Causes and Consequences of the Arab Spring of 2011 The Case of Tunisia
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Date
2014-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The African Arab States entered in to serious of uprisings in December 2010. The
revolution broke out in Northern African and Arab state of Tunisia. It is one of the
wealthiest states on the continent ranks 36th in the world economic competent. It is a
country rich in minerals such as Iron, Phosphate, Zinc, Lead, Oil, Petroleum and Natural
gas.
Besides, Tunisia is one of the leading producers of Agricultural products, such as olives,
wheat, barely, tomatoes, citrus, sugar beets, Dates and Almond and goods-textile,
Leather and Steel, among others. It is also known for Food and Beverage products. In
addition, it is also the second largest tourist destination in the continent next to Egypt.
Like Tunisia, the States of Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt are endowed with national
resources. They have sizable deposition of Natural gas and Particularly Libya is among
the leading producers of petroleum in the world next to Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia even
supplied 1/10th of petroleum to the world market in 2008.
Though the North African Arab States earned huge foreign currency from Natural Gas,
oil and other most of their citizens did not benefit from it. They have been living under
serious poverty chiefly owing to the dictatorial orientation of the governments. There is
no economic, social, and political freedom. They were characterised by unfired
distribution of wealth, high rate of unemployment, un equal access to education, lack of
housing, lack of transportation, lack of political participation and lack of involvement in
public service.
The wealth of the state was in the hands of few leaders and western European
companies. The leaders of North African Arabians were protectors of their interests as
well as Western capitalists.
The suppression of problems for a long period of time led to the explosion of violent
protests against Arab states governments since 2010. The first protest was seen in
Tunisia ending up in ousting of president Zen al-Abidine Ben Ali. Following Tunisian
revolution Egyptians moved against the regime and sent Hosni Mubarak in to jail. The
revolution in Libya was concluded in killing Muammar Gaddafi and in Yemen Ali
Abdullah Saleh forced to leave from his power.
The tide of uprising from Tunisia spread out to the whole Arab world including Saudi
Arabia, Jordan and Syria. In Syria the revolution still not concluded. In this study the
researcher will not focuses on Arab spring in detail rather to assess the Cause and
consequences of Tunisian Arab spring of 2010
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Keywords
Arab spring