Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

NAPOLEON AND EGYPT, 1798–99
In March and April 1798, the Directory secretly signed the
decrees ordering an expedition to Egypt and creating an Army
of the Orient. Its command was entrusted to the young General
Bonaparte, who was still basking in glory from the First Italian
Campaign (1796–97). If the mission’s objective was to block
Britain’s access to the trade route to India and to re-establish
commercial relations with the Levant, strategically it also served
to remove Napoleon, whose popularity had become troubling,
from the French political scene. Thirty-seven thousand soldiers
set out with Napoleon on this epic and now legendary journey,
as well as one hundred and fifty-four savants or scholars.
Civilians drawn from every discipline of knowledge, these
mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, doctors, naturalists,
engineers, geographers, architects, draughtsmen, printers,
literary experts, artists and musicians amassed an extraordinary
body of knowledge about both ancient and modern Egypt.
Despite initial victories, notably the famous triumph over the
Mamelukes at the Battle of the Pyramids on the plains at Giza
on 21 July 1798, the subsequent destruction of the French fleet
by the British Admiral Nelson at Aboukir on 1 August effectively
blockaded the Army of the Orient within Egypt. Condemned to
an inevitable defeat, the expedition ended in August 1801 with
the capitulation of the French forces, who were evacuated on
British ships. Napoleon himself had left Egypt on 23 August 1799,
returning to France.
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