Napoleon was born in Corsica to a relatively modest family of noble Tuscan ancestry. Napoleon supported the French Revolution from the outset in 1789 while serving in the French army, and he tried to spread its ideals to Corsica but was banished from the island in 1793. Two years later, he saved the French government from collapse by firing on the Parisian mobs with cannons. The Directory rewarded Napoleon by giving him command of the Army of Italy at age 26, when he began his first military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies, scoring a series of decisive victories that made him famous all across Europe. He followed the defeat of the Allies in Europe by commanding a military expedition to Egypt in 1798, invading and occupying the Ottoman province after defeating the Mamelukes and launching modern Egyptology through the discoveries made by his army.