Self-coup

Cavalry in the streets of Paris during the French coup of 1851, whereby the democratically-elected President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte seized dictatorial power. A year later he was crowned Emperor of the French.

A self-coup (or autocoup, from the Spanish autogolpe) is a form of putsch or coup d'état in which a nation's leader, despite having come to power through legal means, dissolves or renders powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assumes extraordinary powers, not granted under normal circumstances. Other measures taken may include annulling the nation's constitution, suspending civil courts and having the head of government assume dictatorial powers.

List of self-coups

• Ancient Rome: The Roman dictatorship was an established form of office during the Republican period, in which one person (a consul or ex-consul), during an emergency, had absolute power for six months. Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Julius Caesar, however, had dictatorship for a longer time; Caesar was named dictator perpetuo, or dictator-for-life, and was subsequently assassinated shortly after accepting this position.
  • Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla (ca. 81 BC) See: Constitutional Reforms of Lucius Cornelius Sulla
  • Governor, Consul or Dictator Julius Caesar (between 50 and 48 BC)
• Sweden: King Gustav III (19 August 1772)
• First Mexican Empire: Emperor Agustín (October 31, 1822)
• Second French Republic: President Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (December 2, 1851)
• Mexico: President Ignacio Comonfort (December 17, 1857)
• First Brazilian Republic: President Deodoro da Fonseca (November 3, 1891)
• Mexico: President Gen. Victoriano Huerta (October 7, 1913)
• China: President Yuan Shikai (November 20, 1915)
• Kingdom of Italy: Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (January 3, 1925)
• Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes: King Alexander I (January 6, 1929)
• Germany: Chancellor Adolf Hitler (March 23, 1933)
• Austria: Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss (March 1933 – 1 May 1934)
• Uruguay: President Gabriel Terra (March 31, 1933)
• Estonia: Prime Minister Konstantin Päts (March 12, 1934)
• Latvia: Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis (May 15, 1934)
• Chile: President Arturo Alessandri Palma (February 1936)
• Kingdom of Greece: Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas (August 4, 1936)
• Brazil: President Getúlio Vargas (November 10, 1937)
• Romania: King Carol II (February 10, 1938)
• Bolivia: President Maj. Germán Busch (April 24, 1939)
• Paraguay: President Gen. José Félix Estigarribia (February 18, 1940)
• Uruguay: President Alfredo Baldomir (February 21, 1942)
• Ecuador: President José María Velasco Ibarra (March 30, 1946)
• Paraguay: President Higinio Morínigo (January 13, 1947)
• First Republic of South Korea: President Syngman Rhee (May 23, 1952 – July 4, 1952)
• Iran: Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh (3 to 10 August 1953)
• Iran: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (August 15, 1953)
• Dominion of Pakistan: Governor-General Malik Ghulam Muhammad (April 1953 and September 1954)
• Indonesia: President Sukarno's decree of July 5, 1959
• Morocco: King Muhammad V (May 20, 1960)
• Kingdom of Nepal: King Mahendra (December 15, 1960)
• Brunei: Sultan Sir Omar Ali Saifuddien III (December 12, 1962)
• Morocco: King Hassan II (June 7, 1965)
• Uganda: Prime Minister Milton Obote (February 22 and 23, 1966)
• Lesotho: Prime Minister Chief Leabua Jonathan (January 30, 1970)
• Ecuador: President José María Velasco Ibarra (June 22, 1970)
• Thailand: Prime Minister Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn (November 17, 1971)
• Philippines: President Ferdinand Marcos (September 23, 1972)
• Fourth Republic of South Korea: President Park Chung-hee (October 1972)
• Swaziland: King Sobhuza II (April 12, 1973)
• Uruguay: President Juan Maria Bordaberry (June 27, 1973)
• Republic of Upper Volta: President Gen. Sangoulé Lamizana (February 8, 1974)
• Bolivia: President Hugo Banzer (November 7, 1974)
• India: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (June 25, 1975)
• Bahrain: Emir Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa (August 26, 1975)
• Poland: Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski (December 13, 1981)
• Peru: President Alberto Fujimori (April 5, 1992)
• Guatemala: President Jorge Serrano Elías (May 25, 1993; failed)
• Russian Federation: President Boris Yeltsin (September 21 – October 4, 1993)
• Lesotho: King Letsie III (August 17, 1994)
• Kingdom of Nepal: King Gyanendra (October 4, 2002)
• Kingdom of Nepal: King Gyanendra (February 1, 2005)
• Pakistan: President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (November 3, 2007)
• Niger: President Mamadou Tandja (June 29, 2009)
• Turkey: President of the Republic Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (July 15, 2016)

See also

• Emperor Palpatine, a fictional example from Star Wars