Terrorism

terrorism is the deliberate use of violence to instill fear among a people and so advance a specific political goal. Right- and left-leaning political organizations, nationalist and religious organizations, revolutionaries, and even governmental entities like militaries, intelligence agencies, and police have all engaged in acts of terrorism

The meaning of terrorism

Terrorism definitions are typically complex and contentious, and because of the inherent fury and violence of terrorism, the term has earned an enormous connotation in common usage. It was first used to describe the fear utilized by revolutionaries against their opponents during the French Revolution in the 1790s. Maximilien Robespierre's Jacobin party carried out a Reign of Terror that included mass guillotine deaths. Although terrorism in this context indicates an act of violence by a state against its domestic adversaries, the term has been most frequently applied throughout the twentieth century to violence aimed, either directly or indirectly, at governments in an attempt to influence policy or destroy an existing regime.