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Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was the first "Emperor of the French people". A general in the army during the First Republic, he came to power following a coup d'état on18th Brumaire , 1799, becoming the First Consul in 1802 and the Emperor in 1804. He died deposed, in exile on the island of Elbe on May 5, 1821. A despot, he nevertheless modernised and organised French society and the French state.