The Impact of Pirates and of Piracy on the Spanish Empire Essay

The Impact of Pirates and of Piracy on the Spanish EmpireWhen the word pirate is mentioned, many people imply of ship carrying men across the seas as they pillage other ships. While this is true to some extent in that respect was much more to the lives of the men that were cognise as pirates. Pirates were mostly men from French, English or Dutch heritage, and were privateers or merchants. Many of these men were sanctioned by their government. By the Spanish they were call piratas or unsanctioned sea-raiders, and would have a heavy influence of trade in the Caribbean and on the Spanish Empire.The first pirates were known as corsairs and appeared at the end of the fifteenth and into the beginning of the 16th century. It was at this time between 1530-60 when Spain began to transport the newly discovered riches in the New World. Large amounts of gold, sugar, tabacco and pearls were being sent sand to Spain. In 1523 a French Corsair by the name of Jean Florin over took several weakly protected Spanish ships and captured a freight that held 62,000 ducats in gold, 600 marks of pearls and several tons of sugar. This brought pirates into the Caribbean (Lane 16). Spain was forced to protect the cargo ships that transported the riches that they were obtaining in the New World and the cost was very great. Trade ships were demand to travel in convoys and be armed. Also a Spanish fleet was formed that traveled the seas twice a year, patrolling the trade routes for pirates. There was great indecision to form a navy that would patrol the Caribbean seas because of costs, but much would be lost because of this hesitation. Not only were merchant ships being pick off and there cargo taken, unprotected Caribbean towns were being raided and the colonists gains... ...story were used mainly for the raiding and capturing of Spanish colonies. These events would take place until the early 1670s when governments attempted to phase out pirates. Laws were make in an attempt to make pirates give up the profession voluntarily (Lane 126). For the most part this worked, but there are many cases of raids and such after. The action that piracy held on trade and the Spanish Empire was over after the sufficient damage that it caused. Damage that was highly influential in shaping the Caribbean and the Empires of atomic number 63 into what they are.Works CitedKelsey, Harry. Sir Francis Drake The Queens Pirate. Yale University Press New Haven. 1998.Lane, Kris E. Pillaging the Empire Piracy in the Americas. M.E. Sharpe New York. 1998.Williams, Neville. The Sea Dogs Privateers, Plunders and Piracy in the Elizabethan Age. Macmillian New York. 1975.