The Attack and Capture of Sidon.
Reeve, Richard Gilson & Augustus William Reeve.
Synopsis
During 1840 combined British, Austrian and Turkish forces attempted to force the withdrawal of the forces of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt from Syria. The Egyptian forces defeated the Ottoman Sultan a the battle of Nezib in 1839 threatening the fall of Istanbul at Egyptian hands.
In September a combined naval squadron under the command of Sir Charles Napier bombarded Sidon and landed a force of marines which seized the Citadel.
The bombardment of the cities of Beirut, Sidon and Akka together with the British arming local citizens and driving them to fight the Egyptians, brought to an eventual retreat of the Egyptian forces to Egypt after heavy losses.
For the Benefit of the Families of the killed in the Allied Fleet attacked the cities of the Syrian coast in 1840, this plate of The Attack & Capture of Sidon was printed.
Sidon capitulated in two days to the head of the Allied forces Commodore Charles Napier.
On 15 July 1840, British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston obtained the adherence of the Ottoman Empire, Prussia, Russia, and Austria to a treaty redefining the international status of the Straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Under its terms, no foreign warships, except small vessels on diplomatic missions, were to pass the straits while the Ottoman Empire was at peace.
In a separate protocol, a graduated series of penalties was laid out if Muhammad Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, and his son, Ibrahim Pasha, refused to retreat from Syria. Consequently, Britain’s navy bombarded Beirut and Acre, landing troops. This threat to cut off Egyptian supply lines forced the Egyptians to retreat south of the Sinai.
On 13 July 1841, the 1840 London Convention was reaffirmed, this time with French adherence. As France had been Muhammad Ali’s patron, this second London Convention was a clear defeat for France. Muhammad Ali lost everything for which he had gambled, retaining only the hereditary Viceroy of Egypt, south of the Sinai desert.
