WEBVTT 1 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:22.359 Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve episode five hundred and 2 00:00:22.519 --> 00:00:28.519 two to Egypt. By seventeen ninety seven, Napoleon Bonaparte had 3 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:32.560 become the hero of the Republic. His victories in Italy 4 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:37.759 had humbled Austria and filled France's coffers with plunder. But 5 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:41.840 his rising fame made the Directory uneasy. They feared a 6 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:46.000 man who commanded both an army and increasingly a legend. 7 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:50.159 Sending him far from Paris seemed like the right thing 8 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:54.119 to do. At the same time, France remained locked in 9 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:57.759 a rivalry with Britain. A direct invasion of England was 10 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:00.600 impossible as long as the Royal Navy ruled the Channel, 11 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:05.159 but the idea of striking at Britain's trade routes, particularly 12 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:10.879 its link to India, tempted French imaginations. Napoleon told the Directory, 13 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.640 we must go to the Orient, where all great reputations 14 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:20.319 are made. Egypt, nominally ruled by the Ottoman Empire but 15 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:24.920 in practice dominated by the fierce Mameluke Bays, offered both 16 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:29.879 strategic and symbolic allure. If France could seize Egypt, it 17 00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:34.959 might threaten British India and revive French influence in the East, 18 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:39.200 Napoleon declared to his officers, we shall found there Egypt, 19 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:42.519 a colony that will change the face of the world. 20 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:47.439 So it was that on July the third, seventeen ninety seven, 21 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:53.120 Talirand proposed a French expedition against Egypt. But of course 22 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:57.760 you might be wondering, wait, who's Teleyrand? And so I 23 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:01.319 think it's high time we introduce this critical player in 24 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:07.120 the Napoleonic period who will outlive the Emperor himself, Charles 25 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:11.520 Maurice de Taland Pettigo. By the time Europe reached the 26 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:15.000 summer of seventeen ninety seven, one of the most improbable 27 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.840 survivors of the French Revolution, a nobleman turned revolutionary, a 28 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:23.599 bishop turned to political exile, and now, as the tides 29 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:28.719 of the directory shifted towards stability and diplomacy, France's best negotiator. 30 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:32.400 His life up to that moment reads as a study 31 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:36.520 in adaptability, or, as his critics would later say, opportunism. 32 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:40.879 Yet beneath his polished cynicism lay one of the most 33 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:46.560 perceptive and important political minds of the age. Born in 34 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:50.360 Paris on February second, seventeen fifty four, into one of 35 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:55.439 the oldest noble families of France. Talleyrand seemed destined for prominence, 36 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:59.800 but not for action. A childhood injury, most likely a 37 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:02.319 genital club foot, though he later claimed it was caused 38 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:06.400 by a fall, left him permanently lame. He would later 39 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:10.439 remark with bitter wit, I was disinherited by my leg 40 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:15.120 His father, a soldier, deemed him unfit for military service, 41 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:18.520 and steered him toward the church, an institution that could 42 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:23.879 offer power without the sword. Tallyrand's early education was with 43 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:28.039 the clergy at the Cole des Arcorps and the Seminary 44 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.520 of Saint Sopice, where he later impressed teachers with his 45 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:36.120 intelligence his memory, an ironic detachment even from piety itself. 46 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:40.840 Ordained a priest in seventeen seventy nine, he soon became 47 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:45.840 Abbe de Perigo and began a lifelong pattern using institutions 48 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:51.159 not for faith or ideology, but for influence. In seventeen eighty, 49 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:56.360 tali Rand gained the lucrative position of Agent General des Clerget, 50 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:01.039 making him responsible for the church's financial affairs, a perfect 51 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:06.000 training ground for the fiscal machinations of later years. He 52 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:09.759 moved very easily throughout the world of Versailles. He could 53 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:15.560 cultivate relationships with financiers, courtiers, and even the famously pragmatic 54 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:20.000 Queen Marie Antoinette. His charm was legendary. He had a 55 00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:24.120 soft voice. His wit was cutting but never vulgar. His 56 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:29.680 conversation could be both worldly and discreet. In seventeen eighty eight, 57 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:33.439 through a mix of influence and intrigue, he was appointed 58 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:37.839 Bishop of Attune. It seemed like nothing could come between 59 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:42.600 him and rising up the ranks of monarchical power. Yet he, 60 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:46.639 as himself, would later admit, quote I never had the vocation. 61 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:51.519 His diocese saw little of him. He preferred Paris and 62 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:54.639 the company of thinkers like Minabu, who shared his conviction 63 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:59.439 that reform, not rebellion, might yet save the monarchy. When 64 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:02.680 Louis the sixteenth some in the Estates General in seventeen 65 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:08.000 eighty nine, Talimrand was chosen to represent the clergy of Attune. 66 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:11.120 His speech on June tenth, calmly inviting the clergy to 67 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.920 join the Third Estate, helped precipitate the formation of the 68 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:21.279 National Assembly. Within weeks the revolution had begun. Tallyrand quickly 69 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:25.600 aligned himself with moderate reformers. He supported the confiscation of 70 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:30.680 church lands to stabilize France's finances, proposing in November of 71 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:34.279 seventeen eighty nine quote that the property of the clergy 72 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:37.560 is at the disposal of the nation end quote. The 73 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:41.839 motion passed, and with it the secularization of French property began. 74 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:47.199 In seventeen ninety he affreciated at the first massed celebrating 75 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.920 of the Fete de la Ferriacion, blessing the Republic before 76 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.680 a crowd of hundreds of thousands. His image as the 77 00:05:54.759 --> 00:06:00.120 Bishop of Liberty became immortalized and scandalized the Church, and 78 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:03.920 of course in Rome, Pope Pius the Six condemned tally 79 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.439 Rand's actions, and in early seventeen ninety one, after tally 80 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:10.879 Rand consented to the civil constitution of the clergy, he 81 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:17.639 was formally excommunicated. Unperturbed, easibly resigned his bishopric, remarking, I 82 00:06:17.639 --> 00:06:20.360 have always found religion useful to those who govern, and 83 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:25.000 it has never though harmed those who are governed. When 84 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:28.399 the monarchy began to crumble in seventeen ninety two, tally 85 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:31.800 Rand saw the storm before others did, accepted a mission 86 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.879 to London in January of that year, carrying a letter 87 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:38.399 from Louis the sixteenth to George the third. His goal 88 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.120 was to avert war between Britain and France, or at 89 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:44.720 the very least to buy time, but the king's letter 90 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:49.199 was already meaningless. Revolutionaries in Paris controlled the agenda. Now 91 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:55.040 Tallyrand lingered in London as an unofficial envoy, cultivating contacts 92 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:58.720 with William Pitt and Charles James Fox. When the French 93 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:02.480 Republic was proclaimed and Louis the sixteenth executed in January 94 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:07.199 seventeen ninety three, France declared war on Britain. Tallyrand was 95 00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:10.560 ordered home, but he wisely refused the order in state poot. 96 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:15.079 In December, the revolutionary government placed him on a list 97 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.920 of emigres. His property was confiscated and his name was 98 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:24.399 marked for arrest. In exile, he wrote his memoir Sur 99 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:29.279 Relacion's Commercial Estate Estates Anglais, in which he argued for 100 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:34.360 liberal economic policies and the importance of transatlantic commerce, arguments 101 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:37.199 that would resurface in his diplomacy, as we'll see in 102 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:42.480 later years. By seventeen ninety four, fearing arrest in Britain 103 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:45.680 as a potential spy, he crossed the Atlantic and landed 104 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:49.360 in the American city of Philadelphia. There he moved among 105 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:54.879 American intellectuals and merchants, including both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, 106 00:07:55.480 --> 00:08:00.439 both of whom admired his intellect but distrusted his slippery nature. 107 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.439 In a letter to a friend, Jefferson described him as 108 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.399 a man of great sagacity, but of non principle. The 109 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:12.360 fall of Robespierre in July seventeen ninety four marked a 110 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:16.600 shift in France and an opportunity for tallyrandt In seventeen 111 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:20.079 ninety six, through the influence of his friends, including the 112 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:24.000 scientist and politician Madame de Stael, he secured removal from 113 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:27.319 the Migrae list, and he returned to Paris. The France 114 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:31.839 he found was unrecognizable, weary of terror, governed by the corrupts, 115 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:37.320 but pragmatic, directory and desperate for stability, tally Rand, now 116 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:41.679 forty two, reinvented himself once again. He declared himself no 117 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:44.960 longer a priest. He donned the fashionable close of the 118 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:49.399 directorial elite and began attending salons where diplomacy, intrigue, and 119 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:54.159 business mixed freely. Speech, tally Rand said, was given to 120 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:58.960 man to disguise his thoughts. Madame de Stell, ever, the 121 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:02.120 social catalyst, recommended him to barras one of the five 122 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:06.080 directors at the time. In July seventeen ninety seven, the 123 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:09.320 government needed a new Minister of Foreign Affairs, someone with 124 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:14.720 aristocratic polish but no royalist illusions. Bur Us proposed Talirand, 125 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.200 as he later put it, with characteristic irony. I accepted. 126 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:24.000 I have never refused anything except responsibility. By the time 127 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:27.559 Tallyrand took up the portfolio of Foreign Affairs on July 128 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:31.399 the sixteenth, seventeen ninety seven, France's armies were triumphants under 129 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:34.799 the young General Bonaparte in Italy, but its diplomacy was 130 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:38.919 still chaotic. The Directory needed someone who could negotiate peace 131 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:42.159 without surrendering advantage, and who could speak to kings and 132 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:47.720 republics alike. Talirand immediately set about reorganizing the ministry. He 133 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:51.639 sought to stabilize France's relations with Austria and Prussia and 134 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:54.759 to explore peace with Britain, and to profit from the 135 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:58.519 Republic's victories. With a blend of realism and greed behind 136 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:03.799 his polished smile, a clear ambition to make himself indispensable 137 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.159 to any future regime, whatever its form. In fact, he 138 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:12.559 once said, regimes parish, but institutions endure, and so do 139 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:14.799 the clever men who serve them. Will find out just 140 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:18.440 how true this is for tally Rand before too long. 141 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:25.919 By July seventeen ninety seven, the Revolution had consumed nobles, priests, Jacobins, 142 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:33.840 and monarchists alike, but not Tallyrand. The former Bishop of Attune, excommunicated, priest, exile, 143 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:37.879 philosopher of self preservation, He had returned to power once more, 144 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.000 poised to steer the di palmacy of France, just as 145 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:45.279 Europe prepared for peace, or, in the alternative, for another 146 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:49.919 round of war. Within two years he would meet the 147 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:52.679 man who would define the next act of his career, 148 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:57.240 Napoleon Bonapartes. But in the summer of seventeen ninety seven, 149 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:01.559 as Napoleon was talking about Egypt, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand 150 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.600 stood at the center of power, urban, enigmatic, and of 151 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:11.679 course indestructively French. He is perhaps second to Napoleon, the 152 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:16.320 most important figure in French history throughout this period, and 153 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:18.960 we will see why that, of course, will be after 154 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:26.240 Napoleon's critical expedition to Egypt in May seventeen ninety eight, 155 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:29.960 the greatest expedition since Alexander the greats marched to Persia. 156 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.519 Sailed from Toulon more than three hundred ships, carried thirty 157 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:40.279 eight thousand soldiers, ten thousand sailors, and an entourage unlike 158 00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:43.799 any army in history. There were one hundred and seventy 159 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:50.960 six savants, scientists, engineers, botanists, artists, and mathematicians enlightened by Napoleon, 160 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:56.279 to quote unquote enlighten the Orient. Among them were men 161 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:00.919 like the mathematician Gaspard mon, chemist Claude Though, and the 162 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:06.399 future discoverer of the Rosetta stone. Napoleon kept the destination 163 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:10.240 secret even from his officers. Some believed they were bound 164 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:14.360 for Malta and others for Ireland. The fleet captured Malta 165 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:17.799 on June tenth, after a token resistance by the Knights 166 00:12:17.799 --> 00:12:21.919 of Saint John, whose medieval order seemed an absurd relic 167 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:25.600 in this new age of reason. Napoleon told his men, 168 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:28.759 in a few days, we have conquered the strongest fortress 169 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:31.759 in Europe and ended an empire of six hundred years. 170 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:39.039 Hyperbole a bit well, perhaps factually accurate. On July the first, 171 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:43.519 the French landed near Alexandria. The heat was suffocating, the 172 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:47.840 light blinding, and the sand seemed to stretch to infinity. 173 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:52.240 The city fell easy, but to conquer Egypt, the true 174 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:56.480 test lay ahead, because Napoleon had to face the Mamelukes, 175 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:01.240 the mounted warrior elite who still ruled from Cairo. Marching 176 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:04.639 south along the Nile, the French endured thirst, mirages, and 177 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:09.799 ambushes at Embabe, across the river from Cairo, Murad Bay 178 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:14.159 and Ibraham By gathered some sixty thousand men, many of 179 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:18.960 the magnificent horsemen glittering in silk and gold. On July 180 00:13:19.080 --> 00:13:22.639 the twenty first, seventeen ninety eight, under the burning Egyptian sun, 181 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:26.799 Napoleon formed his troops into a massive hollow square, each 182 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:30.519 bristling with cannon and muskets. He told his soldiers, from 183 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:34.360 the summit of these pyramids forty centuries looked down upon you. 184 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:38.759 It was pure theater. I guess what, folks, It worked. 185 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:43.480 The Mamlukes charged again and again, their horses crashing into 186 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:48.399 walls of discipline fire. Within hours their army broke, the 187 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:53.159 Nile ran red, and thousands lay dead. The battle was 188 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:58.519 won by geometry, wrote one French officer. Cairo surrendered soon 189 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:03.840 after Napoleon entered the city. As both conqueror and reformer. 190 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:08.480 He promised respect for Islam, attended prayers at Al Hazar, 191 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:12.799 and issued proclamation declaring that the French were quote true 192 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:18.879 friends of the prophet. But his enlightenment zeal baffled the Egyptians. 193 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.679 One proclamation he wrote announced to people of Egypt, I 194 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:27.279 am more a Muslim than the Mamelukes. Few believed him. 195 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:32.279 While Napoleon celebrated in Cairo, disaster approached from the sea. 196 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:37.320 The French fleet had anchored at Abukir Bay near Alexandria 197 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:41.399 to guard the coast, but Admiral Bruce made a fatal mistake. 198 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:46.600 He assumed that the British, led by Horatio Nelson, would 199 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:49.799 not dare to attack in the narrow waters between the 200 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:54.200 shore and the French line. On the evening of August first, 201 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:59.840 seventeen ninety eight, Nelson struck in a brilliantly executed as 202 00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:04.039 so the British ships slipped between the French fleet and 203 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:08.600 the shore, raking their enemy with broadsides from both sides. 204 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:13.240 The battle lasted through the night. The Mediterranean lit by 205 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:17.200 the burning flagship Leorient, which exploded in a column of 206 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:23.039 fire visible for miles. When dawn came, the French navy 207 00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:31.360 was shattered. Only two total ships escaped. Nelson reportedly triumphantly 208 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:36.440 reported back to London, quote, Bonaparte's army is stranded, his 209 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:40.919 hopes of empire are buried in the sea. He wasn't 210 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:45.240 quite right on that part, But all that being said, 211 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.840 Napoleon was in fact now kind of stranded in Egypt, 212 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:52.799 cut off from France, really, with no way to return. 213 00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:58.679 Isolated but unbroken, Napoleon turned to the task of governing. 214 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:04.039 He reorganized Egypt's taxation, established hospitals, and founded an Institute 215 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:09.639 of Egypt for his various scientific savants, and began mapping, measuring, 216 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:14.559 and cataloging the country. The scholars produced a monumental survey 217 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:18.279 of ancient monuments in natural history, later published as The 218 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:23.799 Descripton de Egypt, one of the Enlightenment's greatest works. But 219 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:30.240 for the Egyptians, French rule meant conscription, heavy taxes, and sacrilege. 220 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:34.879 In October seventeen ninety eight, Cairo erupted in revolt. The 221 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:39.960 mob massacred French soldiers and local collaborators. Napoleon responded with 222 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:46.080 brutal efficiency. His troops stormed the Alazar Mosque, executed the insurgents, 223 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:50.120 and shelled parts of the city. The people must learn, 224 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:54.440 he told his officers that we are stronger than the Mamelukes, 225 00:16:54.879 --> 00:17:00.360 stronger than the Turks, stronger than the fanatics 'uring an 226 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:05.359 Ottoman counter attack, Napoleon decided to strike first. In February 227 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:09.519 seventeen ninety nine, he led thirteen thousand men across the 228 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:15.400 Sayinai Peninsula into Syria modern day Israel and Palestine, intending 229 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:20.839 to seize Oker and then march on Constantinople itself. Unfortunately, 230 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:24.920 it was a march quite literally through hell. The troops 231 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.240 trudged through burning sand and freezing rain, short on food 232 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:33.200 and water. At Jaffa, they stormed the city and massacred 233 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:38.880 several thousand captured Ottoman troops. Napoleon justified it as a necessity. 234 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.759 He couldn't feed them. One soldier wrote, it was a 235 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:48.440 terrible example, but perhaps a necessary one. At Ocher, however, 236 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:52.400 his luck ran out. The fortress was defended by an 237 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:56.079 Ottoman governor, de Zez Pasha and supplied by the British 238 00:17:56.119 --> 00:18:01.799 navy under commodore Sidney Smith repeated French assault failed. Disease 239 00:18:01.960 --> 00:18:06.640 ravaged the camp, especially the plague. Napoleon himself visited the 240 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:10.839 hospital at Jaffa, a scene immortalized in Antoine Jean Gross's 241 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:15.240 later painting Napoleon visiting the plague victims at Jaffa. Whether 242 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:19.039 he actually touched the sick and courage or posed for 243 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:24.319 effect remains uncertain. In May seventeen ninety nine, after two 244 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:29.279 months of futile siege, Napoleon ordered a retreat. Fortune, he 245 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:32.839 would later write, bitterly has turned against me, only for 246 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:38.319 a moment. Back in Egypt, Napoleon defeated an Ottoman landing 247 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:41.920 at Abukir in July seventeen ninety nine, a brief return 248 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:47.799 to triumph, but the strategic situation had decisively changed. France 249 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:50.920 was at war again in Europe, and the directory, as 250 00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:54.440 we'll see in a moment, was collapsing. The general realized 251 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:58.200 that his destiny lay not in Cairo, but back in Paris. 252 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:02.359 On August the twenty second, seventeen ninety nine, leaving the 253 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:06.599 army in the hands of General Clebert, Napoleon secretly boarded 254 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:10.359 the frigate Marion. He sailed past the British blockade under 255 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:15.440 cover of darkness, and reached France in October. His sudden appearances, 256 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:20.079 we'll see, electrified the nation now. The Egyptian army that 257 00:19:20.119 --> 00:19:23.839 he left behind was less fortunate. Cleavert was assassinated in 258 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:28.240 eighteen hundred. His successor, General Mineau, surrendered to the British 259 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.440 and Ottomans in eighteen oh one. The remnants of the 260 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:37.200 French expedition returned home under British ex court. Militarily, the 261 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:41.240 Egyptian campaign was a failure. France lost its fleet, its army, 262 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:44.519 and its hold on the East, but the intellectual and 263 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:50.119 cultural consequences were immense. The sciences that Napoleon had taken 264 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:53.039 with him carried out one of the first modern scientific 265 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:58.400 studies of an ancient civilization. Their discoveries, especially the Rosetta Stone, 266 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:01.400 found in seventeen ninety nine near Rosetta, Egypt by a 267 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:05.799 French officer, would later enable the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics. 268 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:10.839 For Napoleon himself, Egypt had become part of his legend. 269 00:20:11.319 --> 00:20:15.319 He had not conquered the Orient, but he had brought science, 270 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:19.680 reason and ambition to its lands. He left behind pyramids, 271 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:23.000 and ruins, bathed in the light of a new mythology, 272 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:26.200 the image of Bonaparte not just the general, but a 273 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:30.480 modern day Alexander. As he would later reflect, when he 274 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:33.960 was in exile from the heights of the Pyramids, I 275 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:39.279 first saw the world vast, silent, and full of promise. 276 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:46.480 But of course, back in France, things remained tenuous. In 277 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:50.119 the summer of seventeen ninety seven, back then, the French 278 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.599 Revolution and Republic, secured for the first time in years, 279 00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:58.559 seemed perfect. Its armies, once starving and mutinism, were victorious. 280 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:02.880 As we know. Back then, Bonaparte had already humbled Austria 281 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:07.720 and northern Italy, But inside France the revolution continued to 282 00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:12.039 teeter on a knife's edge. The elections in the spring 283 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:16.480 of seventeen ninety seven brought a royalist resurgence into the 284 00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:21.000 councils of legislature, men who spoke of reconciliation but in 285 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:26.759 reality wanted a royal restoration. Their newspapers mocked the Republic's 286 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:32.319 ideals and whispered of a constitutional monarchy under Louis the eighteenth. 287 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:37.440 To the directors who governed France, this was treason, and 288 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:41.720 so the stage had now been set domestically for another 289 00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:45.400 act of revolutionary self defense or self destruction, whichever way 290 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:48.240 you want to look at it. On September the fourth, 291 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:53.640 seventeen ninety seven, General Pierre Aguiro, a loyal ally of 292 00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:59.119 Napoleon Bonaparte, surrounded the Tuleery Palace with troops at dawn, 293 00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:04.680 entered the legislative chambers and arrested the Royalist leaders, the 294 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:09.359 director of Francois buffal May, the veteran general Jean Charles Pergat, 295 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:14.640 and dozens of deputies, accused of all conspiring against the Republic. 296 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:19.599 And we've heard that before. As cannon stood in the courtyards, 297 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:24.759 Aziro's proclamation declared, quote, the Republic is one and indivisible, 298 00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:28.720 Woe to conspirators who seek to betray it. End quote. 299 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:32.480 You could have literally taken that quotation from Robespierre himself. 300 00:22:33.559 --> 00:22:37.279 But it was in every sense not a restoration, not 301 00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:40.880 a refreshing, nothing that was going to cleanse the republic. 302 00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:44.160 This was a coup d'etas. It was carried out not 303 00:22:44.279 --> 00:22:49.279 by monarchists but by republicans against their own elected legislature. 304 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:54.160 The Directory justified the action as a defense against the 305 00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:59.519 return of kings, but it violated the very constitution it 306 00:22:59.559 --> 00:23:04.480 claimed to preserve. The next day, September the fifth, the 307 00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:09.079 intimidated councils obediently just ratified the purge that had already 308 00:23:09.079 --> 00:23:12.839 been carried out. They annulled the elections of more than 309 00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:17.319 two hundred royal deputies from fifty three departments, and ordered 310 00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:21.720 the deportation of sixty five leading Royalist politicians and journalists 311 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:26.200 to Guiana. Barthaay was removed from the Directory, and Carneault, 312 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:29.720 who had refused to condone the coup, fled into exile. 313 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:34.759 In their place, the Council elected two more firm Republicans. 314 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:40.119 The balance of power in Paris had shifted again. The 315 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:45.440 Directory was now a military backed oligarchy, ruling by the 316 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:50.119 Bayonets of Aguau and the distant victories of Bonaparte. It 317 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:55.119 would soon learn that such power carried both strength and danger. 318 00:23:58.200 --> 00:24:00.519 Now all this was going on in Paris. This was 319 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:04.279 while Bonaparte was still in Italy, and honestly, his army, 320 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:07.279 more than any other decree by the Directory, secured the 321 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:13.640 Republic's fate. He watched sort of in fascination, and later remarked, 322 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:16.079 if I had been in Paris, the coup would not 323 00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:20.960 have been so bloodless. Bonaparte quietly supported everything that was 324 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:24.960 going on through Aguirero, but he resented the director's meddling. 325 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:30.519 His victories made the Republic rich. Now he demanded that 326 00:24:30.599 --> 00:24:34.640 they use them to make it secure. Of course, the 327 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:38.359 Army of Italy still faced the Habsburg, so there was 328 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:41.519 a long way to go. At the same time, on 329 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.640 the September the twenty third, the Directory rewarded Aguiro by 330 00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:48.640 giving him command of a new army of the Rhine. 331 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:54.359 A sense of gratitude and exile combined. Meanwhile, Bonaparte was 332 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:58.759 ordered to conclude peace on Austria when the most advantageous 333 00:24:58.839 --> 00:25:03.640 terms possible, and if the Austrians refused, well, then the 334 00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:06.240 Director said he was to march on Vienna himself, which 335 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:09.880 of course he did, resulting in the Treaty of Campo Formio, 336 00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:15.119 the first great diplomatic triumph of the French Revolution. It 337 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:19.119 was around the same time that Buonaparte eliminated the ancient 338 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:23.160 Republic of Venice, which he wrote simply has ceased to exist, 339 00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:28.240 and the treaty confirmed what everybody now understood. France's conquests 340 00:25:28.279 --> 00:25:33.440 were no longer the people's victories. These were Bonapartes victories. 341 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:38.160 The Directory hailed him as the savior of Europe. He 342 00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:42.880 privately dismissed them as just simply mediocre. He told his 343 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:46.759 secretary quote, the pair is ripe, and I saw soon 344 00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:52.720 take the tree now. In December seventeen ninety seven, anti 345 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:55.799 French riots also broke out in Rome, after months of 346 00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:58.920 tension between the papal government and the French embassy that 347 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:02.079 was stationed there. A mob, inflamed by rumors that the 348 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:05.799 French sought to kidnap the Pope, attacked the Palazzio Corsini, 349 00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:11.039 the residence of the French ambassador Joseph Bonaparte. In the chaos, 350 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:15.680 General Mutine Dunhaupe, a French officer and aide to the ambassador, 351 00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:20.720 was killed, probably accidentally by Papal soldiers. The Pope Pious 352 00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:24.839 the sixth hastened to apologize, but the Directory rejected his 353 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:29.319 plea and demanded vengeance Rome. They decided had to play 354 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:33.799 for the blood of a Frenchman. The French legislation on 355 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:39.039 January the fifth, seventeen ninety eight, authorized an emergency loan 356 00:26:39.079 --> 00:26:43.599 of eighty million francs to fund quote expeditions necessary for 357 00:26:43.640 --> 00:26:46.920 the safety of the republic. The language was vague, but 358 00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:50.720 the meaning was clear. A campaign of vengeance was coming, 359 00:26:51.880 --> 00:26:56.279 and so on January eleventh, the Directory ordered General Luis Berthaer, 360 00:26:56.759 --> 00:26:59.880 one of Bonaparte's most capable lieutenant, to march on the 361 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:04.599 city of Rome. The radical press back in Paris declared, 362 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:09.400 let the thunder of France make the Tiara tremble. Bonaparte, 363 00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:12.599 though still in Italy, saw an opportunity. If he could 364 00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:15.880 seize control over central Italy, he could complete the cordon 365 00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:19.440 of French satellite republics that now stretched from the Alps 366 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:25.119 to the Adriatic. Meanwhile, in Paris, a larger vision started 367 00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:29.599 to take shape. As we talked about previously, Charles Maurice 368 00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:34.079 de Tallyrand, the smooth and worldly Foreign Minister, started to 369 00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:37.519 lay the groundwork for endaring an ambitious project, the French 370 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:42.640 Ambitious Expedition to Egypt. The goal, of course, was to 371 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:45.440 strike at Britain in directly by cutting off the trade 372 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:49.680 with India. And as we know, that's exactly what Bonaparte 373 00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:53.000 is going to attempt to do. Now, Wow, this was 374 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:56.960 all going on on February tenth, seventeen ninety eight, birth 375 00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:02.200 Year's army did enter Rome unopposed. Five days later, he 376 00:28:02.279 --> 00:28:06.000 proclaimed the creation of the Roman Republic, modeled after the French, 377 00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:09.440 with liberty trees planted in the Piazza de Popolio and 378 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:14.480 papal arms torn down. Pius the sixth was then taken prisoner, 379 00:28:14.839 --> 00:28:18.160 eventually dying in exile in the next year, the first 380 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:21.640 pope in centuries to be a captive of a foreign power. 381 00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:28.519 North of the Alps, France's revolution spread quickly, now into Switzerland. 382 00:28:29.240 --> 00:28:33.519 The Vaud region, long restive under the rule of the Bernice, 383 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:38.319 declared its independence on January the twenty fourth, with French encouragement. 384 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:43.119 The Directory promptly ordered its troops to support the rebels 385 00:28:43.160 --> 00:28:46.640 in the region, and so by early March, French forces 386 00:28:46.680 --> 00:28:51.279 had entered Berne itself, looting its treasury and now extinguishing 387 00:28:51.559 --> 00:28:57.000 the old Swiss Confederation. Now there was a new Helbenic Republic, 388 00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:01.799 which was proclaimed on March the twenty second, a secularized, 389 00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:06.400 centralized state, replacing the patchwork of cantons that had endured 390 00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:09.519 honestly since the Middle Ages. And that's really one of 391 00:29:09.559 --> 00:29:13.240 the big takeaways of the Napoleonic period. All of these 392 00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:16.319 old holdovers from the Middle Ages. They're all just being 393 00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:19.039 wiped away in the matter of less than a couple 394 00:29:19.119 --> 00:29:23.119 of years. One Swiss patriot was happy about it, writing, 395 00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:27.319 liberty has crossed the Alps. Unfortunately, though for many French 396 00:29:27.400 --> 00:29:31.839 liberty arrived on French bayonets, and so by the spring 397 00:29:32.200 --> 00:29:35.119 the map of Europe shimmered with tons of new republics. 398 00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:40.880 There were cis, Alpine republics, Ligurian republics, Helvetic republics, Roman republics, 399 00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:46.160 all born in the shadow of Bonapartes France. Yet, of course, 400 00:29:46.440 --> 00:29:50.799 even as Bonaparte reshaped the continent, he turned towards Egypt, 401 00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:55.960