The nineteenth century concept of North Africa was a warped and fantasised interpretation of the foreign countries. Ottoman Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and India were all condensed under the enigmatic category of "The Orient". It was perceived as a timeless, exotic land of fantasy and adventure. This ignorant understanding had been developing since the seventeenth century with the introduction of Chinese and Japanese culture and aesthetics into Europe by the Jesuits. Many fictional works were paraded as fact, such as Montesquieu's 1721 book "Persian Letters". A fictional set of correspondence that satirically recounted the European character's response to North Africa. These books, as well as other paintings, drawings, literature, photographs, and travel diaries, created preconceptions that coloured the travelling artists interpretation of their surroundings in North Africa. French Orientalist painting took off with Napoleon's Egyptian campaign of 1798, the year in which Delacroix was born. French fascination again increased during the Greek revolution in 1821–30, during which time Victor Hugo authored the volume of poems "Les Orientales" and Delacroix contributed two paintings, "The Massacre at Chios" (1824) and "Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Messolonghi" (1826).