The Golden Age of Piracy
Today we will discuss the Golden Age of Piracy. This Golden Age of Piracy?is dated roughly between the years 1660 to 1730. Before this was the discovery of the Americas. Also, there was the opening of seaways. Meaning that Europe become very wealthy. And what is a wealthy country without pirates?? So the people that could sail the high seas could intercept the Spanish and Portuguese vessels and take a vast amount of goods and money.?This lead to the Golden Age of Piracy.
There were ragbag pirates and wreckers that infested the waters of Europe and the Mediterranean. But more professional men like Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake (who acquired a fortune through slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean) were in the mix of pirates as well. The Crown then licensed Drake and others like him to attack Spanish vessels, marking the way for more pirate activities.
Then sea charts became widely available and?pirate activity greatly increased.?The main theater of piracy moved between Europe and the Caribbean. There were rich pickings for pirates?there. The plantations were generating staggering amounts of wealth. That made those plantations rich?spots for pirate attacks.?Pirates then became such a menace to the world that authorities all over the world were determined to put an end to piracy forever. Pirates who were considered a great threat at the time were Henry Morgan, Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Henry Avery. Though pirates just didn’t exist in Europe or the Americas, they were world wide.
Along the coast of North Africa the fearsome Barbary corsairs attacked non-Muslim ships while under the Turkish Rule. Also in the South China Sea pirate fleets attacked the Portuguese ships. They pillaged ships from Shanghai to Singapore and from Vietnam to Japan. Pirates to this day are considered a great threat and is the object of international concern.
I got all this information from the book Pirates by John Matthews. And if you want to play a great game as a pirate I recommend Sid Meirs Pirates! In my next post we will discuss the equipment and ships that pirates used.
Tags: Edward Teach, Sid Meir