A Pirate's Life

A Pirate's Life

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Pirate is now the commonly accepted term around the world for a person who commits a variety of treachery on the high seas. Earlier in the history of pirates, they were given more specific names that helped to better identify them.

Privateers would have been pirates legally commissioned by a country or government giving them permission to wage war against another country or government. The French and English pirates that were living in the Caribbean about the time of the seventeenth century went by the name, buccaneer. Of course the name buccaneer is a very anglicized version of the French word, boucanier.

A stretch of land and water called the Barbary Coast was home to the privateers or Islamic pirates called Barbary corsairs. The French and other non-Islamic nations considered the corsairs pirates, instead of privateers. But they focused their efforts on Christian and non-Islamic prey.

In the Mediterranean area where sea trading was extremely active was where pirates really came to grow and be very dynamic. The governments and countries fighting with each other often used pirates against their enemies. The city-states of Greece even used pirates at one time as tax collectors because they new the locals were so afraid of the pirates that the people would pay up.

Unrest and competition between Spain, France and England saw the use of pirates as a successful tool in the many wars these countries fought with each other. Pirate activity would become sanctioned by a government making the pirates theft and treachery legal, as long as the privateers performed their misdeeds against the enemy.

When trade would become too disrupted by pirates some governments would join together in a concentrated effort to purge the pirates from trade routes.

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.

Severe injury, lost limbs or body parts was commonplace in the dangerous life of a pirate. But pirates take care of their own, and established compensatory payment for injuries. Establishing in writing for example that the loss of a leg was worth 500 pieces of eight.

Being a pirate could be a tough existence, hazardous and lethal but your only other choice of a life at sea would have been the navy. Life in the navy gave you no choices, while pirates had a vote in many decisions. Not all men on a pirate ship were there voluntarily but even the navies used kidnapping and forced men and boys into service.

Navy pay was terrible while a pirate could receive large sums after a successful raid and the treasure had been divvied up. But as was often the case a pirate would spend or lose all his money in a few nights of celebration.

About the Author:
Pirates live larger than life in our imaginations due to popular media. Another fun Pirate novel has come out that plays up on the "Golden Age of Piracy".



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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