UPSC Prelims 2014 · Question 14 of 100
UPSC Prelims 2014 question on Arab Spring Origin
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2014
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectInternational Relations
- TopicCurrent Affairs
- DifficultyMedium
- TypeDirect
Recently, a series of uprisings of people referred to as 'Arab Spring' originally started from
Show answer
Answer: D. Tunisia
Verdict
The answer is Tunisia. The wave of uprisings called the Arab Spring began there in late 2010 and spread outward from that point.
Analysis
The trigger was the self immolation of a street vendor in Tunisia in December 2010, and the protests that followed drove out President Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia in January 2011. Egypt is the strongest distractor because the Tahrir Square protests received far heavier global coverage, but Egypt followed Tunisia rather than starting the sequence. Syria is wrong on timing as well, its uprising began in March 2011 and turned into a prolonged civil war. Lebanon did not see a comparable uprising in this wave at all.
Source
The Hindu and contemporary current affairs coverage.
How to crack it
For any question that asks where a movement originally started, coverage volume is a trap and chronology is the answer. Build a simple date line when a multi country event unfolds: which country first, in which month, with what trigger. Here the whole question turns on December 2010 in Tunisia versus January and February 2011 elsewhere. Log first event, first country and first trigger for every rolling international story you follow through the year.
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