coup d'état

Forcible takeover of the government of a country by elements from within that country, generally carried out by violent or illegal means. It differs from a revolution in typically being carried out by a small group (for example, of army officers or opposition politicians) to install its leader as head of government, rather than being a mass uprising by the people.

Early examples include the coup of 1799, in which Napoleon overthrew the Revolutionary Directory and declared himself first consul of France, and the coup of 1851 in which Louis Napoleon (then president) dissolved the French national assembly and a year later declared himself emperor. Coups in more recent times include the overthrow of the socialist government of Chile 1973 by a right-wing junta, the military seizures of power in Nigeria 1983, Myanmar 1988 and Gambia 1994, the short-lived removal of Mikhail Gorbachev from power in the USSR by hardline communists 19-22 August 1991, and the overthrow of president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in Sierra Leone in February 1998.