Explain why a common misassumption is that the American Revolution was based on terrorism. What is revolutionary terrorism?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• If this were true, rebels would have indiscriminately murdered British citizens and clandestinely destroyed symbolic targets.
• General George Washington would not have fought to destroy the British Army; he would have waged a campaign of symbolic murder in the hope that the horror of it all would change British political behavior.
• Instead, many Americans operated as guerrillas while the majority joined a conventional army and fought within the accepted norms of conventional warfare.
• Revolutions cannot be equated with terrorism, although terrorism is sometimes used during the course of the revolution.
• When examining ideological terrorism, it is possible to broadly categorize a revolutionary style.
• Martha Crenshaw says revolutionary terrorism can be defined as an insurgent strategy in the context of internal warfare or revolution.
• It is an attempt to seize power from a legitimate state for the purpose of creating political and social change.
• It involves the systematic use of terrorism to achieve this goal.
• Violence is neither isolated nor a series of random acts, and it is far from guerrilla or conventional warfare.
• Revolutionary terrorism differs from other forms of violence because it occurs outside the normal realm of violent political action.
• It involves acts of violence that are particularly atrocious, and it usually occurs within a civilian population.
• The violence is symbolic and is designed to have a devastating psychological impact on established power.