Battle of The Nile - Background

Background

Following Napoleon Bonaparte's victories over the Austrian Empire in Northern Italy–helping to secure France victory in the War of the First Coalition in 1797–Great Britain remained the only major European power still at war with the French Republic. The French Directory investigated a number of strategic options to counter British opposition, including projected invasions of Ireland and Britain, and the expansion of the French Navy to challenge the Royal Navy at sea. Despite significant efforts, British control of Northern European waters rendered these ambitions impractical in the short term, and the Royal Navy remained firmly in control of the Atlantic Ocean. However, the French Navy was dominant in the Mediterranean Sea, following the withdrawal of the British fleet after the outbreak of war between Britain and Spain in 1796. This allowed Bonaparte to propose an invasion of Egypt as an alternative to confronting Britain directly, believing that the British would be too distracted by an imminent Irish uprising to intervene in the Mediterranean.

Bonaparte believed that by establishing a permanent presence in Egypt (nominally part of the neutral Ottoman Empire) the French would obtain a staging point for future operations against British India, possibly in conjunction with the anglophobic Tippoo Sultan of Seringapatam, that might successfully drive the British out of the war. The campaign would sever the chain of communication that connected Britain with India, an essential part of her Empire whose trade links generated the wealth Britain required to prosecute the war successfully. The French Directory agreed with Bonaparte's plans, although a major factor in their decision was a desire to see the politically ambitious Bonaparte and the fiercely loyal veterans of his Italian campaigns as far from France as possible. During the spring of 1798, Bonaparte assembled over 35,000 soldiers in Mediterranean France and Italy and developed a powerful fleet at Toulon; he also formed the Commission des Sciences et des Arts, a body of scientists and engineers intended to establish the French colony in Egypt. The destination of the expedition was kept top secret; most of the army's officers did not know of its target, and Bonaparte himself did not publicly reveal his goal until the first stage of the expedition was complete.