A Journal for Western Man-- Issue IV
Part III
G. Stolyarov II
With Austria and, subsequently, Spain and Sardinia, out of the war, France still faced a significant threat from the greatest naval power of the time, Great Britain. After realizing the impossibility of crossing the English Channel due to weather constraints, Napoleon consulted the crafty Foreign Minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, for a design that involved seizing Egypt in order to separate Britain from its overseas colonies. "This base was to serve as a stranglehold on British-owned India, which was where Britain got most of its income." (Smith, 2). On May 19, 1798, the expedition commenced, its first destination being the island of Malta, which was besieged and occupied on June 11-12. The British fleet of Admiral Horatio Nelson was misled by this deception and altered its course toward Malta instead of monitoring the bulk of Napoleon's fleet that managed to reach Alexandria with no intervention from the enemy. The Mamelukes, the wealthy horsemen that composed the elite of Egyptian society, provided fanatical resistance to a French force that they outnumbered by far. However, as a result of superior French equipment and Napoleon's infantry tactics (most notably the "square" formation to counter cavalry charges), they were devastated at Alexandria and, mere months later, at the Pyramids. Egypt was a proving ground for officers, young and old, who would later become Napoleon's most trusted subordinates. The Battle of the Pyramids saw ingenious maneuvers executed by Murat, Desaix, and Kellerman. After three French divisions took advantage of a subtle detour around the Egyptian positions, the Mameluke commander, Murad-Bey, surrendered his forces and swore an oath of loyalty to a man whom he considered worthy of becoming his new overlord.
"Napoleon reorganized the government, the postal service, and the system for collecting taxes; introduced the first printing presses; created a health department; built new hospitals for the poor in Cairo; and founded the Institut d'Egypt. During the French occupation the Rosetta Stone was discovered, and the Nile was explored as far south as the Aswan." (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 308). Napoleon familiarized himself with the inhabitants of Egypt and addressed their concerns as a progressive ruler should. He and his assistant, the General Cleuber, brought Egypt out of Medieval darkness and into a condition where its people could enjoy state-of-the-art European culture and technology. Two short years in the country caused the people of this land to remember their governor from abroad with pride and pleasure. (When an Islamic Fundamentalist fanatic murdered Cleuber in 1800, the people came to his grave by the thousands, bearing flowers to pay homage to their deceased benefactor.) The remaining obstacles to the French promise of Egyptian security were the British fleet and the forces of the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan sent an expeditionary corps to encounter the French near Aboukir Bay while the fleet of Nelson assailed the unprepared armada of Bruaise on August 1, 1798. While Napoleon directed and achieved victory in the land battle, Bruaise lost his fleet to British cannon fire as a result of indecisiveness and a lack of initiative. Vice-Admiral Villeneuve managed to escape to France with the remaining ships, yet the defeat was crippling to French interests in the region. Napoleon was unable to preclude this turn of events, yet throughout Europe they were perceived as a demonstration of his fallibility. Austria re-entered the war, introducing into it its ally, the vast Russian Empire. During Napoleon's absence, the experienced and adamant commander of the Russian armies, Fieldmarshal Alexander Suvorov, managed to cross Alps through the Saint-Gottard and recapture a significant portion of Italy. As he furthered his preparations for an assault on Paris itself, the Directory was crumbling. The royalists began to grumble in Paris and scheme for a counterrevolution in hopes that such would terminate the war. Seeing that the military situation in Egypt had stagnated, Napoleon realized that there was only one means of defeating this crisis. Leaving Cleuber in command of the French armies, he secretly departed from Cairo and headed for Paris after receiving a letter from Barras that promised him the chief administrative role within the French government, that of First Consul. However, upon his arrival in the meeting hall of the National Convention, he was rudely thrown out by hostile delegates who shouted derogatory expletives at him. Realizing that he had been taken advantage of by those who wished woe and misery to France and to his own career, Napoleon resolved that the promise they had given him would be carried out still. He instructed Generals Ney and Murat to prepare his fabled cannon and station them around the centers of Parisian government. Angered and bloody (for the delegates of the Convention attempted to disfigure his face as they rushed him during the meeting), he used his silver tongue to stir up the masses and create popular support for the November 9, 1799 coup d'état. Eventually, the Directory, encouraged by Barras and Talleyrand, agreed to submit themselves to Napoleon's authority and call for national elections to the new Consulate. The three men who were chosen by a nearly unanimous vote of the people to rule the nation were Napoleon and two of his political supporters, Sieyes and Roget. Upon assuming office, the First Consul declared, "We have finished the romance of the Revolution. We must now begin its history, only seeking what is real and practicable in the application of its principles, and not what is speculative and hypothetical." (Holmberg, 1).
Thus began the period of the Consulate, during which Napoleon attempted to, in the words of Tom Holmberg, "consolidate the gains of the Revolution." However, before he could begin any true reformist activity, it was essential that he eliminate the external threats to his country's welfare. Suvorov died in the spring of 1800 and Russia, having lost its most able commander and simultaneously quarreled with Austria, had withdrawn from the war. British efforts in Egypt were checked by the French garrisons there, which managed to defeat the enemy during the Second Battle of Alexandria (1801), when a French bullet claimed the life of General Abercrombie. Thus Austria remained the only able foe of France during this period. Napoleon marched his forces through the Saint-Bernard pass into Northern Italy in order to reclaim the territory that had been allotted France as a result of the Campoformio treaty. The Austrian commander, General Melas, was caught off-balance by Napoleon's audacious act which equaled that of Suvorov one year earlier. Thus, his numerically superior force was, for a time, irresponsive to the French liberation of Piedmont. However, as Napoleon pressed further south, the Austrian resistance intensified. Half of the French force under Desaix remained behind to secure the new foothold while the First Consul, with the remaining 15000 soldiers, encountered 60000 Austrian troops near Marengo on June 14, 1800. At first the enemy grenadiers were impregnable, holding their ground while the stationary Austrian cannon bombarded French positions. Several assaults, including one by the veteran Republican Guard, were repelled with heavy casualties. Melas became so confident of his triumph that he departed for Vienna to report it to the Emperor Francis I. Fortunately, General Desaix had arrived with much-needed reinforcements and conducted an all-out infantry charge that collapsed the Austrian ranks while Kellerman's dragoons devastated the enemy's flanks and rear. Yet Desaix himself was shot dead toward the end to his triumphant assault. Napoleon spent the remainder of the battle weeping over the corpse of his murdered comrade. Thus he returned to his subordinates the same compassion and value that they had given him.