The document discusses the historical roots of modern terrorism from the 18th century Enlightenment period through the early 20th century. Key events and ideologies discussed include the American and French Revolutions, the Reign of Terror, anarchist and socialist movements in Europe in the 1800s, nationalism and anti-colonial movements, and the Russian Revolution. Violent anarchist groups in the late 1800s were some of the earliest adopters of terrorism as a tactic, influencing later nationalist and revolutionary groups.

1. Jonathan R. White
www.cengage.com/cj/white
Chapter 6:
Recent History: The Roots
of Modern Terrorism
Rosemary Arway
Hodges University

2. Social Revolution and the Enlightenment
 18th Century considered Age of Reason or
the Period of Enlightenment.
 Europeans began to question the manner in
which they were governed during the
Enlightenment:
o Sought to increase the power of the lower
classes.
o Forces of change brought a new way of
thinking about citizenship.
 Enlightenment was an international
intellectual movement.

3. Social Revolution and the Enlightenment
 Philosophers produced a common idea
about government.
o Governments should exist to protect individual
rights.
o Best form of government was democracy:
▪ Citizens had rights.
▪ Governments were created to protect those rights.
o Common people should control the government
through social contract or constitution.
▪ Increased demand for democracy
▪ Tension between ruling class the governed
▪ Tension spilled into violence

4. The American Revolution
 Reasons why the colonist revolted against
England:
o British taxation laws, enforced through:
 Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), and Townshend
Act (1767)
 Those acts affected American citizens (merchants and
consumers), so they boycotted them, and British imports
to America were cut in a half.
• The famous quote comes from this period: “No taxation
without representation.”
 Those acts sparked a protest and British answered by
sending troops.
• Boston Massacre (1770)

5. The American Revolution
 Reasons why colonies in North America
objected to British rule included:
o „Tea law‟ – proclamation that cut off the
colonies from trade (resulting in the Boston Tea
Party).
o Lack of American representation in the British
Parliament.
 After publication of Tom Paine‟s
Common Sense pamphlet, public
opinion swung toward the cause of
independence (half a million copies
sold!)

6. The American Revolution
 On July 1776, The Second Continental
Congress declared independence from
Great Britain:
o American Revolution transferred power from British
upper class to American upper class.
o American Revolution represented long-term
evolutionary process toward democracy.
o Americans created a republic based on a
representative democracy.

7. The French Revolution
 French Revolution (1789-1799) was based
on same enlightened principles as
American Revolution.
o French Revolution different and more deadly in
tone.
o Extremely bloody – Guillotine, genocide of Nante‟s
rebels, massacres, slaughter, assasinations, reven
ge killings
o First revolution in the modern sense of the word.
 French Revolution was a transfer of power
between classes.
 French Revolution represented a radical
shift in power structures.

8. The Reign of Terror
 Term terrorism appeared during the French
Revolution.
 Burke: Referred to Government‟s violence
as “Reign of Terror,” using the word
terrorism to describe actions of the new
government (cold-blooded reign of
Jacobins).
 As the government consolidate power, the
would-be democracy gave way to Napoleon
Bonaparte and military authoritarianism.

9. Guerrillas and the Spanish Peninsula
 Meaning of terrorism underwent a subtle
change during Napoleon‟s invasion of Spain.
o Spanish partisans attacked French troops in
unconventional manners.
▪ Spanish called it patriotism.
▪ French referred to Spanish partisans as terrorists.
 Definition shifted away from government
repression and toward those who resisted
government.
 Definitional transformation continued
throughout 19th century.

10. 1848 and the Radical Democrats
 Radical Democrats
o Demanded immediate drastic change:
▪ Democracy should be based on economic equality as
well as freedom.
▪ Class revolution.
▪ Political power should be held in common.
▪ Interest in developing constitution.
▪ Distribute wealth created by trade and manufacturing
evenly.
 Socialists
o Argued for centralized control of the economy.
 Anarchists
o Sought to reduce or to eliminate centralized government.
 Capitalists
o Sought to reduce or to eliminate centralized government.

11. Socialists
 Wanted to completely democratize society.
 Wanted control of industrial production.
 Emphasized the right to form labor
unions, to bargain work conditions and to
strike.
 Emphasized democracy over the
centralized power of communism.
 Believed that a strong state would ensure
profits from industry were distributed in an
egalitarian manner.

12. Socialists
 Socialism
o Karl Marx, founder of communism, stated
that:
▪ Social structure is arranged by the material
circumstances surrounding existence.
▪ Humans shape the environment through work
and even produce more than they need.
 Communists – a form of Socialism
o Advocated strong centralized government.
o Elimination of all classes save the working
class.
o Complete state monopoly over all forms of
industrial and agricultural production.

13. Anarchists
 Shared ideas about egalitarian nature of
society with socialists; disagreed on function
of the state.
 All forms of governmental domination are
harmful and unnecessary.
 Proudhon:
o Extension of the democracy to all classes
should be accomplished through the
elimination of property and government.
o Anarchy would develop peacefully as people
learned about the structure of governments
and the capitalist economy.
 Anarchism is believed to be an inspiration for
a terrorism.

14. Violent Anarchism
 Violent anarchism propaganda: No industrialist
is safe and capitalist order would crumble.
 Jensen:
o Several factors merged to create a culture of
terrorism among members of the anarchists
movement:
▪ Growing number of people attracted to the movement
▪ Economic change
▪ Economic consolidation accompanied with the social
stress
▪ Nationalistic factors
 Invention of dynamite (Nobel) fostered the
philosophy of bombs and influenced the
adoption of violence.

15. Rhetoric, Internal Debates, Action
 Prokoptin
o Humanity existed between two competing tendencies:
cooperation and authoritarianism.
o Call for non-violent revolution.
 Bakunin
o Revolutionaries could not use the state as an instrument of
emancipation because it was inherently oppressive.
o Bombings and individual assassinations as a means of
awakening the masses to reality.
 Heinzen
o Advocated political murder.
 Most…
o did not believe capitalistic societies would change
peacefully and called for violent action.

16. Modern Terrorists and
Their Historical Counterparts
 Laqueur: Modern terrorists are more
ruthless than their historical counterparts.
o Terrorism of historical terrorists was mainly
rhetorical.
o Anarchists were selective about their targets.
o Modern terrorism has been typified by
indiscriminate violence and intentional
targeting of civilian population.
o Modern terrorist strike at governments by
killing citizens.

17. Anarchism and Nationalism
 Nationalists under foreign control adopted
tactics of anarchists to fight foreign powers
occupying their lands.
o Nationalists believed they were fighting patriotic
wars not that they were anarchists (IRA).
o Groups throughout Europe turned to the
philosophy of the bomb.
o Nationalistic terrorists followed patterns set by
violent anarchists.
o The moral justification for anarchists and
nationalists is essentially the same.

18. A Contemporary Analogy
 Woodcock: Anarchism was not revolutionary.
o Reaction to economic consolidation and centralized
state.
o Strongest where industrialization was weakest.
 Early 1900s witnessed events culminating in
measures that resulted in a violation of the civil
liberties of several Americans.
o Assassination of President McKinley.
o Red Scare of 1919.
 Could the reactive measures of 9-11 be
considered parallel to the over-reactive
measures taken in the early 1900s?

19. Terrorism and Revolution in Russia
 Russia in the 19th century differed significantly
from the other great powers of Europe (class
distinction was greater and peasants lived in
poverty).
 The Peoples‟ Will (Narodnaya Voyla)
represented violent socialist revolution.
o Members believed it was necessary to terrorize
subversive organizations into submission.
o Peoples‟ Will evolved from Russian revolutionary
thought.
▪ Bakunin
▪ Nechaev

20. Terrorism and Revolution in Russia
 Three approaches of how to modernize the
Russian state:
o From the top down: Tsar Alexander II
o Creation of modern Russia as a liberal Western
Democracy: The Intellectuals
o Revolution: Violent Anarchists
▪ The People‟s Will propaganda won sympathy among the
peasantry.
 The People's Will Campaign:
o Bombings, assassinations and murders
o 1881 – murder of Tsar Alexander II

21. Terrorism and Revolution in Russia
 National Disasters that created
atmosphere for „1914 Revolution‟ in
Russia:
o Loosing the war to Japan
o Economic problems
o Bureaucratic inefficiency
o 1905 Revolution
o Entering I World War
 After 1914 revolution new Russian
Government was formed by Mensheviks.

22. Terrorism and Revolution in Russia
 Russian revolution utilized terrorism in a new
manner.
o Created an impact on peoples‟ view of terrorism in the
20th century.
 Lenin and Trotsky believed terrorism should be
used as an instrument for overthrowing the
bourgeois governments.
o Advocated terrorism as a means of controlling internal
enemies and as a method for coping with internal strife.
o By threatening to export terror, Lenin and Trotsky
effectively placed fear of communism in the minds of
many in the West.
 Lenin‟s victory and subsequent writings have
inspired terrorists from 1917 to the present.