WI; Napoleon crowns himself Pharaoh in 1798, revives ancient Egypt?

[WorstOfHumanity]

What would happen if Napoleon's campaign in Egypt is a massive success, and as a result he rules the Nile himself (never returning to take over France) - ultimately reviving the Egyptian religion (maybe Atenism, a more monotheistic interpretation being more palatable to Europeans?) and language?

For bonus points, what if he goes the extra step by 'legitimising' his 34th Dynasty by abiding by Egyptian royal customs... and wedding his sister? There were slanderous rumours spread in reality, maybe they are actually true here...

 

[RedSword12]

This is less plausible than Nazi Germany winning World War II. At least there it's largely down to people making mistakes, not people acting totally out of character.

 

[WorstOfHumanity]

This is less plausible than Nazi Germany winning World War II. At least there it's largely down to luck, not people acting totally out of character.

Then assume the POD is the individual having a different character or outlook on a situation? If alternate history only allowed people to act as they did in reality, every post would be geological/cosmic

 

[GameBawesome]

Yeah... That all seems unlikely.

For one, plague struck his army, and besides the number of Egyptians outnumbered the number of Frenchmen.

Two, none this would be popular with the Egyptians, who were predominately Muslim, besides the Coptic Egyptians who were Christian

Thirdly, none of this would fly with the Ottomans, the British, or even the French Republic itself.

Fourthly, no one even remembers Ancient Egyptian culture besides the Bible. It was Napoleon's expedition that started Egyptomania. So, reconstructing Ancient Egyptian Culture, especially Atenism which was practically erased by the Egyptians themselves and only discovered out of sheer luck, would be impossible.

 

[omnidirectional]

Yeah, there is no way a majority Islamic country would accept a pagan ancient religion imposed on them. He was cutting it close to the razor trying to introduce French Republican propaganda in Egypt as it was. Also, since his expedition found the Rosetta Stone and it took a while to translate it, they don't have enough info to go on yet. Him and the entire French force would be killed by mobs if they tried this.

 

[Lalli]

This is indeed incredibly implausible. Probably already extremely close of ASB.

1. Egyptians never would accept idea of some ancient religion. They are mostly Muslims and they are not going to convert. And same thing is with Coptic Christians too.
2. Egyptian culture and religion was already forgotten long time ago. At this point no one even couldn't read hieroglyphs before they managed to find Rosetta Stone. And about Atenism, no one would know that yet decades. Even pharaoh Akhenaten was so completely wiped from history that Egyptologists didn't know his existence before they found that mad pharaoh's capital. Even historian Manetho didn't know him.
3. Marrying his sister is even bigger no. No one, absolutely no one, ever accept that. It would be seen as really wrong action and Napoleon couldn't do that.
4. Napoleon was basically traditionalist with some more modern things. He wanted keep things mostly as they were as long as these suited for him and French Empire and trying to turn Egypt back to religion and culture which was dead already at least 1500 years hardly would had fitted him very well.

 

[Elfwine]

Then assume the POD is the individual having a different character or outlook on a situation? If alternate history only allowed people to act as they did in reality, every post would be geological/cosmic

Its not technically impossible, but he would be a very different guy long before 1797 - which greatly impacts if he's in the same position as he was OTL in 1797.

From there - well, others have commented on how anyone would react to this. Napoleon is cutting himself off from pretty much any basis for support he has by declaring himself a pagan Pharaoh except those so utterly devoted to him, personally and exclusively, that he could order them to jump in an erupting volcano - and there are only so many ways that can go.

 

[tus3]

Then assume the POD is the individual having a different character or outlook on a situation? If alternate history only allowed people to act as they did in reality, every post would be geological/cosmic

If you do not want people to complain about impossible scenarios being, well, impossible, you can always make threads in the ASB forum.

That's where I had posted my own 'Reverse Schlieffen Plan'-TL which did not even try to pretend to be plausible, back in 2017.

 

[Evil Crusader]

Then assume the POD is the individual having a different character or outlook on a situation? If alternate history only allowed people to act as they did in reality, every post would be geological/cosmic

Because that's not a single POD, but a large collection of PODs, each geared towards making the main POD work, actually in a very non-divergent way, all so that superficially stuff happens as per OTL both on the French and Egyptian side except now there actually is an appreciable chance of the guy being there, doing that, and people actually following him.

 

[Sarufiyyun]

Seems more likely that Napoleon converts to Islam in public and adopts the title of Sultan or Malik.

 

[Lalli]

Seems more likely that Napoleon converts to Islam in public and adopts the title of Sultan or Malik.

That would make much more sense than converting to long time ago dead religion and taking title pharaoh. And even that is pretty unlikely.

 

[jacob ningen]

Seems more likely that Napoleon converts to Islam in public and adopts the title of Sultan or Malik.

Alternative what if his Akko campaign goes better how does Palestine react to him. Can he resurrect the Zaydani system.? Would it unify post Zaydani Palestine or would we see something more akin to the 1834 peasant revolt.