the people want to bring down the regime
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be learning more about the Arab Spring
for decades leading up to the Arab
Spring oppressive dictatorial regimes in
many Arab countries frustrated their
populations Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben
Ali Egypt Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s
Muammar Gaddafi were just some of these
powerful despots who aimed only to keep
themselves in power and to accrue great
personal wealth at the expense of the
population often the culture of fear
these dictatorships promoted left
populations believing their countries
would collapse without their leaders
these groups were also kept
depoliticized and this was a huge factor
in the 2011 uprisings these seemingly
strong regimes quickly toppled under
pressure from protesters and internet
whistleblowers like WikiLeaks at the end
of 2010 that organization released a
series of confidential diplomatic cables
some of which dealt with ongoing Middle
Eastern conflicts this served as a
catalyst for the events that followed on
December 17 2010 a 26 year old Tunisian
street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set
himself on fire in front of the
governor’s office in protest of police
and government corruption people around
the Arab world considered woodsey t a
hero for his extreme actions especially
after his death on January 4th 2011
protests sprouted in his hometown and
quickly extended throughout Tunisia and
into more affluent areas the internet
proved invaluable to the proliferation
of this movement through Tunisia and
Beyond with social media sites like
Facebook mobilizing protesters and
Twitter spreading the message in spite
of web censorship the unrest caused
Tunisian president Ben Ali and his
family to flee the country in
mid-january and this marked the end of
his regime by mid year he and his wife
were hiding in Saudi Arabia when they
were found guilty of money laundering
and drug trafficking in Tunisia the
turbulent quickly extended to other Arab
countries an uprising in Syria began in
late January Bahrain followed suit the
next month the New Year’s Day bombing of
a Coptic Church in
Egypt ignited clashes in that country by
the end of January Tahrir Square and
surrounding areas hosted hundreds of
thousands of dissenters who are
protesting against Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak and his government On
February 11th Mubarak’s resignation was
announced after 30 years in office
meanwhile in the North African state of
Libya Colonel Muammar Gaddafi condemned
the unrest in Tunisia by mid-february
protests against his own government
intensified the regime responded with
violent force and a civil war soon broke
out by August Gaddafi was ousted from
power by rebel forces and his government
was replaced by the National
Transitional Council on October 20th he
was captured and killed the sudden Falls
of these leaders caused several others
to announced they would be stepping down
or not seeking re-election in 2011
governments in Sudan Iraq Jordan and
Yemen announced they would undergo
drastic changes throughout these events
similar government suppression and
demonstrations took place in many other
countries by October Tunisia went to the
polls in the first vote to result from
the Arab Spring uprisings in fact this
was the country’s first-ever free vote
and with it they chose to elect a
previously bend moderate Islamist
political party other countries slowly
began to follow suit by installing
democratic governments despite this
progress it was only the beginning of
the transition period the dictators had
lost their vice grips on many countries
however the daunting task of changing
long-held political stances still lay
ahead in addition many of the nations
affected by the uprisings faced sharp
economic downturns due to the region’s
instability among its many effects the
Arab Spring was also credited as the
impetus for another huge protest group
in 2011 the Occupy movement started in
Kuala Lumpur and also use the internet
to spread across the globe this in
addition to the Arab Awakening signaled
a worldwide confrontation of the status
quo by year’s end there was no doubt as
to the significance of the Arab Spring
as a political liberation movement its
effects were widespread and 2011 will go
down
in history as a year to remember
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be learning more about the Arab Spring
for decades leading up to the Arab
Spring oppressive dictatorial regimes in
many Arab countries frustrated their
populations Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben
Ali Egypt Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s
Muammar Gaddafi were just some of these
powerful despots who aimed only to keep
themselves in power and to accrue great
personal wealth at the expense of the
population often the culture of fear
these dictatorships promoted left
populations believing their countries
would collapse without their leaders
these groups were also kept
depoliticized and this was a huge factor
in the 2011 uprisings these seemingly
strong regimes quickly toppled under
pressure from protesters and internet
whistleblowers like WikiLeaks at the end
of 2010 that organization released a
series of confidential diplomatic cables
some of which dealt with ongoing Middle
Eastern conflicts this served as a
catalyst for the events that followed on
December 17 2010 a 26 year old Tunisian
street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set
himself on fire in front of the
governor’s office in protest of police
and government corruption people around
the Arab world considered woodsey t a
hero for his extreme actions especially
after his death on January 4th 2011
protests sprouted in his hometown and
quickly extended throughout Tunisia and
into more affluent areas the internet
proved invaluable to the proliferation
of this movement through Tunisia and
Beyond with social media sites like
Facebook mobilizing protesters and
Twitter spreading the message in spite
of web censorship the unrest caused
Tunisian president Ben Ali and his
family to flee the country in
mid-january and this marked the end of
his regime by mid year he and his wife
were hiding in Saudi Arabia when they
were found guilty of money laundering
and drug trafficking in Tunisia the
turbulent quickly extended to other Arab
countries an uprising in Syria began in
late January Bahrain followed suit the
next month the New Year’s Day bombing of
a Coptic Church in
Egypt ignited clashes in that country by
the end of January Tahrir Square and
surrounding areas hosted hundreds of
thousands of dissenters who are
protesting against Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak and his government On
February 11th Mubarak’s resignation was
announced after 30 years in office
meanwhile in the North African state of
Libya Colonel Muammar Gaddafi condemned
the unrest in Tunisia by mid-february
protests against his own government
intensified the regime responded with
violent force and a civil war soon broke
out by August Gaddafi was ousted from
power by rebel forces and his government
was replaced by the National
Transitional Council on October 20th he
was captured and killed the sudden Falls
of these leaders caused several others
to announced they would be stepping down
or not seeking re-election in 2011
governments in Sudan Iraq Jordan and
Yemen announced they would undergo
drastic changes throughout these events
similar government suppression and
demonstrations took place in many other
countries by October Tunisia went to the
polls in the first vote to result from
the Arab Spring uprisings in fact this
was the country’s first-ever free vote
and with it they chose to elect a
previously bend moderate Islamist
political party other countries slowly
began to follow suit by installing
democratic governments despite this
progress it was only the beginning of
the transition period the dictators had
lost their vice grips on many countries
however the daunting task of changing
long-held political stances still lay
ahead in addition many of the nations
affected by the uprisings faced sharp
economic downturns due to the region’s
instability among its many effects the
Arab Spring was also credited as the
impetus for another huge protest group
in 2011 the Occupy movement started in
Kuala Lumpur and also use the internet
to spread across the globe this in
addition to the Arab Awakening signaled
a worldwide confrontation of the status
quo by year’s end there was no doubt as
to the significance of the Arab Spring
as a political liberation movement its
effects were widespread and 2011 will go
down
in history as a year to remember
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