The Arab Spring was a wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa in 2010 and 2011. The movement began in Tunisia in 2010, and thereafter it soon spread to other countries in North Africa and the Middle East. It challenged some of the region’s most authoritarian regimes. Demonstrators expressing political and economic grievances faced violent crackdowns by their countries’ security forces.
In January and February 2011, protests in Tunisia and Egypt succeeded in a matter of weeks in toppling two regimes originally thought to be among the region’s most stable. The first demonstrations took place in central Tunisia in December 2010. A protest movement, dubbed the “Jasmine Revolution” in the media, quickly spread through the country. The Tunisian government attempted to end the unrest by using violence against street demonstrations and by offering political and economic concessions. However, protests soon overwhelmed the country’s security forces, compelling Pres. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to step down and flee the country in January 2011.
Massive protests followed in Egypt in late January 2011. The Egyptian government also tried and failed to control protests by offering concessions while cracking down violently against protesters. In February Pres. Hosni Mubarak left office after nearly 30 years in power, leaving a council of senior military officers to govern the country.
Encouraged by protesters’ rapid victories in Tunisia and Egypt, protest movements took hold in Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria in late January, February, and March. In these countries, however, outpourings of popular discontent led to protracted bloody struggles between opposition groups and ruling regimes.
In Yemen, where the first protests appeared in late January, Pres. ʿAli ʿAbd Allah Salih’s base of support was damaged when a number of the country’s most powerful tribal and military leaders aligned themselves with the pro-democracy protesters calling for his ouster. When negotiations to remove Salih from power failed, loyalist and opposition fighters clashed in the city of Sanaa. Salih left Yemen in June to receive medical treatment after he was injured in a bomb attack. He returned to Yemen four months later, however, adding to the uncertainty and confusion about Yemen’s political future. In November 2011 Salih signed an internationally mediated agreement calling for a phased transfer of power to the vice president, ʿAbd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. In accordance with the agreement, Hadi took over governing responsibility immediately and formally became president after standing as the sole candidate in an election in February 2012.
Mass protests demanding political and economic reforms erupted in Bahrain in mid-February 2011, led by Bahraini human rights activists and members of Bahrain’s marginalized Shiʿite majority. Protests were violently suppressed by Bahraini security forces, aided by a force of about 1,500 soldiers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that entered the country in March. By the end of the month, the mass protest movement had been stifled. In the aftermath of the protests, dozens of accused protest leaders were convicted of antigovernment activity and imprisoned, hundreds of Shiʿite workers suspected of supporting the protests were fired, and dozens of Shiʿite mosques were demolished by the government.
In Libya protests against the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in mid-February quickly escalated into an armed revolt. When the rebel forces appeared to be on the verge of defeat in March, an international coalition led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched a campaign of air strikes targeting Qaddafi’s forces. Although NATO intervention ultimately shifted the military balance in favor of the rebel forces, Qaddafi was able to cling to power in the capital, Tripoli, for several more months. He was forced from power in August 2011 after rebel forces took control of Tripoli. After evading capture for several weeks, Qaddafi was killed in Surt in October 2011 as rebel forces took control of the city.
In Syria protests calling for the resignation of Pres. Bashar al-Assad broke out in southern Syria in mid-March and spread through the country. The Assad regime responded with a brutal crackdown against protesters, drawing condemnation from international leaders and human rights groups.
The effects of the Arab Spring movement were felt elsewhere throughout the Middle East and North Africa as many of the countries in the region experienced at least minor pro-democracy protests. In Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman, rulers offered a variety of concessions, ranging from the dismissal of unpopular officials to constitutional changes, in order to head off the spread of protest movements in their countries.
