The Arab Spring

2011 CE — Middle East / North Africa, Arab states

Today: The Middle East and North Africa

It began when a single desperate street vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire — and, amplified by social media, a wave of uprisings swept the Arab world, toppling several long-entrenched dictators. The mix was combustible and familiar: mass hardship, a huge cohort of educated young people with no jobs or voice, and a new medium to organize on. It is the revolutionary pattern wired for the smartphone — though, as so often, several of the revolutions curdled into new repression or civil war.

Worth knowing: The entire Arab Spring was sparked by one man: a Tunisian fruit seller who set himself alight after police confiscated his cart — within weeks his act had helped topple a government that had ruled for 23 years.

Pattern: Revolution from hardship — Hardship plus a sudden opening (weak state, lost war, fiscal collapse) lets those who bear it overthrow the order — usually installing a new elite.

Entry 239 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.