2036 Bovido Coup d'état

1. ↑ Following his deposition on January 3rd, Anton Ujung was kept incarcerated until January 5, 2036, when he was executed on the orders of Imperator Julios Cragen

The **2036 Bovido Coup d'état**, also known as the **January Coup**, took place between January 3 and January 4, 2036 and saw the deposition of Imperator Anton Ujung from the throne of the Bovido Imperium, with the coup forces appointing Cardinal Julios Cragen as his successor in an attempt to prevent the capital city of Jerusalem from falling to the invading Libirachi Empire; in the process, the Bovido Imperium began to move away from a more theological dogmatic basis and towards a hard pragmatism which would lead to the nation's eventual signing of the Treaty of Beijing on April 13, 2036.

In the aftermath of a chaotic invasion of the United Arab Republic and the decimation of Tunis on November 25, 2035, several key high ranking politicians within the Bovido Imperium had lost faith in the ability of Imperator Anton Ujung to lead the imperium with ability and strength. Following secret meetings between Pindoraman and North African prime ministers Marisa Belacqua and Torrent Koon, as well as Cardinal Julios Cragen, a plot was formed within the senior leadership of the nation to overthrow it's leader.

On January 3, 2036, the armed forces combined with religious commandos stormed key government buildings in Jerusalem and seized control of the capital. After a siege of the imperial palace, Imperator Anton Ujung was captured by the coup forces and stripped of his titles by a unanimous vote of a self-appointed Grand Council consisting of Cardinal Julios Cragen, Prime Ministers Marisa Belacqua and Torrent Koon and Minister Nicholas Azure.

After having briefly governed *de-facto* as the leader of the Grand Council, Julios Cragen was coronated as imperator on January 4, 2036, ending the coup. Under Cragen's new administration, senior members of government were replaced and Anton Ujung was executed on January 5th. As one of his first moves in office, Cragen opened up peace talks with the Libirachi Empire and the Shanghai Pact with the aim to ending the Conquest of Africa.

## Coup

Following months of poorly coordinated military failures during the Libirachi Empire's Invasion of Jerusalem State, as well as a stagnant effort in the Bovido Invasion of Libya, on November 25, 2035 Imperator Anton Ujung ordered a thermonuclear strike against the city of Tunis, capital of the United Arab Republic, which began to fracture the unity of the Bovido Imperium's leadership; having previously been united by a desire to eradicate the UAR and beat the Libirachi Empire in the Conquest of Africa, less ideological leaders such as High Admiral Torrent Koon and Pindoraman Prime Minister Marisa Belacqua began to question the reign of Imperator Ujung, sowing the seeds of discontent in several grand council meetings between November 26 and December 24, 2035 where the two leaders openly began to make moves against the Bovido leader. Subsequently, Inquisitor Justas Kolas of the Holy Clergy had the two regional prime ministers arrested on January 1, 2036, bringing them to detention in Jerusalem, although in actual fact Kolas had managed to bring the two most powerful leaders of the Bovido opposition into the capital before defecting and helping the pair formulate moves against Ujung.

With Imperator Anton Ujung unaware of the plots against him, having trusted Inquisitor Kolas completely in his task to prevent unrest within the imperium, High Admiral Torrent Koon used his power within the Maximo Exercitus Imperium to begin re-deploying soldiers around the capital of Jerusalem, personally hand-picking a squad of marines to join him in the takeover of the city. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Marisa Belacqua attempted to covertly acquire the support of leading Clergy members, including Julios Cragen and Nicholas Azure, with the assistance of Inquisitor Justas Kolas who hid the evidence of meetings between key officials in order to keep their existence secret.

On January 3, 2036, the forces of the Holy Clergy and the Magisterium began their coup d'état against Imperator Anton Ujung, with armed forces of the Maximo Exercitus Imperium seizing control of major facilities across the capital controlled by the Praesidium of the Bovido Imperium, managing to gain power within the city in the space of hours. At 2pm GMT, the combined forces of the Clergy, Magisterium and MEI assaulted the imperial palace in Jerusalem in a siege that lasted until 4:35pm, when the palace was breached, allowing an influx of soldiers to storm the building, engaging in fierce gunfights against imperial guards. By 6pm GMT, the coup forces claimed control of the palace and Imperator Anton Ujung was arrested by members of the Magisterium before being stripped of his titles by a unanimous vote of a self-appointed Grand Council consisting of Cardinal Julios Cragen, Prime Ministers Marisa Belacqua and Torrent Koon and Minister Nicholas Azure. With Ujung deposed, Cardinal Cragen took over the *de-jure* powers of the Bovido throne, being crowned as Bovido Imperator on January 4, 2036 in an elaborate ceremony in front of the Praesidium, Clergy, Magisterium and Maximo Exercitus in the Jerusalem palace, formally ending the coup with the selection of a new leader. Whilst Prime Ministers Marisa Belacqua and Torrent Koon began to receive large levels of autonomy to their regions of Pindorama and North Africa respectively, Imperator Julios Cragen and newly appointed Cardinal Justas Kolas began to purge Ujung loyalists from the Bovido leadership, removing Jerusalem State Prime Minister John Francis and replacing him with Pius Campeggio, who had briefly held the title before in 2029. By January 5, 2036, Anton Ujung had been executed for war crimes and Imperator Julios Cragen began to open peace talks with the Libirachi Empire.

## Aftermath

 Main article: Treaty of Beijing

Following the 2036 Bovido Coup d'état and the deposition of Imperator Anton Ujung, the new regime under the leadership of Julios Cragen began to try and end the ongoing Conquest of Africa in order to allow the Bovido Imperium to re-stabilise under his leadership; as such, on January 10, 2036 a peace process between the government of the Libirachi Empire and the Bovido Imperium was opened, allowing the Libirachi government under the leadership of President Karyn Voor to try to extract massive reparations from the Bovido regime through the negotiations. Conducted against the backdrop of the Invasion of the United Arab Republic and the Libirachi Invasion of Jerusalem State, the peace negotiations took a sour turn following the collapse of the last remnants of the United Arab Republic in 2036 but despite this the two sides finalised the agreement on April 12, 2036. Formally signed in the Forbidden City in Beijing on April 13, 2036, the Treaty of Beijing was sealed by Nicholas Azure and Angelica Rivera, the Bovido and Libirachi foreign ministers respectively, and Secretary General Geena Kulmuni of the Shanghai Pact, who signed on behalf of the governments of Austria, Belarus, Canto Haven, Ducist, Isgardia, Loxenia, Persia and the Russian Federation, whilst Avalonian Prime Minister Nina Auber was a signatory to act as a mediator between the two opposing sides of the conflict.

## International Reception

The coup was met with much jubilation in the Shanghai pact especially, with many viewing the removal of Imperator Anton Ujung as the only meaningful path towards peace and ending the Conquest of Africa.

* Avalonia - Väldeminister Ada Nilsen welcomed the removal of Ujung, calling him an "international war criminal"
* Canto Haven - Governor Vanessa de Rouge welcomed the coup, branding Ujung as a "threat to global political stability"
* Ducist - President Cyril Ramaphosa praised the Bovido leadership for overthrowing Ujung, and demanded they surrender to the Libirachi army
* Fox Dynasty - Empress Fox congratulated the Imperium on overthrowing Anton Ujung, and demanded their surrender in the war
* Loxenia - President Alex Glyn welcomed the overthrow of Ujung, stating that he had been "a tin-pot tyrant who de-stabilised the world"
* North African Federation - Vice President Torrent Koon called upon the international community to recognise the new Bovido Imperator
* Persia - President Hassen Ahmed congratulated the coup, and demanded the Bovido Imperium surrendered to the Shanghai Pact
* Russian Federation - President Vladimir Putin formally recognised Julios Cragen as the new imperator of the regime
* United Kingdom - Prime Minister Priti Patel urged the Imperium to surrender and "cease fighting"
* United States of America - President Selina Meyer recognised Imperator Cragen as the new leader, urging the regime to enter peace talks