Napoleon I or Napoleon III?

Both Empires ended after a lost battle. Napoleon I's ultimate defeat was at Waterloo, Napoleon III was ultimately defeated at Sedan.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected the President of France in 1848, before organising a coup d'état after which he proclaimed himself Napoleon III, the Emperor of the French. Napoleon I held the position of the First Consul.

Napoleon I's possibly best known campaign was his invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon III entered the Crimean war to help the Ottoman Empire against Russian Tsar Nicholas I.

The Iron Chancellor of the Kingdom of Prussia was contemporary of Napoleon III. Eventually, Bismarck provoked Napoleon III to declare war on Prussia, which caused the end of the Second French Empire after Napoleon III was captured after the Battle of Sedan.

Overthrowing local rulers militarily, Napoleon I established puppet kingdoms and republics, placing his relatives in charge of these.

After being forced to abdicate, Napoleon I was followed by King Louis XVIII of the House of Bourbon. Napoleon III's Empire was replaced by the Third French Republic.

Napoleon I died on Saint Helena, Napoleon III died in the United Kingdom.

Napoleon I introduced this civil code in 1804. Through Napoleonic wars, it spread and influenced the civil codes of most of European countries of that time.

Napoleon III ordered the great renovation of Paris after becoming an Emperor. This restoration was directed by prefect Georges-Eugène Haussmann.

Allying the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, Napoleon III helped the Italians in conquering most of Italian lands belonging to Austrian Empire. Later, however, he blocked the Italians from conquering the entirety of the Papal State.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 as Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica (in a city called Ajaccio), which France purchased from Genoa in 1767.

Napoleon I commisioned the building of the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate his victory at Austerlitz.

Napoleon III tried to establish an Empire in Mexico, with the House of Habsburg as the imperial family. However, this effort failed, and led to execution of Maximilian I, the Mexican Emperor.

Napoleon I was first forced to abdicate and was exiled to Elba after his failed Russian campaign. However, he returned back to France, gaining back his position, before being losing the throne for the second time, after the Battle of Waterloo.

After the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon I forced Emperor Franz II to give up his title of the Holy Roman Emperor and formed the Rhine Confederation to replace the Empire.