After watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movie last night I was thinking about men's fascination with pirates. Frank sometimes wishes he was a pirate - for the adventure, freedom, bad-boy image maybe. I guess the pirate life was a lot like the Wild West. Men get to live by their own rules, in a survival-of-the-fittest sort of way, and have freedom from the routine of a more "civilized" existence. What they don't realize is that our whole world is basically run by those same principles - just covered up by niceties. Think about it - war, business, sports are all just a more-civilized (well, not really) outlet for a type of piracy on a grander scale.
So don't worry, Franko, we all are pirates to some degree!
Quote
Yes I am a pirate...two hundred years too late.. The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder.. I'm an over forty victim of fate..
Jimmy Buffett, from the song
A Pirate Looks at 40
A Brief History of Piracy
Most scholars on Piracy in the Caribbean agree that the Golden Age of Piracy extends from the height of Sir Henry Morgan career until the death of Bartholomew Roberts. This would mean the beginning might be as early as 1668 and the end coming around March 1722 when the crew of the Good Fortune was put on trial.
A more concise time might be from 1710-1725 which is when most of the piracy was taking place.
If one were to paint with broader strokes the Golden Age of Piracy would coincide with the rise and fall of the Spanish Main. The Spanish Main was the area that comprises Central America and the Northern Coast of South America. In other words, the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Ground zero for the Spanish Main would probably be Darien on the Isthmus of Panama.
As Spain conquered and colonized the Americas, her treasure fleets brought the wealth of area to Spain. The plunder of the Main included silver, gold, gems, spices, cocoa and other exotic goods. By 1520, Spain had began a systematic method of convoys to protect the fleets from pirates (or privateers) The last treasure fleet to leave the Main for Spain was in 1790.
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2 comments:
You have forgotten to cite your sources. You will never graduate with papers like this.
Duly noted and corrected!
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