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90-593: The Togo Mountains run across the central region of Togo, ranging from the southwest to the northeast. To the northeast, the mountain range extends into Benin where it is known as the Atakora Mountains, and to the southwest it extends into Ghana where it is known as the Akwapim Hills. The average elevation of these mountains is 700 metres (2,300 ft) and the highest peak in Togo is Mount Agou , with

180-655: A pronunciamiento , in which the military deposes the existing government and hands over power to a new, ostensibly civilian government. A "barracks revolt" or cuartelazo is another type of military revolt, from the Spanish term cuartel ('quarter' or 'barracks'), in which the mutiny of specific military garrisons sparks a larger military revolt against the government. Other types of actual or attempted seizures of power are sometimes called "coups with adjectives". The appropriate term can be subjective and carries normative, analytical, and political implications. While

270-408: A Presidential Council after violence marred the 1970 elections. On 7 May 1972, Maga ceded power to Ahomadégbé. On 26 October 1972, Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou overthrew the ruling triumvirate, becoming president and stating that the country would not "burden itself by copying foreign ideology , and wants neither Capitalism, Communism, nor Socialism". On 30 November 1974, he announced that the country

360-462: A coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is when a leader, having come to power through legal means, tries to stay in power through illegal means. By one estimate, there were 457 coup attempts from 1950 to 2010, half of which were successful. Most coup attempts occurred in the mid-1960s, but there were also large numbers of coup attempts in

450-483: A runoff between Yayi Boni and Adrien Houngbédji . The runoff election was held on 19 March and was won by Boni, who assumed office on 6 April. Boni was reelected in 2011 , taking 53.18% of the vote in the first round—enough to avoid a runoff election. He was the first president to win an election without a runoff since the restoration of democracy in 1991. In the March 2016 presidential elections in which Boni Yayi

540-557: A sovereign state , Benin has had democratic governments , military coups , and military governments . A self-described Marxist–Leninist state called the People's Republic of Benin existed between 1975 and 1990. In 1991, it was replaced by the multi-party Republic of Benin. The official language of Benin is French, with indigenous languages such as Fon , Bariba , Yoruba and Dendi also spoken. The largest religious group in Benin

630-531: A 2005 analysis of police, business, and political corruption. Its democratic system "has eroded" since President Talon took office. In 2018, his government introduced new rules for fielding candidates and raised the cost of registering. The electoral commission, packed with Talon's allies, barred all opposition parties from the parliamentary election in 2019, resulting in a parliament made up entirely of supporters of Talon. That parliament subsequently changed election laws such that presidential candidates need to have

720-431: A 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.86/10, ranking it 93rd globally out of 172 countries. Benin shows some variation in elevation and can be divided into four areas from the south to the north, starting with the lower-lying, sandy, coastal plain (highest elevation 10 m (32.8 ft)) which is, at most, 10 km (6.2 mi) wide. It is marshy and dotted with lakes and lagoons communicating with

810-525: A ceremony known as the Annual Customs . By about 1750, the King of Dahomey was earning an estimated £250,000 per year by selling African captives to European slave-traders. The area was named the "Slave Coast" because of a flourishing slave trade. Court protocols which demanded that a portion of war captives from the kingdom's battles be decapitated, decreased the number of enslaved people exported from

900-604: A convention forced Kérékou to release political prisoners and arrange elections. Marxism–Leninism was abolished as the country's form of government. The country's name was officially changed to the Republic of Benin on 1 March 1990, after the newly formed government's constitution was completed. Kérékou lost to Nicéphore Soglo in a 1991 election and became the first President on the African mainland to lose power through an election. Kérékou returned to power after winning

990-617: A coup is usually a conspiracy of a small group, a revolution or rebellion is usually started spontaneously by larger groups of uncoordinated people. The distinction between a revolution and a coup is not always clear. Sometimes, a coup is labelled as a revolution by its plotters to feign democratic legitimacy. According to Clayton Thyne and Jonathan Powell's coup data set, there were 457 coup attempts from 1950 to 2010, of which 227 (49.7%) were successful and 230 (50.3%) were unsuccessful. They find that coups have "been most common in Africa and

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1080-418: A coup. A 2019 study found that states that had recently signed civil war peace agreements were much more likely to experience coups, in particular when those agreements contained provisions that jeopardized the interests of the military. Research suggests that protests spur coups, as they help elites within the state apparatus to coordinate coups. A 2019 study found that regional rebellions made coups by

1170-569: A coup. The authors of the study provide the following logic for why this is: Autocratic incumbents invested in spatial rivalries need to strengthen the military in order to compete with a foreign adversary. The imperative of developing a strong army puts dictators in a paradoxical situation: to compete with a rival state, they must empower the very agency—the military—that is most likely to threaten their own survival in office. However, two 2016 studies found that leaders who were involved in militarized confrontations and conflicts were less likely to face

1260-844: A fixed succession rule being much less plagued by instability than less institutionalized autocracies. A 2014 study of 18 Latin American countries in the 20th-century study found the legislative powers of the presidency does not influence coup frequency. A 2019 study found that when a country's politics is polarized and electoral competition is low, civilian-recruited coups become more likely. A 2023 study found that civilian elites are more likely to be associated with instigating military coups while civilians embedded in social networks are more likely to be associated with consolidating military coups. A 2017 study found that autocratic leaders whose states were involved in international rivalries over disputed territory were more likely to be overthrown in

1350-521: A framework of a presidential representative democratic republic in which the President of Benin is both head of state and head of government , within a multi-party system . Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the government and the legislature. The judiciary is officially independent of the executive and the legislature, while in practice its independence has been gradually hollowed out by Talon, and

1440-512: A greater consultation of regional and local-specific sources. Successful coups are one method of regime change that thwarts the peaceful transition of power . A 2016 study categorizes four possible outcomes to coups in dictatorships : The study found that about half of all coups in dictatorships—both during and after the Cold War—install new autocratic regimes. New dictatorships launched by coups engage in higher levels of repression in

1530-593: A height of 986 metres (3,235 ft). It is in the southwestern part of the range, close to the border with Ghana. Mont Sokbaro , widely cited as the highest point of Benin is part of the Atakora Mountains. To the north of the Togo Mountains, there is undulating savannah, creased by the broad, meandering valley of the Oti River , a tributary of the River Volta , which flows through Lake Volta and into

1620-816: A major threat to dictators. The Harem conspiracy of the 12th century BC was one of the earliest. Palace coups were common in Imperial China . They have also occurred among the Habsburg dynasty in Austria, the Al-Thani dynasty in Qatar , and in Haiti in the 19th to early 20th centuries. The majority of Russian tsars between 1725 and 1801 were either overthrown or usurped power in palace coups. The term putsch ( [pʊtʃ] , from Swiss German for 'knock'), denotes

1710-626: A part of the 5,500 European population. Religion in Benin (2020 CIA World Factbook estimate) The two main religions in Benin are Christianity , followed mostly in the south and center, and Islam, brought by the Songhai Empire and Hausa merchants and followed in Alibori , Borgou , and Donga provinces, as well as among the Yoruba , who also practice Christianity. Some continue to hold Vodun and Orisha beliefs and have incorporated

1800-405: A putsch. Pronunciamiento ( ' pronouncement ' ) is a term of Spanish origin for a type of coup d'état . Specifically the pronunciamiento is the formal declaration deposing the previous government and justifying the installation of the new government by the golpe de estado . One author distinguishes a coup, in which a military or political faction takes power for itself, from

1890-403: A result, France treated Dahomey as a sort of preserve in case future discoveries revealed resources worth developing. The French government outlawed the capture and sale of slaves. Previous slaveowners sought to redefine their control over slaves as control over land , tenants , and lineage members. This provoked a struggle among Dahomeans, "concentrated in the period from 1895 to 1920, for

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1980-446: A share to tertiary education: 0.97% of GDP. Between 2009 and 2011, the share of people enrolled at university rose from 10% to 12% of the 18 – 25 year age cohort. Student enrollment in tertiary education more than doubled between 2006 and 2011 from 50,225 to 110,181. These statistics encompass not only bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. programmes but also students enrolled in nondegree post-secondary diplomas. The HIV/AIDS rate in Benin

2070-668: A single term of 5 years in order to combat "complacency". He said that he planned to slash the size of the government from 28 to 16 members. In April 2021, President Patrice Talon was re-elected, with more than 86.3% of the votes cast, in Benin's presidential election . The change in election laws resulted in total control of parliament by president Talon's supporters. In February 2022, Benin saw its largest terrorist attack in history . On 20 February 2022, President Patrice Talon inaugurated an exhibition with 26 pieces of sacred art returned to Benin by France , 129 years after they were looted by colonial forces. Its politics take place in

2160-572: A somewhat higher chance of success in Africa and Asia. Numbers of successful coups have decreased over time. A number of political science datasets document coup attempts around the world and over time, generally starting in the post-World War II period. Major examples include the Global Instances of Coups dataset, the Coups & Political Instability dataset by the Center of Systemic Peace,

2250-425: A two-sided impact on coup attempts, depending on the state of the economy. During periods of economic expansion, elections reduced the likelihood of coup attempts, whereas elections during economic crises increased the likelihood of coup attempts. A 2021 study found that oil wealthy nations see a pronounced risk of coup attempts but these coups are unlikely to succeed. A 2014 study of 18 Latin American countries in

2340-888: Is Christianity (52.2%), followed by Islam (24.6%) and African Traditional Religions (17.9%). Benin is a member of the United Nations , the African Union , the Economic Community of West African States , the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , the South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone , Francophonie , the Community of Sahel–Saharan States , the African Petroleum Producers Association and

2430-589: Is an editor's note in the London Morning Chronicle ,1804, reporting the arrest by Napoleon in France, of Moreau , Berthier , Masséna , and Bernadotte : "There was a report in circulation yesterday of a sort of coup d'état having taken place in France, in consequence of some formidable conspiracy against the existing government." In the British press , the phrase came to be used to describe

2520-741: Is bounded by Togo to the west, Burkina Faso and Niger to the north, Nigeria to the east, and the Bight of Benin to the south. The distance from the Niger River in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south is about 650 km (404 mi). Although the coastline measures 121 km (75 mi), the country measures about 325 km (202 mi) at its widest point. Four terrestrial ecoregions lie within Benin's borders: Eastern Guinean forests , Nigerian lowland forests , Guinean forest-savanna mosaic , and West Sudanian savanna . It had

2610-511: Is celebrated each year as Independence Day , a national holiday . The president who led the country to independence was Hubert Maga . After 1960, there were coups and regime changes, with the figures of Hubert Maga , Sourou Apithy , Justin Ahomadégbé , and Émile Derlin Zinsou dominating; the first 3 each represented a different area and ethnicity of the country. These 3 agreed to form

2700-562: Is from April to late July, with a shorter less intense rainy period from September to November. The main dry season is from December to April, with a cooler dry season from July to September. Temperatures and humidity are higher along the tropical coast. In Cotonou , the average maximum temperature is 31 °C (87.8 °F); the minimum is 24 °C (75.2 °F). Coup d%27%C3%A9tat A coup d'état ( / ˌ k uː d eɪ ˈ t ɑː / ; French: [ku deta] ; lit.   ' stroke of state ' ), or simply

2790-533: Is more likely in former French colonies. A 2018 study in the Journal of Peace Research found that leaders who survive coup attempts and respond by purging known and potential rivals are likely to have longer tenures as leaders. A 2019 study in Conflict Management and Peace Science found that personalist dictatorships are more likely to take coup-proofing measures than other authoritarian regimes;

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2880-571: The Atakora region, and Vodun and Orisha veneration among the Yoruba and Tado peoples in the center and south of the nation. The town of Ouidah on the central coast is the spiritual center of Beninese Vodun or Voodoo. The literacy rate in 2015 it was estimated to be 38.4% (49.9% for males and 27.3% for females). Benin has achieved universal primary education and half of the children (54%) were enrolled in secondary education in 2013, according to

2970-538: The Atlantic Ocean . The capital is Porto-Novo , and the seat of government is in Cotonou , the most populous city and economic capital. Benin covers an area of 112,622 km (43,484 sq mi), and its population in 2021 was estimated to be approximately 13 million. It is a tropical country with an economy heavily dependent on agriculture , and is an exporter of palm oil and cotton . From

3060-549: The Demographic and Health Surveys Program in 2011-2012 indicated that followers of Christianity comprised 57.5% of the population (with Catholics making up 33.9%, Methodists 3.0%, Celestials 6.2% and other Christians 14.5%), while Muslims were 22.8%. According to the most recent (2020) estimate, the population of Benin was 52.2% Christian, 24.6% Muslim, 17.9% animist, and 5.3% followed other faiths or had no religion. Traditional religions include local animistic religions in

3150-985: The Gulf of Guinea in Ghana. Several tributaries to this river system flow from the northern side of the Togo Mountains. To the south of the mountains lies a plateau, which further south slopes gently towards the coast. The central and southern sides of the mountains drain into tributaries of the Mono River , which flows into the Gulf of Guinea through swampland on the borders of Togo and Benin. 7°25′N 0°40′E  /  7.417°N 0.667°E  / 7.417; 0.667 Benin Benin ( / b ɛ ˈ n iː n / ben- EEN , / b ɪ ˈ n iː n / bin- EEN ; French : Bénin [benɛ̃] , Fon : Benɛ , Fula : Benen ), officially

3240-580: The Niger Basin Authority . During French colonial rule and after independence on 1 August 1960, the country was named Dahomey, after the Kingdom of Dahomey . On 30 November 1975, following a Marxist–Leninist military coup , the country was renamed Benin, after the Bight of Benin , which borders the country, due to Dahomey only being associated with the Fon who inhabited the southern half of

3330-470: The Republic of Benin ( French : République du Bénin ), is a country in West Africa . It was formerly known as Dahomey . It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its population lives on the southern coastline of the Bight of Benin , part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of

3420-504: The UNESCO Institute for Statistics . While at a time the education system was not free, Benin has abolished school fees and is carrying out the recommendations of its 2007 Educational Forum. The government has devoted more than 4% of GDP to education since 2009. In 2015, public expenditure on education (all levels) amounted to 4.4% of GDP, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics . Within this expenditure, Benin devoted

3510-456: The head of government assume dictatorial powers. A soft coup , sometimes referred to as a silent coup or a bloodless coup , is an illegal overthrow of a government, but unlike a regular coup d'état it is achieved without the use of force or violence. A palace coup or palace revolution is a coup in which one faction within the ruling group displaces another faction within a ruling group. Along with popular protests, palace coups are

3600-420: The paramilitary faction led by Ernst Röhm , but Nazi propaganda justified it as preventing a supposed putsch planned or attempted by Röhm. The Nazi term Röhm-Putsch is still used by Germans to describe the event, often with quotation marks as the 'so-called Röhm Putsch'. The 1961 Algiers putsch and the 1991 August Putsch also use the term. The 2023 Wagner Group rebellion has also been described as

3690-444: The rents that an incumbent can extract . One reason why authoritarian governments tend to have incompetent militaries is that authoritarian regimes fear that their military will stage a coup or allow a domestic uprising to proceed uninterrupted – as a consequence, authoritarian rulers have incentives to place incompetent loyalists in key positions in the military. A 2016 study shows that the implementation of succession rules reduce

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3780-1101: The 12th century); the Dendi in the north-central area (who came from Mali in the 16th century); the Bariba and the Fula in the northeast; the Betammaribe and the Somba in the Atakora Mountains ; the Fon in the area around Abomey in the South Central and the Mina , Xueda , and Aja (who came from Togo) on the coast. Migrations have brought other African nationals to Benin, including Nigerians, Togolese, and Malians. The foreign community includes Lebanese and Indians involved in trade and commerce. The personnel of European embassies and foreign aid missions and of nongovernmental organisations and missionary groups account for

3870-697: The 17th to the 19th century, political entities in the area included the Kingdom of Dahomey , the city-state of Porto-Novo, and other states to the north. This region was referred to as the Slave Coast of West Africa from the early 17th century due to the high number of people who were sold and trafficked during the Atlantic slave trade to the New World. France took over the territory in 1894, incorporating it into French West Africa as French Dahomey . In 1960, Dahomey gained full independence from France. As

3960-580: The 1996 vote. In 2001, an election resulted in Kérékou winning another term, after which his opponents claimed election irregularities. In 1999, Kérékou issued a national apology for the substantial role that Africans had played in the Atlantic slave trade. Kérékou and former president Soglo did not run in the 2006 elections, as both were barred by the constitution's restrictions on age and total terms of candidates. On 5 March 2006, an election resulted in

4050-429: The 20th century study found that coup frequency does not vary with development levels, economic inequality , or the rate of economic growth. In what is referred to as "coup-proofing", regimes create structures that make it hard for any small group to seize power. These coup-proofing strategies may include the strategic placing of family, ethnic, and religious groups in the military; creation of an armed force parallel to

4140-585: The 26th highest rate of maternal mortality in the world. According to a 2013 UNICEF report, 13% of women had undergone female genital mutilation . An approach strategy was extended to all areas of healthcare, with subsequent improvement in the health care indicators and improvement in health care efficiency and cost. Demographic and Health Surveys has surveyed the issue in Benin since 1996. The north–south strip of land in West Africa lies between latitudes 6° and 13°N , and longitudes 0° and 4°E . It

4230-604: The Americas (36.5% and 31.9%, respectively). Asia and the Middle East have experienced 13.1% and 15.8% of total global coups, respectively. Europe has experienced by far the fewest coup attempts: 2.6%." Most coup attempts occurred in the mid-1960s, but there were also large numbers of coup attempts in the mid-1970s and the early 1990s. From 1950 to 2010, a majority of coups failed in the Middle East and Latin America. They had

4320-678: The Constitutional Court is headed by his former personal lawyer. The political system is derived from the 1990 Constitution of Benin and the subsequent transition to democracy in 1991. It was ranked 18th out of 52 African countries and scored best in the categories of Safety & Rule of Law and Participation & Human Rights. In its 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders ranked Benin 53rd out of 169 countries. That place had fallen to 78th by 2016, when Talon took office, and has fallen further to 113th. Benin has been rated equal-88th out of 159 countries in

4410-625: The Coup d'etat Project by the Cline Center, the Colpus coup dataset, and the Coups and Agency Mechanism dataset. A 2023 study argued that major coup datasets tend to over-rely on international news sources to gather their information, potentially biasing the types of events included. Its findings show that while such a strategy is sufficient for gathering information on successful and failed coups, attempts to gather data on coup plots and rumors require

4500-523: The National Revolutionary Assembly in 1980, re-elected in 1984. Establishing relations with China , North Korea , and Libya , he put "nearly all" businesses and economic activities under state control, causing foreign investment in Benin to dry up. Kérékou attempted to reorganize education, pushing his own aphorisms such as "Poverty is not a fatality". The regime financed itself by contracting to take nuclear waste, first from

4590-590: The Soviet Union and later from France. In the 1980s, Benin experienced higher economic growth rates (15.6% in 1982, 4.6% in 1983 and 8.2% in 1984), until the closure of the Nigerian border with Benin led to a drop in customs and tax revenues. The government was no longer able to pay civil servants' salaries. In 1989, riots broke out when the regime did not have enough money to pay its army. The banking system collapsed. Eventually, Kérékou renounced Marxism , and

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4680-412: The above factors are connected to military culture and power dynamics. These factors can be divided into multiple categories, with two of these categories being a threat to military interests and support for military interests. If interests go in either direction, the military will find itself either capitalizing off that power or attempting to gain it back. Oftentimes, military spending is an indicator of

4770-521: The approval of at least 10% of Benin's MPs and mayors. As parliament and most mayors' offices are controlled by Talon, he has control over who can run for president. These changes have drawn condemnation from international observers and led to the United States government partially terminating development assistance to the country. Benin is divided into twelve departments (French: départements ) which are subdivided into 77 communes . In 1999,

4860-626: The area. The number went from 102,000 people per decade in the 1780s to 24,000 per decade by the 1860s. The decline was partly due to the Slave Trade Act 1807 banning the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Britain in 1808, followed by other countries. This decline continued until 1885 when the last slave ship departed the modern Benin Republic for Brazil , which had yet to abolish slavery. The capital Porto-Novo ("New Port" in Portuguese)

4950-424: The authors argue that this is because "personalists are characterized by weak institutions and narrow support bases, a lack of unifying ideologies and informal links to the ruler". In their 2022 book Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism , political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way found that political-military fusion, where the ruling party is highly interlinked with

5040-585: The coastal cities of Allada and Whydah . Dahomey had become a tributary of the Oyo Empire, and rivaled but did not directly attack the Oyo-allied city-state of Porto-Novo . The rise of Dahomey, its rivalry with Porto-Novo, and tribal politics in the northern region persisted into the colonial and post-colonial periods. In the Dahomey , some younger people were apprenticed to older soldiers and taught

5130-510: The contextualized idea of a 'knockout blow to the existing administration within a state'. One early use within text translated from French was in 1785 in a printed translation of a letter from a French merchant, commenting on an arbitrary decree, or arrêt , issued by the French king restricting the import of British wool. What may be its first published use within a text composed in English

5220-515: The country. The bight takes its name from the Kingdom of Benin , located in present-day Nigeria . Prior to 1600, present-day Benin comprised a variety of areas with different political systems and ethnicities. These included city-states along the coast (primarily of the Aja ethnic group, and also including Yoruba and Gbe peoples) and tribal regions inland (composed of Bariba , Mahi, Gedevi, and Kabye peoples). The Oyo Empire , located primarily to

5310-489: The coup attempt will be successful. The number of successful coups has decreased over time. Failed coups in authoritarian systems are likely to strengthen the power of the authoritarian ruler. The cumulative number of coups is a strong predictor of future coups, a phenomenon referred to as the "coup trap". In what is referred to as "coup-proofing", regimes create structures that make it hard for any small group to seize power. These coup-proofing strategies may include

5400-609: The coup trap and reduces cycles of political instability. Hybrid regimes are more vulnerable to coups than very authoritarian states or democratic states. A 2021 study found that democratic regimes were not substantially more likely to experience coups. A 2015 study finds that terrorism is strongly associated with re-shuffling coups. A 2016 study finds that there is an ethnic component to coups: "When leaders attempt to build ethnic armies, or dismantle those created by their predecessors, they provoke violent resistance from military officers." Another 2016 study shows that protests increase

5490-507: The east of Benin, was a military force in the region, conducting raids and exacting tribute from the coastal kingdoms and tribal regions. The situation changed in the 17th and 18th centuries as the Kingdom of Dahomey , consisting mostly of Fon people , was founded on the Abomey plateau and began taking over areas along the coast. By 1727, King Agaja of the Kingdom of Dahomey had conquered

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5580-497: The economy and population. Northern areas will see additional regions become deserts. An area of flatter land dotted with rocky hills whose altitude reaches 400 m (1,312 ft) extends around Nikki and Save. A range of mountains extends along the northwest border and into Togo; these are the Atacora . The highest point, Mont Sokbaro , is at 658 m (2,159 ft). Benin has fields, mangroves , and remnants of forests. In

5670-423: The influence of young revolutionaries – the "Ligmangers" - the government embarked on a socialist program: nationalization of strategic sectors of the economy, reform of the education system, establishment of agricultural cooperatives and new local government structures, and a campaign to eradicate " feudal forces" including tribalism . The regime banned opposition activities. Mathieu Kérékou was elected president by

5760-574: The kingdom's military customs until they were old enough to join the army. Dahomey instituted an elite female soldier corps variously called Ahosi (the king's wives), Mino ("our mothers" in Fongbe ), or the "Dahomean Amazons ". This emphasis on military preparation and achievement earned Dahomey the nickname of "Black Sparta ", from European observers and 19th-century explorers such as Sir Richard Burton . The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery or killed them ritually in

5850-419: The likelihood of a coup taking place. Nordvik found that about 75% of coups that took place in many different countries rooted from military spending and oil windfalls. The accumulation of previous coups is a strong predictor of future coups, a phenomenon called the coup trap . A 2014 study of 18 Latin American countries found that the establishment of open political competition helps bring countries out of

5940-435: The likelihood of coups. A fifth 2016 study finds no evidence that coups are contagious; one coup in a region does not make other coups in the region likely to follow. One study found that coups are more likely to occur in states with small populations, as there are smaller coordination problems for coup-plotters. In autocracies, the frequency of coups seems to be affected by the succession rules in place, with monarchies with

6030-427: The mid-1970s and the early 1990s. Coups occurring in the post- Cold War period have been more likely to result in democratic systems than Cold War coups, though coups still mostly perpetuate authoritarianism . Many factors may lead to the occurrence of a coup, as well as determine the success or failure of a coup. Once a coup is underway, coup success is driven by coup-makers' ability to get others to believe that

6120-412: The military and created the administrative structures of the military from its inception, is extremely effective at preventing military coups. For example, the People's Liberation Army was created by the Chinese Communist Party during the Chinese Civil War , and never instigated a military coup even after large-scale policy failures (i.e. the Great Leap Forward ) or the extreme political instability of

6210-400: The military more likely. A 2018 study found that "oil price shocks are seen to promote coups in onshore-intensive oil countries, while preventing them in offshore-intensive oil countries". The study argues that states which have onshore oil wealth tend to build up their military to protect the oil, whereas states do not do that for offshore oil wealth. A 2020 study found that elections had

6300-509: The occurrence of coup attempts. Succession rules are believed to hamper coordination efforts among coup plotters by assuaging elites who have more to gain by patience than by plotting. According to political scientists Curtis Bell and Jonathan Powell, coup attempts in neighbouring countries lead to greater coup-proofing and coup-related repression in a region. A 2017 study finds that countries' coup-proofing strategies are heavily influenced by other countries with similar histories. Coup-proofing

6390-430: The ocean. Behind the coast lies the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic -covered plateaus of southern Benin (altitude between 20 and 200 m (66 and 656 ft)), which are split by valleys running north to south along the Couffo , Zou , and Ouémé Rivers . This geography makes it vulnerable to climate change . With the majority of the country living near the coast in lower-lying areas sea level rise could have effects on

6480-548: The pantheon of Vodun and Orisha into Christianity. Ahmadiyya , a sect of Islam originating in the 19th century, also has a presence in the country. In the 2013 census, 48.5% of the population of Benin were Christian (25.5% Roman Catholic , 6.7% Celestial Church of Christ , 3.4% Methodist , and 12.9% other Christian denominations), 27.7% were Muslim , 11.6% practiced Vodun , 2.6% practiced other local traditional religions, 2.6% practiced other religions, and 5.8% claimed no religious affiliation. A government survey conducted by

6570-712: The political-military actions of an unsuccessful minority reactionary coup. The term was initially coined for the Züriputsch of 6 September 1839 in Switzerland. It was also used for attempted coups in Weimar Germany , such as the 1920 Kapp Putsch , Küstrin Putsch , and Adolf Hitler 's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch . The 1934 Night of the Long Knives was Hitler's purge to eliminate opponents, particularly

6660-405: The previous six departments were each split into two halves, forming the later twelve. (per km in 2013) Ethnic Groups of Benin (2013 Census) The majority of Benin's 11,485,000 inhabitants live in the south of the country. The life expectancy is 62 years. About 42 African ethnic groups live in this country, including the Yoruba in the southeast (migrated from Nigeria in

6750-408: The redistribution of control over land and labor. Villages sought to redefine boundaries of lands and fishing preserves. Religious disputes scarcely veiled the factional struggles over control of land and commerce which underlay them. Factions struggled for the leadership of great families". In 1958, France granted autonomy to the Republic of Dahomey , and full independence on 1 August 1960 which

6840-440: The regular military; and development of multiple internal security agencies with overlapping jurisdiction that constantly monitor one another. It may also involve frequent salary hikes and promotions for members of the military, and the deliberate use of diverse bureaucrats. Research shows that some coup-proofing strategies reduce the risk of coups occurring. However, coup-proofing reduces military effectiveness, and limits

6930-552: The rest of the country, the savanna is covered with thorny scrub and dotted with baobab trees. Some forests line the banks of rivers. In the north and the northwest of Benin, the Reserve du W du Niger and Pendjari National Park has African bush elephants , lions , antelopes, hippopotamus and monkeys. Pendjari National Park together with the bordering Parks Arli and W National Park in Burkina Faso and Niger are among

7020-401: The risk of coups, presumably because they ease coordination obstacles among coup plotters and make international actors less likely to punish coup leaders. A third 2016 study finds that coups become more likely in the wake of elections in autocracies when the results reveal electoral weakness for the incumbent autocrat. A fourth 2016 study finds that inequality between social classes increases

7110-400: The strategic placing of family, ethnic, and religious groups in the military and the fragmenting of military and security agencies. However, coup-proofing reduces military effectiveness as loyalty is prioritized over experience when filling key positions within the military. The term comes from French coup d'État , literally meaning a 'stroke of state' or 'blow of state'. In French,

7200-471: The strongholds of the lion in West Africa; with an estimated 246–466 lions, W-Arli-Pendjari harbors the largest remaining lion population in West Africa . Historically Benin has served as habitat for the endangered African wild dog , Lycaon pictus ; this canid is thought to have been locally extinct . Annual rainfall in the coastal area averages 1300 mm or about 51 inches. Benin has two rainy and two dry seasons per year. The principal rainy season

7290-457: The top, is a form of coup d'état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power through illegal means through the actions of themselves and/or their supporters. The leader may dissolve or render powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assume extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances. Other measures may include annulling the nation's constitution , suspending civil courts, and having

7380-664: The various murders by Napoleon's alleged secret police , the Gens d'Armes d'Elite , who executed the Duke of Enghien : "the actors in torture, the distributors of the poisoning draughts, and the secret executioners of those unfortunate individuals or families, whom Bonaparte's measures of safety require to remove. In what revolutionary tyrants call grand[s] coups d'état , as butchering, or poisoning, or drowning, en masse, they are exclusively employed." A self-coup , also called an autocoup (from Spanish autogolpe ) or coup from

7470-410: The war's duration. A 2003 review of the academic literature found that the following factors influenced coups: The literature review in a 2016 study includes mentions of ethnic factionalism, supportive foreign governments, leader inexperience, slow growth, commodity price shocks, and poverty. Coups have been found to appear in environments that are heavily influenced by military powers. Multiple of

7560-410: The word État ( French: [eta] ) is capitalized when it denotes a sovereign political entity. Although the concept of a coup d'état has featured in politics since antiquity, the phrase is of relatively recent coinage. It did not appear within an English text before the 19th century except when used in the translation of a French source, there being no simple phrase in English to convey

7650-575: The year after the coup than existed in the year before the coup. One-third of coups in dictatorships during the Cold War and 10% of later ones reshuffled the regime leadership. Democracies were installed in the wake of 12% of Cold War coups in dictatorships and 40% of post-Cold War ones. Coups occurring in the post- Cold War period have been more likely to result in democratic systems than Cold War coups, though coups still mostly perpetuate authoritarianism . Coups that occur during civil wars shorten

7740-440: Was barred by the constitution from running for a third term, businessman Patrice Talon won the second round with 65.37% of the vote, defeating investment banker and former Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou . Talon was sworn in on 6 April 2016. Speaking on the same day that the Constitutional Court confirmed the results, Talon said that he would "first and foremost tackle constitutional reform", discussing his plan to limit presidents to

7830-610: Was estimated in 2013 at 1.13% of adults aged 15–49 years. Malaria is a problem in Benin, being a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children younger than 5 years. During the 1980s, less than 30% of the country's population had access to primary health care services. Benin's infant mortality rate stood at 203 deaths for every 1 000 live births. One in three mothers had access to child health care services. The Bamako Initiative changed that by introducing community-based healthcare reform, resulting in "more efficient and equitable" provision of services. As of 2015 , Benin had

7920-677: Was officially Marxist , under control of the Military Council of the Revolution (CMR), which nationalized the petroleum industry and banks. On 30 November 1975, he renamed the country the People's Republic of Benin . The regime of the People's Republic of Benin underwent changes over the course of its existence: a nationalist period (1972–1974); a socialist phase (1974–1982); and a phase involving an opening to Western countries and economic liberalism (1982–1990). In 1974, under

8010-485: Was originally developed as a port for the slave trade. Among the goods the Portuguese sought were carved items of ivory made by Benin's artisans in the form of carved saltcellars, spoons, and hunting horns - pieces of African art produced for sale abroad as exotic objects. Another major good sought by European settlers was palm oil. In 1856 approximately 2,500 tons of palm oil was exported by British companies which

8100-472: Was valued at £112,500. By the middle of the 19th century , Dahomey had "begun to weaken and lose its status as the regional power ". The French took over the area in 1892. In 1899, the French included the land called French Dahomey within the larger French West Africa colonial region. France sought to benefit from Dahomey and the region "appeared to lack the necessary agricultural or mineral resources for large-scale capitalist development ". As

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