Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was born to a family of minor nobility on Corsica but even as an outsider he managed to promote himself in French Army from a position of second lieutenant to general officer, commander of the Army of Italy and through a coup as the First Consul. The Pope crowned Napoleon as Emperor, the first Emperor since Charlemagne almost 1000 years earlier. During a period of little more than a decade Napoleon gained control of almost all Western and Central Europe by conquest or alliance. After his defeat at the famous battle at Waterloo in 1815 Napoleon was exiled to the island Saint Helena, where he died. Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military geniuses in history.