History Main / TheCoup

* Creator/ChoiceOfGames: Possible in '''Til Death Do Us Part''. [[spoiler: More specifically, ''you'' can murder the Monarch and her closest allies in a palace coup and seize power for yourself.]]

** The first game of the original trilogy begins with the coup perpetrated by the exiled Prince Eonia, who returns five years to get revenge on the Transbaal Empire and seize the throne, [[{{Patricide starting with killing his own father]] [[RulingFamilyMassacre and the rest of the royal family]] in an OrbitalBombardment. The rest of the plot has the heroes trying to protect the last legitimate heir as they prepare for the counterattack.

A coup is essentially a seizure of power by force, blackmail, or other illegal manners. Usually (in literature) [[MilitaryCoup done by the military]], the EvilChancellor, or in some cases, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uncivilized bands of revolutionaries]] will also take power for themselves. It is a very risky gambit, and often includes plotting, securing alliances, and keeping it in the dark until the coup happens. Alternatively, guy walks into the throne room waving a sword around telling everyone he's king. Often leads to ThePurge. If the one carrying out the coup is in turn overthrown himself, you may have a RevolvingDoorRevolution. If it happens in your own country and results in a dictatorial fascist/communist regime arising, it's a DayOfTheJackboot.

* Happens three times in Hittite Mythology: first Anu overthrew Alalu, then Kumarbi overthrew Anu, then the storm-god Teshup overthrew Anu.

* ''Film/TheManInTheIronMask''. The plot centers around a group of musketeers who want to substitute their tyrannical king [[Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio Louis XIV]] with his more compassionate twin brother [[Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio Phillippe]], who was kept prisoner to prevent him from taking the throne. They break him out of prison to perform a Coup.

** The ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngelII'' trilogy has a coup in the first games, both times perpetrated against planet Seldar in the NEUE universe. In Zettai Ryouiki no Tobira, Forte Stollen leads a coup allegedly because the NEUE universe is taking too long to integrate the LostTechnology into their culture, [[spoiler:but later is revealed to have been blackmailed by the real villains who are holding Milfeulle and the Seldar royal family hostage to force her to comply]]. In Mugen Kairou no Kagi, the Three Marquis of the Arms Alliance take over planet Seldar and threaten to bombard it in order to force the Luxiole and the Rune Angel Wing to fight them.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, [[spoiler:the Republic Intelligence Service]] institutes a coup against the [[DemocracyIsBad incompetent, corrupt, and ineffective]] Trans-Galactic Republic under the guise of fighting off an AlienInvasion. Citizen reactions range from apathetic to supportive since the existing government doesn't seem to to be able to fight the new menace.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''. Mufasa is killed by Scar so he can become king. [[spoiler:Simba eventually launches a counter-coup to regain his throne.]] The basic story is inspired by ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.

** Centuries ago, the Arcadia Empire itself was formed after a coup against the tyrannical Holy Arcadia Empire, and they also had Fugil's help in doing so. Unfortunately, they were on their way to becoming just as corrupt as their predecessors, leading to the above mentioned coup.

* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Hamlet's father King Hamlet was killed by his brother, Hamlet's uncle, Claudius so he could seize the throne.
* ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. The main plot is Macbeth's killing of King Duncan and seizing the throne for himself.
* A coup forms the main plot of ''Theatre/{{Richard II}}''. The plot of ''Theatre/HenryIVPart1'' features an attempted one, which is thwarted.

* In Myth/EgyptianMythology, Isis forces Re to give up his throne.

** ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' portrays a North Korean government divided between [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure moderates]] like General Moon and [[GeneralRipper hard-liners]] like his son and several other generals. Towards the end of the movie, the hard-liners stage a coup, take over the government, and attempt to invade and conquer South Korea. (Borders on ArtisticLicensePolitics, as North Korea is one of the most personalistic regimes in the world: it would be very difficult for factions as distinct and powerful as these to develop given how tightly the ruler controls politics).

A coup is essentially a seizure of power by force, blackmail, or other illegal manners. Usually (in literature) [[MilitaryCoup done by the military]], the EvilChancellor, or in some cases, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uncivilized bands of revolutionaries]] will also take power for themselves. It is a very risky gambit, and often, includes plotting, securing alliances, and keeping it in the dark until the coup happens. Alternatively, guy walks into the throne room waving a sword around telling everyone he's king. Often leads to ThePurge. If the one carrying out the coup is in turn overthrown himself, you may have a RevolvingDoorRevolution. If it happens in your own country and results in a dictatorial fascist/communist regime arising, it's a DayOfTheJackboot.

When the coup is led by a military officer with the backing of the army and institutes martial rule, it's a MilitaryCoup. Many coups in RealLife tend to be of this type, but note that a coup need not be led by a military officer. Sometimes, even the actual ruler can pull off a coup if it involves seizing power he doesn't normally have -- this is known as an ''autogolpe'', or "self-coup" (for example if a President isn't re-elected, but decides to disregard this and try to keep himself in power). Compare RegimeChange, when the leadership of a ''foreign'' country is removed against its will at the behest of one of their neighbors. If it happens within the military only, see TheMutiny.

When the coup is led by a military officer with the backing of the army and institutes martial rule, it's a MilitaryCoup. Many coups in RealLife tend to be of this type, but note that a coup need not be led by a military officer. Sometimes, even the actual ruler can pull off a coup if it involves seizing power he doesn't normally have -- this is known as an ''autogolpe'', or "self-coup." (for example if a President isn't re-elected, but decides they will stay on). Compare RegimeChange, when the leadership of a ''foreign'' country is removed against its will at the behest of one of their neighbors. If it happens within the military only, see TheMutiny.

A coup is essentially seizing power by force, blackmail, or other illegal manners. Usually (in literature) [[MilitaryCoup done by the military]], the EvilChancellor, or in some cases, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uncivilized bands of revolutionaries]] will also take power for themselves. It is a very risky gambit, and often, includes plotting, securing alliances, and keeping it in the dark until the coup happens. Alternatively, guy walks into the throne room waving a sword around telling everyone he's king. Often leads to ThePurge. If the one carrying out the coup is in turn overthrown himself, you may have a RevolvingDoorRevolution. If it happens in your own country and results in a dictatorial fascist/communist regime arising, it's a DayOfTheJackboot.

* Notably downplayed in ''Franchise/StarWars''. When the original trilogy came out, we knew only that the Empire was a dictatorship that had replaced a democratic Republic at some point in the recent past, with no details given as to how. The prequel trilogy eventually revealed that while the future Emperor incited a ''ton'' of crimes (even a revolution) to bring about this result, the Republic ultimately turned into an Empire entirely legally, with the Senate voting its Chancellor more and more emergency powers that made him a de-facto dictator until he could simply proclaim himself Emperor with no pushback. There ''was'' a coup involved, but it was the Jedi's attempt to overthrow him when they finally realized what he was doing. He's delighted to point out that this would have been completely illegal, especially since the Jedi planned to summarily execute him without any pretense of a trial and didn't even consult with the Senate, the Courts, or the military (admittedly all institutions that he already controlled) beforehand. Palpatine ''does'' eventually launch a coup, but it happens ''during'' the original trilogy and falls in the self-coup category: his unilateral dissolution of the Senate in favour of direct military rule.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'':

* ''LightNovel/SeireiGensoukiSpiritChronicles'': The Kingdom of Beltrum goes through one when the disgruntled noble, Duke Arbor, takes advantage public dissatisfaction over a war with Proxia to overthrow the royal family as well as Duke Huguenot's faction.

** Judge Death and his Dark Judges got into power by staging a coup of their own in their [[AlternateDimension home dimension]]. There was a bloody insurrection for a while when they started to consolidate their control over Justice Department. Not every Judge was exactly onboard with the whole "life is illegal" new course.

* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', the ruling noble families of the Adrestian Empire enact a non-hostile takeover and stripped the ruling emperor of his authority in protest of what they viewed as an abuse of power. The incident is known in history books as the Insurrection of the Seven, but only six nobles were directly involved, with the seventh being the catalyst for the coup after having his house destroyed in a failed attempt to secede from the Empire to the Leicester Alliance.

* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', the ruling noble families of the Adrestian Empire enact a non-hostile takeover and strip the ruling emperor of his authority in protest of what they viewed as an abuse of power. The incident is known in history books as the Insurrection of the Seven, but only six nobles were directly involved, with the seventh being the catalyst for the coup after having his house destroyed in a failed attempt to secede to the Leicester Alliance.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has a squared coup. First, the Sorceress kills [[PresidentEvil President Deling]] and grabs power, second, the much more decent General Caraway hires our heroes to off her; both happen more or less simultaneously. The first coup succeeds, the other one fails.

* ''Fanfic/TheFootprintOfMussolini'':

[[folder: Real Life]]
* Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte became Napoleon III by means of a self-coup. Facing the end of his term as President of the Second French Republic in 1852, he used his immense popularity as a means of forcibly dissolving the National Assembly and drafting a new constitution that granted him dictatorial powers which eventually translated into crowning himself as Emperor of the restored French Empire.
* The Business Plot was an alleged plot in 1934 by a group of wealthy businessmen to have retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler create a fascist veterans' organization and use it to overthrow the American government, after which President Franklin Roosevelt would be reduced to a powerless figurehead and Butler would take over as a dictatorial "Secretary of General Affairs". However, this conspiracy was nipped in the bud when Butler himself, a strong critic of bankers and capitalism, refused to take part and went before Congress to blow the whistle. Notably, for decades it was doubted whether this plot ever actually happened, though in recent years its likelihood has been reevaluated as feasible.
* The 20 July Plot was an attempted coup in 1944 by a group of German military officers and non-Nazi civilians to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb at his Wolf's Lair bunker and then seize power from the Nazis in Berlin and other key cities with the use of the Reserve Army via Operation Valkyrie in order to sue for peace with the Allies. Unfortunately, Hitler was only slightly injured by the blast and soon managed to recover enough to announce his survival and denounce the coup; while the plotters had had some success in securing multiple cities, this revelation saw their support collapse, and they were all soon either arrested or killed.
* On August 19th 1991, a group of Communist Party hardliners opposed to Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms of the Soviet Union's government structure (led by Gorbachev's own Vice-President, Gennedy Yanayev) had Gorbachev detained by the KGB while Yanayev was installed as his replacement. However, due to a combination of the hardliners being poorly organized, mass protests by anti-communist civilians, and resistance by Boris Yeltsin's newly-autonomous Russian government, the entire coup collapsed after three days, with Gorbachev being reinstated and all the hardliners arrested.
** Yeltsin himself would have to deal with an attempted coup two years later. When he declared his intention to abolish and replace the Soviet-holdover legislative system in accordance with a referendum of sketchy legitimacy, said legislature responded by impeaching him, while a broad coalition of anti-Yeltsin militants tried to take control of key Moscow facilities. However, the military stayed loyal to Yeltsin and eventually stepped in to quickly crush the attempted rebellion.
* In April 1992, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori responded to the opposition-dominated Congress' blocking of many of his attempts to enact economic reforms with a self-coup. He declared a state of emergency and had the military forcibly dissolve Congress, after which he called elections for a new Congress stacked with his supporters, which enabled him to curtail constitutional rights and the independent power of the judiciary and rule as an authoritarian for the rest of the decade.
** 30 years later in December 2022, President Pedro Castillo attempted to repeat Fujimori's actions when facing impeachment by Congress. Unlike Fujimori, however, he lacked popular military support to pull it off; when Congress responded to his declaration by removing him from office, the military promptly arrested him before he could flee to Mexico.
* In October 2021 in Sudan, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — who had led the transitional Sovereignty Council since overthrowing President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 — had a falling out with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok over the latter's reorganizing of the council to increase civilian power over that of the military. In response, al-Burhan had Hamdok and his allies arrested and seized power; however, after a month of domestic protests and international condemnation, al-Burhan signed a power-sharing deal with Hamdok and allowed him to return to office.
* In December 2022, the German police arrested members of a far-right organization called the "Patriotic Union" which was allegedly planning to storm the Bundestag and overthrow the government, then install their leader [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_XIII_Prinz_Reuss Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss]] as ruler of a restored German Empire.
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