Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 on Corsica (part of Italy at the time). From 1803 he conquered most of Europe during the Napoleonic Wars, was Emperor of France in 1804-14 and 1814-15, and replaced French democracy with his own dictatorship. After the Peninsular War and his retreat from Moscow (1812) he was banished to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1815 he retook power but was defeated by the British and Prussians at the Battle of Waterloo. He was then exiled to St Helena where he died in 1821.