Napoleon is not remembered as a scientist, but he thought of himself as one. He was trained as a military engineer and had considerable mathematical skills. In 1797, he was elected to membership in the National Institute, the foremost scientific society in post-Revolutionary France.
When the directive to invade Egypt came down, Napoleon saw it as an opportunity to make the founding country of western culture a province of the greatest country in modern Europe. And he wanted to bring a gift — the gift of modern science — to help the Egyptians map their country, manage the Nile, raise their agricultural and industrial output, improve the standard of living, and invigorate the intellectual climate. Accordingly, he decided to take with him a corps of scholars, trained in engineering, astronomy, natural history, topography, manufacturing, and linguistics.
View of the harbor at Alexandria, from Description de l’Égypte État moderne
One of the ships, the Patriote, had a hold full of carefully selected scientific equipment. It ran aground and sank in the harbor, an ominous beginning to the scientific enterprise. But the savants survived, and after biding their time in Alexandria and Rosetta while Napoleon and his army established their military presence, they eventually made it to Cairo, and their work could now begin
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