Lets talk about the different types of pirates from yesteryear.
Pirate has become the general term used by most people today to call someone who sails the seas and commits crimes. But other names were used to help identify particular pirates from different geographical areas through the ages.
A privateer was legally commissioned by a body, typically a government, to help them harass or attack another government. A buccaneer would have been French or English around the 17th century, living on the island of Hispaniola, attacking the Spanish. A French buccaneer may also have been called a freebooter.
A Barbary corsair was a name given by the French to Muslim pirates that sailed along the North African and Mediterranean coasts.
Pirates got their big start in the warm seas around Greece, where they raided merchants and were used by the warring countries and city-states against each other. At one time pirates were even used by the city-states as tax collectors due to the fact that so many people feared the pirates.
France, Spain and England fought back and forth with each other many times through the years with pirates and privateers playing huge roles in the outcomes of sea battles and wars. Pirates could often prove so successful as to bring an entire navy to its knees or to steal government treasure or disrupt trade so badly as to bankrupt a country.
Many times though countries or governments would ban together to help each other rid themselves of pirate infestations.
Pirates are known for creating the first true individual democracy in which every man had a vote or say. The buccaneers established this code in rebellion against their harsh treatment from former countries. Breaking agreed upon rules was dealt with harshly as a means to enforcing their own laws or code.
Pirates around this time in the early to mid 1600’s also established rules to take care of their own by compensation if they were injured or lost a body part.
Piracy could be a hard life, dangerous and deadly but it was often preferable to the navy of the day. You could potentially get better pay, better food be treated better and have a say in decisions.
It would not be unusual for a pirate who had spent months at sea, to collect his share of the treasure and then spend all of his money in a single night or two of excessive pleasure.
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