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Essays on decline of golden age of piracy
Essays on decline of golden age of piracy
Essays on decline of golden age of piracy
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You probably have read several stories that have been told about famous pirates. Many people have been captivated by pirates and the adventures they endure. Most pirate stories romanticize pirates and what happens in piracy by explaining about what some pirates would do to each other, the Golden Age of Piracy, and famous myths about pirates. To begin with, many people visualize pirates as ruthless madmen that tormented innocent people mercilessly. But many pirates were just the opposite. People known as privateers, for example, Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, and John Hawkins, were hired by the British government to attack and plunder foreign country ships. Certain countries would also pay privateers for protection. In The Golden Age of Piracy,it says, “After the American Revolution, the United States agreed to pay money for immunity from attack.” This shows that countries paid pirates not to attack them for a specific period of time. This contract would be broken if the country refused to pay the pirates, or the pirates went against their word. …show more content…
Starting in the 1500’s, people were becoming pirates in swarms. There were several reasons, some of them were you could’ve been an unemployed sailor and recruited by a pirate crew, or you could also become a pirate in search of adventure and fame. During this time, a new kind of pirate became known as buccaneers. Buccaneers were mainly outlaws who fled their country and banded together to form a crew. In Pirates and Piracy, it states, “buccaneers began to terrorize sailors in the West Indies. Many Islands and harbors there made perfect hiding places.” This evidence explains that buccaneers mostly raided in one place, unlike pirates, who raided all over the
Cordingly’s book Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates tells the story of many different pirates of different time periods by the facts. The book uses evidence from first hand sources to combat the image of pirates produced by fictional books, plays, and films. Cordingly explains where the fictional ideas may have come from using the evidence from the past. The stories are retold while still keeping the interest of the audience without having to stray from the factual
The word "privateer" conjures a romantic image in the minds of most Americans. Tales of battle and bounty pervade the folklore of privateering, which has become a cherished, if often overlooked part of our shared heritage. Legends were forged during the battle for American independence, and these men were understandably glorified as part of the formation of our national identity. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of these men were common opportunists, if noteworthy naval warriors. The profit motive was the driving force behind almost all of their expeditions, and a successful privateer could easily become quite wealthy. In times of peace, these men would be common pirates, pariahs of the maritime community. Commissioned in times of war, they were respected entrepreneurs, serving their purses and their country, if only incidentally the latter. However vulgar their motivation, the system of privateering arose because it provided a valuable service to thecountry, and indeed the American Revolution might not have been won without their involvement. Many scholars agree that all war begins for economic reasons, and the privateers of the war for independence contributed by attacking the commercial livelihood of Great Britain's merchants.
5. Rediker, Marcus. 2004. Villains of all nations: Atlantic pirates in the golden age. London [u.a.]: Verso.
The Renaissance was a time of great change in Europe beginning in the late middle ages. Philosophies and culture shifted, and so did rebellion. Many feared the seas, for thieves and murderous gangs filled it. Privateers or crews who received funding from royalty or other authorities to fight enemies were corrupt, but they were not the main cause for worry.(Paine) Pirates were the ones who were feared by many and adored by few. Pirates traveled the seas in search of fortune. They would often murder, kidnap and use any other violence necessary to get what their greedy hearts desired.(Paine)(Aldrete) Only the most desperate and greedy would dare to join the bands of rebels because it took specific traits to be a pirate.(Aldrete) To be a successful pirate during the Renaissance, one needed fighting skills, perseverance, and the demeanor to carry out difficult and cruel tasks.
Blackbeard was a pirate during his adult years, but when he was younger he worked on a British ship as a privateer; whose mission was to take over or attack enemy ships (“Blackbeard: Pirate Terror at Sea”). His Father, whose name is unknown, was believed to also be a senior privateer on a Jamaican ship (“Blackbeard: Pirate Terror at Sea”). Later he joined a group of fierce Caribbean pirates (“Blackbeard: Pirate Terror at Sea”). The group of about two hundred fifty men became his crew after they stole a ship to be their own (“Blackbeard: Pirate Terror at Sea”). His ship that is most commonly known was called Queen Anne’s Revenge (“Blackbeard: Pirate Terror at Sea”). They captured this ship in 1716 and sailed it for two years (“Pirate Shipwrecks”). For the two years they ...
Elements such as mermaids, the “Fountain of Youth”, and everlasting life are not realistic and are clearly added to the film for entertainment value. However, this film could be helpful in sparking an interest in the general public on the subject of pirates. The film includes actual pirates, like Edward Teach, that may spark an interest in a viewer enough to look into the character. This interest may not have been sparked through a historical documentary because it does not have the same entertainment value as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The use of Hollywood films in understanding the history of pirates can be important in the visual representation of pirates. While reading about the history of pirates is the clear and scholarly way to gain information, it may be difficult for some students to create a visual of the people that were involved in piracy. Films allow for an instant visual to the people involved in the history that inspired the story. Reading can also be a useful way to teach the public factual history, empathy and emotion are much easier to obtain through film because the viewer is able to connect to the characters and find similarities between the content and their own lives. Through this ability for viewers to connect to the characters and themes in the film, it makes this film useful in understanding the history of
Before the Revolutionary War with Great Britain, U.S. trade ships enjoyed the safety that the British Royal Navy provided. When the new nation won their independence however, the British wasted no time with informing the Barbary Pirates that the US ships were open for attack again. The Barbary pirates, who had been marauding off the coast of Africa for centuries, encountered a new enemy in the early 19th century: the young United States Navy (McNamara, 2016). The North African pirates had been a menace for so long that by the late 1700s most nations paid tribute to ensure that merchant shipping could proceed without being violently attacked. In the early years of the 19th century, the United States, at the direction of President Thomas Jefferson, decided to halt the payment of tribute (Jefferson, 2008). A war between the small and scrappy American Navy and the Barbary pirates ensued.
The Golden Age of Piracy began around 1650, and ended around 1730. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea, but can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the criminal. The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. A pirate is one who commits robberies at sea, usually without being allotted to do so by any particular nation. The usual crime for piracy can include being hung, or publically executed. Some of the most famous pirates who were killed either because of piracy, or because of natural causes, are Barbarossa, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonney, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Greaves, William Kidd, Jean Laffite, Sir Henry Morgan, Mary Read, and Giovanni da Verrazano.
One way this essay will be able to quantify piracy will be by how many letters of marque were issued by the Admiralty. For example, the total number of British privateers operating around the territorial waters of England, Ireland and France between 1589 & 1591 was recorded at 236. This was during a time when the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth I of England, advocated privateering and regulated it throughout the Anglo-Spanish War with ‘Letters of Reprisal’ (lettre de mark). She did this for several reasons, but one of them was to distance herself from any direct aggression towards hostile European powers. These letters were only obtainable by the Admiralty court, if the person in question could prove they had been robbed by a foreign power at sea. Nonetheless, it counts as an act of piracy and does show that the dates sourced in the title for Golden age of Piracy are too narrow, as this evidence shows piracy being advocated by the British as early as
When many people think of pirates they think of the fictitious Hollywood films that depict the animated characters that have shaped our perception of pirates today. The reality of the situation is that pirates are very real and have emerged as a major threat to the maritime industry as well as ship owners and national economies alike. Although the threat of piracy has yet to receive the attention that many feel it deserves, piracy has increasingly affected the way in which the maritime industry conducts business with other countries in many ways. Piracy not only affects the involved nations both economically and politically, it also contributes to ship owners’ overall cost structures as well as day to day operations. We will discuss the ethical issues surrounding the current concerns of paying pirate demands, as well as evaluate the impact to the affected parties if measures were put into place to solve the issue.
Pirates- the fear of every sailor and every sailor’s maiden. In those days pirates sailed these seas, plundering. However, they mostly stuck to the northern coast and rarely ventured this far south. The pirates had an arrangement with the southern realms and their rulers, to leave their bounty alone, and only sack the Venetian ships up north. Included in this arrangement was the island of Pharos with its ruler the King. As a result of this pact, the pirates, or ‘gusari’, and the southerners lived in peace.
Modern piracy has touched nearly every corner of the globe and has increased with globalization. The tentacles of piracy now extend from South America to the South China Sea. The greatest numbers of piracy incidents occur along maritime commercial trade routes. Since China dominates the world’s container shipping industry, the South China Sea has become a hotspot for piracy (Kraska 2011). The prominence of cargo activity increases opportunity for pirates and indisputably triggered the sixty- nine incidents of piracy that were reported in 2009 in the South China Sea (Kraska 2011).
Although Britain cannot be blamed though for lack of trying, piracy still exists today. Yet, because the act continues at sea often far from land, it gains little media attention, and therefore less action from governments. China, despite being a number one producer of pirates, continues to deny that there is a problem while at the same time often pardoning those who are caught. Countries such as Indonesia and Philippines, which have been hardest hit in the past few years by pirates, are looking for international assistance. The West is, of course, looked to for solutions yet choose seemingly chooses to turn a blind eye, perhaps in the name of diplomacy. When the world is ready to combat the perpetual problem of piracy, it may discover that by intertwining tougher policies aimed at dealing with piracy with current or future trade negotiations, productive steps can be taken to initiate plans to curtail modern day sea wolves who prey on the helpless. The suggestion of ‘Piracy Charters’ will be discussed further as the means of which to add the topic of to multilateral agreements.
The pirate code as it is called in the movie could be considered an analogy to U.S. Constitution for being rules that it’s citizens follow that make up the very being of what makes an American an American or what makes a pirate, a pirate. Becoming a pirate was basically the original American Dream, the idea of coming to America to free oneself and be given a chance to make a name for themselves as well, this is the same for pirates leaving British control and being able to live freely and claim fame for themselves. This is shown in the movie when they go to Tortuga and the town is in anarchy, yet everyone is happy to be free and even though it doesn’t look like it the town is still thriving. Pirates are just men who are looking for a better life beyond what they are living now without the constraints that the government put on them while they were citizens. Americans are the same way and that was how the United States came to be formed because the US didn’t not accept the control that Britain had, so they fought back to free themselves and develop a new country. The diversity of America could also be seen in the Captain Jack Sparrow’s crew, which included African-Americans, women, midgets, and a parrot. This also goes for any of the pirate crew presented in the movie, while the British soldiers are all Caucasian and almost all the citizens
“Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships,” The International Maritime Organization, Accessed March 26th, 2014. http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Security/PiracyArmedRobbery/Pages/Default.aspx