Pirates of the Caribbean

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Pirates of the Caribbean
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Causes the new middle class

• In honest service, there are commonly low wages
  and hard labour in this plenty, satiety,
  pleasure and ease, liberty and power. Who would
  not balance credit on this side, when all the
  hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a
  sour look or two on choking? No, a merry life and
  a short one, that is my motto.
• Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate, 1722, a few
  days before he was killed in battle.

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Causes the Conquistadores

• 1492 Columbus (a former pirate from Genoa)
  discovered America.
• Treaty of Tordesillas Pope Alexander VI divided
  America between Spain and Portugal. I should
  like to see the clause in Adams will that
  excludes me from a share in the world Francis I
• 1519 1521 - Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec
  empire. Sent 3 ships with gold and jewels back
  home to Charles V.
• 1521 Pedro de Alvarado conquered the remains of
  the Mayan empire.

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Causes Geography

• 1527 Francisco Pizarro and his brothers
  conquered the Inca Empire.
• The multitude of sheltered waterways formed by
  the rugged coastlines of the islands and cays of
  the Caribbean provided the perfect lairs for the
  pirates from which to mount surprise attacks on
  their unsuspected victims.

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The Privateers

• Private ship owners with a letter of marque from
  their government a permission to attack ships
  of any other country as long as they pay taxes.
• Originally merchant ships, retrofit for the
  purpose. Often do both trade and piracy. Many
  involved in slave trade.
• Mostly of non-noble origin.

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French Privateers

• Jean Fleury of Honfleur in 1521 attacked the 3
  ships sent by Cortes to Charles V and captured 2
  of them, delivering the loot to his patron Jean
  Ango of Dieppe. J. Fleury was captured by Spain
  in 1527 and hung with his crew 150 pirates.
• 1529-1535 Period of peace between France and
  Spain, and England and Spain
• 1536 French pirates based on the Bahamas
  attack again. Spanish begin the use of convoys.
• 1538 1568 French Huguenots attack settlements
  in New Spain incl. taking the North part of Santo
  Domingo (today Haiti) in 1553.
• Most famous were Francois Peg Leg Le Clerc,
  Jacques La Rochelle Sores and Robert Waal.

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English Privateers The Golden Age (1558-1603)

• Sir John Hawkins was born in Plymouth in 1532,
  the son of a wealthy sea captain. In his youth he
  went along on trading trips and heard of the
  riches that lay across the western sea. In 1562
  he sailed to Africa, where he captured 300 people
  to sell as slaves. He transported this human
  cargo to Santo Domingo, in the West Indies, and
  traded them for pearls, hides, ginger, and sugar.
  Although the colonists had been forbidden by
  Spain to trade with any other nation, they were
  eager to buy slaves. John Hawkins' second voyage
  two years later was equally profitable, but a
  third trip met disaster off the coast of Mexico
  in 1568.
• Accompanied by his cousin Sir Francis Drake, John
  Hawkins had already broken Spanish law by selling
  his cargo of slaves in the Caribbean islands.
  After they sought refuge for their six ships in
  the harbor of Veracruz, an armed Spanish fleet
  attacked. Only the vessels commanded by Hawkins
  and by Drake were able to escape. For 20 years
  Hawkins remained at home in the service of Queen
  Elizabeth I. As treasurer and controller of the
  navy, he built up Britain's fleet, preparing to
  challenge Spain over supremacy of the seas. He
  armed the vessels more heavily and redesigned
  them to make them faster. He also introduced
  inventions that he had tested in practical
  experience at sea. In the great battle in which
  the Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588, Hawkins
  served as a vice admiral. He was knighted for
  gallantry.
• In 1595 he sailed with Drake on what was to be
  the last voyage for both. John Hawkins joined the
  expedition hoping to rescue his only son,
  Richard, who was held captive by the Spanish in
  Lima, Peru. Hawkins died at sea on Nov. 12, 1595,
  near Puerto Rico.

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John and Richard Hawkins
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Sir Francis Drake (1540 1596)

• Born to a Protestant farmer, eldest of 12
  children. Second cousin to John Hawkins.
• Sailed under Hawkins in his 3 voyages in the
  1560s. Survived the third one.
• 1577-1580 Drake circumnavigated the globe on the
  Golden Hind. Knighted by Elizabeth I in 1581 (she
  received 50 of the cargo more than all royal
  revenue for the entire year).
• On March 1, 1579 the Golden Hind took the Spanish
  galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, which
  had the largest treasure captured to that date -
  over 360,000 Pesos. The six tons of treasure took
  six days to transship.
• 1585 Returned to the Caribbean and piracy.
• 1587 Attacked Cadiz, burned part of the
  unfinished Armada.
• 1588 Participated in the defeat of the
  Invincible Armada.
• 1595 Returned to the Caribbean to help John
  Hawkins.
• 1596 Died of dysentery near Panama, buried at
  sea.

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Drake and the Golden Hind
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Sir Martin Frobisher

• The fifth child of a farmer, raised by a relative
  in London.
• 1553 became a sailor.
• 1565 rose to a Captain.
• 1577 reached North America with 3 ships.
• 1578 led 15 ship armada to North America
• 1585 sailed with F. Drake
• 1588 defeated the Armada
• 1594 shot in battle with Spain, died a few days
  later.

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The Invincible Armada

• 130 Spanish ships with 26 000 men and 30 000 more
  waiting in Belgium sailed to attack England for
  supporting the Netherlands in 1588.
• 3 pirates lead a navy of 34 frigates and 160
  pirate ships.
• Helped by the poor weather the English won
  decisive victory.

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The Buccaneers

• The buccaneers were pirates or privateers who
  attacked Spanish, and later French, shipping in
  the West Indies during the 17th and 18th
  centuries.
• The status of buccaneers as pirates or privateers
  was ambiguous. As a rule, the buccaneers called
  themselves privateers, and many sailed under the
  protection of a letter of marque granted by
  British or French authorities.
• The legal status of buccaneers was still further
  obscured by the practice of the Spanish
  authorities, who regarded them as heretics and
  interlopers, and thus hanged or garroted captured
  buccaneers entirely without regard to whether
  their attacks were licensed by French or English
  monarchs.

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Famous Buccaneers

• Stede Bonnet, a rich Barbadian land owner, turned
  pirate solely in search of adventure. Bonnet
  captained the Revenge. Primarily raiding ships
  off the Virginia coast in 1717, he was caught and
  hanged for piracy in 1718.
• Edward Teach, more commonly known as Blackbeard,
  ruled the seas with an iron fist from 1716 to
  1718. Blackbeard's most famous ship was the Queen
  Anne's Revenge, in response to the end of Queen
  Anne's War. Blackbeard was killed by one of
  Lieutenant Robert Maynard's crewmen in 1718.

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Buccaneers cont.

• "Black Sam" Bellamy, captain of the Whydah Gally,
  sunk in 1717 in a storm.
• Bartholomew Roberts, sometimes called "Black
  Bart", was one of the most successful and
  colorful pirates of the day. He was killed off
  the coast of Africa in 1722.
• William Fly, whose execution in 1726 is used by
  historian Marcus Rediker to mark the end of the
  Age of Pirates.

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Henry Morgan

• Son of a welsh squire.
• Moved to Jamaica to live with uncle.
• 1663 Joined the largest Pirate expedition of 14
  ships, 1400 pirates under Sir Christopher Myngs
• 1665 commanded his own ship.
• 1667-1669 series of attacks on Spanish towns.
• 1671 conquered Panama
• 1674 knighted and appointed Governor of Jamaica

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François L'Olonnais

• 1650s came to Caribbean as an indentured
  servant.
• 1660 became a pirate
• 1667 most famous voyage sacked Maracaibo,
  Venezuela
• 1668 eaten by a native tribe in Honduras

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Pirate Democracy

• A hundred years before the French Revolution, the
  buccaneer companies were run on lines in which
  liberty, equality and brotherhood were the rule,
  although only for white members of the crew. In a
  buccaneer ship, the captain was elected and could
  be deposed by the votes of the crew. The crew,
  and not the captain, decided the destination of
  each voyage and whether to attack a particular
  ship.Spoils were evenly divided into shares the
  captain received an agreed amount for the ship,
  plus a portion of the share of the prize
  money,usually five shares.

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The End of Piracy

• As Spanish power waned toward the end of the 17th
  century, the buccaneers' attacks began to disrupt
  France and England's merchant traffic with
  Spanish America. Merchants who had previously
  regarded the buccaneers as a defense against
  Spain now saw them as a threat to commerce, and
  colonial authorities grew hostile. This change in
  political atmosphere, more than anything else,
  put an end to buccaneering.
• The War of Spanish Succession ended in 1713 and
  this became the beginning of the end for pirates
  in the Caribbean.

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The End