History of Terrorism

The history of terrorism is a history of well-known and historically significant individuals, entities, and incidents associated, whether rightly or wrongly, with terrorism. Scholars agree that terrorism is a disputed term, and very few of those labelled terrorists describe themselves as such. It is common for opponents in a violent conflict to describe the other side as terrorists.[1] Those called terrorists can often be referred to as militants, paramilitaries, guerrillas, resistance movements or freedom fighters. However, they are united in the range of tactics they commonly employ which involves non-systemic covert or semi-covert warfare, driven by an ideological basis often political religious or socially based. They often seek to use propaganda of the deed to cause a psychological impact alongside the actions themselves to drive the aspired change.