terrorism: a brief history

1. Terrorism: A Brief History

3. Ancient Terrorism The most common form of terrorism was torture, maiming, arson, and destruction of agriculture goods (livestock, crops, tools, etc.). Babylon, Persia, Judea, and many other civilizations in the Fertile Crescent used tactics we would consider terrorism. Terror tactics were not restricted to just the middle-east, but have been documented in China, Egypt, and other parts of the world.

4. Early Religious Terrorism -- The Zealots Among the earliest examples of terrorist actions for political reasons were the Zealots, a first century religious and political group in Judea. The Zealots strongly opposed outside (Roman) control/rule of Judea. The Zealots achieved fairly little, except to trigger heavy Roman control over the Jews and the closing off of Jerusalem to Jews.

5. Theology of the Zealots In their theology, the Zealots were relatively close to the Pharisees, but their doctrines had a strong focus on the necessities of violent actions against the enemies of Judaism. The Zealots could not accept any foreign rule or domination as they meant that the land of the Jews, Judea, only could be ruled according to principles and authority of God.

6. Zealots and Terrorism The Zealots consisted of factions, one of which was the terrorist group the Sicarii. Sicarii used daggers to assassinate officials (Roman and Jewish alike) who did not openly seek a free Judea. The assassinations always took place in public and sometimes with very bloody way. According to Luke 6:15 Simon, one of Jesus' disciples, was a Zealot.

7. The Assassins An 11th century offshoot of a Shia Muslim sect known as the Ismailis. Like the Zealots-Sicarri, the Assassins also stabbed their victims in broad daylight and witnesses. The Assassins generally focused on politicians or clerics who refused to adopt the purified version of Islam which the Assassins were forcibly spreading. The Assassins - whose name gave us the modern term but literally meant �hashish-eater� - a reference to the ritualistic drug-taking they were (perhaps falsely) rumored to indulge in prior to undertaking missions � also used their actions to send a message.

8. The Assassin Art of Time/Place The Assassins� deeds were carried out at religious sites on holy days � a tactic intended to publicize their cause and incite others to it. Like many religiously inspired terrorists today, they also viewed their deaths on such operations as sacrificial and a guarantor that they would enter paradise.

9. The Thugees Sacrifice was also a central element of the killings carried out by the Thugees (who bequeathed us the word �thug�). Thugees were an Indian religious cult who ritually strangled their victims (usually travelers chosen at random) as an offering to the Hindu goddess of terror and destruction, Kali. In this case, the intent was to terrify the victim (a vital consideration in the Thugee ritual) rather than influence any external audience.

10. The Thugees Active from the seventh until the mid-19th centuries, the Thugees are reputed to be responsible for as many as 1 million murders. They were perhaps the last example of religiously-inspired terrorism until the phenomenon reemerged a little over 20 years ago.

11. Nationalists and Anarchists -- The French The English word �terrorism� comes from the regime de la terreur that prevailed in France from 1793-1794. Originally an instrument of the state, the regime was designed to consolidate the power of the newly-installed revolutionary government, protecting it from elements considered �subversive.� Always value-laden, terrorism was, initially, a positive term.

12. Nationalist Terrorism The French revolutionary leader, Maximilien Robespierre, viewed it as vital if the new French Republic was to survive its infancy, proclaiming 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.�

13. French Revolution Some 40,000 people were executed using the guillotine under Robespierre�s reign of terror. The use of terror as a positive social factor soon turned as writers like Edmund Burke, a noted British political philosopher, began to expose the fallacy of terror as a means to social gain

14. Terror for Political Change The first notable use of terror for social and political change in western society arises at the same time as the industrial revolution. The Italian revolutionary Carlo Pisacane�s theory of the �propaganda of the deed� � which recognized the utility of terrorism to deliver a message to an audience other than the target and draw attention and support to a cause � typified this new form of terrorism.

15. Terror in the late 19th century Pisacane�s thesis � which was not in itself new and would probably have been recognizable to the Zealots-Sicari and the Assassins - was first put into practice by the Narodnaya Volya (NV). NV -- a Russian Populist group (whose name translates as the People�s Will) -- formed in 1878 to oppose the Tsarist regime. The group�s most famous deed, the assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881, also effectively sealed their fate by incurring the full wrath of the Tsarist regime.

16. Terror as a tool of Anarchist Anarchist groups were particularly enamored of the example set by the Russian Populists and soon groups all over the world would use terror to further their cause. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, terrorists attacks were carried out as far a field as India, Japan, and the Ottoman empire. Two U.S. presidents (William McKinley and James A. Garfield) and a succession of other world leaders were victims of assassination by various anarchists and other malcontents.

17. Terrorism in the 20th Century The early part of the 20th Century saw a mixture of anarchist and state-sponsored terrorism. For instance, many officials in the Serbian government and military were involved (albeit unofficially) in supporting, training and arming the various Balkan groups which were active prior to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo. Ferdinand�s assassination was carried out by an activist from one such group, the �Young Bosnians� and has been widely credited with setting into motion the chain of events which led to World War I.

18. After WWI The 1930s saw a fresh wave of political assassinations deserving of the word terrorism. This led to proposals at the League of Nations for conventions to prevent and punish terrorism as well as the establishment of an international criminal court (neither of which came to aught as they were overshadowed by the events which eventually led to World War II). Despite this, during the interwar years, terrorism increasingly referred to the oppressive measures imposed by various totalitarian regimes, most notably those in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Stalinist Russia.

19. Terrorism as a Tool of the State The Bosnians, Serbs, and other eastern Europeans were not the only countries using terrorism for nationalist gains. In South American several military dictatorships used terrorism to keep citizens in line or to thwart political opponents. Zimbabwe is one of the more well known African nations to use state-sponsored terrorism against its own citizens to quash uprising among rival tribes or political groups. This type of activity has lead some to distinguish the use of terror from that of true terrorism.

20. Terror or Terrorism Noted commentator Bruce Hoffman argues that state-sponsored terror tactics are not the same as terrorism by non-governmental entities, and should therefore be treated differently. Others, such as Jessica Stern, argue that the use of murder, mayhem, or general tactics designed to raise fear � whether by government or non-government entities � constitutes terrorism.

21. Terrorism since WWII The changes arising immediately prior to World War II � especially in Europe and the Pacific Rim � lessened the focus on terror. Following WWII displaced or disgruntled groups found themselves under new scrutiny by a world body. The shift in power from Europe to the US created a significant change in policy as well as practice.

22. The Colonies Arise Following WWII the British and French colonies found themselves now able to focus on domestic issues. Colonial nationalist groups began to use terror as a tool against colonialist governments. Across the Middle East Asia and Africa, nascent nationalist movements resisted European attempts to resume colonial business as usual after the defeat of the Axis powers.

23. Guerilla Warfare and Colonial Strife Nationalist and anti-colonial groups conducted guerilla warfare, which differed from terrorism mainly in the tactics and focus. Guerilla warfare tended towards larger bodies of �irregulars� operating along more military lines than their terrorist cousins. Guerilla fighters often fought in the open from a defined geographical area over which they held sway. They also tended to follow traditional military tactics of target, engage, and retreat.

24. British and French Defeats Guerilla warfare was successful in areas such as Indochina, China, Burma, Malaysia, Cyprus, and Palestine. One reason for the success was the effective use of the world media to focus attention on colonial domination and use of force against �freedom fighters.� Through the 1960s and 1970s, the numbers of those groups that might be described as terrorist swelled to include not only nationalists, but those motivated by ethnic and ideological considerations.

25. Modern Terrorism Many of the anti-colonial groups have declined in their numbers of disappeared altogether. These groups have been replaced with �displaced� and �focused� groups who bring new ideals to the stage. By the mid-1980s, state-sponsored terrorism reemerged - the catalyst for the series of attacks against American and other Western targets in the Middle East. Countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

26. Iran � Birth of Modern Terrorism The 1079 revolution in Iran transformed the democratic country into an Islamic Republic. The religious leaders of that time openly accepted and encouraged the use of terrorism as a means of propagating its ideals. The success of the Iranian incidents soon allowed a spread of the ideology throughout Islam. Before long, the trend had spread beyond Iran to places as far a field as Japan and the United States, and beyond Islam to ever major world religion as well as many minor cults.