Curmuggeon,
I think it could be worse looking at the arab spring as an off shoot of the Sudan split if you want to go in the direction of a parrallele with 1848 revolutions.
The parrallele could be the 1789 revolution and south sudan revolution/liberation war which generates a bloow of contestation in the arab world. I am not sure we completely understood how much this has affected the arab world mass subconscient. My point being, since the end of ottoman empire, this was the first split in arab countries.
But I might give it too much of importance.
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