Editing Tipu Sultan (section)

===Napoleon's attempt at a junction===
{{Main|Franco-Indian alliances}}In 1794, with the support of French Republican officers, Tipu allegedly helped found the [[Jacobin Club of Mysore]] for 'framing laws comfortable with the laws of the Republic'. He planted a Liberty Tree and declared himself Citizen Tipoo.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roychoudhury|first=Upendrakishore|title=White Mughals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7BCr-QIWGIC&pg=PA101|date=April 2004|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-303046-1|page=101}}</ref> In a 2005 paper, historian Jean Boutier argued that the club's existence, and Tipu's involvement in it, was fabricated by the East India Company in order to justify British military intervention against Tipu.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Les "lettres de créances" du corsaire Ripaud. Un "club jacobin" à Srirangapatnam (Inde), mai-juin 1797|journal=Les Indes Savantes|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00007971/document?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc|last=Boutier|first=Jean|date=2005}}</ref>

One of the motivations of Napoleon's [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|invasion of Egypt]] was to establish a junction with India against the British. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with Tippoo Sahib.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o4vrUbMK5eEC&pg=PA13|title=Tricolor and Crescent|isbn=9780275974701|year=2003|last1=Watson|first1=William E.|publisher=Greenwood Publishing }}</ref> Napoleon assured the [[French Directory]] that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions."<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n5IOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA12|title=Napoleon and Persia|isbn=9780934211581|date=January 1999|last1=Amini|first1=Iradj|publisher=Mage Publishers }}</ref> According to a 13 February 1798 report by [[Talleyrand]]: "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from [[Suez]] to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English."<ref name="books.google.com"/> Napoleon was unsuccessful in this strategy, losing the [[Siege of Acre (1799)|Siege of Acre]] in 1799 and at the [[Battle of Abukir (1801)|Battle of Abukir]] in 1801.<ref name=karsh11>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBilxxaKRKkC&pg=PA11|title=Empires of the Sand|isbn=9780674005419|year=2001|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Karsh|first2=Inari|publisher=Harvard University Press }}</ref>

{{rquote|centre|Although I never supposed that he (''[[Napoleon]]'') possessed, allowing for some difference of education, the liberality of conduct and political views which were sometimes exhibited by old [[Hyder Ali]], yet I did think he might have shown the same resolved and dogged spirit of resolution which induced Tipu Sahib to die manfully upon the breach of his capital city with his sabre clenched in his hand.|Sir [[Walter Scott]], commenting on the abdication of [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte in 1814}}