Beginning with protests in Tunisia in late 2010, a wave of uprisings spread across the Arab world in 2011, toppling long-standing rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. The revolts were strongly urban, focused on central public spaces such as Cairo's Tahrir Square that became symbols of mass assembly. Outcomes diverged sharply, from contested transitions to prolonged civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen that devastated cities. The conflicts drove large-scale displacement and refugee movements.
It demonstrated the central square and the dense city as arenas of political contestation, while its wars and displacement reshaped urban populations across the region and Europe.
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