Custom «The Beginnings of Modern Terrorism » Essay Paper Sample

The term terrorism has been used to signify the use of terror to carry out acts of coercion however; there is no universally accepted definition of the term. Many of the definitions put forward have centered on characterizing the term terrorism with the use of violent acts to carry out terror. The term terror roots from the Latin word Terrere and as White confirms, the term terrorism emerged as a term that was used to convey ideological force used to render the factual accuracy of administration's claims on activities termed as violent and targeted against the government (p. 70). Nevertheless, it has been viewed that the term terrorism is politically charged and often used by authorities to delegitimize political opposition by government machinery.

The state has for long used terror for coercion. In Russia and France, government authorities have been faulted for the use of terror where terrorist has used their acts of violence in order to impact psychological damage to those opposed to the governments. In Russia for instance, leaders like Lenin have in the past used terror to remain in power by intimidating and cleverly manipulating opponents. Stalin who led a revolution also had to use terror in order to remain in power. Through terror, Stalin was able to expand Russia's territory over Europe. In France, revolutions were known to create reforms as well as terror where terror was used for intimidation purposes and for the sake for retaining power by those in governments.

The establishment of the United States was unique and during the process, mass execution was not experienced as expected. This phenomenon could be attributed to the reaction of the American towards the notion of mass execution which was viewed as against humanity. In is in this regard that the rights of people were safeguarded and in the end, mass execution was avoided. Additionally, the use of mass execution could have portrayed the government as non-sensitive to natives who were against the establishment of the Federal government.