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Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801 were three connected major French Navy operations of the spring of 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. A French naval squadron from Brest under ''Contre-amiral'' Honoré Ganteaume, seeking to reinforce the besieged French garrison in Egypt, made three separate but futile efforts to reach the Eastern Mediterranean. The French army in Egypt had been trapped there shortly after the start of the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt in 1798, when the French Mediterranean Fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile. Since that defeat, the French Navy had maintained only a minimal presence in the Mediterranean Sea, while the more numerous British and their allies had succeeded in blockading and defeating several French bases almost unopposed. The despatch of Ganteaume's squadron was a direct effort to restore balance to the situation in the Mediterranean by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and on the first cruise it reached Toulon on 19 February 1801, providing vital reinforcements to the remnants of the fleet there. The second expedition, launched from Toulon a month later, was forced back to the port by a combination of bad weather and the British blockade. The third expedition actually reached the Eastern Mediterranean and a fruitless attempt was made to land troops at Benghazi, before British ships from the blockade of Egypt successfully drove Ganteaume's forces away. The French squadron returned to Toulon by 22 July, at which point the expedition was called off. Despite his failure to land troops in North Africa, Ganteaume did win a series of minor victories over lone British warships, including the frigate HMS ''Success'' and the ship of the line HMS ''Swiftsure'', and several of his ships detached during the third expedition were subsequently involved in the Algeciras Campaign in July. Ultimately the inability of the French to break through the British blockade of Egypt resulted in the defeat and surrender of the garrison there later in the year. == Background == In May 1798, a large French fleet of warships and transports crossed the Mediterranean Sea with an army of more than 35,000 men under General Napoleon Bonaparte, intent on an invasion of Egypt, then nominally held by the neutral Ottoman Empire.〔Gardiner, p. 26〕 Pausing to capture Malta, the French force then pressed on eastwards aware that a fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson had entered the Mediterranean and was in pursuit. Successfully avoiding Nelson's forces, the fleet reached Alexandria on 29 June and immediately invaded, rapidly advancing inland and defeating the Mamluk rulers of Egypt at the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July. While the army had pushed inland, the fleet, under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers, had anchored in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria, and was found there in the afternoon of 1 August by Nelson's fleet. Despite the growing darkness, Nelson attacked at once and in the three-day Battle of the Nile destroyed or captured eleven ships of the line and two frigates. Just two ships of the line and two frigates escaped and among the more than 3,000 casualties was Admiral Brueys, killed on his flagship ''Orient''.〔Gardiner, p. 35〕 With his route back to France suddenly closed, Bonaparte consolidated his position in Egypt and then attacked north into Ottoman Syria. The operation achieved some initial success, but British dominance at sea heavily influenced the campaign: the siege train was captured on its coastal barges, all supplies had to be brought overland and any French operations near the shoreline came under heavy fire from Royal Navy warships, particularly at the culminating Siege of Acre.〔Gardiner, p. 61〕 An attempt by the French Atlantic Fleet to intervene in the Mediterranean, known as the ''Croisière de Bruix'', failed in July 1799.〔Clowes, p. 387〕 Defeated at Acre and driven back to Egypt, Bonaparte decided to return to France in November 1799 in order to take charge of the deteriorating situation in the War of the Second Coalition. He could only evacuate a small number of advisors with him on the frigates ''Muiron'' and ''Carrère'', but promised the army remaining in Egypt under General Jean Baptiste Kléber that he would send support and reinforcements from Europe. Bonaparte successfully reached France without interception by British forces and on 9 November 1799 seized power in the coup of 18 Brumaire and proclaimed himself First Consul.〔Gardiner, p. 66〕 While Bonaparte was preoccupied in the Middle East and then with French politics, the Royal Navy had returned to the Mediterranean in force. British forces had withdrawn from the region in 1796 after France and Spain became allies in the Treaty of San Ildefonso, but Nelson's victory at the Nile had eliminated the French threat, allowing a large scale redeployment in the second half of the year. Malta was besieged, the Ionian Islands were captured by a joint Turkish and Russian force and successive efforts to reach the trapped garrison of Egypt were defeated at sea.〔Gardiner, p. 58〕 Negotiations to return the French troops to Europe collapsed and although Kléber defeated an Ottoman attack at the Battle of Heliopolis on 20 March 1800, he was assassinated in June.〔Gardiner, p. 66〕 As morale fell, the situation in Egypt became increasingly desperate for the French garrison and the British planned an invasion for March 1801. News of British intentions reached France where Bonaparte, who had successfully reorganised the French Army and driven back allied advances in Italy thus bringing the continental war to an end, ordered a squadron from the French Atlantic Fleet, based at Brest, to reinforce the garrison in Egypt.〔Clowes, p. 447〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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