Why do generals attempting to coup always storm the palace? What happens next? Why do ordinary soldiers follow them? Are they in on the plot?
In: Economics
In a lot of places the capital city is the political/economic/cultural center of the country. Hell, look at a map of Burkina Faso (or France for that matter) and most of the major roads are coming out of the capital like spokes on a wagon wheel. In a country that’s set up like that if you can control the area within about 10 miles of the “palace” you effectively control the whole country.
One thing you’re really going to want to do first thing if you’re trying to pull off a coup is run around and grab up the prime minister and the defense minister and anyone else who could get on a phone and start calling up military units that are still loyal to the current regime. So that’s why you’re always going to see pictures of soldiers running into the parliament or the prime minister’s residence or whatever during a coup.
If the coup works and you can control who comes and goes in the capital then you’d go on the local TV station (which you’ve also sent some guys around to capture) and say something like “This is General Barbeau, the Prime Minister and his cabinet have been arrested for crimes. We ask for calm during this period of national emergency. There will be new elections held in 6 months and everything will go back to normal.”
As far as why the individual soldiers in the Army go along with it, there are lots of reasons. At the most basic level if you’re asleep in the barracks and your sergeant shakes you awake and says “Hey, private, you’ve got 5 minutes to get your shit together, there’s a coup happening in the capital and we’re going to stop it” you’re not going to know that you’re the one doing the coup until you’re already doing it.
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