The Golden Age of Piracy was a period between 1650 and 1720 when piracy on the Atlantic Ocean reached high levels. Pirates took treasure from ships carrying valuable goods from the New World. Many pirate legends come from this time, and historians link it to a period of peace in Europe that caused widespread unemployment among sailors. Piracy declined in the 18th and 19th centuries, but a new era of piracy arose in Southeast Asia in the 20th century.
The golden age of piracy was a period between about 1650 and 1720, when piracy on the Atlantic Ocean reached astonishing levels. For merchants, of course, the golden age of piracy was anything but a golden age, but for pirates it represented a glut of treasure taken from ships laden with various valuable consumer goods and treasures taken to Europe from the New World. Some of history’s most notable pirates were active during this period, including Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Stede Bonnet, and Black Bart.
Many of the modern pirate legends are drawn from the Golden Age of Piracy, thanks to a large assortment of material from this period on the life of pirates and their deeds. Much of this material comes from survivors of pirate attacks, along with regional governors who were forced to deal with the aftermath of those attacks, although some of the Golden Age of Piracy documentation comes from the pirates themselves, in the form of diaries and examples of the Charter of the Ship, documents signed by all members of a crew.
Some historians trace the golden age of piracy to the European discovery of the New World, arguing that piracy certainly increased after 1492, when pirates realized the raiding potential of ships returning with spices, gold, silver and other valuables. However, most people prefer to link the Golden Age of Piracy specifically to a period of relative peace in Europe that began in the mid-17th century.
The peace meant that many nations downsized their fleets, causing widespread unemployment among sailors. At the same time, nations were amassing enormous amounts of wealth, mainly from foreign colonies, and such wealth would have been a strong temptation for pirates and privateers. Pirates were mainly active in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa, although ships elsewhere in the Atlantic were also vulnerable to piracy.
Piracy has severely undermined the economic welfare of several nations as well as being seen as a nuisance. Pirates often took entire ships, pressuring crew members who might be helpful and holding others captive, but they could also become vengeful, killing crews and setting their ships on fire or sinking them. For merchants, the loss of a cargo and a ship was a double whammy, especially for those with piracy obscurity clauses in their insurance policies.
In the early 1700s, several European governments collectively agreed to cease issuing letters of marque, documents used by privateers as a legal basis for seizing vessels belonging to enemy nations. These nations also agreed to crack down on piracy in their colonies and at home, making examples of pirates and rooting out the corruption in colonial governments that had previously allowed piracy to flourish. As a result, piracy declined markedly during the 18th and 19th centuries, although a new era of piracy began to arise in the Pacific Ocean in regions such as Southeast Asia in the 20th century; as of 18, nearly 19 individual acts of piracy were recorded in just one year, including violent ship takeovers and hostage-taking.
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