When we think of pirates we usually think of cruel, treasure-burying scoundrels with eye patches and peg legs. But there is much more to piracy than just the initial picture we get from movies and books. For instance, most books and movies depict pirates from the “golden age of piracy” (1715-1725), but pirates have always existed and are still fairly common today. Are the pirates of old anything like the modern-day pirates in places like Somalia? What drives people to piracy, and is it really what we think it is? I’ll explore these questions in following paragraphs.
The “Golden Age of Piracy” went on at the same time that Europe was colonizing the Americas, this was very useful to pirates because there were lots of merchant ships going back
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In 1991, civil war ended the functionality of Somalia’s government, sending the country into total anarchy. Commercial fishing companies took advantage of the situation and started harvesting fish from Somalia’s tuna-rich waters. But with no working coastguard, the local fishermen decided to take matters into their own hands, thus holding ships and crews hostage. Eventually the impoverished fishermen realized that they could make millions off every ship they held hostage; this was extremely appealing and many fishermen decided to make their livings as pirates. The really interesting thing is that the Somali people don’t see piracy as a crime. They believe that the pirates are doing good as they protect Somalia’s fishing industry. However, this doesn’t change the fact that holding ships and crews hostage is considered terrorism and is wrong. In my opinion, the main difference between the “Golden Age of Piracy” and the pirates in Somalia is that in Somalia many locals think that the pirates are doing good, but in the 1700s most people agreed that pirates were cruel and evil. It is clear that the pirates of the 1700s were greedy and selfish, but the line is much more blurry now. Are the pirates of Somalia an unofficial coastguard or are they terrorists? The answer is extremely subjective. However, it is clear that both pirates use force, fear, and cruelty to get what they want, and the main motive is money and
In my report i’m going to talk about the Pirate clothing, religion, where they from, how they live, the things they do, their history, and my 3 main points are gonna be their ships, blackbeard, and their flag . Almost all pirates stole their ships because they couldn’t buy ships incase they got caught and sent to jail. Once they had taken over a ship they had to covert it for pirate life, this usually meant making more room for sailors to live on bored and strengthening the decks to hold the weight of the heavy cannons. Ships sailing on their own often sailed close to warship or joined other convoys of ships to protect themselves from pirates. Pirates could only attack one ship at a time, so if the sailors traveled in groups there was a less chance of their boat being the one attacked.
The 15th century was the start of many voyages and the popular use of ships for trade, traveling, and exploration. Columbus, de Gama, and Zheng He, were all leaders Zheng He was the first major ocean voyager in the 15th century. He led seven expeditions, through the Indian ocean using over 300 massive boats called “treasure ships”. Though, unlike many others in his time, he was not an explorer.
The businessmen of colonial New York strove to succeed in their trade by any means possible, often resorting to violence and bribery in order to increase their profit margin. However, their methods were not limited to violence. Throughout Defying Empire the reader is often bombarded with descriptions of the mindsets of the eponymous merchants. The text goes into detail cataloging the general thought processes behind some of the most ingenious smuggling conventions of the 18th century. They utilized any tools at their disposal in order to continue their businesses including powerful connections and money.
David Cordingly is a maritime historian and the author of many historical pirate books. Cordingly’s book Under the Black Flag shows how the pirates of fictional works have changed from the reality of pirates’ lifestyles. The book succeeds in describing the life of pirate crews along with documented evidence as proof to make the book fascinating and full of interesting information. Under the Black Flag explains how the pirates in fictional works may have evolved based on events that actually happened in the pirates’ world.
The Pirates of Duty In the opera The Pirates of Penzance, the viewer sees an opera that puts to question what people are expected to follow in life, their duty or their heart? They see the love spellbound Frederick put his love for Mabel, the Major General Stanley’s daughter, aside to finish out his apprenticeship with the Pirate King. However, in the end, the pirates are noticed as noblemen under the Queen of England, Ginny Horvath herself, and the pirates were able to then marry the general’s daughters. While watching the enjoyable comedic production, the way in which lights, and costume were used in the performance drew the viewer's attention in and exposed the views of women and men.
In Marcus Rediker’s Villains of All Nations, pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny are represented as being vulnerable, emotional, extraordinary women. Both being born illegitimate children, Rediker poses an understanding, empathetic treatment of these women, despite their representation of ‘liberty’ emanating from the brutality of piracy. The constant referral to Read and Bonny as female pirates indiscreetly implies that Rediker interprets their participation in piracy as delicate, which is unjust. Females and delicateness were a dominant association in the 18th century. Rather than referring to the two women simply as pirates, Rediker uses the phrase female pirates to imply that their participation on ship was neither masculine nor violent.
Rediker illustrates this purpose by providing a Marxist interpretation of piracy as well as a bottom-up history of piracy during the Golden Age. Rediker divides the Golden Age of Atlantic piracy into three phases and these phases are chronicled in Villains of All Nations. Villains of All Nations is paramount to the study of Atlantic World history as Rediker highlights how Golden Age Atlantic piracy
There was no police to stop these thieves. They had the watch which was armed citizens. Major crimes included high, treason ,spying, murder, witchcraft etc. Acts of the poor were most of the crimes. Hangmen and executioners did a lot of the the more serious crimes as you can probably tell by there names.
Somalia was just one of the many African countries taken control of through imperialism. Great Britain was the first to take over, soon followed by Italy. For years, Somalia faced challenges of no formal government, malnutrition, and poor sanitation. The European imperial powers saw the desperate need that Somalia was in, and attempted to help cure their informality. But, like all other imperial powers, they take more than they give and don’t always benefit the less fortunate country.
There are many components, when put together, make up the basis of the Somali culture; some factors, which include the religion, food, clothing, language and arts. Religion Islam is the primary religion in Somalia, were 100 percent of the population is Sunni. Islam is a belief system, a culture, a structure
To what extent did the Age of Exploration 15th to 16th lead to conflict and competition between Port and Spain? Introduction The Age of Exploration was during the Renaissances period in Europe, it was a time that dealt with the whole of Europe coming out of the dark ages which was during 14th century to the 16th century when the Renaissance ended, of course this was due to the industrial revolution but that is not important… The age of Exploration was a time when many countries in Europe sought a means of power by traveling to the new worlds in aid of helping their own countries by retrieving raw materials, slave labour, rare foods and spices, but also land that they could claim for their own countries. The most famous out of these countries during the time where England and Spain both they ruled large amounts of land during the late Renaissance period, but our main focus is during the early Renaissance period this was the time when Portugal and Spain where both trying to head East to claim valuable raw materials and spice, from India and many other countries along the way.
Unfortunately a lot of crime seemed to happen. During the gold rush if people were caught stealing or committing a crime they would be whipped, their ears would be cut off, or they would be hanged depending on what the crime was. 250,000 people traveled to the gold rush and there were no police(Traveling to the gold rush, paragraph 1). That is a lot of people for back then and most likely some will commit a crime. It was very easy to get away with a crime.
Somalia being ruled by different militia groups has made life difficult for many families to live in Somalia. There have been families that have lost family members to the Civil War that has been going. Famine has been a major factor that the civil war has caused. People suffering and not being sure if they are safe to leave their homes and go out with fear that they might get shot or get caught in a crossfire. Living in Somalia is not as safe as you might think and it hard for people to be living a country where there is not government control and is being ruled by many militant groups such as the most dangerous in
History Essay – Renaissance Was the ‘long’ 16th century rather an age of exploration or an age of colonization? The 16th century in Europe – the early Renaissance - was a rich period that saw extensive cultural and scientific exploration and resurgence. This was a time where unknown lands were being discovered and colonized by Europeans, as they were trying to find more expeditious trade routes by sea.
According to iRami (2012) stated that the shipping plays an important role in world trade which is the backbone of the world economy. Recently, without these boats and vessels provide transportation services, many countries will be unable to participate in world trade and will not be as prosperous. From centuries past, the sea has always been important to all country at the world which as an important factor of economic development of every maritime country. The maritime sector contributes significantly to the economic development. Underling this is the fact that 95% of the country international trade is carried in whole or in part by maritime transport.