Arab Spring

The **Arab Spring (, )** was a wave of protests and demonstrations that happened in the Middle East and North Africa starting on 17 December 2010. The self-immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi ignited the Tunisian Revolution, which quickly spread all over the MENA region.

Almost all Arab countries were affected by the Arab Spring, through varying degrees of social and political unrest. In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, the influence of the Arab Spring is the most notable. However, major protests also occurred in many other Middle Eastern states. The wave of revolts, protests, and uprisings is known as the **Arab Spring.** Protests occurred all over the Arab World. The Arab Spring resulted in conflicts in Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Bahrain, Libya, Kuwait, Morocco andMauritania and at the borders of Lebanon and Israel.

In six of the twenty-two states of the Arab League, the Arab Spring dramatically transformed the political environment and led to major political changes. Civil wars also arose in Libya and Yemen, as a result of the Arab Spring.

Other major protests occurred in Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan.

Minor protests occurred in Jordan, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Western Sahara, Palestine and several non-Arab countries.

There were border  in Israel. Protests in Iranian Khuzestan by the Arab minority occurred in 2011. Weapons and Tuareg fighters returning from the Libyan Civil War had encouraged a conflict in Mali in North Africa. The clashes in Lebanon were described as a spillover of violence from the Syrian uprising.

## Causes 
The protests of the Arab Spring resembled a 'chain effect'. Many protests all around the Middle East and North Africa arose, following the example of the Tunisian Revolution. Despite the many events related to the **Arab Spring**, a great number of similarities in the causes of the protests and in the demands of the protestors can be identified.

Five major factors led to the Arab Spring and to the revolutionary protests in general:

# A demographic shift, with a rapid expansion of the youth share in a country's population, contributes to political instability.
# Authoritarian regimes, which aim to control all aspects of society. 
# Resentment against the regime that is often caused by corruption and poor economic performance.
# The combination of feelings of discontent and a strong aspiration for change.
# Destabilisation by external actors.

Protestors of the Arab Spring took to the streets The protests of the Arab Spring occurred all over the Arab world despite the different contexts of the different countries, the protests arose almost simultaneously. Four major factors can be identified which contributed to this synchronisation:

# First, pan-Arab Internet networks played a great role considering exchanges and communication between Arab youth all over the Arab world. 
# Pan-Arab TV channels were also greatly influential, as they contributed to spreading information on the protests.
# The global wave of agricultural inflation (agflation) and the corresponding 2010-2012 world food price crisis.
# The rapid rise of the average level of education in the workforce of many Arab countries and its  lack of correspondence of the demands of the labour market, which resulted in great numbers of highly-educated unemployeds.

## Outcomes 
The self-immolation of the Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi on 17 December 2010 sparked a wave of revolutions and protests, which re-shaped the political environment of the MENA region. The outcomes of the Arab Spring are of a wide variety and they differ per country. As the context and factors such as the regime's response to the events, the attitude and involvement of security forces, foreign intervention, ethnic and sectarian divisions, and the existing state structure strongly influence the outcomes of the revolutionary events of the Arab Spring.

#### Tunisia 
The Arab Spring began in Tunisia, following the self immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. In Tunisia, the Arab Spring resulted in a revolution, the Tunisian Revolution, also called the Jasmine Revolution. This revolution began on 17 December 2010, with calls against governmental corruption and economic stagnation, and ended on January 14th, 2011, with the ousting of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali  and his autocratic regime. In Tunisia, the Arab Spring was caused mainly by economic stagnation, lack of political legitimacy, involvement of Tunisian youth and civil society, Islamism, and the growing influence of social media. The overthrow of Ben Ali's regime allowed for more political freedom and democratization in Tunisia. The succes of the Tunisian Revolution ignited many other revolutionary acts in the MENA region.

#### Egypt 
In Egypt, the protests started on January 25th, 2011, following the Tunisian example. The Egyptian revolution was influenced by similar factors as the Tunisian Revolution. Egyptians protested against police brutality, the state-of-emergency laws, and economic factors, such as unemployment, agricultural inflation, and low wages. They also demanded more political and civil freedoms.The main goals of the revolution are reflected in one of the main slogans of the protesters, namely “Bread, Freedom, Social Justice and Human Dignity”, relating to the poor political and economic situation of Egypt, characterised by poverty, oppression, corruption, and economic inequality. The Egyptian revolution resulted in the ousting of the Mubarak regime. After the toppling of Mubarak's regime, Egyptian politics remained unstable.

#### Yemen 
On 27 January 2011 protests commenced in Yemen. Yemeni Protesters initially demanded less unemployment, better economic conditions, an end to governmental corruption, and adjustment to the Yemeni constitution. However, quickly the protesters began demanding the end of Ali Abdullah Saleh's presidency. The predominantly peaceful protests were met with violent responses from the government. On 27 February 2012, President Abdullah Saleh resigned, and democratic presidential elections were held, following a long period of GCC-led diplomatic negotiations.

#### Libya 
In Libya, the first protest began on 15 February 2011. The uprisings of the **Arab Spring** erupted into a civil war, between Muammar al-Gaddafi's regime and the anti-Gaddafi rebels. On March 21st 2011, a NATO-led coalition military intervened in the Libyan Civil War, to protect Libyans against aggression of the government. On 23 August 2011, Muammar al-Gaddafi and his government were overthrown. However, this was followed with a period of great social, political, and military unrest.

#### Bahrain 
14 February 2011 marked the beginning of the Arab Spring in Bahrain. A civil uprising started, despite of the relative high degrees of prosperity and little corruption. Also, some observers compared the Arab Spring movements to the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in Eastern Europe or the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, which are sometimes also referred to as "spring" Revolutions.

## Related pages 
* Arab Winter
* Syrian civil war

## References