Benin, 1975 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Benin on 21 January 1975, during the early rule of Major Mathieu Kerekou, who had seized power in the October 1972 coup that ended the era of the old civilian rivals and who was steering the country, still called Dahomey, toward the Marxist Leninist course he would formalize later that year, including renaming the country Benin. Kerekou's radical reorientation and his consolidation of power amid rivalries within the army and lingering regional divisions produced plots and attempted risings. A coup attempt in January 1975 came within that context and did not unseat Kerekou.
He survived this and later challenges, including a dramatic 1977 mercenary raid on the capital, and entrenched a one-party Marxist state that he ruled for many years, until economic collapse and popular pressure forced a transition to multiparty democracy at the start of the 1990s, in which Kerekou himself would later return to power by election.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
43401211975- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-434-1975-01-21
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Major Mathieu Kerekou survived the January 1975 plotting and consolidated his Marxist one-party state.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Luttwak
Powell and Thyne
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →