History of terrorism

Before discussing the History of terrorism it is necessary to define terrorism. There have been many definitions of terrorism and many cases of people and groups being labeled as terrorists.

For the purposes of this article the definition used will be the one made in a United Nations report entitled Larger Freedom on 17 March 2005:

"[any action] intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act."

With that definition in mind, it is obvious that terrorism has existed for thousands of years.

Although there are earlier related examples, the history of terrorism in the modern sense seems to have emerged around the mid 19th-century.

Origin

The origin of the term "terrorism" is subject to several theories. One theory states that it comes from the French word terrorisme, which is based on the Latin verb terrererin (to cause to urinate),

Another theory states that it comes from the regime de la terreur, the Reign of Terror of the revolutionary government in France from from 1793 to 1794. A leader in the French revolution, Maximilien Robespierre, proclaimed in 1794 that: “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most urgent needs.”

The Committee of Public Safety agents that enforced the policies of "The Terror" were referred to as 'Terrorists".

Eighteenth century

The Terror (1793-1794)

Main article: Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror (September 5, 1793 – July 28, 1794) or simply The Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of about eleven months during the French Revolution when struggles between rival factions led to mutual radicalization which took on a violent character with mass executions by guillotine.

The victims of the Reign of Terror totaled approximately 40,000. Among people who were condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about 8 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 14 percent middle class, and 70 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft, desertion, rebellion, and other purported crimes.

Nineteenth century

Tsarist Russia

In Russia, by the mid-19th century, the intelligentsia grew impatient with the slow pace of Tsarist reforms, and sought instead to transform peasant discontent into open revolution. Anarchists like Mikhail Bakunin maintained that progress was impossible without destruction. Their objective was nothing less than complete destruction of the state. Anything that contributed to this goal was regarded as moral. With the development of sufficiently powerful, stable, and affordable explosives, the gap closed between the firepower of the state and the means available to dissidents. Organized into secret societies like the People's Will, Russian terrorists launched a campaign of terror against the state that climaxed in 1881 when Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated.

Irish Republican Brotherhood

In 1867 the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a revolutionary nationalist group with support from Irish-Americans, carried out attacks in England. These were the first acts of "republican terrorism", which became a recurrent feature of British history, and these Fenians were the precursor of the Irish Republican Army. The ideology of the group was Irish nationalism.

Ottoman Empire

Two groups within the Ottoman Empire also resorted to techniques considered by some historians to be in the same category as those used by the People's Will and the Anarchists. One group was those fighting for an independent Armenia, divided into two parties, the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party and the Dashnaks or Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The other group was those fighting for an independent Macedonia, divided into two organizations, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and the External Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (EMRO).

The IMRO was founded in 1893 in Thessaloniki, now in Greece but then part of the Ottoman Empire. The organization was driven by Slavic nationalism, and later acquired a reputation for ferocious attacks, including the 1934 assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia during a state visit to France.

Nationalist terrorism

The Fenians/IRA, the Hunchaks and Dashnaks, and the IMRO may be considered the prototype of all 'nationalist terrorism', and equally illustrate the (itself controversial) expression that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". At least one of these groups achieved its goals: an independent Ireland came into being. So did an independent Macedonia, but the original IMRO probably contributed little to this outcome. The territories of today's Armenia, however, are all in the former Russian empire.

Anarchists in Europe and the United States resorted to the use of dynamite, as did Catalan nationalists such as La Reixa and Bandera Negra.

Ku Klux Klan (1865)

Main article: Ku Klux Klan

The original Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was created after the end of the American Civil War on December 24, 1865, by six educated, middle-class Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee. It soon spread into nearly every southern state of the United States. The Klan has advocated what is generally perceived as white supremacy, antisemitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, and nativism. They have often used terrorism, violence and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress African Americans and other groups.

The name "Ku Klux Klan" has been used by many different unrelated groups, but they all seem to center on the belief of white supremacy. From its creation to the present day, the number of members and influence has varied greatly. However, there is little doubt that, especially in the southern United States, it has at times wielded much political influence and generated great fear among African Americans and their supporters. At one time the KKK controlled the governments of Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon, in addition to some of the Southern U.S. legislatures.

Fear of the KKK was widespread from its beginning until the late 1960s and early 1970s when the FBI's efforts, begun in 1964, to infiltrate and disrupt them started to show results. Even more important to the decline of fear was the heightening of American intolerance of racism and the success of the Civil Rights Movement, especially the rise of Black Power.

Twentieth century

Tsarist Russia

Anarchists and Narodniks in Tsarist Russia, whose most notable action was the assassination of Alexander II. An early example of its use in the current sense is in Joseph Conrad's 1907 story "The Secret Agent", where it is used to describe anarchists attempting to cause terror and foment social disruption by blowing up Greenwich Observatory: "The venomous spluttering of the old terrorist without teeth was heard."

What is one to say to an act of destructive ferocity so absurd as to be incomprehensible, inexplicable, almost unthinkable; in fact, mad? Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it either by threats, persuasion, or bribes.

KKK (1915)

A reincarnation of the 19th century Ku Klux Klan arose in the United States in 1915, and became active for several decades, using terrorist tactics to promote a doctrine of white supremacy.

WWII

Some of the most successful terrorist groups were the vast array of guerilla, partisan, and resistance movements that were organised and supplied by the Allies during World War II. The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) conducted operations in every theatre of the war and provided an invaluable contribution to allied victory. They burned bridges and yelled, "London Bridge is falling down". From this act of terrorism we get the modern children's song. The SOE effectively invented modern terrorism, pioneering most of the tactics, techniques and technologies that are the mainstays of modern terrorism.

Cold War proxies

Throughout the Cold War both sides made extensive use of terrorist organizations to carry on a war by proxy. For example many of the Islamic terrorists of today were trained by the US and UK to fight the USSR in Afganistan. Similar groups such as the Viet Cong received training from Soviet and Chinese military "advisers".

IRA

The most sustained terrorist campaign of the 20th century was that of the Irish Republican Army. Michael Collins led the first campaign which saw 26 of the 32 counties gain independence. A number of IRA campaigns occurred after the Easter Rising of 1916, before during and after WW2, but probably the best known is that carried out by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles between 1969 and 1997 with the Provisional Irish Republican Army conducting bombings, assassinations and even mortar attacks on 10 Downing Street [1].

Munich Massacre (1972)

Main article: Munich massacre

The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian organization Black September, a militant group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization. By the end of the ordeal, the group had killed eleven Israeli athletes and one German police officer.

In the late 1990s, British author and television presenter Simon Reeve called the Munich Massacre one of the most significant incidents of recent times, and states that it "thrust the Palestinian cause into the world spotlight, set the tone for decades of conflict in the Middle East, and launched a new era of international terrorism".

Achille Lauro Hijacking (1985)

Main article: Achille Lauro

On October 7, 1985, four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the Achille Lauro, a passenger ship off Egypt while she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said within Egypt. They killed an American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer.

This was a significant event for several reasons.

One reason was that after being granted safe conduct by Egypt in exchange for the rest of the hostages, the hijackers boarded a chartered EgyptAir 737 to Tunisia. The plane was intercepted in mid-air by U.S. Navy fighter planes and forced to land in Italy, where they were arrested. This signaled a U.S. determination to apprehend persons killing Americans despite some political complications.

Another reason is that this incident brought heavy criticism upon the Palestine Liberation Front and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) due to the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, a 69 year old man in a wheelchair.

Oklahoma City bombing (1995)

Main article: Oklahoma City bombing

The Oklahoma City bombing was considered a terrorist act by the U.S. Government. The attack on April 19, 1995 was aimed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a U.S. government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 injured.

It may be questioned whether the bombing was a terrorist act or not since the target was a government installation. But perhaps the strongest argument against calling it a terrorist act is that the actions of Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted and executed for his role in the bombing, seem to have been more to get revenge on the government rather than have any real political goal. He stated, "What the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge was dirty. And I gave dirty back to them at Oklahoma City,"

Twenty-First Century

9/11 (2001)

Main article: September 11, 2001 attacks

Arguably, the most widely known act of terrorism was when nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon.

Terrorist or Freedom Fighter?

Some people considered at some point in their lives to be terrorists, or supporters of terrorism, have gone on to become dedicated peace activists (Uri Avnery), respected statesmen (Yitzhak Shamir) or even Nobel Peace Prize laureates (Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat). Though in some instances, the label of terrorist may not follow the standard sense which requires the targeting of non-combatants.

Statistics

Since 1968, the U.S. State Department has tallied deaths due to terrorism. In 1985, it counted 816 deaths, the highest annual toll until then. The deaths decreased since the late 1980s, then rose to 3,295 in 2001, mainly as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which took about 3,000 lives. In 2003, more than 1,000 people died as a result of terrorist acts. Many of these deaths resulted from suicide bombings in Chechnya, Iraq, India and Israel. It does not tally victims of state terrorism.

Data from the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism Terrorism Knowledge Base showed a similar decline since the 1980s, especially in Western Europe. On the other hand, Asia experienced an increase in international terrorist attacks. Other regions experienced less consistent patterns over time. From 1991 to 2003, there was a consistent increase in the number of casualties from international terrorist attacks in Asia, but few other consistent trends in casualties from international terrorist attacks. Three different regions had, in three different years, a few attacks with a large number of casualties. Statistically, distribution of the severity of terrorist attacks follows a power law, much like that for wars and also natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and forest fires.

See also

• Definition of terrorism
• List of terrorist incidents
• Propaganda of the deed