Agency and Ethics: The Politics of Military Intervention

Preface

Preface In May 1798, the French government sent Napoleon Bonaparte with a large army and armada to conquer Egypt. Intervening in Egypt was not a new French policy; it had been suggested by the philosopher Leibnez in the seventeenth century in order to undermine the power of the Dutch. In 1798, however, the enemy was now England. While invading England herself was not possible, striking at perfidious Albion through Egypt and India seemed more sensible. The intervention, however, was not only about power politics. Areport from the French consul in Ottoman Egypt in 1797 justified the expedition in more humanitarian terms: “He declared that the hour was ripe for intervention , that the Egyptian people, victims of oppressive and corrupt government , would welcome it, that Turkey, the suzerain Power, would rejoice over the downfall of the Mamlukes, unruly subjects and bitter adversaries (Elgood 1931, 50). Spreading the ideals of the French Revolution meant freeing those unfairly oppressed by backward and uncivilized rulers. A further normative reason for the intervention had to do with knowledge. The French believed that after their revolution they would be able to provide the world with the reason and knowledge of the philosophes. Part of that process meant uncovering the lost wisdom of ancient civilizations, like Egypt. So, accompanying Napoleon and his army was a second army of sorts, a group of scholars and artists whose role was to make a record of the vast store of Egyptian antiquities. As the army fought the ruling Mamlukes, the scholars accompanying them made sketches, measured distances, and wrote journals. So, while power politics certainly played a role in the decision to intervene, normative reasons remained central. Indeed, throughout the course of the intervention, these normative reasons continued to play an important role in the explanations given to the Egyptians, French soldiers, and French citizens. vii Two records of this expedition give us a unique picture of it, a picture that remains relevant to this day. The first comes from Dominique Vivant Denon whose work Voyage dans la Basseet la Haute Égypte rivaled only the Description d’Égypte in its popularity. Vivant Denon chose to accompany one of the generals whose task it was to pursue the Mamluke leader, Mourat-Bey, into southern Egypt. In the course of this pursuit, Vivant Denon was able to record ancient temples, the mores of the people, and even the weather and topography, both in pictures and words. His work has recently been republished as part of the French government’s celebration /remembrance of 200 years of interactions between Egypt and France (Vivant Denon 1998). This record of the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt has much to teach us about military intervention. Even though it was written by a scholar whose primary aim was not political or military conquest, his comments on these elements are revealing. Vivant Denon does not hide his pride in being a Frenchmen, and has no compunction in celebrating the intervention as a demonstration of France’s Enlightened approach to the world. As the ships set sail, he sees in them “la splendeur de la France, de sa force, de ses moynes.” Nor is this expedition only for the aristocracy; as France represents now the “rights of man,” those gathered on the shore to send off the expedition include “individus dus de toutes les classes de la société” (Vivant Denon 1801/1998, 37). The glory of France exists not only on the departure, but displays itself in the midst of the intervention as well. As the troops pursuing Mourat-Bey come upon the glory of Thebes, they burst into spontaneous applause. For Vivant Denon this reaction reveals that which makes France unique—that its troops had such a sensitivity to art and beauty they would applaud while in the midst of a military campaign (194). And, not only can they appreciate beauty, the soldiers are also sensitive to the humanitarian needs of a native population oppressed by the ruling Turkish class, caring for children left behind in their villages (207). So, on one level, the military intervention in Egypt represented not simply power politics (although that certainly prompted the intervention), but a larger task of somehow presenting France to the world. Vivant Denon’s book became one of the best-selling books describing the expedition and was translated into a number of other languages soon after its publication in French. But presenting France to the world was not the only fact of the intervention. It also disrupted the life of...