Terrorism In The Late 19th Century
Violence as Propaganda: Late 19th Century Terrorism
This short essay will compare the use of terrorism in the late 19th century. What do the terrorist campaigns share in common and why some were more successful than others. I will also attempt to define what is meant by success in a terrorist campaign.
First I will define “success” for the purpose of this essay. I define success as achieving the desired and stated purpose of the individual or group using terror as a method to achieve change. In other words, did the desired change take place or not.
Terrorism in the late 19th century is dominated by the Anarchist inspired idea “that the haves were fated to be overthrown by the have-nots in a cataclysmic revolution that would usher in a new …show more content…
They did succeed in assassinating world leaders and were successful in bombing selected targets, they did learn to operate well in isolated groups and developed methods still used today to effectively work and carry out terror. However, they did not achieve their desired goal of revolution and did not bring about their desired changes so by my stated definition of success the anarchist terror campaigns of the late 19th century were generally unsuccessful.
A different kind of campaign of terror was taking place in America during the same time frame as the Anarchist movement. This arguably was a top down version of terror. Instead of the desire to have those in power removed by a mass up-rising of the have-nots, this terror campaign was an attempt to keep the have-nots “in their place”. I am referring to rise of the Klu Klux Klan in America after the Civil War and the implementation of Reconstruction in the …show more content…
The Anarchists were not as well organized and did not have the support of powerful people in society while the Klan did. The Anarchists did not have a history of the “way it was” as the Klan did. The Anarchists terror was directed against the governments who then responded aggressively and decisively against them.(1) However, the Klan terror campaign was primarily directed at the already disenfranchised which caused much less fear in the government allowing them to continue without serious government
This short essay will compare the use of terrorism in the late 19th century. What do the terrorist campaigns share in common and why some were more successful than others. I will also attempt to define what is meant by success in a terrorist campaign.
First I will define “success” for the purpose of this essay. I define success as achieving the desired and stated purpose of the individual or group using terror as a method to achieve change. In other words, did the desired change take place or not.
Terrorism in the late 19th century is dominated by the Anarchist inspired idea “that the haves were fated to be overthrown by the have-nots in a cataclysmic revolution that would usher in a new …show more content…
They did succeed in assassinating world leaders and were successful in bombing selected targets, they did learn to operate well in isolated groups and developed methods still used today to effectively work and carry out terror. However, they did not achieve their desired goal of revolution and did not bring about their desired changes so by my stated definition of success the anarchist terror campaigns of the late 19th century were generally unsuccessful.
A different kind of campaign of terror was taking place in America during the same time frame as the Anarchist movement. This arguably was a top down version of terror. Instead of the desire to have those in power removed by a mass up-rising of the have-nots, this terror campaign was an attempt to keep the have-nots “in their place”. I am referring to rise of the Klu Klux Klan in America after the Civil War and the implementation of Reconstruction in the …show more content…
The Anarchists were not as well organized and did not have the support of powerful people in society while the Klan did. The Anarchists did not have a history of the “way it was” as the Klan did. The Anarchists terror was directed against the governments who then responded aggressively and decisively against them.(1) However, the Klan terror campaign was primarily directed at the already disenfranchised which caused much less fear in the government allowing them to continue without serious government