page_title: Morea expedition
section_title: Departure of the Egyptian Army
hierarchical_section_title: Morea expedition / Military expedition / Operations in the Peloponnese / Departure of the Egyptian Army
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Entrevue du général Maison et d'Ibrahim Pacha, à Navarin, septembre 1828. Intervention française en Morée (1828-1833). Dimensions&#160;: 197 x 267 cm. Cadre&#160;: 203 x 272,5 x 7,5 cm. Matière et technique&#160;: huile sur toile.
context_page_description: The Morea expedition is the name given to the land intervention of the French Army in the Peloponnese between 1828 and 1833, at the time of the Greek War of Independence, with the aim of expelling from the region the Ottoman-Egyptian occupation forces. It was also accompanied by a scientific expedition mandated by the French Academy.
  After the fall of Messolonghi in 1826, the Western European powers decided to intervene in favour of revolutionary Greece. Their primary objective was to force Ibrahim Pasha, the Ottoman Empire's Egyptian ally, to evacuate the occupied regions and the Peloponnese. The intervention began when a Franco-Russo-British fleet was sent to the region and won the Battle of Navarino in October 1827, destroying the entire Turkish-Egyptian fleet. In August 1828, a French expeditionary corps of 15,000 men led by General Nicolas-Joseph Maison landed in the southwestern Peloponnese. During October, soldiers took control of the principal strongholds still held by the Turkish troops. Although the bulk of the troops returned to France in early 1829 after an 8 month-deployment, the French kept a military presence in the area until 1833.
context_section_description: According to the Convention of Alexandria (6 August 1828), signed by the viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, and the British admiral Edward Codrington, Ibrahim Pasha was required to evacuate his Egyptian troops and leave the Peloponnese to the few Turkish troops (estimated at 1,200 men) remaining there. He used a number of pretexts to delay the evacuation: problems with food supply or transport, or unforeseen difficulties in handing over the strongholds. The French officers had problems maintaining the fighting zeal of their soldiers, who for example had become excited at the (false) news of an imminent march on Athens. The impatience of the French troops was perhaps decisive in convincing the Egyptian commander to respect his obligations. Moreover, the French soldiers began to suffer from the autumnal rains that drenched the tents pitched in their camps and favoured the spread of fever and dysentery. On 24 September, Louis-Eugène Cavaignac wrote that thirty men of 400 in his company of military engineers were already affected by fever. General Maison wished to be able to set up his men in the fortresses' barracks.
  On 7 September, following a long conference aboard the ship Conquérant, in the presence of General Maison and the three allied Admirals, Ibrahim Pasha accepted the evacuation of his troops as of 9 September. The agreement provided that the Egyptians would leave with their arms, baggage and horses, but without any Greek slaves or prisoners. As the Egyptian fleet could not evacuate the entire army in one operation, supplies were authorised for the troops who remained on land; these men had just endured a lengthy blockade. A first Egyptian division, 5,500 men and 27 ships, set sail on September 16, escorted by three ships from the joint fleet (two English ones and the French frigate Sirène). The day before, on 15 September, the French troops had moved their camp from Petalidi and had crossed the Messenian peninsula  to the west in order to get closer to Navarino. They had set up their new camp north of the bay in the swampy plain of the Djalova, two leagues north of Navarino. On 1 October, General Maison reviewed the entire French troops on the shore, in the presence of Ibrahim Pasha who came without escort, and of the Greek General Nikitaras. The French printer Jacques Mangeart gave a detailed description of this review in his Souvenirs.
  The evacuation continued throughout the month of September and the last Egyptian transport sailed away on 5 October, taking Ibrahim Pasha. Of the 40,000 men he had brought from Egypt, he was returning with barely 21,000. A few Ottoman soldiers (2,500) remained to hold the different strongholds of the Peloponnese. The next mission of the French troops was to secure them, and hand them back to an independent Greece.
caption: Meeting between General Maison and Ibrahim Pasha in September 1828 (Jean-Charles Langlois)
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