Early examples of coups include the coup of 1799, in which [[Napoleon]] overthrew the Revolutionary Directory and declared himself first president of France. Coups in more recent times include the overthrow of the Provisional Government by Bolsheviks in [[Russia]] of 1917, of the socialist government of [[Chile]] 1973, the military seizures of power in [[Nigeria]] 1983, the Great [[Myanmar]] Coup of 1988, [[Gambia]] 1994, the short-lived removal of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] from power in the [[USSR]] by hard-line [[Communist]]s in August of 1991, and the overthrow of president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in [[Sierra Leone]] in February 1998. | Early examples of coups include the coup of 1799, in which [[Napoleon]] overthrew the Revolutionary Directory and declared himself first president of France. Coups in more recent times include the overthrow of the Provisional Government by Bolsheviks in [[Russia]] of 1917, of the socialist government of [[Chile]] 1973, the military seizures of power in [[Nigeria]] 1983, the Great [[Myanmar]] Coup of 1988, [[Gambia]] 1994, the short-lived removal of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] from power in the [[USSR]] by hard-line [[Communist]]s in August of 1991, and the overthrow of president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in [[Sierra Leone]] in February 1998. |