The Long Eighteenth Century
Napoleon in Egypt, Part 2
Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign was a military disaster,* but the Army of the Orient wasn’t the only army that Napoleon brought with him to Egypt. A commission of some 160 savants–scientists, artists, engineers, and scholars–accompanied the invading army, bringing with them virtually every book on Egypt available, dozens of crates of scientific instruments and a printing…
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And Speaking of Napoleon in Egypt…
While writing my last blog post I was stunned to realize that I’ve never written about Napoleon’s invasion of Europe here on the Margins. I’ve hinted around the edges of the subject in posts on the Rosetta Stone and Tipu Sultan. But I’ve never written about the invasion itself. Which is kind of amazing given…
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Word With A Past: Guerrilla Warfare
Guerrilla tactics are probably as ancient as war itself. The word itself dates from the Napoleonic wars, a product of the Peninsular War of 1808-14 in Spain—the most prolonged and, with the exception of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, most destructive campaign of the period. Napoleon’s invasion of Spain had its official roots in long-simmering tensions…
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