1798 recap: To Egypt

Our recap episodes, which offer a synthesis of our 1792-1804 coverage one year at a time, have reached 1798 - a year in which Napoleon Bonaparte leads an astonishingly bold expedition to capture Egypt for France, which is going astonishingly badly by the end of the year. Chris Sloan talks presenter Alex Stevenson through specific key clips he's picked out from our old episodes grouped around four themes which, we argue, help frame the period and shape our understanding of it in a whole new way. We hope this will provide a helpful refresh for longstanding listeners - whilst at the same time offering an 'entry ramp' to the podcast for those who want to get up to speed relatively easily before we crash full-speed into the intensity of the Napoleonic Wars.

This episode covers a 12-month period simply dominated by the Egyptian gambit. Dreams of becoming another Alexander the Great seem to be turning into a mirage as elusive as that seen in the dust of the Egyotian desert, with Horatio Nelson destroying the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile and unrest and disquiet in Cairo to deal with in the Upper Nile. This year also sees more developments across all our ongoing storylines. France continues to bully Italian politics; the Revolution continues to sort-of grind on with the Coup of Floreal; there is a major intervention against the Swiss; and, above all, the Irish attempt to secure indepedence from the British is dealt with in a grimly decisive fashion. This is a year in which Napoleon grabs all the headlines - but let's not forget just how important 1798 was for Ireland, too.

Help us produce more episodes by supporting the Napoleonic Quarterly on Patreon: patreon.com/napoleonicquarterly