Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa: Eighteenth-Century Strongmen to the Arab Spring

Beginning with the violent street demonstrations in Tunisia in December 2010, the media has followed the course of the Arab Spring as it has spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The popular protests, violent reprisals, and full scale civil war that brought the autocratic regimes of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya to an end were covered in great detail by global news agencies. Events on the streets of Tahrir Square in Cairo were brought to the computer screens of families, students, and politicians across the world. How can we understand the events of the past 15 years in a context that takes us beyond the current events and vivid descriptions of ongoing civil unrest? Was this movement a modern phenomenon or does it have roots in the history of the region? This course begins the narrative of the Arab Spring with the eighteenth-century revolutions within the Ottoman Empire in an effort to place current events within the context of Middle East history. Subsequent weeks chronologically cover historic Arab revolutions beginning with the eighteenth century Ottoman Empire and ending with the twenty-first century Arab Spring. The course addresses themes of anti-Empire, nationalist, political, socialist, populist, and religious revolutions. Each week focuses on causes of civil unrest, methods and language of protest, and primary sources used in the assigned readings.