A brief History of Terrorism

History of Terrorism
By: Ezan Bagdasarian

From mankind’s beginning, terrorism has been practiced throughout history and throughout the world. A general definition of terrorism would be the “systematic use of terror or unpredictable violence against governments, public officials, or individuals to attain a political objective”. Terrorism has been used by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and ethnic groups, by revolutionaries, and by the armies and secret police of governments themselves. In the early days of civilization with the establishment of city states and kingdoms, some of the ruling elite would govern their territory by using fear and retribution against those of their domain who would dare to defy the ruler’s absolute authority. As nations and kingdoms grew, they would inflict terrorist tactics on their neighboring kingdoms to gain expansion and dominance. Leveling towns and villages to the ground, pillaging and raping would be one of the most successful methods of early terrorism. Attila the Hun was very successful in these types of tactics. Near the demise of the Roman Empire, he had the Romans fearful of the pillaging and plunder they would expect if they did not pay retribution to the mighty Hun. For decades, the Byzantine Empire would pay retribution to the Huns, Goths and Vandals in order to keep them from terrorizing their empire. This extortion, the threat of the use of terrorism, proved to be successful for these groups. The ancient Greek historian Xenophan (c. 431–c. 350 BC) wrote of the effectiveness of psychological warfare against enemy populations. Roman emperors such as Tiberius (reigned AD 14–37) and Caligula (reigned AD 37–41) used banishment, expropriation of property, and execution as means to discourage opposition to their rule.

In 48 A.D., the Zealots, a Jewish sect used terrorist tactics to force insurrection against the Romans in Judea. They used assassins (dagger-men), who would infiltrate Roman-controlled cities and stab Jewish collaborators or Roman legionnaires with a dagger called a sica. They would kidnap members of the Staff of the Temple Guard to hold for ransom and also use poison on a large scale. Their justification for killing of other Jews was that these killings demonstrated the consequences of the immorality of collaborating with the Roman invaders, and that the Romans were not capable of protecting their Jewish collaborators.

The Spanish Inquisition used arbitrary arrest, torture, and execution to punish what it viewed as religious heresy. The use of terror was openly advocated by Robespierre as a means of encouraging revolutionary virtue during the French Revolution, leading to the period of his political dominance called the Reign of Terror (1793–94). After the American Civil War (1861–65) defiant Southerners formed a terrorist organization called the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate supporters of Reconstruction. In the latter half of the 19th century, terrorism was adopted by adherents of anarchism in Western Europe, Russia, and the United States. They believed that the best way to effect revolutionary political and social change was to assassinate persons in positions of power. Over the past 150 years, many government officials, kings and other political leaders have been killed by terrorist guns or bombs.

Terrorism differs from conventional warfare. In a conventional war, Soldiers fight on the field of battle with accepted military rules of war. The Geneva Convention established the do’s and don’ts of war. Nations that signed that agreement were expected to abide by the rules. In contrast, terrorists fight their wars by targeting the civilian population, government buildings and public officials. History shows us that the terrorist does not abide by any accepted conventional rules of warfare. History also illustrates that most of the countries that succumbed to terrorism were countries that were on the decline after a period of military and economic strength and a bureaucracy relatively free from corruption.

The Roman Empire, at their zenith, could defeat their enemies mercilessly whether they were terrorist or conventional armies. Once the Empire was on the decline militarily, morally and with bureaucratic corruption, they began to succumb to the demands of terrorist groups such as the Huns, Vandals, Goths and Visigoths. The same occurred with the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine’s were able to deter the terrorist Huns, Goths and Vandals until the Empire became weak by their own inner corruption and ultimately gave in to the terrorist demands of extortion. The similarities were that both the Roman and Byzantine military were not as capable as they once were.

In the past, the goals of the early terrorists were to exact tribute and booty. In modern times the terrorist has evolved to a stage where the goals are now to bring about a philosophical or ideological change by the use of terror.

In modern times, we have also seen the rise of State terrorism where the state itself is the terrorist organization. Contemporary terrorist states can be seen in Iraq under Sadam, Iran, N. Korea and the former rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan where state terrorism was used to force compliance to the State’s ideology. Terror is used to force compliance to the wishes of the terrorist organization controlling the state. The usual methods used are torture, rape, and murder. Stalin used state terrorism to keep the people of the Soviet Union in compliance with his policies. He ruled by fear sending millions to Siberia, those who gave any indication of opposing his dictates. Many Soviet dissidents were executed in the night. Stalin’s rule was probably state terrorism at its zenith. When state terrorism is imposed, it may be used to stifle dissent. When used by insurrectionist or guerillas, it may be part of an overall effort to bring about a political change. In the case of the Muslim extremists, it is the ultimate goal of a one world theocracy under Muslim law.


The Geneva Convention originally established in 1864 and subsequently revised and updated at later conventions, established agreements by signatory nations on the treatment of prisoners of war, the sick, wounded and the war dead. It eliminated terrorism which was not supposed to be a part of warfare. Of course, one may argue that war itself is the epitome of terrorism. During World War II, the Japanese brutalized China, Korea Indo-China and the Philippines. The Nazi’s did the same in Europe. They occupied many nations and ruled by terror. When we compare the conventional terrorist groups and individuals after World War II to the terrorists of the early 1990s, a trend can be seen. That trend is the emergence of religious fundamentalist and new religious groups espousing the rhetoric of mass-destruction terrorism. New breeds of increasingly dangerous religious terrorists emerged in the 1990s. The most dangerous type to emerge is the Islamic fundamentalist. In the 1990s, Muslim groups motivated by religious imperatives have grown and proliferated. These groups have a different attitude toward violence. Their outlook is one that divides the world simplistically into "them" and "us." These terrorists have contradicted the conventional thinking that terrorists are averse to using WMD. The past decade has made it increasingly evident that the assumption does not apply to religious terrorist groups. Although Muslim terrorists have permeated many Muslim nations, they have also embedded themselves in the United States. Their philosophy is simple, to Muslimize the world under a Muslim theocracy, a one world Muslim order.

On the other hand, we cannot disregard the non-religious home bread terrorist like Timothy McVeigh who had a measurable defined mission. It was measurable in terms of media attention and government reaction. His grievances were with the United States government. His was an ideological belief that there was excessive government involvement in all aspects of American life. At heart, he was a “soldier of fortune”. He was deeply suspicious of anything related to the government. He was willing to kill civilians (so called collateral damage) to get his point across. He believed that the United States was on the decline and blood had to be shed to reform the government. His sympathy was with the radicals who held similar views as he held. The U.S. government was not functioning the way he, McVeigh thought that it should function. Here, there are many similarities with John Brown’s actions prior to the American Civil War.
Although they may have different leaders, current Muslim terrorist groups have similar goals and are prone to work together in order to achieve those goals
In a report dated September, 1999 prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, they analyze the sociology and psychology of terrorism and who becomes a terrorist and why? “Individuals who become terrorists often are unemployed, socially alienated individuals who have dropped out of society. Those with little education, such as youths in Algerian ghettos or the Gaza Strip, may try to join a terrorist group out of boredom and a desire to have an action-packed adventure in pursuit of a cause they regard as just. Some individuals may be motivated mainly by a desire to use their special skills, such as bomb-making. The more educated youths may be motivated more by genuine political or religious convictions. The person who becomes a terrorist in Western countries is generally both intellectual and idealistic. Usually, these disenchanted youths, both educated or uneducated, engage in occasional protest and dissidence. Potential terrorist group members often start out as sympathizers of the group. Recruits often come from support organizations, such as prisoner support groups or student activist groups. From sympathizer, one moves to passive supporter. Often, violent encounters with police or other security forces motivate an already socially alienated individual to join a terrorist group. Although the circumstances vary, the end result of this gradual process is that the individual, often with the help of a family member or friend with terrorist contacts, turns to terrorism. Membership in a terrorist group, however, is highly selective. Over a period as long as a year or more, a recruit generally moves in a slow, gradual fashion toward full membership in a terrorist group”.
The Library of Congress Report also cited the five different motivators or categories of terrorists. They are:

1. The Nationalist/Separatist
2. The Religious Fundamentalist
3. The New Religionists
4. The Social Revolutionaries
5. The Right Wing Terrorist
Some of the above groupings may be in a combination. For instance, the Palestinian terrorist groups not only have a nationalistic/separatist goal, but are also motivated by Muslim fundamentalism.

I will concentrate mainly on the Muslim Fundamentalist terrorist groups because they are the ones that have declared “war” on the United States and present the greatest threat to our security and well being.
Who are they and what is their organizational structure? Below is a list of Muslim international terrorist organizations and related groups considered by the U.S. State Department to be active during the last several years.