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.

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

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

In 1979 French troops helped drive Bokassa out of power and restore former president David Dacko.

He was taken back to the presidential palace, where Bokassa hugged the president and told him, " I tried to warn you — but now it's too late ".

Bokassa then took Dacko to Camp Kassaï, where he forced the president to resign.

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.

In 1971, Bokassa promoted himself to full general, and on 4 March 1972 declared himself president for life.

In 1975, the French president Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing declared himself a " friend and family member " of Bokassa.

The massive worldwide press coverage which followed the deaths of the students opened the way for a successful coup which saw French troops ( in " Opération Barracuda ") invade the Central African Empire and restored former president David Dacko to power while Bokassa fled into exile by airplane to the Ivory Coast ( Côte d ' Ivoire ) on 20 September 1979.

Bokassa also claimed to have given Giscard a gift of diamonds worth around a quarter of a million dollars in 1973 while the French president was serving as finance minister.

The empire was formed when Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the republic, declared himself Emperor Bokassa I on 4 December 1976.

The massive press coverage which followed the deaths of the students opened the way for a successful coup which saw French troops ( in Opération Barracuda ) restore former president David Dacko to power while Bokassa was away in Libya on 20 September 1979.

He was appointed Brigadier General by Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa in 1978, after he beat a French noncommissioned officer who had disrespected the president.

Patassé was the " cousin " of President Bokassa's principal wife, Catherine Denguiade, and gained the confidence of the new president, serving in almost all the governments formed by Bokassa.

* 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.

* 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.

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.

After Hué bore him a daughter, Bokassa had the child registered as a French national.

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.

Bokassa claimed that Dacko finally gave up after French President Charles de Gaulle had personally told Dacko that " Bokassa must be immediately returned to his post.

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

Bokassa realized he had to act against Dacko quickly, and worried that his 500-man army would be no match for the gendarmerie and the presidential guard.

Bokassa received substantive support from his co-conspirator, Captain Alexandre Banza, who commanded the Camp Kassaï military base in northeast Bangui, and, like Bokassa, had been stationed with the French army around the world.

Later, Bokassa's officers announced on Radio-Bangui that the Dacko government had been toppled and Bokassa had taken over control.

In the coming months, Bokassa imposed a number of new rules and regulations: men and women between the ages of 18 and 55 had to provide proof that they had jobs, or else they would be fined or imprisoned ; begging was banned ; tom-tom playing was allowed only during the nights and weekends ; and a " morality brigade " was formed in the capital to monitor bars and dance halls.

Despite the positive changes in the country, Bokassa had difficulty obtaining international recognition for his new government.

To the Bokassa regime, this visit meant that the French had finally accepted the new changes in the country.

Bokassa and Banza had a major argument over the country's budget, as Banza adamantly opposed the president's extravagant spending.

The men had to break Banza's arms before they could overpower and throw him into the trunk of a Mercedes and take him directly to Bokassa.

On 12 April, Banza presented his case before a military tribunal at Camp de Roux, where he admitted to his plan, but stated that he had not planned to kill Bokassa.

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.

By January 1979, French support for Bokassa had all but eroded after food riots in Bangui led to a massacre of civilians.

But the French courts ordered that all 8, 000 copies of the book be confiscated and destroyed after his publisher claimed that Bokassa said that he shared women with President Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing, who has been a frequent guest in the Central African Republic.

Bokassa had been sentenced to death in absentia in December 1980 for the murder of numerous political rivals.

The prosecutor was Gabriel-Faustin M ' Boudou, the Chief Prosecutor of the CAR, who called various witnesses to testify against Bokassa, which included remembering victims ranging from political enemies to a newborn son of a palace guard commander who had been executed for attempting to kill Bokassa in 1978 when he was the self-proclaimed emperor.

The court acknowledged that many individual allegations of murder had been levelled at Bokassa but found that the evidence was unimpeachable in only about 20 cases.

In the lead-up to this official rehabilitation, Bokassa has been praised by CAR politicians for his patriotism and for the periods of stability that he brought the country.

Bokassa himself, who had been sentenced to death in absentia, remained free in Côte d ' Ivoire.