(Note: The next two paragraphs were copied from Wikipedia, with small changes) Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century. Bonaparte rose to prominance under the First French Republic. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and later crowned himself Emperor of the French. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, he turned the armies of the French Empire against every major European power and dominated continental Europe through a series of military victories.