| Piracy in the Caribbean sea began when Europeans, | | | | also forced to construct extensive fortifications and |
| primarily English, French and Dutch, were shipwrecked | | | | man colonial garrisons at its major Caribbean ports to |
| and marooned on small islands. These castaways | | | | deal with the increasing violence from its commercial |
| would set up fires and roast locally hunted meat to lure | | | | competitors and privateers. The English established |
| ships into the shore for trading and then attack and | | | | their first colony at Barbados and the French had |
| seize the ships. These buccaneers - named for the | | | | privateers' vacation resorts at Bahamas. The Thirty |
| French word boucaner which means "smoked meat" - | | | | Years War (1618 - 1648) in Europe impacted on the |
| were later driven out by colonial authorities who forced | | | | political situation in the Caribbean as well, reducing |
| them to make their living on the sea. At this time - the | | | | Spanish influence and military control over the area |
| sixteenth century - there were numerous merchant | | | | and giving rise to the Golden Age of Piracy. |
| ships plying the waters of the Caribbean with cargoes | | | | In the early 16th century, French buccaneers on |
| of gold, silver, gems, and other valuables en route from | | | | Hispaniola moved into full time piracy in response to |
| the Americas to Europe. Occasionally pirates were | | | | Spanish efforts to destroy them and the prey animals |
| commissioned by European colonial powers and given | | | | they hunted. They established their headquarters on |
| legal sanction to attack the merchant ships of rival | | | | the island of Tortuga and specialized in attacking the |
| nations. The Protestant nations of Europe were at | | | | Spanish galleons returning to Spain from America. |
| odds with Catholic Spain and although France was | | | | When England wrested Jamaica from Spain in 1655, |
| Catholic also it was at this time attempting to expand | | | | the town of Port Royal became a pirate's lair and |
| its holdings in the Americas at Spain's expense. From | | | | place where booty could be sold at profit. With Spain |
| the 1520's to the 1560's French privateers fought | | | | on the eclipse, the traditional rivalry between France |
| against the Spanish crown, plundering its vast New | | | | and England soon transformed the alliance between |
| World commerce. They were joined later by Dutch | | | | French and English privateers into a war of piracy on |
| and English privateers, especially during the | | | | the sea. And when Port Royal was destroyed by an |
| English-Spanish War from 1585 to 1604. Compared to | | | | earthquake in 1692 it ceased to be the chief market |
| the low wages and hard labor of the life of a common | | | | for pirate plunder. Nassau and the Bahamas emerged |
| seaman, becoming a pirate offered substantial returns | | | | as the new pirate Caribbean resorts and instead of |
| and a merry life of dash and daring all inclusive | | | | Spanish treasure the free-lance pirates plundered |
| Caribbean vacations. | | | | sugar, tobacco, cocoa and dried fish which were sold |
| In the 1560's the Spanish had been forced to adopt a | | | | in New England. Not only the reduction of plunder from |
| system of convoys to ship silver from the Americas | | | | Spanish treasure ships to less-profitable raw materials; |
| to Europe. The Spanish flota brought textiles and other | | | | but also the coming of peace in Europe and the |
| manufactured goods from Europe to Veracruz in | | | | animosity of the commercial powers which had |
| Mexico and sold them to local merchants and took on | | | | previously supported them brought the Golden Age of |
| the year's output of gold and silver from the mines of | | | | Piracy to an end. By the early eighteenth century the |
| Real de Catorce. The annual treasure fleet was a | | | | European powers bolstered their naval forces with the |
| tempting target for pirates, who usually preferred to | | | | aim of protecting their merchantmen and hunting down |
| dog the fleet and attack stragglers rather than attempt | | | | pirates and by 1720 there were no longer pirate ships |
| assault on the well-armed main vessels. Spain was | | | | plying their trade in the Caribbean. |