1799 - Political Events

Political Events

Neapolitans proclaim a Parthenopean Republic January 23 with support from the French occupation force and from Admiral Francesco Caracciolo, 47, duca di Brienza, who accepts command of the new republic's navy (see 1798). Ferdinand IV recaptures Naples in June, the republic is overthrown, its supporters are massacred in violation of a peace treaty, and Ferdinand is restored to his throne along with his consort, Maria Carolina; Caracciolo is tried for treason on orders from Horatio Nelson, found guilty, and hanged aboard his flagship Minerva June 28.

General Bonaparte invades Syria from Egypt in February with 13,000 men following a declaration of war by Constantinople (see 1798). The Syrian leader Djessar, pasha of Damascus, has raised a 35,000-man army to invade Egypt and drive out the infidel; General Jean Baptiste Kléber, 45, launches an assault April 16 with only 1,500 men at what will be remembered as the Battle of Mt. Tabor south of Acre, and the Turks threaten to overwhelm his two small squares. Kléber's men fight off the enemy for 8 hours, and they are about to exhaust their ammunition when Bonaparte arrives with another 2,500 men and two cannon, attacking quickly and routing the Turks. The French have lost only two dead and 60 wounded They storm Jaffa, massacre its inhabitants, and take 3,000 Ottoman prisoners. Unable to feed them or to spare enough men to march them to Cairo, Bonaparte has them killed, bayonetting them on the beach to save ammunition. The Turks at Acre are too well fortified for Bonaparte to take the place, so he simply sends word to Cairo that Acre has fallen. Plague breaks out among the French, and the army retreats to Egypt, but although he has left half his army in Palestine, Bonaparte reenters Cairo as a hero. The Battle of Abukir July 25 ends in triumph for Bonaparte and his cavalry commander Joachim Murat, 32, over a Turkish force landed at Abukir from Rhodes with British naval support. Former first lord of the Admiralty Lord Richard Howe dies August 5 at age 73. Bonaparte storms the Turkish entrenchments with a 6,000-man army and routs a force of 18,000; some 12,000 Turks are killed, wounded, or driven into the sea to drown, and another 6,000 are taken prisoner. The French lose only 900 killed and wounded, but General Barthélemy Catherine Joubert is defeated and killed August 15 at the Battle of Novi.

Bonaparte embarks in secret for France August 22 with a small company to stiffen the sagging French armies in Europe; he abandons his dispirited army, leaving General Kléber to command at Cairo (see 1800). Bonaparte has been living at Cairo with the 20-year-old wife of a minor officer, and now he returns home in October to find that his wife, Josephine, has been spending his money wildly, purchasing the beautiful but rundown château Malmaison outside town in April, furnishing it extravagantly, and creating a scandal by letting herself be seen about town in the company of young wastrels. Bonaparte has a violent argument with Josephine but pays off the 300,000 francs still owed for the château and hires two fashionable architects to redecorate it. The general has medals struck depicting him as the conqueror of Egypt, although his expedition there has actually been disastrous.

Russian forces defeat a French army under General Masséna June 4 to 7 at Zürich, General Aleksandr Vasilyevich Suvorov, 69, inflicts major losses on the Polish legion of General Dabrowski at the Trebbia from June 17 to 19 and routs a French army under the command of General Jacques (-Etienne-Joseph)-Alexandre Macdonald, 33, as he marches north to relieve General Moreau at Genoa. But Masséna drives the Russians out of Zürich September 26 and blocks another Russian army from advancing into Italy, thus saving France from any immediate threat of invasion. The Russians have been reduced in number by starvation, and Moscow withdraws from the coalition October 22, complaining that Austria and the other allies have given her no support.

Russian and Ottoman forces drive French occupation troops out of the Ionian Islands and organize them into the Septinsular Republic.

General Bonaparte becomes first consul of France November 9 (18 Brumaire) in a coup d'état engineered by revolutionists who include the abbé Sieyes (Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes), 51, and Pierre Roger Ducos, 52. General Augereau and others have opposed the coup, and Augereau will be given unimportant commands until 1805. Lazare Carnot and others return from exile, the Constitution of the Year VIII receives overwhelming support from the public in a vote held December 24, the Directory that has ruled since 1795 is ended, and Bonaparte is established as dictator of France.

Chinese courtier Heshen (Ho-shen) is forced to commit suicide at Beijing (Peking) February 22 at age 48 (see 1798). The White Lotus Rebellion continues.

British forces in southwestern India drive the pro-French ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sahib, into his Seringapatam fortress and lay siege to the place April 6 in an effort to break Tippoo Sahib's power in the Fourth Mysore War. General George Harris, 52, commands 6,000 British and Indian troops, and after weeks of artillery bombardment he finally storms the fortress May 3, killing and wounding 8,500 of Tipu Sahib's estimated 30,000 men while suffering 1,464 killed and wounded himself. Tipu Sahib is killed in combat and his sons are imprisoned at Vellore (see mutiny, 1806).

Patrick Henry dies at his Virginia estate in Charlotte County June 6 at age 63; former president George Washington at Mount Vernon December 14 at age 67 after repeated bloodletting (at Washington's insistence) by physician Benjamin Rush. Washington's body is found to measure six feet three and a half inches. When news of his death reaches Philadelphia 4 days later, his wartime cavalry general Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee is chosen to deliver the funeral oration: "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life."