A time series heat map of terrorist incidents in early twentieth-century China with data compiled by faculty and students at the Arizona State University School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.
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While we often associate terrorism with the 9/11 attacks and events of similar nature thereafter, terrorism has much deeper roots in history. This project explores the complexities of terrorism as an ideology, a tactic, and an end in itself by examining history. We hope to investigate various forms of terrorism, such as revolutionary terrorism, state terrorism, colonial and anti-colonial terrorism, and religious terrorism. In addition, we examine rhetorical tools used to accuse individuals, groups, and governments of engaging in terrorist activities. This research furthermore pays attention to the ways in which modernization, especially that of technology (explosives, etc.) and the media (newspapers, etc.), have affected terrorism.
While this project has a regional focus on terrorism and counter-terrorism in early twentieth-century East and Southeast Asia, it will also cover other parts of the world. Primarily, relying on newspapers, memoirs, and government documents, we hope to expose networks of terror-conspirators and their financiers that organized attacks on the imperial and colonial government officials and collaborators in cosmopolitan cities, especially those with multiple contending authorities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi, Taipei, and Hong Kong. This research interrogates transnational Asia at the intersection of modern weapon technologies, firearm trade across the Pacific Ocean and Eurasia, sociological and psychological impacts of violence on the population, and governance techniques of counteracting terrorist acts.
