The three-year French occupation had been too short to exert any lasting effects on Egypt, despite claims to the contrary, as historian Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot has written.

Its most important effect on Egypt internally is the rapid decline in the power of the Mamluks.

The major impact of the French invasion of Egypt is the effect it has on Europe.

Napoleon's invasion has revealed the Middle East as an area of immense strategic importance to the European powers, thus inaugurating the Anglo-French rivalry for influence in the region and bringing the British into the Mediterranean.

The French invasion of Egypt also has an important effect on France because of the publication of Description de UEgypte, which details the findings of the scholars and scientists who had accompanied Napoleon to Egypt.

This publication becomes the foundation of modern research into the history, society, and economics of Egypt.