The occasion for the coup was the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan which took power from most members of the royal family in favour of centralization under Zahir Shah and his offspring under the tenet of democracy.

[2] In 1978, a military coup known as the Saur Revolution took place, instigated by the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, in which Daoud and his family were killed.

[3] In July 1973, while King Mohammad Zahir Shah, the reigning Afghan monarch at the time, was in Italy undergoing eye surgery as well as therapy for lumbago, his cousin and brother-in-law, General Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, the former prime minister, staged a coup d'état in Kabul.

[3] Also in 1973, Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal, a former prime minister, was accused of plotting a coup, though it is unclear if the plan was actually targeting the new republican government or the abolished monarchy.

[3] After General Daoud's 1973 establishment of the Republic of Afghanistan, members of the People's Democratic Party (PDPA) were given positions in the government.

Daoud also turned his attention to oil rich Middle Eastern nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait among others for financial assistance.

[8] By this time, the two main factions of the PDPA, previously locked in a power struggle, had reached a fragile agreement for reconciliation.

It took only 24 hours to consolidate power, with the rapid push including an air raid on the Arg (the Presidential palace), and insurgent army units quickly seized critical institutions and communication lines.

[11] Nur Muhammad Taraki, General Secretary of the PDPA, was proclaimed Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council and effectively succeeded Mohammed Daoud Khan as head of state.