Timeline for terrorism

1. Timeline for terrorism Group members: Ng Wai Hung (16) Peng Chen (19) Yeep Tat Wye (31) Quek Yu Fei (20)

2. About 1000 years ago, A Muslim group known as the Assassins, stabbed their victims in broad daylight. Victims were generally politicians or clerics who refuse to accept the purified version of Islam. Their actions were normally carried out at religious sites on holy days. 2000 years ago. Active Jewish groups during the Roman Occupation in the Middle-East. The Sicari and the Zealots killed mainly Romans and Greeks and Jews who collaborated with the Romans to send a message to the authorities. The French Reign of Terror, from 5 September 1793, to 27 July 1794, the onset of the French Revolution. It was designed to consolidate the power of the new Revolutionary Government, claimed to address the country’s most urgent needs by executing opponents/traitors/subversives of the new government using the Guillotine. Robespierre and his team of top lieutenants suffered the same fate From the 7th to the Mind-19thCentury, an Indian Cult named the Thugees, strangled travellers in a ritual as an offering to the Hindu Goddess, Kali. The intent was to terrify the victim. During their time of terror, they were responsible for about 1 million deaths

3. In year 1878, a Russian populist group called the Narodnaya Volya (NV), was formed to oppose the Tsarist regime. Unlike typical terrorist groups, the NV tried their best to avoid collateral damage and minimize human casualties. Terrorism spread to America before the 20th Century. Anarchists were active in America throughout 1880, and the Civil War during that time had seen terror acts committed on both sides, as well as the Ku Klux Klan. The word “terrorism” originated from the Reign of Terror. It began taking on negative connotations, partly due to British political philosopher, Edmund Burke, who popularized the term in English while demonizing its French Revolutionary Practitioners. NV’s actions inspired radicals elsewhere. Nationalist groups such as those in Ireland and the Balkans also adopted terrorism as a means to their desired outcomes. By the 20th Century, terrorism spread to as far to India, japan and the Ottoman Empire. The newly defined notions of nationalism and citizenship led to the emergence of secular terrorism. The appearance of political ideologies created a sense that there was unrest at the status quo, with terrorism providing a means for a change for the better (Pisacane’s thesis).

4. After WWI, the IMRO became infamous as a terror network, but “survived largely because it became for all intents and purposes a tool of the Bulgarian Government”. Its initial aim was to gain autonomy for Macedonia, but later served Bulgaria for Balkan interests. State-sponsored terrorism was present before 1914 (WWI). Serbian government and military trained Balkan groups which were active prior to the Archduke’s assassination. 28 June 1914, an activists group called the “Young Bosnians”, assassinated the Archduke, leading, with a chain of events to WWI. 1930s. A fresh wave of political assassinations deemed terror. Proposals at League of Nations for conventions and an international criminal court, both which did not materialise.

5. After the World War, terrorism in Europe now shifted to its colonies, mostly in the Middle East. Colonial powers faced resistance to resume operations as usual after the war in these colonies. Their defeat by the Japanese had dispelled the myth of European invincibility (Nationalism). The resistance fought mostly with terrorist and guerilla tactics During the interwar years, terrorism increasing referred to totalitarian regimes, such as Nazi Germany. Dictatorship in some parts of South America were also guilty of employing oppression as a tool of the state. This phenomenon was termed “terror” to distinguish it from “terrorism”. Another type of using terrorism for state interest is the bombarding of civilians. Such instances include the Allied strategic bombing campaigns of WWII and the dropping of the two atomic bombs. In the late 1960s, different terrorist groups combined. In the Cold War era, countries supported different terrorist groups to destabilize rival governments.

6. Through the 1960s and 1970s, the scale of terrorism enlarged to ethnicity and ideologies. The scope is now on the Middle East. After the 1967 War, the use of conventional war as a means to destroy Israel ended and the use of terror with the purpose of focusing attention on Israel and the Palestinians (the occupied territories) began. The 1970's was the decade of air terrorism with more than 20 events of terrorism directed at European and American airlines involving hijackings, bombings and hostage taking. The 1970's also involved bombings, kidnappings and other types of terrorist activity throughout Europe. The 1960s saw a phase of state-sponsored terrorism again, due to the escalation of the Cold War. governments exporting terrorism to other parts of the world for their own political interests. The focus of terrorism moved to the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict with the U.S. supporting Israel and the Soviet Union supporting various Arab countries. The 1980's was the decade of hostage taking and terrorism found a target in U.S. interests around the world. Between 1979 and 1988 there were at least twelve incidents of terrorism directed at the U.S. and her interests. These incidents included the hostages in 1979, the bombing of U.S. Embassies, kidnapping of American citizens, and the bombing of airplanes.

7. Although not new to the United States, the threat of terrorism is changing and becoming more deadly, with goal to produce mass casualties and attract intense media coverage. While the number of terrorist attacks in the United States has declined in the past decade, the number of those killed and injured in distinct acts has increased. Terrorism threat has been largely equated to the threat posed by al Qaeda, a group led by Osama Bin Laden. On 12 October 2002 in the district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia occured, killing 202 people, The attack involved the detonation of three bombs and arious members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a violent Islamist group, were convicted in relation to the bombings. On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Nearly 3,000 victims and the 19 hijackers died in the attacks. This shook the entire world at the extremities terrorist would go to gain media attention and achieve their religious goal of instituting wrong information to believers. November 26 more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamic terrorists who invaded from Pakistani seawaters. The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on 26 November 2008 and lasted until 29 November, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308.