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| == '''Arab Spring''' ==
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| ''by [[User:Nick Gardner|Nick Gardner]]''
| | <small> |
| ----The term '''Arab Spring''' (also known as the "Arab Awakening") refers to the sequence of protest movements that started [[/Addendum#Tunisia|in Tunisia]] in December 2010. The protests there, and subsequently in other Arab countries, were intended to put an end to government oppression, corruption and incompetence. They have led to the overthrow of existing regimes [[/Addendum#Egypt|in Egypt]] and [[/Addendum#Libya| in Libya]] as well as in Tunisia, and to the initiation in those countries of transitional plans that include the election of representative assemblies and the adoption of new constitutions. Major protest movements [[/Addendum#Syria|in Syria]] and [[/Addendum#Yemen|in Yemen]] have so far been frustrated by governmental violence, and protest movements elsewhere in the Arab world have achieved little more than promises of minor reforms.
| | ==Footnotes== |
| | | {{reflist|2}} |
| ==Background: the Arab condition== | | </small> |
| The political structures of nearly all of the countries involved in the Arab uprisings have been categorised as authoritarian (with Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia ranking among the 15 least democratic countries<ref>[http://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_Index_2010_web.pdf ''The Democracy Index 2010'', Economist Intelligence Unit]</ref>), and the governments of five of them have been categorised as exceptionally corrupt (Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Yemen appear among the upper half in the ranking of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index)
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| <ref name="CPI">''Corruption Perception :Index''[http://www.transparency.org/policy_research./surveys_indices/cpi/2010/in_detail]</ref>. Their populations are predominately ethnically Arab with small native [[Berber]] minorities. They include two mixed [[oil]] economies (Algeria and Libya); three oil economies (Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia); six diversified economies (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia); and one primary export economy (Yemen). The oil-producing countries of [[Oman]], Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Libya are among the world's more prosperous countries, but the prosperity of each of the others is below, or well below the world average in terms of [[GDP]] per head, with Syria ranking 153rd out of a total of 228. At least 19% of the Arab population lived below the [[poverty line]] at the end of the 1990s (according to an estimate based upon data from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen,.<ref>[http://www.arab-api.org/cv/aali-cv/aali/wps0402.pdf Ali Abdel Gadir Ali: ''Poverty in the Arab Region: A Selective Review'', (Background paper prepared for the IFPRI / API Collaborative Research Project on: ''Public Policy and Poverty Reduction in the Arab Region''.) page 26]</ref>)
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| ==The development of national protest movements==
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| Protesters [[/Addendum#Tunisia|in Tunisia]] and [[/Addendum#Egypt|in Egypt]] succeeded within a few months in ousting their governments, and regime change was achieved in Libya after eight months of [[/Addendum#Civil war in Libya|civil war]]. The governments of Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Oman responded to more limited protests with promises of political and constitutional reform. [[/Addendum#Saudi Arabia|In Saudi Arabia]] the administration sought to avoid confrontation by a programme of infrastructure investment, and its forces were used to suppress dissent [[/Addendum#Bahrain|in Bahrain]]. Political instability in Lebanon inhibited governmental response to demonstrations for constitutional change. [[/Addendum#Yemen|In Yemen]] and [[/Addendum#Syria|in Syria]], continuing protests were frustrated by violent military opposition.
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| The processes of creating democratically-elected governments now dominate the situations in Tunisia and Libya, and in Egypt they are being accompanied by sporadic demonstrations against the behaviour of its transitional military government. The transitional process in Libya may be hampered by the need to disarm its local militias. The undeterred vigour of the protest movements in Syria and Yemen suggests a continuing prospect of democratic transition. Elswhere in the Arab Spring countries, the prospects appear to be limited to partial relaxations of authoritarian governance.
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| ''[[Arab Spring|.... (read more)]]''
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Latest revision as of 10:19, 11 September 2020
Napoleon (Napoleon Bonaparte or, after 1804, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French) was a world historic figure and dictator of France from 1799 to 1814. He was the greatest general of his age--perhaps any age, with a sure command of battlefield tactics and campaign strategies, As a civil leader he played a major role in the French Revolution, then ended it when he became dictator in 1799 and Emperor of France in 1804 He modernized the French military, fiscal, political legal and religious systems. He fought an unending series of wars against Britain with a complex, ever-changing coalition of European nations on both sides. Refusing to compromise after his immense defeat in Russia in 1812, he was overwhelmed by a coalition of enemies and abdicated in 1814. In 1815 he returned from exile, took control of France, built a new army, and in 100 days almost succeeded--but was defeated at Waterloo and exiled to a remote island. His image and memory are central to French national identity, but he is despised by the British and Russians and is a controversial figure in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Rise to Power
Once the Revolution had begun, so many of the aristocratic officers turned against the Revolutionary government, or were exiled or executed, that a vacuum of senior leadership resulted. Promotions came very quickly now, and loyalty to the Revolution was as important as technical skill; Napoleon had both. His demerits were overlooked as he was twice reinstated, promoted, and allowed to collect his back pay. Paris knew him as an intellectual soldier deeply involved in politics. His first test of military genius came at Toulon in 1793, where the British had seized this key port. Napoleon, an acting Lieutenant-Colonel, used his artillery to force the British to abandon the city. He was immediately promoted by the Jacobin radicals under Robespierre to brigadier-general, joining the ranks of several brilliant young generals. He played a major role in defending Paris itself from counter-revolutionaries, and became the operational planner for the Army of Italy and planned two successful attacks in April 1794. He married Josephine (Rose de Beauharnais) in 1796, after falling violently in love with the older aristocratic widow.[1]
- ↑ Englund pp 63-73, 91-2, 97-8
