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End of an Era

The decline of piracy in the Caribbean paralleled the fall of mercenaries and the rise of national armies in Europe. Following the end of the Thirty Years' War, the direct power of the state in Europe expanded. Armies were systematized and brought under direct state control; the Western European states' navies expanded, and their mission extended to combating piracy. "The elimination of piracy from European waters to the Caribbean beginning as early as 1600 with the expansion of standing Royal Naval vessels in the Caribbean, numbering 124 by 1718...." Other colonial powers soon followed suit, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, France, Spain, and the United States had all stationed ships in the Caribbean."

Oliver Cromwell was one such prominent supporter of the use of privateers. On July 20th, 1654, Cromwell proposed an attack on the West Indies to the English Council of State. He proposed privateers' funding by providing ships that would harass the Spanish as they transported gold and silver. A large number of the council criticized this proposal. Other nations, such as France, began to desire more trade and influence in the Americas. English and French governments and their colonies began to support privateers. While some colonies may have hired them for protection services (from raiders and other pirates) or perhaps sought to trade, there was a sense of support for their actions. These groups had support come from official government-sanctioned troops, as seen in Phillippe de Longvilliers De Poincy, the French Governor of Saint Christopher Island (now known as Saint Kitts) stationed French troops on Tortuga in order to defend a mainly French group of privateers.

After decades of war, during the 17th century, List of conflicts in Europe, many European powers faced some financial struggles. Following such conflicts, during the seventeenth century, European nations faced the struggle of paying for these wars. In Europe and the Caribbean, tensions began to mount. Most of the ships stationed in the Caribbean were more concerned with engaging each other than they were with engaging pirates of the time. With colonization underway, new colonial governments overtook indigenous mines. The resurgence of piracy in the Caribbean can be attributed to the rise of silver production. Silver mines in Spanish colonies throughout the area provided Spain with a prosperous monetary venture. The Spanish and British were at odds in Europe as well as North And South America. With the rise of mines came a growing concern over silver transport from American colonies back to Spain. As the silver and gold shipping/trade began taking root in the Spanish colonies, European powers started fighting to gain access to these ports and the minerals they stored. British and French governments began their attempts to win over the Spanish crown. When these attempts failed to win over King Philip V, some British governors were approached by pirates to obtain official sanctions to raid these sites. Such tactics were somewhat familiar during this time.

In some cases, British sailors began spreading rumors about the Spanish mariners. These rumors would depict Spanish mariners as cruel pirates, which circulated throughout the region. In direct response to these stories, Spanish officials began to employ their own pirates. Spanish officials cited the growing illegal trade occurring in their colonies to justify halts and seizures of ships. Certain pirates could now halt and seize ships under the guise of putting an end to illicit trade. The Spanish were suffering from constant attacks at pirates' hands, and they began to grow more and more frustrated. At the same time, there was a resurgence of piracy in the Caribbean due to the growth of the slave trade. From 1714-1718, pirates would use slaves as divers to loot Spanish and British shipwrecks for silver and gold in the Caribbean and Florida areas. Pirates saw the slave trade as a new lucrative source of income. Privateers could easily capture a crew and ransom the valuable slaves that became their cargo.

Slavery

In 1718 and 1719, some privateers decided to capture slave ships and free slaves instead of taking them as cargo. As piracy increasingly interfered with the lucrative slave trade from the Caribbean, colonial powers had a changing attitude towards piracy.The military presence of empires had been growing in Caribbean waters for some time. However, the Royal Navy was mostly concerned with the growing issue of slavery, increasing the number of ships dedicated to policing slavery from two in 1670 to twenty-four by 1700. Policing was lenient for some time because King Louis XIV and other European countries decided to collaborate with privateers calling it the Letter of Marque and Reprisal. The Letter of Marque and Reprisal was an authorization used by England, France, Portugal, and Holland to work with privateers. Privateers would apprehend Spain's merchant ships and share the found loot with the government that contracted them without being looked at as criminals. This collaboration would not last long because it was hard to keep track of privateers' actions. They would end up attacking ships indiscriminately.

Despite increasing military power, piracy saw a brief resurgence between the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 and around 1720, as many unemployed seafarers took to piracy as a way to make ends meet when a surplus of sailors after the war led to a decline in wages and working conditions. At the same time, one of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht ended the war. Gave to Great Britain's Royal African Company and other British slavers a thirty-year asiento or contract to furnish African slaves to the Spanish colonies. Providing British merchants and smugglers potential inroads into the traditionally closed Spanish markets in America and leading to an economic revival for the whole region. This revived Caribbean trade provided rich new pickings for a wave of piracy. Also contributing to the increase of Caribbean piracy at this time was Spain's breakup of the English logwood settlement at Campeche and the attractions of a freshly sunken silver fleet off the southern Bahamas in 1715. This last large resurgence of piracy saw a change in the attitude of the colonial powers towards piracy. It had once been a somewhat minor offense only punishable if suspects and evidence were taken back to Europe for formal proceedings. Now, the English Parliament set a court system of Vice-Admiralty, appointing seven commissioners in the colonies to carry out the legal proceedings. These commissioners were chosen from naval and colonial officers who already contained a certain amount of bias towards the local pirates, instead of civilian judges. Pirates were given no representation in the new courts and were, therefore, often sentenced to hang. Between 1716 and 1726, approximately 400 to 600 pirates were executed.Another significant change was the policy that if pirates attacked one's ship, one must fight back and attempt to resist their ship's capture lest they receive six months imprisonment.

Royal outlook grew negatively towards the Caribbean pirates due to pirates profiting from colonial goods and slaves. Many pirates fled to areas of the world where piracy was still a profitable trade. Colonial powers saw "The eradication of piracy as a neutral “security measure,” necessary for the establishment of a stable world market in which commodities could flow unimpaired from colonies and metropolis." Bartholomew Roberts, also known as "Black Bart" "one of the most successful pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy that had sailed in the Caribbean, eventually returned to Africa in 1722. Other, less successful pirates from the Caribbean's golden age attempted to flee North to the Americas. Stede Bonnet, also known as the "Gentleman Pirate," was an accomplice of the infamous Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and his Flying Gang; they were credited with aiding in Blackbeard's success. "Following his partnership with Bonnet, the power of Blackbeard surged, which may have been due to the education and finances of Bonnet." Blackbeard, though famous through popular culture, was in fact, one of the least successful pirates. Nevertheless, one of the most feared, he is known for establishing the Republic of Pirates "(1706-1718). It was a political entity that the former privateers and Pirates of the Flying Gang created at Nassau."

The Fall of Piracy

This early 18th-century resurgence of piracy lasted only until the Royal Navy and the Spanish Guard Acosta’s presence in the Caribbean enlarged to deal with the threat. Also crucial to the end of this piracy era was the loss of the pirates' last Caribbean haven at Nassau.

The famous pirates of the early 18th century was a completely illegal remnant of a golden buccaneering age, and their choices were limited too quick retirement or eventual capture. Contrast this with the earlier example of Henry Morgan, who was knighted by the English Crown for his privateering efforts, appointed the lieutenant governor of Jamaica and cited as "the most successful buccaneer of the 17th century".

In the early 19th-century, piracy along the East and Gulf Coasts of North America and the Caribbean increased again. Jean Lafitte was a pirate that was considered at times a "legal privateer"....for the Republic of Cartagena his fleet plundered Spanish ships, smuggled goods, and slaves into the port of New Orleans." In 1814, Britain approached Lafitte in assisting them with a plan to invade the United Stated from "the Gulf of Mexico." However, Lafitte contacted Andrew Jackson and offered his fleet to defend the United States from Britain in "exchange for a pardon." Being the pirate he was, his story did not end there; he received a full pardon but returned to piracy after that.

The Latin American Wars of Independence led to the widespread use of privateers both by Spain and by the revolutionary governments of Mexico, Colombia, and other newly independent Latin American countries. These privateers were rarely scrupulous about adhering to terms of their letters of marque, even during the Wars of Independence. They continued to plague the Caribbean as outright pirates long after those conflicts ended.

At the same time the Mexican–American War in 1846, the United States Navy had grown strong and numerous enough to eliminate the West Indies' pirate threat. By the 1830s, ships began to convert to steam propulsion', so the Age of Sail and the classical idea of pirates in the Caribbean ended. Privateering continued as an asset in the war for a few more decades and proved important during the American Civil War's naval campaigns.

Privateering would remain a tool of European states, and even of the newborn United States, until the mid-19th century's Declaration of Paris. Nevertheless, Letters of Marque and Reprisal were given out much more sparingly by governments and were terminated as soon as conflicts ended. The idea of "no peace beyond the line" was a relic that had no meaning by the more settled late 18th and early 19th centuries.

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