 On 19 May 1798 , a French fleet departed Toulon for a top secret destination . The force consisted of 22 warships and 120 transports , to be joined by additional forces from Genoa , Corsica and Civitavecchia as it passed south through the Ligurian Sea . The fleet 's target was Egypt , a territory nominally controlled by the Ottoman Empire that French General Napoleon Bonaparte considered an ideal springboard for operations against British India . Passing southwards without interference from the Royal Navy , which had been absent from the Mediterranean for over a year following the outbreak of war between Britain and Spain , Bonaparte 's convoy passed Sicily on 7 June and two days later was at anchor off the harbour of Valletta on Malta . The island nation of Malta was under the command of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem , a religious order that depended on France for much of its wealth and recruits . Bonaparte believed that capturing Malta was essential to controlling the Central Mediterranean , and when Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim refused the fleet entry to the harbour , Bonaparte responded with a large scale invasion . The knights put up no resistance , although fighting against native Maltese troops lasted for 24 hours until the central city of Mdina fell . With this defeat the knights withdrew to their fortress at Valletta but were persuaded to surrender the following day with promises of pensions and estates in France . 
