Top 5 Explosive Facts About Coups D'Etat
Top 5 Explosive Facts About Coups D’Etat
Welcome to WatchMojo’s Top 5 Facts.
In today’s instalment, we’re counting down our picks for the top 5 most
#5: Coups D'Etat Are as Old as Ancient Greece & Rome
They didn't call them coups then, but overthrowing governments is as old as governments themselves. In ancient times, most countries either had kings or were a republic. But sometimes, would-be rulers would usurp their own governments with a private army. In Athens, the city was couped by a group of 400 aristocrats who were fed up with democracy. They were replaced in another coup 7 years later by a smaller, scarier group called the 30 Tyrants. Ancient Rome had its share of coups, too. Julius Caesar came to power in a coup...and then was killed in one. Coups continued happening through the Roman Empire, China, Byzantium, Mongolia... and they didn’t stop! Famous modern coup-leaders like Napoleon, Franco and Mussolini are part of a venerable heritage of blood-soaked ambition.
#4: Coups are Most Common in Latin America & Africa
If Latin America is an apartment, Spain was the worst roommate ever. Even if they left 200 years ago, Spanish forces left a huge mess: dirty dishes, dust bunnies, and unpaid bills in the form of weak economies, and a legacy of racism and over-powered militaries. After Spain lost control of its mismanaged colonies in the 1820s, the only powerful institution left was the army. And they used that power. Most countries in Latin America have had a coup, and when you've done it once, it can apparently be hard to kick the habit. Point in case, Argentina: which between 1930 and 1976 had a coup every 9 years or so on average. Still, for all Latin America's historical clout, it's the continent of Africa that is the modern pace setter for coups, with over 200 occurring since the 1960s.
#3: Thailand Is Very Coup-Prone
Even today there are a handful of world leaders who took power by force, but many of them have stabilized and steered towards democracy. And then there's Thailand, that’s had 19 coups since 1932, yet only 25 democratic elections. The Thai military chronically tries to clean up government, but is just as incompetent at running the country. Civilian politics is made up of the Red and Yellow factions, the poor and the populists versus the middle class and the aristocracy. The two political camps have nothing in common, and the only peacemakers have been the army and the monarchy. Thailand's last coup was in 2014; in 2019, the coup's leader, Prayut Chan-o-cha, was elected Prime Minister, in what was widely seen as an unfair race.
#2: Most Coups Fail
If all this has been pessimistic, here’s some relief: coups are decreasing in frequency and most coups fail to make history. Of course, there are some famous failed coups like the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes’ dastardly plan to blow up Protestant King James I and replaces him with a Catholic. And then there's Adolf Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. Hitler’s innovation was to announce to the crowd that the revolution had already begun and they should join in. Although he was able to lead his revolt to some success, the Nazi militias were soon defeated by police, thus stopping Hitler once and for all. Well, until he ran for election 10 years later and seized control of Germany. But that’s another video altogether.
#1: The U.S. Backed 7 Coups during the Cold War...that We Know Of
Sometimes, coups are backed by foreign governments, and when you need help overthrowing a government, no one does it better than the CIA. From 1953 to 1973, the U.S. overthrew the governments of Iran, Guatemala, Congo, the Dominican Republic, South Vietnam, Brazil and Chile. And that’s just what they’ve admitted to. Some of the governments overthrown were democratic, but all of them were vulnerable to being influenced by the U.S.’s rival, the Soviet Union. In southeast Asia, U.S. puppets didn’t last long. The new South Vietnamese government would lose to the North, and U.S.-backed General Lon Nol of Cambodia would rule for only 5 years. But in Latin America, U.S. coup governments established brutal dictatorships, setting back democracy for a generation.
