Causes motivating terrorism
Specific political or social causes have included:

Independence or separatist movements
Irredentist movements
Adoption of a particular political philosophy, such as socialism (left-wing terrorism), anarchism, or fascism (possibly through a coup or as an ideology of an independence or separatist movement)
Environmental protection (eco-terrorism)
Supremacism of a particular group
Preventing a rival group from sharing or occupying a particular territory (such as by discouraging immigration or encouraging flight)
Subjugation of a particular population (such as lynching of African Americans)
Spread or dominance of a particular religion – religious terrorism
Ending perceived government oppression
Responding to a violent act (for example, tit-for-tat attacks in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in The Troubles in Northern Ireland, or Timothy McVeighs revenge for the Waco siege and Ruby Ridge incident)Causes for right-wing terrorism have included white nationalism, ethnonationalism, fascism, anti-socialism, the anti-abortion movement, and tax resistance. Sometimes terrorists on the same side fight for different reasons. For example, in the Chechen–Russian conflict secular Chechens using terrorist tactics fighting for national independence are allied with radical Islamist terrorists who have arrived from other countries.
Official or state terrorism – "referring to nations whose rule is based upon fear and oppression that reach similar to terrorism or such proportions". It may be referred to as Structural Terrorism defined broadly as terrorist acts carried out by governments in pursuit of political objectives, often as part of their foreign policy.Other sources have defined the typology of terrorism in different ways, for example, broadly classifying it into domestic terrorism and international terrorism, or using categories such as vigilante terrorism or insurgent terrorism. One way the typology of terrorism may be defined:
Political terrorism
Sub-state terrorism
Social revolutionary terrorism
Nationalist-separatist terrorism
Religious extremist terrorism
Religious fundamentalist Terrorism
New religions terrorism
Right-wing terrorism
Left-wing terrorism
Communist terrorism
State-sponsored terrorism
Regime or state terrorism
Criminal terrorism
Pathological terrorism

Causes and motivations
Choice of terrorism as a tactic
Individuals and groups choose terrorism as a tactic because it can:

Act as a form of asymmetric warfare in order to directly force a government to agree to demands
Intimidate a group of people into capitulating to the demands in order to avoid future injury
Get attention and thus political support for a cause
Directly inspire more people to the cause (such as revolutionary acts) – propaganda of the deed
Indirectly inspire more people to the cause by provoking a hostile response or over-reaction from enemies to the causeAttacks on "collaborators" are used to intimidate people from cooperating with the state in order to undermine state control.