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Egyptian Campaign
1798 to 1801

The French attempt to exert influence over Egypt was due to economics, a political need to weaken Britain and the personal needs of General Napoleon Bonaparte, who saw the shadow of unemployment - and a loss of influence - looming as his armies in Italy were nearing the end of their successful struggles against Austria. Having seen the benefits of Britain's profitable colonies, France's Directory listened to Bonaparte's idea to invade Egypt, expel the ruling Mamelukes and establish a modern as he was known - then proceeded to slaughter hundreds of Christian prisoners inside the city. Bonaparte now found himself tied to a difficult siege and with enemy forces encircling his small army. Sending out strong detachments under generals Junot, Murat and Kleber, Bonaparte knew he was in some trouble. On 5 April, Junot beat off an attack near Nazareth and when Kleber was sent to reinforce him, he found his own 1500 troops facing 35,000 men under the Pasha of Damascus. The resulting battle of Mt Tabor was one of the great episodes in the annals of the French army, with Kleber holding the enemy off for 10 hours. The arrival of Bonaparte with a division of reinforcements threw the Turks into chaos and they fled. The victory at Mt Tabor did not help with the siege at Acre, which dragged on into May. The nearest Bonaparte came to capturing the city was on 8 May when General Jean Lannes led a heroic assault that penetrated the walls, only to discover that a second line of defences made going any further impossible. Lannes was almost killed in the day-long attack, the eighth unsuccessful one launched, and it forced Bonaparte to finally accept that his visions of capturing Syria would not succeed. Returning to Cairo in early June, Bonaparte then made secret plans to return to France. He still had one more battle to be fought in Egypt, however, and at Aboukir where Mustapha Pasha's 15,000 men faced Bonaparte's 10,000. The battle was decided when General Joachim Murat led the French cavalry against the enemy commander and captured him. On 22 August, Bonaparte sailed for France with his closest friends and supporters. Behind him he left his French army, under Kleber, he sailed for his home.

Ajman, 1970, Battle of Pyramids

Ajman, 1971, Bonaparte in Jaffa

Ajman, 1971, Arrival HMS «Northumbland» on St. Helena

Ajman, 1973, Battle of Pyramids

Anguilla, 1981, Nelson's Ships

Barbuda, 1975, French ship «L’Orient» burning

Belize. Cayes of Belize, 1985, The Battle of the Nile: Destruction of 'L'Orient'

Comoren Islands, 2009, Napoleon Bonaparte

Cuba, 1981, Napoleon in Egypt

Cuba, 2001, Battle of Abukir

Dominica, 2005, The «L’Orient» explodes

Ecuador, 1989, French Revolution