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Arab Spring Countries

Can you name the five countries whose governments were toppled or were thrown into civil war during the Arab Spring of the early 2010s?
Quiz by WolfCam
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Last updated: November 14, 2018
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First submittedFebruary 1, 2018
Times taken36,625
Average score80.0%
Rating4.44
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Country
Egypt
Libya
Syria
Tunisia
Yemen
+13
Level 76
Feb 2, 2018
The Syrian regime was not toppled in the Arab Spring. Bashar al-Assad has been president of Syria since 2000, despite the civil war that still continues today after starting around the time of the Arab Spring.
+42
Level 71
May 21, 2018
The criteria was "whose government was toppled OR thrown into civil war". Syria's civil war is of course still happening today so it would work on here.
+3
Level 76
Feb 2, 2018
Same with Bahrain. It's king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, has ruled Bahrain since 2002.
+3
Level ∞
Feb 3, 2018
Guess I need to do more double-checking before featuring a quiz. This has been corrected, thank you.
+13
Level 82
May 21, 2018
The only reason Bahrain didn't erupt into civil war at around the same time as Syria did is that it is a tiny island easily controlled. But there were many protests there ongoing for years and many violent crackdowns on said protests. Given the small area of the island and support from the AlSauds the Khalifa family easily maintained dominance. But I'm not sure if it's really such a clear distinction. Where on the sliding scale of violence and counter violence does a country slip from civil unrest into civil war? Other countries in turmoil since the Tunisian revolution include Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Oman, Sudan, Nigeria, Algeria, Israel, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, to varying degrees. And maybe others. All have gone through events that have been linked, some more directly than others, to the events of the "Arab Spring," and the instability and push for democracy that came about in part due to the toppling of Hussein.
+1
Level 76
Apr 6, 2022
Its
+1
Level 44
Feb 3, 2018
If you're going with Syria and Bahrain then Yemen also shouldn't be on the list
+15
Level 77
Feb 3, 2018
Poor Libya :( It was one happy place before the spring. Now it is a ruin :(
+30
Level 72
Feb 3, 2018
A "happy place"?? Because Gaddafi and his regime were so........nice?
+18
Level 60
Feb 3, 2018
It was one of the more prosperous nations in Africa in the time. Nowadays, it's in ruin with the civil war.
+8
Level 77
Feb 3, 2018
It depends. If you talk to the people who were there or lived there or if you watch the news. And I met a lot of people, so I made my own conclusion who is lying.
+20
Level 82
May 21, 2018
"one of the more prosperous nations in Africa" is a really low bar to clear.

I have friends in Libya. They said things were better, more hopeful, for a while. But since then they've definitely gotten a lot worse.

+1
Level 73
May 15, 2022
As an Egyptian, I would share the exact same sentiment as those Libyans.
+13
Level 75
Feb 3, 2018
thanks to US and its allies!
+23
Level ∞
Feb 3, 2018
Those evil Americans at it again.
+4
Level 69
Feb 7, 2018
And to top it all off, all the JetPunk quizzes are about us!
+6
Level 62
Mar 12, 2018
If the US didn't invade sovereign nations to overthrow their democratically elected leaders, we wouldn't have this fancy quiz to take.

Thanks Obama!

+21
Level 82
May 21, 2018
Pork, you're calling Hussein a democratically elected leader? And implying that somehow the government set up after him was less democratic? You know that these Arab spring movements were in large part inspired by the toppling of Hussein which nurtured a popular push toward democracy in these other countries like the one that emerged in Iraq, right? And.. you're blaming Obama for invading Iraq 5 years before he was elected president?

Is this trolling or genuine ignorance? it's hard to tell one from the other in some cases.

+4
Level 75
May 21, 2018
@kalbahamut those conservatives would blame anything on Obama. Even natural calamities.
+6
Level 60
May 25, 2018
Wait, so hurricanes and earthquakes can't be blamed on Obama? Darn it!
+1
Level 66
Jun 1, 2018
lol
+1
Level 76
May 17, 2022
Wow, the literal mind of some people here (some of whom would arrogantly think themselves so smart) is astonishing. TinklePork was obviously joking.
+2
Level 82
May 26, 2022
You're really going to let comments like Ferbin's (who rarely has anything productive to say and spends most of his time spouting anti-American BS, when he's not directly attacking other users for disagreements on another quiz 2 years ago), which here is literally a full-on ad hominem personal attack, stand... but not allow the person being attacked to respond? God, the moderation here, FFS...

Ferbin: again, more briefly and less well articulated this time, your comment = projection, insecurity, and likely inaccuracy. And when you, or others, leave 50 comments, 45 of which are completely disconnected from reality but meant earnestly, and 5 of which are completely disconnected from reality but meant jokingly, everyone will rightly be challenged to discern one from the other.

+1
Level 51
Feb 19, 2018
Yep.
+5
Level 75
May 21, 2018
Every country deserve a functioning democracy. However, if the Arab Spring has taught us one thing, it is that any miscalculated push for democracy will lead to instability and turmoil. Were those Arab countries ready for a democratic government?
+6
Level 47
May 21, 2018
Tunisia might be the only country who benefited from their war
+1
Level 51
May 21, 2018
Arguably Egypt as well
+4
Level 82
May 21, 2018
Tunisia has been the most stable of the countries affected but they haven't progressed much. Egypt went from secular military strongman to democratically elected Islamist and back to secular military strongman. They lost a lot of lives and capital and are basically back where they started.
+2
Level 59
Aug 30, 2020
^Tunisia has actually progressed a lot. They might be the only Arab country that's now a democracy, albeit not a perfect one, of course.

On the other hand, they're still as religious, conservative, sexist and homophobic as before.

+1
Level 82
Nov 5, 2020
Lebanon and Iraq both have democratically elected leaders. The Egyptian government since 2012 has also been semi-democratic, though there's some probably credible concern that el-Sisi is going to turn into another immovable dictator like Mubarak before him.
+1
Level 73
May 15, 2022
He already is. He's probably 3 times worse than Mubarak.
+2
Level 82
Jan 26, 2020
Democracy is dangerous, easily corrupted, difficult to achieve and harder to maintain. To function well it depends on many different things that most countries simply don't have (rule of law and a lack of corruption, a free and independent press, an educated and informed electorate, a functioning and robust judiciary, a belief in the importance of tolerance/diversity and constitutional protections for minorities, et cetera). It wouldn't have mattered how these countries got to democracy it still would cause problems if they didn't have these things, and none of them do.
+1
Level 87
Aug 20, 2019
What is the context of the "Arab Spring?" The recent regime changes in Algeria and Sudan could be because of the Arab Spring, no? Riots have been going on since the beginning of the Arab Spring, anyways.
+1
Level 82
Jan 26, 2020
I guess since it started in December they didn't mean the actual spring time and could be considered ongoing, but I think generally speaking since Egypt has gone back to de facto dictatorship, Assad has all but won the Syrian civil war, popular movements in other countries have been suppressed, and the rate at which they occur has dwindled to almost nothing... most would probably consider the Arab Spring to be over.
+1
Level 56
Nov 15, 2021
What was Arab Spring?
+1
Level 18
Dec 10, 2021
lasjfsl;ajifewa;ofjklsjfls
+1
Level 68
May 15, 2022
Did South Sudan gain independence during the Arab Spring?
+4
Level 82
May 15, 2022
Around the same time, but generally not considered connected.
+1
Level 21
May 15, 2022
Ironically, only 79 percent wrote Tunisia despite the fact that the Arab Spring started in Tunisia. It seems like many don't know much about the Arab spring and how it started.
+3
Level 57
May 15, 2022
Now that we're over a decade removed from the Arab Spring, it's hard to find any positives. Syria, Yemen, Libya all descended into a civil war; all of them have an ongoing civil war (Libya's had at least two). Egypt got rid of a dictator to eventually have an even worse dictator running the show. It's one of those historical events where everyone loses.
+1
Level 67
Nov 7, 2022
And even Tunisia, although initially sucessfull, became a dictatorship again.
+1
Level 66
May 20, 2023
I guess the USA uses the whiff of freedom and self-rule the same way Russia/China seed the ideologies of equality and diversity.
+1
Level 50
Dec 19, 2023
So, the Arab Spring decided to skip over the 1,500 miles of Israel and/or Palestine, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia between Cairo and Sana'a?