(SOUND: Protests in Tahrir Square)

In Egypt, protests began in Tahrir Square in Cairo in January of twenty-eleven. Less than a month later, President Hosni Mubarak resigned. The calls of the huge crowds of peaceful protesters were answered.

PROTESTER: "Welcome, welcome a new Egypt! Welcome a New Egypt!"

(SOUND: Occupy Wall Street)

The occupation of Tahrir Square gained the attention of the world. It also influenced the "Occupy Wall Street" protests that started in September of twenty-eleven in New York City. The Occupy movement spread across the country, and to other countries.

Demonstrators occupied parks and other public spaces. They called themselves "the 99 percent."

PROTESTER: "The fact is that we use social media, we use Twitter, we use Facebook, we e-mail, we text one another, and we can muster a couple of thousand people within an hour to gather at any spot that we ask them to gather at."

They said it was unfair for the richest one percent of the population to control much of the nation's wealth. Most of the occupiers said they were not against capitalism, but against the growing divide between the rich and the poor.

M-1, left, and stic.man are the hip-hop group Dead Prez

M-1 is a rapper and activist in the United States. He and Stic.man perform as the hip-hop duo Dead Prez. M-1 joined the Occupy protests in several cities. He says that like the Arab Spring protests, many of the protesters were young and new to public resistance.