Julien Pierre Anne Lalande

Vice admiral Lalande

Julien Pierre Anne Lalande (1787 in Le Mans, France – 1844 in Paris) was a French Navy officer and politician. He became one of the main actors in the Oriental Crisis of 1840 when the French Levant Squadron did not stop the Ottoman Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral) Ahmed Fawzi Pasha who defected with the whole Ottoman Fleet to the Sultan´s enemy Muhammad Ali of Egypt ("Lalande affair").

Britain and Russia supported the Ottoman Sultan and formed an alliance with Austria and Prussia against Egypt (Convention of London). France was politically isolated and, because it was threatened by a coalition of all its former enemies, France chose not to intervene when British and Austrian naval and infantry forces attacked Egyptian-held Beirut and Acre. Rear Admiral Lalande, however, offered his Prime minister Adolphe Thiers and his king Louis Philippe I a plan to stop the Russian Black Sea fleet by occupying a few Dardanelles forts, to attack and capture or destroy the Royal Navy Levant Squadron and to use the Egypt-Ottoman fleet to transport French troops for an invasion in Ireland. Lalande was called back to Toulon and removed from his command.

After Thiers was replaced by François Guizot Lalande became a deputy in the French National Assembly from 1840 to 1842 and supported Guizot´s policy.

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