Having overthrown President Milton Obote while he was abroad, army commander Idi Amin consolidated his takeover by declaring himself head of state, suspending sections of the constitution, and dissolving parliament. His rule would descend into mass killings, the expulsion of Uganda's Asian minority, and economic collapse before his ouster in 1979.
Idi Amin's rise startled many Ugandans who initially welcomed him as an affable, unpretentious former boxing champion and army officer, a contrast to the increasingly authoritarian Milton Obote. That relief evaporated quickly. Amin's government would be responsible for the deaths of an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Ugandans over the following eight years, through death squads, disappearances, and purges of rival ethnic groups within the military.
Amin appointed himself to ever more grandiose titles, eventually styling himself 'His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.'
His 1972 expulsion of roughly 80,000 South Asian Ugandans, who dominated much of the country's commerce, devastated the economy overnight, handing over businesses and properties to unqualified loyalists. Amin was finally driven from power in 1979 after his disastrous invasion of Tanzania prompted a counter-invasion that toppled him.