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| == '''Arab Spring''' ==
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| ''by [[User: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 with the successful uprising in Tunisia that began in December 2010. The subsequent protest movements in other Arab countries were mainly motivated by a wish to put an end to what was perceived as government oppression, corruption and incompetence. They have led to the overthrow of existing regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and the initiation in those countries of transitional processes that are to include the election of representative assemblies and the adoption of new constitutions. Major protest movements have also arisen in Syria and Yemen, but they have so far been frustrated by violent resistance by their governments. The protest movements elsewhere in the Arab world have achieved little more than promises of minor reforms.
| | ==Footnotes== |
| | | {{reflist|2}} |
| ==Background: the Arab condition==
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| The political structures of the countries involved in the Arab uprisings have (with the exception of Lebanon) been categorised as "authoritarian" (with Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia ranking among the 15 least democratic countries). Five of them have suffered unusually high levels of corruption (Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Yemen appear among the upper half in the ranking of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index). 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. 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. According to an estimate based upon data from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen, at least 19% of the Arab population lived below the poverty line at the end of the 1990s.
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| ==The development of national protest movements== | |
| The violent mass protest movements in Tunisia and Egypt succeeded within a few months in the overthrow of their existing regimes and, as noted below, the same was acheived, with the assistance of NATO, in Libya after eight months of civil war. The governments of Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Oman responded to more limited protests with promises of political and constitutional reform. Saudi Arabia's administration sought to avoid confrontation by announcing a major programme of infrastructure investment, and its forces were used to suppress dissent in Bahrain. Political instability in Lebanon has inhibited governmental response to demonstrations for constitutional change. In Yemen and Syria, continuing protests are being 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, is expected to include - and may be hampered by - the need to disarm its local militias. In Syria and Yemen, the undeterred vigour of the protest movements in the face of violent resistance suggests the possibility of democratic transition in those countries. 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
