Off the coast of Calais in the middle of the night on July 27, 1588, sailors in the Spanish Armada were roused from sleep with an introduction to a new type of warfare that was at squarely at odds with old-world continental military tactics. They watched in horror as eight ghost ships emerged from the fog, set ablaze and hurtled toward the Armada's formation by the English across the channel. Sleepy sailors scurried into action to cut their anchors and escape destruction, but it was too late. The English's nasty surprise worked perfectly: it broke up the Armada's formation - its most famous and intimidating cultivated military strategy. Driven apart and aimless, some of the Spanish ships ended up stranded off the coast of Scotland. Some of their crews ended up freezing to death adrift in Scandinavia.

But the main consequence of the fire ships was that England, with a smaller fleet and fewer sailors, ended up defeating the giant Armada that King Phillip had bankrupted his country to assemble. Sending the ships amounted to an act that probably was considered in its day much like terrorism, which depending on how the term is used has always existed in some form in Europe, though the continent tends not to be the one usually associated with terrorism. There are three aspects of violence and warfare that are often considered terrorism's hallmarks, and each has had existed to some degree in Europe: 1. Guerrilla warfare as opposed to traditional warfare, 2. Shocking acts or levels of violence designed to frighten and intimidate and 3. Acts of what would be considered modern-style terrorism very much like that usually associated with the Middle East.

TRADITIONAL VS. NONTRADITIONAL WARFARE

It is very unlikely that before the influence of Imperial Rome in western Europe with its highly-structured military and warfare it introduced in Europe that there was any sense that there was a any sense of more or less traditional warfare. In Gecko-Roman times militaries were so highly organized and disciplined that stories of deviancy likely became legendary. The story of the Trojan horse, in fact, is probably actually an allegory of certain amount of shock that the army of Troy caused because they departed from traditional tactics. The account of a giant hollow horse was probably a bit far fetched and it was probably that they were practicing some form of guerrilla or terrorist tactics, as opposed to the strict military codes that existed in these these warrior

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about A brief history of terrorism in Europe?
We want to hear your view. Write now!