Since as far back as biblical times, coups d’état have been a common way of seizing power for those lacking suitable royal blood and democratic sensibilities. In contrast to revolutions, which are mass uprisings, they take place abruptly and involv

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Find the words in paragraphs:

Внимание! В тексте три варианта перевода «свергнуть»

1. переворот, захватить власть, массовые восстания, высокопоставленные чиновники, свергнуть, взять контроль

2. военная кампания, свергнуть, законодательное заседание, взяточничество, запугивание, нижняя палата

3. отдаленный пост, ответное убийство, гарнизон, паром, ввергнуть в гражданскую войну

4. неграмотный, ненавидеть, сторонники, соучастники заговора, бескровный переворот, свергнуть, инакомыслие

5. истребитель, штурмовать здание, казнить без суда, рассекреченные документы, подстрекать

Questions to all paragraphs

1) What government was there before the coup?

2) Who was the leader of the coup and who supported him?

3) How was the coup organized? How violent was it?

4) What kind of rule did the new leader introduce?

Since as far back as biblical times, coups d’é tat have been a common way of seizing power for those lacking suitable royal blood and democratic sensibilities. In contrast to revolutions, which are mass uprisings, they take place abruptly and involve only a small group of high-ranking, military-backed officials. From Napoleon to Pinochet, here are four leaders who, in classic coups, deposed the existing regime and took charge themselves from one day to the next.

Napoleon Bonaparte
Immediately upon returning from his famed Egyptian military campaign in October 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte began scheming to overthrow the five-member Directory that ruled France. With the support of several high-level co-conspirators, including two of the five directors, Napoleon arranged for a special legislative session to take place outside Paris on November 10. Using a combination of propaganda, bribery and intimidation, he hoped to cajole the legislature into putting him in charge. The lower house instead bombarded him with abuse, chanting “down with the dictator” and chasing him from the chamber. But he managed to prevail anyway by convincing troops to clear the area and then—in an attempt to preserve the veneer of constitutionality—convening a small, handpicked group of legislatures to abolish the Directory and appoint him to a three-member Consulate. Quickly becoming first consul, Napoleon completed his consolidation of power in 1804, when he crowned himself emperor.

Francisco Franco
When a leftist coalition won Spanish elections in February 1936, General Francisco Franco was packed off to a remote post in the Canary Islands. Though privy to a coup plot brewing among his fellow army officers, he initially hesitated to join, finally becoming convinced following the retaliatory assassination of a conservative politician. On July 18, Franco broadcast a manifesto imploring the military to overthrow the democratically elected government. As army garrisons all across Spain heeded his call, he then secretly flew from the Canary Islands to Spanish-controlled Morocco, where the uprising had begun a day earlier, and took charge of the battle-hardened troops stationed there. (He was able to ferry them across to the Spanish mainland with the help of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. ) The coup attempt was only partially successful, leaving Franco’s rebels in control of just one-third of the country and precipitating a bloody civil war that would last three years. In the end, though, he emerged victorious. With the support of fascists, monarchists, the landed gentry and the Catholic Church, “El Caudillo” would rule as dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.

Muammar al-Qaddafi

Born in a tent to illiterate Bedouin parents, Muammar al-Qaddafi grew up loathing the Libyan monarchy and its Western backers. Sensing its growing weakness, the then-27-year-old junior army officer decided to seize power himself on September 1, 1969, while King Idris was out of the country at a health resort. Driving military vehicles into the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, he and about 70 co-conspirators surrounded the royal palace and other key government buildings, cut communications and arrested certain top officials (one of whom flung himself into a swimming pool in his pajamas in a desperate attempt to escape). The king’s personal guard put up only token resistance, and within two hours the essentially bloodless coup had come to a conclusion. In a radio address that morning, Qaddafi informed his countrymen that the “corrupt” and “reactionary” regime had been toppled. At first, no one seemed to know who exactly had taken charge. But Qaddafi would soon impose his will on all aspects of Libyan life. Ruthlessly stifling dissent and constantly clashing with the United States, he would govern Libya for 42 years until being killed during the 2011 “Arab Spring” uprising.

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