Introduction
In 1793, the new French Republic began exporting her political ideals across Europe through the French Revolutionary Wars. By 1798, policy was dominated by Napoleon Bonaparte, a brilliant general who made breathtaking gains across southern Europe; but as Jawaharlal Nehru explains, when Napoleon’s eyes strayed towards India he awoke an altogether more formidable enemy.
HAVING triumphed all over north Italy and defeated Austria there, and put an end to the old republic of Venice, and made a very undesirable imperialistic peace,* he [Napoleon Bonaparte] returned to Paris as the great conquering hero. He was beginning to dominate France already. But he felt perhaps that the time was not ripe for him to seize power,* and so he arranged to go with an army to Egypt.* From his youth onwards he had felt this call of the east and now he could gratify it, and dreams of vast empire must have floated in his mind. He just managed to escape the English fleet in the Mediterranean and reached Alexandria.
Egypt was then part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, but this empire had declined, and in effect the Mamelukes ruled Egypt, nominally under the Sultan of Turkey.* Revolutions and inventions might shake Europe but the Mamelukes still lived after the fashion of the Middle Ages.
* The Treaty of Campo Formio (Campoformido) on October 17th, 1797, signed by Napoleon Bonaparte for the French Republic and Count Philipp von Cobenzl for the Austrian monarchy. By the treaty, Austria yielded up the Austrian Netherlands (most of what is now Belgium) and ceded territory and rights of access in parts of what is now Germany. The Republic of Venice was carved up between the two powers, and France acquired Kerkyra (Corfu) and the Ionian Islands: later they passed into British hands, see The United States of the Ionian Islands. The Kingdom of Italy, which had been ruled by the Holy Roman Emperors for centuries, was officially ended and a handful of ‘sister republics’ emerged in its place, under Napoleon’s control.
* This was in 1798: Napoleon had risen to eminence in the republican government of France in 1796. After the events described in this passage, he declared himself First Consul of France in 1799 and Emperor of the French in 1804, a crown he lost in 1815 at The Battle of Waterloo.
* Napoleon advised the Directorate of the French Republic that Britain could not be assailed directly, but must be undermined through her most prized possession, India, and the Egyptian campaign was vital to this plan. His hope that Sultan Tipu in Mysore would do France a favour was dashed the following year, and Nelson’s victory over a Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 convinced him at last that the English Channel was just too wide.
* The Mamluks or Mamelukes were originally an ethnically diverse body of slaves drawn from lands from Georgia to Egypt who were pressed into military service under Islamic rulers from the ninth century onwards. They grew in power, and from the thirteenth century had their own Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and the Levant; however, they became vassals of the Ottoman Turks in 1516. An attempt to throw off Ottoman rule miscarried in 1768, and at the time of Napoleon’s invasion they were still fighting for their Turkish masters.
Précis
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte undertook a military campaign in Egypt hoping to build on his astonishing successes in southern Europe. His aim was to press on through Egypt towards India, fulfilling a long-cherished dream of Eastern empire; and having slipped past the Royal Navy, all that remained was to sweep aside the Mamluk army serving the Ottoman Empire in Cairo. (60 / 60 words)
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte undertook a military campaign in Egypt hoping to build on his astonishing successes in southern Europe. His aim was to press on through Egypt towards India, fulfilling a long-cherished dream of Eastern empire; and having slipped past the Royal Navy, all that remained was to sweep aside the Mamluk army serving the Ottoman Empire in Cairo.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, may, must, or, otherwise, unless, whether.
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