In 1976, President Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, proclaimed the country to be an autocratic Central African Empire, and made himself Emperor as Bokassa I.

In December, Dacko approved an increase in the budget for Izamo's gendarmerie, but rejected the budget proposal Bokassa had made for the army.

A year later, after Banza made a number of remarks highly critical of Bokassa and his management of the economy, the president, perceiving an immediate threat to his power, removed him as his minister of state.

Bokassa sat on a two-ton throne modeled in the shape of a large eagle made from solid gold.

Although Bokassa claimed that the new empire would be a constitutional monarchy, no significant democratic reforms were made, and suppression of dissenters remained widespread.

When Emperor Bokassa was overthrown in 1979 and David Dacko was restored to power by the French, General Kolingba gained Dacko's favor and was made Army Chief of Staff in July 1981.

Bokassa left Indochina without his wife and child, as he believed he would return for another tour of duty in the near future.

Upon his return to France, Bokassa was stationed at Fréjus, where he taught radio transmissions to African recruits.

After attending the celebrations and a 23 July ceremony to mark the closing of a military officer training school he had attended decades earlier, Bokassa decided to return to the CAR.

However, Dacko forbade his return, and the infuriated Bokassa spent the next few months trying to obtain supporters from the French and Central African armed forces, who he hoped would force Dacko to reconsider his decision.

With the return of democracy to the Central African Republic in 1993, Kolingba declared a general amnesty for all prisoners as one of his final acts as President, and Bokassa was released on 1 August 1993.

The self-declared Emperor of the Central African Republic, Jean-Bédel Bokassa ( Emperor Bokassa I ), was tried on October 24, 1986 for several cases of cannibalism although he was never convicted.

Dacko eventually yielded to pressure and allowed Bokassa back in October 1965.

On 10 October 1979, the Canard Enchaîné satirical newspaper reported that President Bokassa had offered the then Minister of Finance Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing two diamonds in 1973.

On 20 September 1979, Dacko, with French support, led a bloodless coup that overthrew Bokassa while he was out of the country.

The republic was restored, and Bokassa, who took refuge in Côte d ' Ivoire and France, was sentenced to death in absentia for various crimes, including cannibalism.

The country ’ s first president, David Dacko was overthrown by his army chief-of-staff, Jean-Bédel Bokassa in 1966.

Following Bokassa, David Dacko was restored in 1981, only to be overthrown once again by his new army chief of staff, General André Kolingba after only a few months in power.

A Western model was sometimes copied by emancipated colonial regimes ( e. g. Bokassa I's short-lived Central-African Empire in Napoleonic fashion ).

Most controversial, however, was his involvement with the Bokassa regime of the Central African Republic and with a diamond smuggling scandal involving the dictator, by which he personally profited.

Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing was at first a friend of its ruler, Jean-Bédel Bokassa ; he supplied Bokassa's regime with much financial and military backing.

This action was also controversial, particularly since Dacko was Bokassa ’ s cousin and had appointed Bokassa as head of the military, and unrest continued in the Central African Republic, leading to Dacko being overthrown in another coup in 1981.

In a related incident, Giscard was reported by the Canard Enchaîné to have accepted diamonds as personal gifts from Bokassa – who fled to France with looted millions from the Central African Republic's treasury, but was still given asylum in France.

Jean-Bédel Bokassa (; 22 February 1921 – 3 November 1996, also known as Bokassa I of Central Africa and Salah Eddine Ahmed Bokassa ), a military officer, was the head of state of the Central African Republic and its successor state, the Central African Empire, from his coup d ' état on 1 January 1966 until 20 September 1979.

Although Bokassa was formally crowned in December 1977, his imperial title did not achieve worldwide diplomatic recognition.

Bokassa was born on 22 February 1921 as one of 12 children to Mindogon Mgboundoulou, a village chief, and his wife Marie Yokowo in Bobangui, a large M ' Baka village in the Lobaye basin located at the edge of the equatorial forest, then a part of colonial French Equatorial Africa, some southwest of Bangui.

On 1 January 1966, following a swift and almost bloodless coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa assumed power as president of the Republic.

Bokassa abolished the constitution of 1959, dissolved the National Assembly, and issued a decree that placed all legislative and executive powers in the hands of the president.

On 4 December 1976, the republic became a monarchy — the Central African Empire — with the promulgation of the imperial constitution and the proclamation of the president as Emperor Bokassa I.

Bokassa is said to have participated in the massacre, beating some of the children to death with his cane and allegedly ate some of his victims.

* 1921 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Central African Republic leader ( d. 1996 )

* 1987 – The Central African Republic's former Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.

Gaddafi also aided Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the self-proclaimed emperor of the short-lived Central African Empire.

** Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor.

* Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who had ruled the Central African Republic since 1965, proclaimed himself emperor Bokassa I and renamed his impoverished country the Central African Empire in 1977.

** Jean-Bédel Bokassa of Central African Republic / Empire ( b. 1921 )

** Jean-Bédel Bokassa becomes President of the Central African Republic.

* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.

* December 31 – Bokassa takes power in the Central Africa Republic.

An African judicial commission later determines that Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa " almost certainly " took part in the massacre.

* September 20 – French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa in the Central African Republic.