Why did Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz propose a French expedition to Egypt?

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Engraved portrait of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz with long curly hair, wearing a buttoned coat and cravat, facing forward. — Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, engraving, c. 1701.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz did not propose the expedition to Egypt on his own initiative; rather, he worked on the project at the behest of his patron, Johann Philipp von Schönborn, the archbishop of Mainz.

The primary motivation for the proposal was geopolitical and strategic: the archbishop sought to protect the Holy Roman Empire from the growing threat posed by King Louis XIV of France. By suggesting an expedition to Egypt, the archbishop hoped to divert the French king’s interests and military ambitions away from German territories. Additionally, the archbishop used religion as a pretext for the plan, expressing the hope that the expedition would promote the reunion of the church.1