With thousands of years of recorded human history, invariably there are going to be coincidences. Yesterday, August 18, and tomorrow, August 20, are each anniversaries of the deaths of 3 Catholic Popes (none today, though). 19 August holds a rather interesting status, though. It has more than its fair share of coups. And not just coups on little islands. Big, history-changing coups. Perhaps because it comes at the end of the northern summer it is a likely end for military campaigns? Perhaps the months of summer heat or drought finally drive people to the point of trying to kill their king, prime minister or generalissimo? Or maybe it is just a coincidence. We report. You decide.
Here’s just some of the list.
Augustus Caesar: Then known as Octavian, son of Julius Caesar’s niece Atia and beneficiary of Julius Caesar’s will, it was on this day in 43BC about 18 months after the death of ol’ Julie that the big O entered Rome with 8 legions and forced the Senate to appoint him consul. For a time, Octavian would only rule the part of the Roman Empire which included Italia, Gaul and Hispania (roughly equivalent to modern Italy, France, Spain and Portugal) while Mark Antony controlled Egypt with Cleopatra and Lepidus controlled Rome’s African provinces. Octavian, taking the name Augustus (“revered one”) and the title Imperator (“victorious one”) ultimately took complete control of the empire in 27 BC, but it was on this day that he marched into Rome and effectively ended the Roman Republic by force of arms.
Of course, it wasn’t called 19 August then. It was called 19 Sextilis. The month was renamed after Augustus, by Augustus. Why this month? Because several significant events in his life- including the entry into Rome- occurred in SextilisAugust. That one man’s vanity renaming of a month of the year lasted beyond his death to be the name of that month throughout the modern world speaks volumes as to the historical impact that Augustus had, establishing an empire which controlled much of humanity for almost a thousand years intact and struggled on a few hundred years more in pieces, despite the best efforts of insane and incompetent rulers who followed him.
Fittingly, Augustus also died on 19 August, in 14AD. His official last words were “Behold, I found Rome of clay, and leave her to you of marble”, which nicely sums up the concept of Augustus as the great empire-builder. Unofficially (but famously), his real last words were “”Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit”.
Gustav III: The British monarchy and Parliament and their histories are well known throughout the world. Colonizing half said world will do that, and tabloid newspapers keep the relevant faces (and sometimes toes) in the spotlight. It is well known, then, that Britain’s monarchy was forced to surrender power over time to an elected Parliament, and if at times this involved violent clashes and if elections originally just meant “rich noblemen”, well, it was a start.
It is less well known that Sweden, in 1720, jumped straight to the stage of “all power to the people, and the King can stay on as a figurehead”, and this lasted for just over 50 years. A bitterly divided parliament, or Riksdag, caught between alliance with the French or alliance with Russia and frozen into inaction, set the stage for dissatisfaction which King Gustav III could exploit to take back power. On 19 August 1772, Gustav and a few hundred loyal army officers assembled in Stockholm, arrested the Privy Council, and declared that henceforth, all would owe allegiance to the King again, and not to the parliament. Sweden would not return to a parliamentary system of government until 1917.
Gustav was considered an enlightened ruler for his time; he abolished the death penalty for most offences, he abolished torture, he increased freedom of the press and freedom of religion, and approved of the American Revolution, saying in 1776:
“It is such an interesting drama to see a nation create itself, that I – if I now had not been who I am – would go to America to follow up close every phase in the emergence of this new republic. – This perhaps is America’s century. The new republic, which hardly has a population put together better than Rome had to begin with, may perhaps take advantage of Europe some day, in the same manner as Europe has taken advantage of America for two centuries. No matter what, I cannot help but admire their courage and enthusiastically appreciate their daring”
He was also a great patron of the arts, especially theatre and opera, and dabbled as a playwright himself. Ironically, opera played a part in his downfall. He was shot by a disgruntled nobleman on 16 March 1792 while attending the opera, and died 13 days later from his wound. One wonders if this ended up as an inspiration for the manner of the later assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Ho Chi Minh: 19 August 1945. The Viet Minh, under Ho Chi Minh, seize the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. In one of the ironies of history, as Japan had occupied much of what was then French Indochina, the Viet Minh had received supplies from the United States in support of their struggle. By this stage, however, Japan was defeated and withdrawing; in theory in favour of the French, but in reality leaving behind vacant government buildings and military outposts which the Viet Minh were best placed to occupy and control. The rest is history.
Mikhail Gorbachev: The architect of glasnost and perestroika, in his attempt to assuage the people of the Soviet Union through promises of some greater freedoms, discovered too late that when given a taste of freedom people wouldn’t settle for just that taste. They demanded the whole bar of candy. On the flip side, he discovered that some people, with their power evaporating in front of their eyes, don’t like it. Funny that.
On 19 August 1991, a group of Communist Party politburo hardliners with the backing of the KGB declared a state of emergency and appointed one of their number, Gennady Yanayev, the new President of the USSR, having placed Gorbachev under house arrest the night before while he was on vacation in the Crimea. Military units under the control of the coup leaders placed Moscow under martial law, media not under their control was shut down, and a number of other pro-Gorbachev political figures were also detained. Crucially, they failed to detain Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Soviet Republic, and it was Yeltsin and his supporters who rallied the public against the coup and persuaded the military to take their side, or at least to take no sides. Images of Yeltsin standing on top of a tank addressing the crowd rallying against the coup are one of the most enduring signs of the end of the USSR and the Cold War. The coup would last two more days before it became apparent that it could not command the military to put down Yeltsin’s defiance or even to keep Gorbachev locked up, and Gorbachev returned to office.
The coup, however, emboldened the various Soviet republics to break away from the USSR. Moldova on 27 August, Azerbaijan on 30 August and Kyrgyzstan on 31 August were the first. Before the end of the year, the Soviet Union ceased to exist and the Russian Federation under President Boris Yeltsin had taken over the seat on the security council of the United Nations.
Other entries on the list include: Afghanistan declares independence from Britain (1919). Germany democratically votes to approve Adolf Hitler’s assumption of the new role position of Fuhrer, combining the powers of President and Chancellorship (1934). With the help of the CIA, the Shan of Iran overthrows the Soviet-friendly Mossadegh government in Iran in a military coup (1953). None of these end well.
Any chance of a 19 August 2011 coup? Well, you never know. At time of writing, Afghanistan isn’t looking so stable…
