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The 1963 Dahomey coup d'état was staged on October 28, 1963 by Christophe Soglo, who took control of the country to prevent a civil war. He overthrew Hubert Maga, whose presidency faced extreme economic stagnation and a host of other problems. ==Background== The West African country of Dahomey, now known as Benin, was largely ignored by the French during its colonial era.〔.〕 Dahomey had a weak economy, propelled by the lack of known natural resources; the last time the country had a favorable trade balance was in 1924.〔 Its main export was intellectuals, and was known as the Latin Quarter of Africa due to its rich cultural landscape.〔.〕 On August 1, 1960, Dahomey gained its independence and prominent politician Hubert Maga was chosen as its first president.〔.〕 At the time, Dahomey was also facing a major economic recession. Now that Dahomey was independent, France no longer offered subsidies. Maga helped counter this by investing in the infrastructure and encouraging civil servants to take Dahomey as their residence. Still, Dahomey's GDP grew by 1.4 percent annually from 1957–1965, making Dahomey's economy one of the weakest in Africa.〔.〕 The economic stagnation triggered intense regionalistic attitudes in Dahomey.〔.〕 Parties epitomising the idea began with the 1951 French National Assembly elections. Capitalising on growing cynicism for the domination of southern Dahomey in the French colony's politics, Maga allied himself with the northern tribes. Sourou-Migan Apithy, whom academic Samuel Decalo described as "the grandfather of Dahomeyan politics," kept the second seat, which he had first won in 1945. Apithy represented the people living in southeast Benin, while a third figure, Justin Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, represented the southwest.〔 Attempts to counteract regionalism failed, as did the establishment of a single party state.〔.〕 Coalitions between Maga, Apithy, and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin were similarly unsuccessful, as each sought absolute power.〔.〕 In early 1961, the president began applying repressive measures on the opposition press and anyone suspected of trouble-making, thus practically eliminated Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin's voice in the country.〔.〕 By April, most Dahomeyan Democratic Union (UDD) members had expressed interest in joining the Dahomeyan Unity Party, and Maga not only supported this but encouraged it. A notable exception was Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin himself. The choice was soon made for him; the entire UDD was dissolved by Maga on April 11.〔.〕 Maga now attempted to designed a four-year growth plan, to begin on January 1, 1962, that contained many ambitious acts.〔.〕 It was designed to increase yield in agriculture〔 and was financed by French capital.〔.〕 Part of the plan was to cut all wages by ten percent.〔.〕 Young Dahomeyans would contribute "human investment", or forced labor on the fields.〔 Maga decided to reshuffle the cabinet in February 1962. He added the Planning and Development duties to Apithy's office to quench his apparently unquenchable thirst for power.〔.〕 Nonetheless, he accused Maga of being a dictator, and the series of demonstrations the Vice President coordinated would ultimately depose his boss. They were not sparked by Maga himself, but rather the murder of David Dessou.〔.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1963 Dahomeyan coup d'état」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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