Napoleon in Egypt - Scholarship Essay Example

Napoleon in Egypt Introduction Following the capture of Tyre and the successful conclusion of the siege of Gaza in October 332 BC Alexander the Greathad isolated Egypt from the remainder of the Persian empire. Consequently, his entry was accomplished without any resistance. Alexander immediately set about the practical duties of conqueror--grain purchasing arrangements were concluded and the construction of the new port of Alexandria was started.1 However, according to biographer, Peter Green, Alexander was not concerned only with matters temporal. "It is no exaggeration to say that the months Alexander spent in Egypt, from late October 332 till April 331, marked a psychological turning-point in his life." By right of conquest Alexander "became simultaneously god and king, incarnation and son of Ra and Osiris; he was Horus the Golden One, the mighty prince, beloved of Amen, King of Upper and Lower Egypt."2 Previously, in Macedonia, rumours of Alexander being the son of a God had circulated. His mother claimed his father was Zeus-Ammon and it was said that he had a ring as a token of this paternity. However, it was in Egypt for the first time "he learnt that he was in truth a god, and the son of a god. Greek tradition distinguished sharply between the two; Egypt did not."3 He was not merely the son of a God but a God. Over two millennia later another rising military and imperial star, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. Like Alexander before him, Napoleon, for a host of diverse reasons, both personal and political, opportunistic and strategic, turned his eyes to the Nile delta. The campaign is regarded as one of his first defeats. However, while it may have been a failure militarily, and was followed by Bonaparte becoming First Consul, then Emperor, and it had profound consequences on European history beyond the military and strategic. Napoleon in Egypt The months Napoleon spent in Egypt cannot be described as a psychological turning-point in his life, as they were for Alexander. However, the fact of the matter is that, Napoleon departed for Egypt as a leading military leader and returned a candidate for Emperor. Militarily, the campaign was a defeat. The Army of Italy was shipped to Egypt and campaigned along the Nile. It won some battles and it lost some battles. Ultimately, Nelson destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay and left the army stranded in Egypt. At this point Napoleon returned to France where he became First Consul. Critics argue he abandoned his army in Egypt. His advocates claim he returned to the seat of government to rescue the Revolution. His motives for the invasion are also manifold and unclear. Strategically, the objective was to drive the British from their last remaining bastion in the eastern Mediterranean. According to Stuart Harten research into the construction of a Suez canal was the intention of the military and the scientific aspects of the expedition.4 Personally, it looked like easy prey and Napoleon needed another victory to burnish his image because the lustre of Italy was fading. Also, like Alexander, Napoleon had scientific and spiritual interest in Egypt. Prior to invading Egypt, Napoleon “sought the advice of chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748–1822) and invited around 150 scientists, artists, engineers and surgeons – known as the savants – to accompany him to Egypt.” Humphries describes the enormity of the undertaking: “The formation of a scientific institute in a foreign land [Institut d’Égypte], the collection and detailing of every aspect of current and ancient life there and the (at least attempted) removal of a large number of artefacts – including the Rosetta stone – for study back in France.” He also cannot resist editorializing, “it is hard to think of a similar military campaign that has been so scientifically bold.... A feat of unparalleled brilliance.”5 Among its achievements was not the destruction of the nose on the sphinx. Many believe the story that Napoleon had cannon destroy the face of the Sphinx when it refused to answer his question. Geromes Napoleon and the Sphinx may have fed into that story, but it is exactly that, only a story. (Sketches of the Sphinx pre-dating the French invasion, show it without a nose.) In fact, that story could not be further from the truth. According to Stuart Harten the French carried off so many artefacts, and inventoried and sketched so many more that they could not carry off that they “radically recentered the geographical map of European culture, shifting the axis from St. Peters in Rome to the Louvre in Paris.”6 The work of the savants made Paris the cultural centre of the world. It also introduced the world to the word Orientalist – one who paints or writes about ancient cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. “The Rosetta Stone paved the way to the decipherment of hieroglyphics and the birth of modern Egyptology, and the Description [Description de lÉgypte, (1809-1829)] advanced the documentation of pharaonic art, architecture, and topography,” according to Donald Malcolm Reid.7 It made Paris the centre of the cultural world geographically and the ancient Orient the centre of the cultural world spiritually. These revolutionary cultural shifts were direct results of Napoleons expedition to Egypt. Napoleon and the Sphinx. by Jean Gerome, 1862 They even out weighted the ultimate disposition of the Rosetta Stone itself. The Rosetta Stone had ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, other Egyptian script and Ancient Greek: Three languages, one text. It meant that readers of Ancient Greek could begin translating it into ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and vis versa. The secrets of the language of the pyramid builders was cracked by the Rosetta stone. The British seized the Rosetta stone when they defeated the French in Egypt and took it to London but it was still France that became the cultural centre of Europe after Napoleons expedition to Egypt. Edward P. F. Rose focuses on the earth scientists that accompanied Napoleon. He argues that they were the first geologists to work under the auspices of any army. However, he does not mention their work on a potential canal, suggests they were of little use militarily, but “seized the opportunity to conduct exploration geology in a relatively little-known landscape with an easily recognizable enthusiasm.”8 They conducted geological research for its own sake, not merely as an adjunct to their engineering and more practical military responsibilities. Along with Orientalists and earth scientists Napoleon brought natural historians such as Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844). Paul Humphries describes his Indiana Jones-like escapades: Geoffroy “spent almost four gruelling years living in conditions ranging from luxurious to squalid, traipsing over scorching deserts wracked with thirst, dodging the swords and canons of the Mamelukes – the dreaded warrior tribe then ruling Egypt – attempting to avoid the ravages of the plague and being besieged by the Turks and British.”9 Despite these burdens they sketched wildlife, collected specimens and documented astronomical and other data. Like the geologists they were first and foremost scientists, not military men with additional scientific responsibilities. According to Ann Godlewska the savants were not military men but they were as much imperial conquerors, remodelers and expropriators as the imperial military machine. “The Description creates the Egypt that could be claimed and taken home and mathematically and rigorously interpreted in the silence of French libraries laboratories and museums without the difficult complications associated with colonialism, subject peoples and the bizarreries of other cultures.”10 Paris became the cultural epicentre of the world because Napoleons savants packaged Egypt like take away food and shipped it home. Anything they left behind the British shipped to London. The imperial struggle between Napoleons France and Great Britain was a war for culture and a war for hearts and minds, as well as a war for military and strategic domination. Conclusions The importance of Napoleons expedition to Egypt includes the military and strategic aspects but also extends well beyond them. In strictly strategic terms it was an unmitigated failure. It did not secure Egypt for the French nor did it see a French controlled Suez canal built. The French fleet was defeated and the army was isolated. That said, it is impossible to deny that it had positive effects on the career of its military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte. It directly led to Napoleons selection as First Consul and set him on the path to Emperor. However, its impact extended beyond, strategy and diplomacy. It was also a cultural and scientific expedition. This in and of itself was a revolutionary change: An army marching with a compliment of scholars alongside. The cultural warriors were to catalogue the extend of the new dominions and also collect the must meaningful artefacts and ship them to the heart of the revolution and the empire, Paris. In this sense it was a cultural war to colonize ancient Egypt but also a stroke against Great Britain in the imperial war for cultural dominance. In this sense it makes one aware of the ultimate power of the revolution: No longer did state fight state but nation fought nation and culture had become part of the battleground. The Research Process I started my search by logging into the library website. This convenient feature allowed me to do much of my research online although hard copy library research also had its rewards. The first resource I located using the library catalogue was in the librarys E-book collection. I searched the research terms Napoleon and Egypt and searched E-Resources with a single result. It was Donald Malcolm Reids Whose pharaohs?: archaeology, museums, and Egyptian national identity from Napoleon to World War I ACLS Humanities E-Book. This book immediately introduced the cultural and scientific purposes and impacts of the expedition. It also quickly proved the importance of searching for resources online and using online resources. On the downside this resource only produced a single result. To obtain more results I could have taken two approaches. I could have used only a single search term – Napoleon – or I could have searched the entire library catalogue – including hard copy books – to increase the number of results. Therefore, I next stared using the search tools for academic periodicals online. On “EBSCO” I used search terms Napoleon, Egypt and it returned five results. The first was Edward P. F. Roses article, “Napoleon Bonapartes Egyptian campaign of 1798: the first military operation assisted by geologists?” This article broadened my understanding of the scope of the scientific disciplines that the savants were composed of. “EBSCO” is a very useful database. It references academic, full-text periodicals and with my two search terms provided quick access to five relevant articles. Then using “JLOSTAR” I found “Map, Text and Image. The Mentality of Enlightened Conquerors: A New Look at the Description de lEgypte” by Anne Godlewska. It was the seventh article in a search that returned 8462 results. “JLOSTAR” is a valuable database for research. It references academic periodicals and the search can be limited to full-text articles. If the 8462 results had not yielded relevant results quickly I would have had to add a third search term to narrow the search down. Searching various more general databases I located the chapter by Stuart Harten, “Rediscovering Ancient Egypt: Bonapartes Expedition and the Colonial Ideology of the French Revolution” in Napoleon in Egypt, edited by Irene A. Bierman on Google Books. The search Napoleon and Egypt on Google Books produced 373,000 hits. The Bierman book was the first result, and the chapter “Rediscovering Ancient Egypt: Bonapartes Expedition and the Colonial Ideology of the French Revolution” was included in its entirety in the free preview. This article linked with Godlewskas article. Her article detailed the theory of the ideology and this article outlined the application of the ideology. The problem with Google Books is that it does not contain the full-text of all the books it links to and it is more of a tool for building a bibliography that can then be found in the library catalogue rather than a research tool. That said in this particular instance the section of the book that was reproduced in Google Books happened to be the precise source I needed. One resource I found by a stroke of good luck. When I searched the library catalogue under emperor and egypt manys books about Alexander the Great turned up. I went and scanned through one of these looking for Napoleon in the index. That is how I found the Peter Green book that provided the anecdote for the introduction. It also reveals that even with outstanding online resources available at University of Exeter there is still a place for books and old style shelf-walking in research today. The most important thing I learned about research during the course of this assignment was the importance of using a variety of search tools and techniques. No single database, catalogue or search tool contained all the resources available. Research was like finding the pieces of the puzzle before beginning to assemble the puzzle, and the pieces were hidden all over the place not in just one research resource. The assignment demonstrated that I need a kit of research tools and that no one research tool alone is enough. References Godlewska, Anne. “Map, Text and Image. The Mentality of Enlightened Conquerors: A New Look at the Description de lEgypte” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers New Series, Volume 20, Number 1 (1995), pp. 5-28. . Green, Peter Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B C University of California Press Berkeley, CA: 1991. Harten, Stuart “Rediscovering Ancient Egypt: Bonapartes Expedition and the Colonial Ideology of the French Revolution” in Napoleon in Egypt. Irene A. Bierman, editor, Garnett Publishing, Reading, 2003, pp. 33-46. Humphries, P. “Blind ambition: Geoffroy St-Hilaires theory of everything” Endeavour Volume 31, Issue 4 (December 2007), pp. 134-139. Reid, Donald Malcolm. Whose pharaohs?: archaeology, museums, and Egyptian national identity from Napoleon to World War I ACLS Humanities E-Book. . Rose, Edward P. F. “Napoleon Bonapartes Egyptian campaign of 1798: the first military operation assisted by geologists?” Geology Today, Volume 20, Number 1 (January 01, 2004), pp. 24-29, . Read More