1848 marks the year that Europeans across the continent revolted against their autocratic rulers in favor of democracy and its advantages. Sometimes called the “Springtime of the Peoples”, this rebellion started in February in Paris, France against the monarchy of King Louis-Philippe, and soon the famous phrase by Metternich “when France sneezes, all of Europe catches a cold” (“Europe In Retrospect” 1) rang true as the revolutionary spirit swept across Europe. Liberal revolutionaries marched united in the streets with a list of demands for their leaders. Not much had changed before rulers crushed these revolutionaries without difficulty, and conservatives assumed authority again in Europe, making 1848 the “turning point in modern history that modern history failed to turn." (“Revs. of 1848” 7) Though, 1848 was for the most part a failure, it would not be the last time Europe had seen a mass change under an autocracy. Over 150 years later, the same revolutionary spirit that swept across Europe rose again in 2010 throughout the Middle East. Beginning this time in Tunisia with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in December 2010 in protest of police corruption and ill-treatment (Fahim 1), it was the event that triggered major upheavals in the North African and South West Asia region. The protests “united discontented citizens from across political, economic, social and religious divides in opposition to their autocratic governments” (“Arab Spring Uprisings” 1), and actually drove some leaders from their aging dictatorships or promised reforms. The principles of the European revolts were the same as those in the modern-day Arab World. Although arising in different time periods and resulting in completely different outcomes, econ...
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Öztürkler, Harun. "Economic Factors behind the Arab Spring, Challenges and Opportunities."Today's Zaman. N.p., 10 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
"The Revolutions of 1848 (1848)." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
"Europe in Retropsect: International Order & Domestic Strife." Europe in Retropsect: International Order & Domestic Strife. N.p., 2000. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Fahim, Kareem. "Slap to a Man's Pride Set Off Tumult in Tunisia." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
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In his current job, Friedman writes a 740-word column twice a week. It appears in many of the world’s newspapers and on the Web. This latest book, Longitudes and Attitudes, is a compendium of his more recent columns and a diary of supporting incidents. The text relates to the theme that has consumed him in his career: the failure of the Arab nation to develop, democratize, and compete properly with the West. This theme is given point by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the attack of 9/11.
2 Charles S. Maier, ed., The Cold War in Europe: Era of a divided Continent (New York: Markus Wiener Publishing, Inc., 1991) 27.
Smith, Tony. The End of the European Empire: Decolonization after World War II. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1975. Print.
In 2010 the Middle East experienced a disturbing series of protests and riots against the government. The term Arab Spring was coined as an allusion for the 1848 revolutions that rocked the Arab world. This devastating revolution saw its inception in a chain of small scale protests for the democratization of the Arabian governments. With its start in Egypt and Tunisia it has not failed in affecting every Arab country from Libya, Sudan and Morocco in the West to Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the East. A branch of the same revolution has successfully managed to become the cause for a civil war outbreak in Syria and even stretched its influence outside the Arab world to affect Iran and Mali.
The authoritarian regimes of the Middles cycled through a pattern of anti-western policy until the globalization effects of economics and information demanded reform. As conservative Arab states try to maintain the autocracy they relied on after gaining independence, their citizens, affected by information and education expansion, challenge their resistant governments as typified by Syria’s unwillingness to capitulate. The proliferation of information and education underscored the protest movements of the Arab Spring because citizens’ contempt for their obstinate governments grew to large under economic pressures, as the current situation in Syria demonstrates.
Time. November 20, 1989 Wallace, Charles P., “Across the Great Divide.” Time Europe. Nov. 15, 1999
Karl, Kenneth. Cracking the AP European History Exam New York: Princeton Review Publishing, 2004: 118-120
The last three decades of the twentieth century were a time of revolution, genocide, and violence. Many governments around the world are taking full control over the lives of their citizens. African and Middle Eastern countries were often controlled under European rule through indirect rule. The way that indirect rule worked was that European nations appointed an indigenous group to enforce European laws, creating chaos and turmoil within the satellite countries. The turmoil turned brother against brother and father against son.
Maynes, Charles. "The Middle East in the Twenty-First Century." Middle East Journal 52.1 (1998): 9-16. JSTOR. Web. 6 June 2011.
Ibnouf, Fatma Osman. “Women And The Arab Spring.” Women & Environments International Magazine 92/93(2013): 18-21. MasterFILE Elite.Web.31 Mar. 2014.
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
Political uprisings in the Middle East, especially in Muslim nation states have placed Arabian politics back on the focus point of international politics. Political events in certain Arab countries had an excessive impact on the political development of other neighboring states. Resistances and anxieties within different Arab countries triggered unpredictable actions, sometimes sorely to observe and believe. The authoritarian governments of Arabian countries led from various dictators have created a precarious situation for their people, especially in providing national security and maintaining peace in the region. Jack Goldstone argues that the degree of a sultan’s weakness has been often only visible in retrospect; due in part to the nature of the military-security complex common across Middle East states (Goldstone 1). In addition, the existence of various statesmen with political affiliation is concerned in faithfulness of its armed forces. Usually, the armed national forces of several states, mainly those in Arab countries are loyal and closely affiliated to their leaders, which have a major role in state regimes. Arab uprisings in their early spreading appeared legally responsible and with concrete demands from representatives’ peoples, calling for a more open democratic system and reasonable governance. Even though, the system in which popular frustration with government imposes alters considerably from one state to another. These public revolts against different authoritative governments didn’t halt just in Arab states, but they sustained also in the Far East and in the Eastern Europe. Can we say that the popular uprisings in Arab countries could be attributed to the term of globalization? In fact, globalization is a multi...
The Revolutions of 1848 have been described as the “greatest revolution of the century”1. From its mild beginnings in Palermo, Sicily in January 1848, it did not take long to spread across the rest of Europe (Britain and Russia were the only countries not to experience such revolutions). “In 1848 more states on the European continent were overcome by revolution than ever before and ever since”2. The Revolutions became more radical but after June 1848 these revolutionary events began to overlap with those of counterrevolutionary actions, thus enabling the old regimes to return to power. 1848 was described as “a sunny spring of the peoples abruptly interrupted by the winter of the princes”3.
...nd Politics." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 890-895. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. "1989." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 1874-1880. World History in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.