Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

GRAND CAIRO73Bonaparte had Cairo, and, having Cairo, had Egypt. What was the humanextent of his new domain? Demographers working back from later censusesestimate Egypt’s population in 1800 at 4.5 million. The scientists with Bonapartearrived at an estimate only a little over half that, but they were in no positionto do a proper census. The great historian of Egypt, André Raymond,calculated that the population grew from about 3 million in 1500 (in the aftermathof the catastrophic Black Plague) to about 4.5 million in 1800, sinceCairo’s physical environs grew by a factor of 1.5 in the Ottoman period to1798. If Raymond is right, Ottoman rule provided enough security and infrastructureto allow the society to flourish. The sultans of Istanbul loweredtaxes, provided security and infrastructure, and eliminated many governmentmonopolies. Most of that increase, however, probably occurred between 1500and 1720 or so, and the horrible eighteenth century, often marred by inadequateor overly abundant Nile floods, and internecine slave-soldier wars, mayhave been largely stagnant with regard to population growth. Although somecountries grew somewhat faster in these three centuries (Britain doubled itspopulation from five to ten million), Egypt’s growth was respectable. One limitationon demographic increase in the Nile Valley may have been continuedoutbreaks of epidemics, including plague, which, though tamed by increasedresistance in the population, survived better in the warmer climate of the MiddleEast than it did in Europe.Generations of European historians and diplomats have insisted that theOttomans ran Egypt into the ground and depopulated it, a myth begun by theFrench under Bonaparte. The French cited figures from Roman sources givinghighly implausible estimates of the Egyptian population under the Caesars, of 7million or even double that. They were therefore dismayed to find so few inhabitantsin the country and blamed this “decline” on Muslim misrule. Europeanconsuls propagated the myth of disappearing Egyptians all through the nineteenthcentury, though it can be disproved by recently discovered censuses. Theslur appealed to them because it implied that European colonialism would bemuch better for Middle Easterners.Bonaparte, pleasantly surprised that the capital had fallen to him so easily,set about creating yet another satellite French republic there, with its own Directory,to be drawn from the ranks of the Muslim men of religion. On 22 July(4 Thermidor of the Year 6), the general had addressed a memo to the clericsand notables of Cairo. “Yesterday the Mamluks were for the most part killed ortaken prisoner, and I am in pursuit of the few who still remain. Send from thatside some ships, which are on your river. Send me a deputation to let me know