Charles Tripp - Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa

Charles Tripp, Professor Emeritus of Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, discusses Middle Eastern and North African revolutions.

About Charles Tripp "I'm Professor Emeritus of Politics of Middle East and North Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

My work has been mainly in the area of the examination of power and the abuses of power across the Middle East and North Africa: how in different forms it's been used, abused and mediated by people who are both in control of States and people who try to resist the power of states."

Key Points

• In the 19th century, many of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa were undergoing revolutionary changes, which were disrupted by European intervention. • After the withdrawal of European powers in the 20th century, revolutions with popular backing overthrew monarchies and republics; however, the rise of military power led to disappointment. • Various forms of resistance against authoritarian rule emerged across the region. Contrary to common assumptions, the Arab Spring follows a long history of rebellion and resistance. A forgotten history When people think about revolutions across Middle Eastern and North African history, they often forget that many of these countries were undergoing revolutionary changes in the beginning and middle of the 19th century. In many ways, European colonial intervention at the end of the 19th century disrupted that process of indigenous revolutionary change, where autocrats were being questioned and revolutions were beginning to simmer throughout the educated and middle classes – and indeed in many rural areas as well – in Egypt, Tunisia and Iran.

When the Europeans intervened, often on the pretext of suppressing the disorder associated with these revolutions, it was a case of arrested development. The Europeans intervened to prop up the old, creaking dynastic ruling families of these countries. In doing so, they froze political development and then imposed their own pace upon it rather unjustly, therefore accusing the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa of being unready for political development. Of course, they had been very ready for political development, but this had been disrupted by European intervention.