Ironically, when terrorism first surfaced at the end of the 18th century at the time of the French Revolution, it was a term that was actually associated with the origins of democracy. And it didn't have any of the negative or pejorative connotations that terrorism has today. Rather, it was seen as the birth of democracy, with the end of monarchical rule, with the establishment of rule by the people in essence. And its activities then were associated almost exclusively with government, with government officials, unlike today when terrorism is seen very much as being a non-state phenomena or an act of violence that's perpetrated by subnational entities or subnational groups of people.
Now, terrorism's positive connotations ended in July 1794 when Robespierre, the leader of the French Revolution, held up a list of traitors that he said had undermined the revolution. And then terrorism shifted more towards the negative associations that we have today. Terrorism, therefore, became something that was not positive and not good, but something that was distinctively negative, that was also abusive, and that certainly involved violence often inflicted against ordinary people.
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And then it's associated with two specific movements, both of them actually inheritances of the French Revolution. On the one hand, with revolutionary organizations that were anti-monarchical that sought to overthrow the ruling dynasties of Europe and establish in their places democracies. But also with what was called the Anarchist movement, a group of revolutionaries, of nihilists, who just wanted to bring the system down in that hope that man's goodness in its place would create something much, much