Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt modernized Western knowledge of the Orient.

Evidence

I spoke earlier of incorporation and assimilation of the Orient, as these activities were practiced by writers as different from each other as Dante and d’Herbelot. Clearly there is a difference between those efforts and what, by the end of the nineteenth century, had become a truly formidable European cultural, political, and material enterprise. The nineteenth-century colonial “scramble for Africa” was by no means limited to Africa, of course. Neither was the penetration of the Orient entirely a sudden, dramatic afterthought following years of scholarly study of Asia. What we must reckon with is a long and slow process of appropriation by which Europe, or the European awareness of the Orient, transformed itself from being textual and contemplative into being administrative, economic, and even military. The fundamental change was a spatial and geographical one, or rather it was a change in the quality of geographical and spatial apprehension so far as the Orient was concerned. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 522 (#expands, via linked claim)

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. Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 stands out as the first instance when knowledge about the native people became central to a colonizing mission. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 105 (#expands, via linked claim)

With the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in 1798, the French embarked on a grand colonial project that, as one of its effects, established Orientalism as the colonial and scholarly movement that survives to this day. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 381 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Napoleon’s 1798 Egypt invasion made scholarly knowledge central to colonization — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 105; Napoleon’s 1798 Egyptian campaign founded modern Orientalism — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 381; Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt began serious European conquest of Muslim lands — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 172 (+5 more)

Related

• Knowledge about the colonized became central to conquest only with Napoleon’s 1798 invasion (similarity 0.93)
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egyptian campaign founded modern Orientalism (similarity 0.92)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion inaugurated the systematic use of scholarly knowledge to serve empire (similarity 0.91)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion made scholarly knowledge central to colonial conquest (similarity 0.91)
• Napoleon’s failed Egyptian invasion modeled scholarly exploitation for later empires (similarity 0.91)
• Napoleon’s failed occupation nonetheless founded the entire modern discourse of Orientalism. (similarity 0.90)
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egypt invasion made scholarly knowledge central to colonization (similarity 0.90)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt modeled scientific cultural appropriation (similarity 0.89)
• Napoleon’s expedition spawned both a scientific and a geopolitical Orientalist project. (similarity 0.89)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt inaugurated knowledge-production as an imperial instrument (similarity 0.89)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt began serious European conquest of Muslim lands (similarity 0.89)
• Academic study of Islam only began with Orientalism’s language training (similarity 0.88)
• Vast scholarly knowledge of Egyptians was compiled without native input to serve French domination (similarity 0.88)
• Napoleon’s expedition deliberately taught Egyptians imperial ambition (similarity 0.87)
• Napoleon’s geographers aimed to instill an active imperial sense in Egyptians (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• European knowledge of the Orient shifted from textual contemplation to administrative and military appropriation #expands (0.90) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 522
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egypt invasion made scholarly knowledge central to colonization #expands (0.88) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 105
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egyptian campaign founded modern Orientalism #corroborates (0.85) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 381
• Western scholarly discourse about the Orient was entangled with colonial domination #expands (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 206
• Culture, not merely power, dynamically created Western interest in the Orient #expands (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 71
• Knowledge of the Orient requires conceiving it as ruled by Europe #expands (0.75)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt began serious European conquest of Muslim lands #expands (0.72) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 172