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 term "terrorism" comes from the French word terrorisme, which is based on the Latin verb terrere (to cause to tremble),[1] It has been related to the so-called 1793 Reign of Terror during the French Revolution [citation needed].
Nineteenth century
The current use of the term "terrorism" is broader and relies more on the example of the 19th-century revolutionaries who used the technique of assassination, particularly the 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."[2]
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.[3]
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.
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.
At about the same time, Anarchists in Europe and the United States also resorted to the use of dynamite, as did Catalan nationalists such as La Reixa and Bandera Negra.
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 organisation 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.
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.
Twentieth century
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.
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. The SOE effectively invented modern terrorism, pioneering most of the tactics, techniques and technologies that are the mainstays of modern terrorism.[citation needed]
Throughout the Cold War both sides made extensive use of terrorist organisations 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.[citation needed] Similar groups such as the Viet Cong received training from Soviet and Chinese military "advisors".[citation needed]
The most sustained terrorist campaign of the 20th century was that of the Irish Republican Army.[citation needed] Michael Collins led the first campaign which saw 26 of the 32 counties gain independence.[citation needed] A second campaign became know as the Troubles between 1972 and 1997 with the Provisional Irish Republican Army conducting bombings, assassinations and even mortar attacks on 10 Downing Street.[citation needed]
Today, modern weapons technology has made it possible for a "super-empowered angry man"[citation needed] to cause a large amount of destruction by himself or with only a few conspirators. It can be, and has been, conducted by small as well as large organizations.
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.
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,[4] much like that for wars and also natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and forest fires.[citation needed]