Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt inaugurated knowledge-production as an imperial instrument

Evidence

France was an early pioneer of Orientalist thought. In 1795, the School of Living Oriental Languages was established in Paris. When Napoleon invaded Egypt a few years later, he was able to take with him Orientalists whose knowledge could be put to use for colonial purposes. Edward Said has argued that Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 stands out as the first instance when knowledge about the native people became central to the colonizing mission. It was a crucial moment in the emergence of Orientalism. While the occupation itself lasted barely three years and was something of a disaster, it provided an ideological model for future colonial conquests. Napoleon’s invasion inaugurated the systematic use of scholarly knowledge to serve the needs of empire, both abroad and at home. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 152

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• DEFINE: Gives the concrete origin point for the Orientalism-as-imperial-knowledge claim that anchors the whole Islamophobia-empire thesis.
• SHARE: The School of Living Oriental Languages founded 1795 in Paris — concrete institutional date worth sending to anyone working on knowledge/empire history.

Related

• Napoleon’s 1798 Egypt invasion made scholarly knowledge central to colonization (similarity 0.92)
• Knowledge about the colonized became central to conquest only with Napoleon’s 1798 invasion (similarity 0.92)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion inaugurated the systematic use of scholarly knowledge to serve empire (similarity 0.89)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion made scholarly knowledge central to colonial conquest (similarity 0.89)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt modeled scientific cultural appropriation (similarity 0.88)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt modernized Western knowledge of the Orient. (similarity 0.88)
• Napoleon’s geographers aimed to instill an active imperial sense in Egyptians (similarity 0.88)
• Napoleon’s expedition deliberately taught Egyptians imperial ambition (similarity 0.88)
• Napoleon’s failed Egyptian invasion modeled scholarly exploitation for later empires (similarity 0.88)
• Napoleon’s expedition spawned both a scientific and a geopolitical Orientalist project. (similarity 0.87)
• Napoleon’s failed occupation nonetheless founded the entire modern discourse of Orientalism. (similarity 0.87)
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egyptian campaign founded modern Orientalism (similarity 0.87)
• Vast scholarly knowledge of Egyptians was compiled without native input to serve French domination (similarity 0.85)
• Orientalist scholarship cannot be detached from its imperial context (similarity 0.84)
• Napoleon’s Egyptian conquest modeled the civilizing mission on scholarship, preparation, and justification (similarity 0.83)