WI: the old empires and global terrorism?

[Ultima Ratio]

So I was watching Day of the Soldado the other day. Solid movie, although it's more of a simple action movie compared to the first one, not that complex. But anyway, it made me wonder: if for some reason the world wars either do not happen or are just greatly different, and the old great powers and their spheres of influence remain intact... how would they handle global terrorism? World War 2 and Nazism and the following social movements greatly sensitized the general Western populations and in turn their foreign policy. But let's say the social order remains somewhat similar to pre-WW1 all the way until the 90s and 2000s. I know, maybe ASB, but let's handwave that for a second. Also Islam fundamentalism rises for reasons.

To cut it short: how heavy-handed would be the response from a continued British Empire/France/etc after terrorism carried out by groups from either (semi-) independent states like Persia or Afghanistan or from their own colonies in Africa and Middle-East.

 

[N7Buck]

Would terrorism even be a thing without the world wars. There was very conservative and honor based social values that would prevent states from helping terrorist groups. For example, Imperial Russia would've never associated with the Black Hand.

I would think that terrorism would exist on a small scale, but in general rebellions would be the main form of resistance against the state or occupying/colonial powers.

Imperial Russia would have instability in exterior regions; such as central Asia, which would be on a ethnic and religious basis; in Eastern Europe there would be a strong push for secession in Poland/Finland, much weaker secessionists in the Baltics. Imperial Russia is also likely to have significant political instability, such as Communists and Republicans.

British Empire would release India at some point, so there would be anti-colonial organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa, however would be very weak without other powers supporting them.

 

[Ultima Ratio]

I didn't want to dwell on the question of how it develops, what I'm interested is if the old timey great powers would have a more "gloves off" approach to terrorism.