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Pirate

by: ToddMassey
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Pirate is now the commonly accepted term around the world for a person who commits a variety of treachery on the high seas. Earlier in the history of pirates, they were given more specific names that helped to better identify them.

A buccaneer was a pirate that lived in the Caribbean. They were originally French and some English that lived on the island of Hispaniola and the name is derived from the original Indians of the island who had a word called "buccan". The French word was a person or boucanier and then it became buccaneer. Due to conflicts with the Spanish, the buccaneers hated them for running them off the island.

Off the North African and Mediterranean coasts were Muslim pirates called the Barbary corsairs. The French considered them straight up pirates but the locals and Islamic governments considered them privateers, as they tended to raid only non-Islamic people.

Pirates really got their big start in the seas around Greece, where they raided merchants and were used by the warring countries and city-states against each other. At one time they were even used by the city-states as tax collectors due to the fact that so many people feared the pirates.

Unrest and competition between Spain, France and England saw the use of pirates as a successful tool in the many wars these countries fought with each other. Pirate activity would become sanctioned by a government making the pirates theft and treachery legal, as long as the privateers performed their misdeeds against the enemy.

When trade would become too disrupted by pirates some governments would join together in a concentrated effort to purge the pirates from trade routes.

Buccaneers would run to the sea and a life of piracy in an attempt to break away from their cruel handling from former countries. This led to pirates creating what is known to be the first true individual democracy where every person on the boat had a vote in all activities. To enforce their own code the pirates dealt out harsh penalties to those that would violate shipboard laws.

Pirates took care of their own like no other governing body had done before. Around the time in the early to mid 1600's pirates begin to establish various payments as compensation for body parts lost in the line of duty.

Being a pirate could be a tough existence, hazardous and lethal but your only other choice of a life at sea would have been the navy. Life in the navy gave you no choices, while pirates had a vote in many decisions. Not all men on a pirate ship were there voluntarily but even the navies used kidnapping and forced men and boys into service.

A pirate could be paid large sums of money following a victorious raid. The treasure would be divided and the goods sold for money and then split appropriately. This of course was always done in a port city that gave the pirate opportunity to turn around and spend all his money in a few nights of drink, women and gambling.

About the Author

Pirates exist bigger than life in our minds thanks to books and movies. Another fun Pirate book has come out that combines pirates and magic like no body else has before.

Pirate

About the Author

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