The Arab Spring of 2011

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the tests on baby rhesus monkeys which would become some of the most controversial in modern science. Also, the chimpanzee who apparently learned American sign langua ...  Show more

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear from one of the Peruvian pilots who secretly flew fighter jets to help Argentina during the Falklands War in 1982. We discuss with our guest, Iberian and Latin American his ...  Show more

In the early months of 2011 demonstrators took to the streets across the Arab world in what became known as the Arab spring. In February, protests in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi soon turned into an armed revolt seeking to overthrow the dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. S ...  Show more

The Arab Spring erupted eleven years ago when a wave of "pro-democracy" protests spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The effects of the uprisings reverberated around the world as regimes fell in some countries, and civil war began in others. This week, we remember ...  Show more

Protests erupted across the Arab world in 2011, people wanted change, an end to tyranny and dictatorship. But in Syria the unrest, and its put down by the authorities, led to civil war, years of violence and the survival of the Assad regime. One eye witness to events was Rami Jar ...  Show more

Note: This is a visual-heavy episode. You can watch the lecture here.

The Arab Spring began in December 2010 when Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’s desperate protest against corruption sparked uprisings th ...