Napoleon does not land in Egypt in 1798

What if the French Directory develop a policy of degrading Britiains strategic
position, rather than the rash loss of 30,000 of France's best troops in the ill fated Egyptian expedition.

France's ally Spain agrees to a small French force, maybe only 5000 men, ( maybe 10000 ? ) crossing into Spain in order to occupy Portugal.
This deprives the British Navy of their base at the Tagus River.
It pre-empts any future British intervention on the Iberian peninsula.
It's possible that the crisis of Spanish succession in 1807 is avoided
and Spain does not become an ulcer for Napoleon.
Britains operations in the mediterranean are more complicated if the
staging base between England and Gibralter is lost.
With a base in Spain Napoleon can strangle Gibralter and systematically
( if he has the patience ) mop up potential British Naval Bases in the
mediterranean or any where the British might use for re-supply, Malta as
an example.

Regards all.
 
No Napoleon in Egypt, no Rosetta stone. You have no idea how different everything would have been.
 
The Egyptology fad that swept through mid-19th century Europe in general might well be butterflied away. It was indeed things like the discovery of the Rosetta stone and the other French excavations that, in large part, rekindled interest in Egyptian antiquity.
 
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