Perhaps Napoleon had become over-confident after defeating the Austrians. Britain
remained at war with France but rather than attacking England directly Napoleon
decided to attack Egypt -- hoping to impact Britain's trade with India.
In many ways, Napoleon's Egyptian campaign foreshadowed the Russian debacle.
Strategically, there didn't seem to be much that overthrowing the British
in Egypt would provide France -- English ships went around the Cape of Good Hope.
Bonaparte in Egypt
Bonaparte set sail for Egypt anyway bringing along a large contingent of French
academicians who helped develop the field of Egyptology.
Napoleon won several Egyptian battles but British
Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed Bonaparte's fleet at the mouth of the Nile.
A stalemate resulted with Napoleon still hoping for a victory. But when Turkey allied
itself with Britain, Austria, and Russia
against France, Napoleon realized that his hopes of finding another pathway to
India were finished. He returned to Paris and the crumbling French government,
and turned his command over to another French officer.
