egypt Mamluks Nablus Tribesman[1] Bedouin Tribesman (1798-1799) Albanian Bashi-bazouks  Great Britain (1798–1800)  United Kingdom (1801) Bedouin Tribesman (1801) Regency of Algiers[2]	French Republic Armée d'Orient
Commanders and leaders
Selim III Yusuf Pasha Mustafa Pasha Muhammad Ali Pasha Jezzar Pasha Abdullah Pasha Murad Bey Ibrahim Bey Abdallah Bey  Haim Farhi Ralph Abercromby (DOW) Gordon Drummond Samuel Graham John Moore George Ramsay John Hely-Hutchinson William Beresford Sidney Smith Horatio Nelson Antoine de Phélippeaux #	Napoleon Bonaparte Jean Kléber † Thomas Dumas Jacques Menou  Jean Lannes Louis Desaix Joachim Murat Louis-Nicolas Davout Jean Rapp René Savary Jean-Antoine Verdier Jean Reynier Louis André Bon † Jean-Baptiste Bessières Cousin de Dommartin (DOW) Maximilian Caffarelli (DOW) Jean-Baptiste Perrée Charles Dugua Martin Dupuy † Brueys d'Aigalliers † Pierre-Charles Villeneuve Horace Sébastiani Charles-Louis Lasalle Rose de Beauharnais Louis Bonaparte Géraud Duroc Joseph Sulkowski (DOW) Louis Friant
Strength
220,000 soldiers 30,000 soldiers	40,000 soldiers 10,000 sailors
Casualties and losses
Ottoman Empire: 50,000 killed and wounded[3] 15,000 captured Total: 65,000	France: 15,000 killed and wounded[3] 23,500 captured[4] Total: 38,500

War of the Second Coalition:
Egypt and Syria

800km
500miles

6

5

Jaffa

4

Cairo

3

Alexandria

2

Malta

1

  

  Napoleon in command till 23 August 1799

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The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was a Napoleonic campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, executed by Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon proclaimed to "defend French trade interests" and to establish "scientific enterprise" in the region. It was the primary purpose of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, which was a series of naval engagements that included the capture of Malta and the Greek island Crete, later arriving in the Port of Alexandria. The campaign ended in defeat for Napoleon after abandoning his troops to head back to France for the looming risk of a Second Coalition. This led to the death and withdrawal of French troops in the region.

On a scientific front, the expedition was a success that led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, creating the field of Egyptology. Despite early victories and an initially successful expedition into Syria, Napoleon and his Armée d'Orient were eventually defeated and forced to withdraw, especially after suffering the defeat of the supporting French fleet by the British Royal Navy at the Battle of the Nile.