How did the meaning of the term terrorism change from the French Revolution to the 20th century?

The term "terrorism" has undergone a significant evolution in meaning since its inception during the French Revolution in the 1790s.1

From State Violence to Political Opposition

Initially, the term was coined to describe the Reign of Terror carried out by the Jacobin government under Maximilien Robespierre. In this original context, it referred specifically to state-sponsored violence and intimidation used by a government against its own domestic enemies.12

By the 19th century, the usage began to shift. While it still occasionally referred to state actions, it increasingly encompassed violence perpetrated against governments by various political factions. By the 20th century, the primary application of the term had inverted: it was most frequently used to describe violence aimed at influencing policy or toppling existing regimes by nonstate actors.21

20th-Century Expansion

During the 20th century, the definition became broader and more complex:
* Criminality vs. Politics: Some definitions, such as those used by the FBI, categorized terrorism as criminal activity, though this remains controversial as it fails to distinguish between different political contexts.1
* Neutral Usage: In the 1920s, the term was sometimes applied to non-political criminal violence, such as the activities of gangsters.2
* Ideological Warfare: It became a hallmark of diverse political movements, from totalitarian states using it as official policy to anticolonial and fundamentalist groups using it as a "weapon of the weakest" to generate fear when direct military victory was unattainable.31