The Impact of Pirates and of Piracy on the Spanish Empire Essay

While images of Port Royal and the Spanish Main fill most people’s imagination when they hear the word pirate, the truth is not all privateers were sailing around the Caribbean looking to capture gold bound for Cadiz. The British government imposed a huge tariff on goods coming in and out of the American Colonies that spurned a black market for cheaper goods that had been plundered from foreign vessels. At the time South Carolina was an impoverished colony that was only eager to trade with the pirates letting them move around town freely just as if they were in New Providence.

regulars , which was paid for by taxes gathered from the colonies; most importantly the "Sugar

For years and years the leaders of Tripoli which is located in the Middle East had been taking over merchant ships from either the Americans or the or the Europeans. The Tripoli pirates would take over ships and sell

Have you ever watched the movie Pirates of the Caribbean? If you have you may or may not think that’s how the life of a pirate was in the 1700s. This is necessarily true though. I believe that the life of a pirate is not as glamorous as Hollywood portrays it.

Piracy began rising in the 17th century in the Caribbean as a result of it becoming a booming trade center for European and rising colonial powers. Even with the Europeans having a stake in that area there was great difficulty in establishing peace. Keeping peace on the open seas is not easy compared to in a city, chasing a massive ship ready to participate in a war on the open seas is not the same a chasing a car through the streets of a city. People became attracted to the idea of becoming a pirate for the adventure on the high seas and the possibility of establishing wealth. Since piracy was not quickly quelled in the Caribbean entire cities were established by the buccaneers to further cement their presence, increasing the chances of their new way of

To begin, pirates have been prowling the seas as far back as ancient times, such as the “Phoenicians and Greeks in the Mediterranean.” As well Muslim piracy as Jihad has existed since the 17th Century along the Barbary Coast of North Africa.2 These pirates were known as Barbary corsairs, and they would attack ships from Christian countries, seizing their ships and, and selling the sailors into slavery. Today, Somali pirates are seizing ships and taking hostages for ransom along the waters off the coast of Somali and the Gulf of Aden.

The golden age of piracy began in the 1650s and extended all the way through the 1730s. Little is known about blackbeard before he began flying the black flag. In many books and articles his name is often given as either Edward Teach or Edward Thatch there are many different variations of his name but it is likely his true never be known for sure. Some scholars believe that Teach was likely raised in Bristol which at the time was

Throughout the years after the Spanish empire was the largest and richest empire in the world. But unfortunately, the empire fell. There were many reasons of why the empire

The piracy world expanded over the course of about 200 years from England to Jamaica through all of the 7 seas. Nowadays, pirates are using guns instead of swords, small boats with engines instead of massive ships mechanicalized through coal and steam to keep them sailing. Pirates of the golden age have a whole different attire than from pirates today (Boot). Golden Age pirates usually patrolled near Africa and the European Coast and as far north such as the Caribbean. Today’s pirates thrive off of the coast of Africa and South China.

     Another famous group of pirates were the Buccaneers. “Buccaneers were initially hunter’s of cattle and pigs on the island of what is now known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic (http://www.piratesinfo.com/fact/famous.html).” The buccaneer’s main source of food was the pigs found on the islands. They got their name from the French word “boucan” which meant barbecue. Often at times, these men were seen barbequing the pig meat on grills. They learned this style of cooking from the Arawak Indians. The buccaneers were men driven out by the Spanish, runaway slaves, deserters, and others who just hated the Spanish. “The word buccaneer soon became common, and by the 17th century was used to describe pirates and privateers who had bases in the West Indies (http://www.piratesinfo.com/fact/famous.html).”

Using the broad definition of piracy- the "indiscriminate taking of property (or persons) with violence on or by descent from the seas" includes privateers. It was therefore very difficult to rid the seas of pirates because privateers would be acting on behalf of the

For many a year, buccaneers were deemed similar to pirates and are often jailed and sentenced the same upon arrest, however, it is important for us to understand the fundamental differences between the two. While most pirates find their origins in deserters, gamblers or downright misfortune at birth, buccaneers will find their ancestry traced back to hunters and mariners from colonies in the Caribbean. Once the Thirty Year War begun, Spain funded their military by heavily taxing the colonists, local hunters that were skilled in shooting and avoiding detection as well as mariners that are familiar with the local coast were able to steal back their tax money. They were seen by their communities as a Robin-hood like group. Their communities were not as inclusive as pirates who accepted most anyone, they mostly kept within their own community and only accepted other runaways or others who would have been wronged by the Spanish.

Pirates are those who take to the sea to rob and raid. Piracy is a punishable offence and a pirate is classified as a criminal. The money or goods looted were usually split among the crew mates, more given to those of 'higher rank' such as the captain and first mate. Some famous pirates include Calico Jack, Ching Shih and Captain Kidd.

During the end of the colonial era, Spain’s Bourbon monarchs developed a new approach to promote colonial development. Once Charles III declared a decree of free trade, thus expanding the number of ports in South America that were permitted to trade amongst themselves or with any port in Spain from six to twenty-four, the region’s economy bettered. However, it would never fully recover from the fall of the textile industry.

The Spanish Armada was a fleet of armed ships that attempted to invade England in the year of 1588. The Spanish Fleet consisted of over 130 ships and more than 29,000 men, most were soldiers. Many of the ships were low in weapons and experienced soldiers that could work these weapons, others were low in ammunition. King Phillip named the Duke of Medina Sidonia to command the Armada. During the 1500's the Spanish were thought to have had a dominating Navy until in 1588, when they were defeated by the English.The Spanish Armada failed because, Spanish used huge ships and large guns and English ships were faster with guns, plan required meeting of ships and army communication was hard. Also, Phillip chose an inexperienced leader for fleet.