19th-century Orientalism began in 1798 when Napoleon invaded Egypt.His primary aim was to establish a power base in the eastern Mediterranean, but he also wanted to acquire knowledge of Egypt's geography history and culture, and to this end his expedition included a secondary army including artists, surveyors, cartographers, botanists,  antiquarians and botanists, whose collective mission was to build up a complete understanding of the country past and present.  The results of this research provoked a wave of 'Egyptomania' across Europe, while more immediately Napoleon's expedition intensified pre-existing rivalries between Britain and France in the acquisition of imperial power