Issues in History: Pirates

Although piracy is a global and one would almost say "antique" phenomenon, it reached a peak in the Mediterranean in the early modern period. Discuss the factors that explain this meteoric rise.

- Capitulations - trade - increase in piracy and captives - Renegades - sailing techniques - Extended the holy war to include the protestants Although piracy is a global and one would almost say "antique" phenomenon, it reached a peak in the Mediterranean in the early modern period. Discuss the factors that explain this meteoric rise. - Lepanto - Capitulations - trade - increase in piracy and captives - Renegades - sailing techniques - Expulsion policies Spain - Peace - from privateers to pirates

How did Protestant and Catholic states in Europe respond to piracy in the Mediterranean? Do their actions reflect any change in policy and if so, how?

- Diplomacy - Naval force

In her book Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants, Molly Greene emphasizes the relationship between the corsairs of Malta and Greek merchants. What did this relationship entail and why does she think this is important in the maritime history of the Mediterranean?

- Merchant/ intermediaries in ransoming Muslim and Christian captives - But also victims - Long answer: confirms extension of the holy war

Algiers and Tunis were well-known centers of corsairing in the early modern period. Explain how that position defined their relationship to the Ottoman Empire.

- Military outpost - Corsairing state business - funding - Sovereignty and independence

The Knights of St. John at Malta provided a Catholic counterweight to Barbary corsairing. Discuss how corsairing at Malta was organized and to what extent this resembles Barbary corsairing.

- Private and public corso - Distribution also according to pre-set keys - Sustaining coffers of the state - Protector - Papacy/ Catholic League and Ottoman Empire

The Barbarossa brothers played a key role in transforming Algiers into a "pirate" republic. Explain how their actions were related to larger geo-political developments in the Mediterranean.

- Spain and Portugal - extended crusades - Military outpost - Algiers fortress - Continues corsairing - foundation of Algiers as the corsairing republic

Livorno, in the Duchy of Tuscany, might be considered a vital point of connection in what French historians have labeled the "économie de la rançon." Explain what this economy entails, how it is related to piracy, and how Livorno plays a role in it.

- System of Slave taking and selling for profit. - Piracy as the enabler of this ransom slavery - Livorno is a cross-over because Christians and Muslims (through Jewish mediation) sell their goods there.

Explain how the process of boarding a ship and the aftermath of distributing the loot reflects the relationship between Barbary corsairs and their home government.

- Taifa - Jannisaries below deck (so mix of naval and army) - Strict rules and discipline (no disputes) - State and religious institutions receive part of the booty

Although Europeans often called all Barbary corsairs "Turks," the social identity of Barbary corsairs varied greatly. Explain who these corsairs were and what this social make-up tells you about corsairing as a social phenomenon.

- social economic prospects (think of jannisaries and renegades alike) • Renegades and natives, Berbers, Andalusians, Arabs, Turks and Greeks • In the first half of the 17th ct, there were about 20,000 of them • They were organized in taifas with strict rules on division of boot. • They were vital members of the ruling class. • Honorable and legal profession (vitkus) - they were called al-ghuzat - warriors, same term used for those who fought with prophet Muhammed during harij. Therefore religious warriors. (V 11) • Shared prizes with religious clerics. (A 27)

Pirates play different roles in maritime history. Explain how Elizabethan Privateers and Sea Beggars helped state-building in England and the Dutch Republic at the end of the sixteenth century.

Both England and the Dutch Republic considered Spain their enemy. Both the Elizabethan Privateers and the Sea Beggars played an important, naval, role in fighting off Spain. Spanish troops occupied the Low Countries and the Dutch wanted to fight them off. The Sea Beggars captured Briele which the Spanish garrisons had left to fight Utrecht. (in 1571). It happened to be the first land conquest upon the Spanish. After this, the towns opened their ports and let in the rebels. So, key moment in Dutch history. Those Sea beggars, by the way, consisted of mainly Calvinist noble men who were expelled by Spanish overlords. After Briel, they received letters of marque from the Prince of Orange to attack the Spanish at sea and become privateers. In England, we have a virgin queen who for political-religious reasons wants to keep Spain in check as well. For her commercial rivalry and political independence as well as religious motivations played a role in opposing Spain, most effectively at sea through piracy and privateering. Queen Elizabeth was worried about threats of Spanish hegemony over England. She signed letters of marque to privateers who could rob the Spanish at sea. The goal was to undermine Spanish trade, especially the capture of silver from the new colonies, and to harm the Spanish fleet where possible. Notion of privateering changed in 16th century. Protestant piracy, Elizabeth approved of general privateering in 1563. It used to be against enemy during wartime. Issued by Court of Admiralty. Letter of reprisal only issued in peace time. Were inheritable. (13, 14) Now also in peace time.

In 1602, the Dutch captain Jacob van Heemskerk captured the Sta Catharina, a Portuguese carrack, in the Straits of Malacca (East Indies). Explain why this event had global and legal repercussions.

First explain what event entailed: Van Heemskerk had a letter of marque. The booty was unimaginable: the vessel's cargo of copper from Japan, silk and porcelain from China, and bullion from Mexico and Peru totaled about three million guilders, more than what the English government spent on a yearly basis in this period. Global repercussion the event affected global trade. And that is why other European states were really worried: it was perhaps not so much the capture itself as the size of it that made it an act of aggression that could not be reconciled with defensive measures to protect trade in Asia or simply the homeland. Portugal might have been part of Spain but it never attacked the Republic. The legal repercussions: Mare Liberum - free seas - established principle of free trade and navigation as part of international law. So, it denied the monopoly of the Portuguese and the Spaniard in the western and eastern hemispheres, refuted the Treaty of Tordesillas. That did not mean that privateering was now approved of, but it means that privateering, or rather Van Heemskerk's act broke the monopoly of trade and opened the way for free competition.

Barbary

North Africa

In his book, Buccaneers of the Caribbean, Jon Latimer introduces the sixteenth-century Spanish Main as a "playground" for pirates. What his argument? In your answer, define what the Spanish Main is and identify the pirates.

The Spanish Main are the Spanish territories bordering the Caribbean, from Florida in the North to the northern coast in South America. The pirates were Dutch, English, and French. Sometimes they were privateers, sometimes not. The competition between European states over the hegemony of trade shifted from Europe elsewhere on the globe. The Caribbean was therefore a playground for the conflicts between pirates and the Spanish. Not only are pirates in the Caribbean a pain in Spain's back for • attacking Spanish armadas • they also try to steal fortresses and • land to cultivate for crops (tobacco and sugar) • deal in contrabande goods • look for the supply of scarce goods (such as salt) • not only that, companies (commercial institutions come into play - like the WIC (L 42) varend volk and no share in the booty. Different from later periods (L 59)

How do Protestant and Catholic pirates differ?

Time: Protestant pirates only roamed the Mediterranean waters in the first decades of the seventeenth century, after which the phenomenon of Protestant piracy moves to the Caribbean. Catholic pirates, in contrast, stayed much longer from roughly 1530 (Malta Knights of St. John) to 1798 (Napoleon's invasion of Malta). Support system: Protestant pirates had no bases in the Mediterranean to fall back on. They were mostly privateers turned pirates from England, the Dutch Republic, and some Frenchmen. Catholic pirates mostly in Malta, supported by a Catholic league. How did they relate to their home governments? Protestant privateers acted against Spanish and Portuguese ships. Once no longer war with Spain, the incentive disappeared. Privateers become pirates who actually break lose from their home governments. Catholic pirates, on the other hand, are tightly bound to their home governments. Think of the public and private corso that justified the presence of the Knights of Malta in the first place. The knights, in turn, had support from the entire Catholic league in southern Europe.

Privateering

acts of violence and predation on commission of a government, executed by private persons

Prize

captured vessel and booty

Taifa

faction

Capitulations

grant of the Ottoman sultan bestowed upon Christian states to trade in the Levant.

Mare Liberum

legal principle, The Free Seas, that promote free trade and navigation for all nations

Letters of marque

license to privateer

Corso

piracy in context of Holy War

Corsair

pirate or privateer

Piracy

unauthorized act of violence and predation emanating from the sea against ships of settlements on shore.