Summary
After the Italian campaign, the Directory started pushing
for an assault on England. Napoleon was against this, and with
support from the Foreign Minister, Talleyrand, he convinced the
Directory to back a less direct form of attack: an Egyptian campaign
to threaten Britain's trade routes with its colony, India. Although Egypt
was ostensibly a Turkish territory at the time, it was still under
the control of the Egyptian Mamelukes, and thus the campaign was
against these rulers' armies.
In 1798, Napoleon's forces managed to sail past Admiral
Nelson and the British fleet to land in Egypt. Napoleon's forces
immediately won decisive battles against the Mamelukes, including
the Battle of the Pyramids. Before the battle, Napoleon demonstrated his
flair for the dramatic: gesturing toward the nearby pyramids, he famously
addressed his men, "Soldiers, forty centuries are watching you."
However, the Egyptian campaign did not consist solely
of victories. Admiral Nelson, sore that the landing force had
evaded his fleet, attacked the French fleet with a vengeance, decimating
their ships at the Battle of Aboukir (Battle of the Nile) and leaving
Napoleon's forces stranded in Egypt. However, Napoleon decided
to try and take advantage of the situation to further assert his
power, undertaking an attempt to modernize and westernize Egypt.
But before his projects could get underway, Napoleon had word
that the Turkish army was preparing to attack him in Egypt. In
February of 1799, the French Army of Egypt moved north into Palestine and
Syria to preempt the Turks, but encountered a tough siege at British-controlled
Acre. By May, a decimated French Army limped back into Egypt.
Meanwhile, back in Europe, war was breaking out. The
Russian army was making conquests as far west as Switzerland, and
the "Cisalpine Republic" established by the Italian campaign had crumbled.
France was in chaos, and Napoleon decided to abandon his position
in Egypt to pursue his career in France, in hopes of overthrowing
the Directory, which he now referred to as "that bunch of lawyers."
Somehow, Napoleon again managed to sneak past Nelson's blockade,
and made a surprise appearance in Paris. On November 9, 1799,
along with Talleyrand and the revolutionary Father Sieyes, Napoleon
achieved a coup d'etat against that Directory.
The new government of the Republic was to be called the "Consulate,"
as it was ruled by three consuls, of which Napoleon was to be "First
Consul."
Why was Napoleon against the cross-channel assault on
England? He argued that it would be doomed to failure so long as
Britain had Europe's dominant Navy. Rather than engage in direct
battle, he preferred to weaken Britain first, debilitating it economically
by cutting off its trade route to India. Napoleon may also have
suggested the Egyptian campaign out of concern for his own reputation and
career: he knew he would have a better chance of winning that battle
than of conquering England. Meanwhile, the Directory, fearing Napoleon's
political ambitions and growing popularity, gladly agreed to a
measure that would take him so far from Paris.
Napoleon's problems in Egypt and the defeat of the French
fleet at Aboukir were the first signals that Napoleon could be
beaten. Encouraged by these, a new coalition of Russia, England,
Austria, and Turkey sprang up against France.
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