Editing Piracy (section)

==History==
{{For timeline|Timeline of piracy}}

===Europe===

====Antiquity====

{{Further|Ancient Mediterranean piracy}}
[[File:Romtrireme.jpg|thumb|A [[mosaic]] of a [[Trireme|Roman trireme]] in Tunisia]]
The earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the [[Sea People]]s who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In [[classical antiquity]], the [[Phoenicia]]ns, [[Illyrians]] and [[Tyrrhenians]] were known as pirates. In the pre-classical era, the [[ancient Greeks]] condoned piracy as a viable profession; it apparently was widespread and "regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living".<ref name=mol>Møller, Bjørn. "Piracy, Maritime Terrorism and Naval Strategy." Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies, November 16, 2008. 10.</ref> References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence in many texts including in Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'', and abduction of women and children to be sold into slavery was common. By the era of [[Classical Greece]], piracy was looked upon as a "disgrace" to have as a profession.<ref name=mol/><ref>[[Thucydides]] wrote: "For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as communication by sea became more common, were tempted to turn pirate...indeed, this came to be the main source of their livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some glory."</ref>

In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on [[Olympus (Lycia)|Olympus]] in [[Lycia]] brought impoverishment. Among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the [[Adriatic Sea]], the Illyrians caused many conflicts with the [[Roman Republic]]. It was not until 229 BC when the Romans decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended.<ref name="WardHeichelheim2016">{{cite book|author1=Allen M. Ward|author2=Fritz M. Heichelheim|author3=Cedric A. Yeo|title=History of the Roman People|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Q83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA100|date= 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-51120-7|page=100}}</ref> During the 1st century BC, there were pirate states along the Anatolian coast, threatening the commerce of the [[Roman Empire]] in the eastern Mediterranean. On one voyage across the [[Aegean Sea]] in 75&nbsp;BC,<ref>Again, according to Suetonius's chronology (''Julius'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html#4 4] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226081027/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius%2A.html#4 |date=December 26, 2022 }}). Plutarch (''Caesar'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#1.8 1.8–2] {{Webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20180213130122/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/caesar%2A.html#1.8 |date=February 13, 2018 }}) says this happened earlier, on his return from Nicomedes's court. Velleius Paterculus (''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Velleius_Paterculus/2B*.html#41.3 2:41.3–42] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043323/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Velleius_Paterculus/2B%2A.html#41.3 |date=July 31, 2022 }} says merely that it happened when he was a young man.</ref> [[Julius Caesar]] was kidnapped and briefly held by [[Cilician]] pirates and held prisoner in the [[Dodecanese]] islet of [[Pharmacusa]].<ref>Plutarch, ''Caesar'' 1–2.</ref> The Senate invested the general [[Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus]] with powers to deal with piracy in 67&nbsp;BC (the ''[[Lex Gabinia]]''), and Pompey, after three months of naval warfare, [[Pompey#Campaign against the pirates|managed to suppress the threat]].

As early as 258&nbsp;AD, the [[Goths|Gothic]]-[[Heruli]]c fleet ravaged towns on the coasts of the [[Black Sea]] and [[Sea of Marmara]]. The Aegean coast suffered similar attacks a few years later. In 264, the Goths reached [[Galatia]] and [[Cappadocia]], and Gothic pirates landed on Cyprus and [[Crete]]. In the process, the Goths seized enormous booty and took thousands into captivity.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}} In 286&nbsp;AD, [[Carausius]], a Roman military commander of Gaulish origins, was appointed to command the ''[[Classis Britannica]]'', and given the responsibility of eliminating [[Franks|Frankish]] and [[Saxon]] pirates who had been raiding the coasts of [[Armorica]] and Belgic [[Gaul]]. In the Roman province of Britannia, [[Saint Patrick]] was captured and enslaved by Irish pirates.

====Middle Ages====

[[File:Viking invasion (Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.736, folio 9v) crop.jpg|thumb|right|A fleet of [[Vikings]], painted mid-12th century]]
The most widely recognized and far-reaching pirates in medieval Europe were the [[Vikings]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Golden Age of Piracy|url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/golden-age-piracy|access-date=2021-10-13|website=Royal Museums Greenwich |language=en|archive-date=October 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027024113/https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/golden-age-piracy|url-status=live}}</ref> seaborne warriors from [[Scandinavia]] who raided and looted mainly between the 8th and 12th centuries, during the [[Viking Age]] in the [[Early Middle Ages]]. They raided the coasts, rivers and inland cities of all Western Europe as far as [[Seville]], which was attacked by the Norse in 844. Vikings also attacked the coasts of North Africa and Italy and plundered all the coasts of the [[Baltic Sea]]. Some Vikings ascended the rivers of Eastern Europe as far as the Black Sea and Persia.

In the Late Middle Ages, the [[Frisians|Frisian]] pirates known as [[Arumer Zwarte Hoop]] led by [[Pier Gerlofs Donia]] and [[Wijerd Jelckama]], fought against the troops of the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] with some success.

Toward the end of the 9th century, Moorish pirate havens were established along the coast of southern France and northern Italy.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010622192246/http://www.geocities.com/athens/troy/4040/pirates.htm |archive-date=Jun 22, 2001 |title=The Pirates of St. Tropez |url=http://www.geocities.com/athens/troy/4040/pirates.htm |first1=Robert W. Jr. |last1=Lebling |website=The Empty Quarter }}</ref> In 846 Moor raiders [[Arab raid against Rome|sacked]] the ''extra muros'' Basilicas of [[Old saint peter's basilica|Saint Peter]] and [[Saint Paul Outside the Walls|Saint Paul]] in Rome. In 911, the bishop of [[Narbonne]] was unable to return to France from Rome because the Moors from [[Fraxinet]] controlled all the passes in the [[Alps]]. Moor pirates operated out of the [[Balearic Islands]] in the 10th century. From 824 to 961 [[Arab]] pirates in the [[Emirate of Crete]] raided the entire Mediterranean. In the 14th century, raids by Moor pirates forced the Venetian Duke of Crete to ask [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] to keep its fleet on constant guard.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

After the [[Slavs|Slavic]] invasions of the former [[Roman province of Dalmatia]] in the 5th and 6th centuries, a tribe called the [[Narentines]] revived the old Illyrian piratical habits and often raided the Adriatic Sea starting in the 7th century. Their raids in the Adriatic increased rapidly, until the whole Sea was no longer safe for travel.

The Narentines took more liberties in their raiding quests while the Venetian Navy was abroad, as when it was campaigning in Sicilian waters in 827–882. As soon as the Venetian fleet would return to the Adriatic, the Narentines momentarily outcast their habits again, even signing a Treaty in Venice and baptising their Slavic pagan leader into Christianity. In 834 or 835 they broke the treaty and again they raided Venetian traders returning from Benevento. All of Venice's military attempts to punish them in 839 and 840 utterly failed.

Later, they raided the Venetians more often, together with the [[Arabs]]. In 846, the Narentines broke through to Venice itself and raided its lagoon city of [[Caorle]]. This caused a Byzantine military action against them that brought Christianity to them. After the [[Caliphate|Arab]] raids on the [[Adriatic coast]] circa 872 and the retreat of the Imperial Navy, the Narentines continued their raids of Venetian waters, causing new conflicts with the Italians in 887–888. The Venetians futilely continued to fight them throughout the 10th and 11th centuries.

[[Domagoj of Croatia|Domagoj]] was accused of attacking a ship which was bringing home the papal legates who had participated in [[Fourth Council of Constantinople (Roman Catholic)|the Eighth Catholic Ecumenical Council]], after which [[Pope John VIII]] addresses to Domagoj with request that his pirates stop attacking Christians at sea.<ref>Vedran Duančić; (2008) ''Hrvatska između Bizanta i Franačke'' (in Croatian) p. 17; [https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=82757] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113054932/https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=82757|date=November 13, 2020}}</ref><ref>Maddalena Betti; (2013) ''The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882): Papal Power and Political Reality'' p. 129; Brill Academic Publishers, {{ISBN|900421187X}}</ref>

[[File:Vitalienbrueder.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the [[Baltic Sea]] in the [[Middle Ages]] because of the [[Victual Brothers]].]]
In 937, Irish pirates sided with the Scots, Vikings, [[Picts]], and Welsh in their invasion of England. [[Athelstan]] drove them back.

The [[Baltic Slavic piracy|Slavic piracy]] in the Baltic Sea ended with the [[Siege of Arkona|Danish conquest]] of the [[Rani (Slavic tribe)|Rani]] stronghold of [[Cape Arkona|Arkona]] in 1168. In the 12th century the coasts of western Scandinavia were plundered by [[Curonians]] and [[Oeselians]] from the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. In the 13th and 14th century, pirates threatened the [[Hanseatic]] routes and nearly brought sea trade to the brink of extinction. The [[Victual Brothers]] of [[Gotland]] were a companionship of privateers who later turned to piracy as the [[Likedeelers]]. They were especially noted for their leaders [[Klaus Störtebeker]] and [[Gödeke Michels]]. Until about 1440, maritime trade in both the [[North Sea]], the Baltic Sea and the [[Gulf of Bothnia]] was seriously in danger of attack by the pirates.

H. Thomas Milhorn mentions a certain Englishman named William Maurice, convicted of piracy in 1241, as the first person known to have been [[hanged, drawn and quartered]],<ref>H Thomas Milhorn, ''Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers'', Universal Publishers, 2004. {{ISBN|1-58112-489-9}}.</ref> which would indicate that the then-ruling King [[Henry III of England|Henry III]] took an especially severe view of this crime.

The [[ushkuiniks]] were [[Novgorod]]ian pirates who looted the cities on the [[Volga]] and [[Kama]] Rivers in the 14th century.

[[File:Cotes de la Mer Noire. Cosaques d'Azof abordant un corsaire Turc. (1847).jpg|thumb|"Cossacks of Azov fighting a Turk ship" by [[Grigory Gagarin]]]]
As early as [[Byzantine]] times, the [[Maniots]] (one of Greece's toughest populations) were known as pirates. The Maniots considered piracy as a legitimate response to the fact that their land was poor and it became their main source of income. The main victims of Maniot pirates were the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] but the Maniots also targeted ships of European countries.

[[Zaporizhian Sich]] was a pirate republic in Europe from the 16th through to the 18th century. Situated in [[Cossack]] territory in the remote [[Eurasian Steppe|steppe]] of Eastern Europe, it was populated with Ukrainian peasants that had run away from their feudal masters, outlaws, destitute gentry, run-away slaves from Turkish [[galleys]], etc. The remoteness of the place and the rapids at the [[Dnieper]] river effectively guarded the place from invasions of vengeful powers.

The main target of the inhabitants of the Zaporizhian Sich who called themselves "Cossacks", were rich settlements at the Black Sea shores of Ottoman Empire and [[Crimean Khanate]].{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} By 1615 and 1625, [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] had even managed to raze townships on the outskirts of [[Istanbul]], forcing the [[Ottoman Sultan]] to flee his palace.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} [[Don Cossacks]] under [[Stenka Razin]] even ravaged the Persian coasts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cindyvallar.com/razin.html|title=Pirates & Privateers: The History of Maritime Piracy |author=Stepan Razin|website=www.cindyvallar.com|access-date=August 28, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805222255/http://www.cindyvallar.com/razin.html|archive-date=August 5, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=November 2015}}

====Mediterranean corsairs====

{{see also|Barbary pirates|Albanian piracy}}
[[File:A French Ship and Barbary Pirates (c 1615) by Aert Anthoniszoon.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|A French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615]]
Though less famous and romanticized than Atlantic or Caribbean pirates, corsairs in the [[Mediterranean]] equaled or outnumbered the former at any given point in history.<ref name="Earle 2003, p. 89">Earle (2003), p. 89</ref> Mediterranean piracy was conducted almost entirely with galleys until the mid-17th century, when they were gradually replaced with highly maneuverable sailing vessels such as [[xebec]]s and [[brigantine]]s. They were of a smaller type than battle galleys, often referred to as [[galiot]]s or [[fusta]]s.<ref>Guilmartin (1974), pp. 217–219</ref>

Pirate galleys were small, nimble, lightly armed, but often crewed in large numbers in order to overwhelm the often minimal crews of merchant ships. In general, pirate craft were extremely difficult for patrolling craft to actually hunt down and capture. [[Anne Hilarion de Tourville]], a French admiral of the 17th century, believed that the only way to run down raiders from the infamous corsair Moroccan port of [[Salé]] was by using a captured pirate vessel of the same type.<ref>Earle (2003), p. 45</ref>
[[File:Debarquement et maltraitement de prisonniers a alger.JPG|thumb|Barbary pirates were involved in the [[Barbary slave trade]] in North Africa]]
Using oared vessels to combat pirates was common, and was even practiced by the major powers in the Caribbean. Purpose-built galleys, or hybrid sailing vessels, were built by the English in Jamaica in 1683<ref>Earle (2003), p. 137</ref> and by the Spanish in the late 16th century.<ref>Glete (2000), p. 151</ref> Specially-built sailing frigates with oar-ports on the lower decks, like the ''James Galley'' and ''[[Charles Galley]]'', and oar-equipped sloops proved highly useful for pirate hunting, though they were not built in sufficient numbers to check piracy until the 1720s.<ref>Earle (2003), p. 139</ref>

The expansion of Muslim power through the Ottoman conquest of large parts of the eastern Mediterranean in the 15th and 16th century resulted in extensive piracy on sea trading. The so-called [[Barbary pirates]] began to operate out of North African ports in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Morocco around 1500, preying primarily on the shipping of Christian powers, including massive slave raids at sea as well as on land. The Barbary pirates were nominally under Ottoman [[suzerainty]], but had considerable independence to prey on the enemies of Islam. The Muslim corsairs were technically often privateers with support from legitimate, though highly belligerent, states. They considered themselves as holy Muslim warriors, or [[ghazis]],<ref>Guilmartin (1974), p. 120</ref> carrying on the tradition of fighting the incursion of Western Christians that had begun with the [[First Crusade]] late in the 11th century.<ref name="Earle 2003, pp. 39-52">Earle (2003), pp. 39–52</ref>

[[File:Anglo-Dutch fleet in the bay of Algiers as support for the ultimatum demanding the release of white slaves on august 26 1816 (Nicolaas Baur, 1818).jpg|thumb|The [[Bombardment of Algiers (1816)|Bombardment of Algiers]] by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release European slaves]]

Coastal villages and towns of Italy, Spain and [[List of islands in the Mediterranean|islands in the Mediterranean]] were frequently attacked by Muslim corsairs, and long stretches of the Italian and Spanish coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. After 1600, the Barbary corsairs occasionally entered the Atlantic and struck as far north as Iceland. According to Robert Davis between 1&nbsp;million and 1.25&nbsp;million Europeans were captured by Barbary corsairs and sold as slaves in North Africa and the [[Ottoman Empire]] between the 16th and 19th centuries. The most famous corsairs were the Ottoman [[Albanians|Albanian]] [[Hayreddin Barbarossa|Hayreddin]] and his older brother [[Oruç Reis]] (Redbeard), [[Turgut Reis]] (known as Dragut in the West), [[Kurtoglu Muslihiddin Reis|Kurtoglu]] (known as Curtogoli in the West), [[Kemal Reis]], [[Salih Reis]] and [[Koca Murat Reis]]. A few Barbary corsairs, such as the Dutch [[Jan Janszoon]] and the English [[John Ward (pirate)|John Ward]] (Muslim name Yusuf Reis), were renegade European privateers who had converted to Islam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm|title=When Europeans were slaves: Research suggests white slavery was much more common than previously believed|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725220038/http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm|archive-date=July 25, 2011}}</ref><ref>"''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5q9zcB3JS40C&pg=PR14 Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500–1800] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226081027/https://books.google.com/books?id=5q9zcB3JS40C&pg=PR14 |date=December 26, 2022 }}''". Robert Davis (2004) {{ISBN|1-4039-4551-9}}</ref>

The Barbary pirates had a direct Christian counterpart in the military order of the [[Knights of Saint John]] that operated first out of [[Rhodes]] and after 1530 [[Malta]], though they were less numerous and took fewer slaves. Both sides waged war against the respective enemies of their faith, and both used galleys as their primary weapons. Both sides also used captured or bought [[galley slave]]s to man the oars of their ships. The Muslims relied mostly on captured Christians, the Christians used a mix of Muslim slaves, Christian convicts and a small contingency of ''buonavoglie'', free men who out of desperation or poverty had taken to rowing.<ref name="Earle 2003, pp. 39-52"/>

Historian Peter Earle has described the two sides of the Christian-Muslim Mediterranean conflict as "mirror image[s] of maritime predation, two businesslike fleets of plunderers set against each other".<ref>Earle (2003), pp. 51–52</ref> This conflict of faith in the form of privateering, piracy and slave raiding generated a complex system that was upheld/financed/operated on the trade in plunder and slaves that was generated from a low-intensive conflict, as well as the need for protection from violence. The system has been described as a "massive, multinational protection racket",<ref>Earle (2003), p. 83</ref> the Christian side of which was not ended until 1798 in the Napoleonic Wars. The Barbary corsairs were quelled as late as the 1830s, effectively ending the last vestiges of counter-crusading [[jihad]].<ref>Earle (2003), p. 85</ref>

[[File:Amaro Pargo.jpg|thumb|[[Amaro Rodríguez Felipe|Amaro Pargo]] was one of the most famous corsairs of the [[Golden Age of Piracy]]]]
Piracy off the [[Barbary coast]] was often assisted by competition among European powers in the 17th century. France encouraged the corsairs against Spain, and later Britain and Holland supported them against France. By the second half of the 17th century the greater European naval powers began to initiate reprisals to intimidate the Barbary States into making peace with them. The most successful of the Christian states in dealing with the corsair threat was England.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}} From the 1630s onwards England had signed peace treaties with the Barbary States on various occasions, but invariably breaches of these agreements led to renewed wars.

[[Albanian piracy]], mainly centered in the town of [[Ulcinj]] (thus came to be known as ''[[Albanian piracy|Dulcignotti]]''), flourished during the 15th to the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Canka |first=Mustafa |date=2024 |title=The Pirate Republic of Ulcinj: An Epic of Two Centuries |url=https://en.vijesti.me/culture/728069/the-pirate-republic-of-Ulcinj%2C-a-two-century-long-epic |work=Vijesti}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-27 |title=Albanian piracy |url=https://balkanacademia.com/2023/08/27/albanian-piracy/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Balkan Academia |language=en}}</ref>

France, which had recently emerged as a leading naval power, achieved comparable success soon afterwards, with bombardments of Algiers in 1682, 1683 and 1688 securing a lasting peace, while Tripoli was similarly coerced in 1686. In 1783 and 1784 the Spaniards bombarded [[Algiers]] in an effort to stem the piracy. The [[Bombardment of Algiers (1784)|second time]], [[Antonio Barceló|Admiral Barceló]] damaged the city so severely that the Algerian [[Dey]] asked Spain to negotiate a peace treaty. From then on, Spanish vessels and coasts were safe for several years.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Until the American [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] in 1776, [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] treaties with the [[Northwest Africa|North African]] states protected American ships from the [[Barbary]] corsairs. [[Morocco]], which in 1777 was [[Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship|the first independent nation to publicly recognize the United States]], became in 1784 the first Barbary power to seize an American vessel after independence. While the United States managed to secure peace treaties, these obliged it to pay tribute for protection from attack. Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual expenditures in 1800,<ref>{{cite web|last=Oren|first=Michael B.|title=The Middle East and the Making of the United States, 1776 to 1815|date=2005-11-03|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/05/11/michaelOren.html|access-date=2007-02-18|archive-date=July 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715201453/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/05/11/michaelOren.html|url-status=live}}</ref> leading to the [[Barbary Wars]] that ended the payment of tribute. Algiers broke the 1805 peace treaty after only two years, and refused to implement the 1815 treaty until compelled to do so by Britain in 1816.

In 1815, the sacking of Palma on the island of [[Sardinia]] by a Tunisian squadron, which carried off 158 inhabitants, roused widespread indignation. Britain had [[Slave Trade Act 1807|by this time banned the slave trade]] and was seeking to induce other countries to do likewise. This led to complaints from states which were still vulnerable to the corsairs that Britain's enthusiasm for ending the trade in [[Atlantic slave trade|African slaves]] did not extend to stopping the enslavement of Europeans and Americans by the Barbary States.

[[File:Decatur Boarding the Tripolitan Gunboat.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|U.S. naval officer [[Stephen Decatur]] boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the [[First Barbary War]], 1804]]
In order to neutralise this objection and further the anti-slavery campaign, in 1816 [[Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth|Lord Exmouth]] was sent to secure new concessions from [[Ottoman Tripolitania|Tripoli]], [[Beylik of Tunis|Tunis]], and [[Ottoman Algeria|Algiers]], including a pledge to treat Christian captives in any future conflict as [[prisoners of war]] rather than slaves and the imposition of peace between Algiers and the kingdoms of [[Piedmont-Sardinia|Sardinia]] and [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies|Sicily]]. On his first visit he negotiated satisfactory treaties and sailed for home. While he was negotiating, a number of Sardinian fishermen who had settled at [[Annaba|Bona]] on the Tunisian coast were brutally treated without his knowledge. As [[Sardinians]] they were technically under British protection and the government sent Exmouth back to secure reparation. On August 17, in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he bombarded Algiers.<ref name=EB1911/> Both Algiers and Tunis made fresh concessions as a result.

Securing uniform compliance with a total prohibition of slave-raiding, which was traditionally of central importance to the North African economy, presented difficulties beyond those faced in ending attacks on ships of individual nations, which had left slavers able to continue their accustomed way of life by preying on less well-protected peoples. Algiers renewed its slave-raiding, though on a smaller scale. Measures to be taken against the city's government were discussed at the [[Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)|Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle]] in 1818. In 1820, another British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Neal again bombarded Algiers. Corsair activity based in Algiers did not entirely cease until its [[French Algeria#French conquest of Algeria|conquest by France in 1830]].<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Barbary Pirates|inline=1}}</ref>

===Southeast Asia===
{{See also|Slavery in Sultanates of Southeast Asia|Piracy in the Sulu and Celebes Seas|Piracy in the Strait of Malacca|Piracy in Indonesia}}
[[File:The Iranun (Ilanun) Moro 'pirate'.jpg|upright|thumb|A 19th-century illustration of an [[Iranun]] pirate]]
In [[thalassocratic]] [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian cultures]] in [[Island Southeast Asia]], maritime raids for slaves and resources against rival polities have ancient origins. It was associated with prestige and prowess and often recorded in tattoos. Reciprocal raiding traditions were recorded by early European cultures as being prevalent throughout Island Southeast Asia.<ref name="warren"/><ref name="warren2"/><ref name="turbulent waters">{{cite journal |last1=Antony |first1=Robert J. |title=Turbulent Waters: Sea Raiding in Early Modern South East Asia |journal=The Mariner's Mirror |date=February 2013 |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=23–38 |doi=10.1080/00253359.2013.766996|s2cid=162926825 }}</ref><ref name="Lobato">{{cite book|editor1-last=Sim |editor1-first=Y.H. Teddy |title=Piracy and surreptitious activities in the Malay Archipelago and adjacent seas, 1600–1840 |date=2014 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9789812870858 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTwNBQAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref name="junker">{{cite book |last1=Junker |first1=Laura Lee |title=Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms |date=1999 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824820350 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yO2yG0nxTtsC}}</ref>
[[File:Iban Prahu.jpg|thumb|left|Iban war [[Perahu|prahu]] in Skerang river]]
[[File:Iranun lanong warship by Rafael Monleón (1890).jpg|left|thumb|1890 illustration by [[Rafael Monleón]] of a late 18th-century [[Iranun]] ''[[lanong]]'' warship. The [[Malay language|Malay]] word for "pirate", ''lanun'', originates from an [[exonym]] of the Iranun people]]
[[File:Double-barelled Lantaka of artistic design and Moro arms (c. 1900, Philippines).jpg|thumb|upright|Double-barrelled ''[[lantaka]]'' cannons, ''[[kalasag]]'' shields, armor, and various swords (including ''[[kalis]]'', ''[[panabas]]'', and ''[[kampilan]]'') used by [[Moro pirates]] in the Philippines (c. 1900)]]
With the advent of [[Islam]] and the [[Colonial Era|colonial era]], slaves became a valuable resource for trading with European, Arab, and Chinese slavers, and the volume of piracy and slave raids increased significantly.<ref name="junker"/> Numerous native peoples engaged in sea raiding; they include the [[Iranun]] and [[Balanguingui]] slavers of [[Sulu]], the [[Iban people|Iban]] [[headhunting|headhunter]]s of [[Borneo]], the [[Bugis]] sailors of [[South Sulawesi]], and the [[Malay people|Malays]] of western Southeast Asia. Piracy was also practiced by foreign seafarers on a smaller scale, including Chinese, Japanese, and European traders, renegades, and outlaws.<ref name="turbulent waters"/> The volume of piracy and raids were often dependent on the ebb and flow of trade and [[monsoon]]s, with pirate season (known colloquially as the "Pirate Wind") starting from August to September.<ref name="warren2"/>

Slave raids were of high economic importance to the Muslim Sultanates in the [[Sulu Sea]]: the [[Sultanate of Sulu]], the [[Sultanate of Maguindanao]], and the Confederation of Sultanates in Lanao (the modern [[Moro people]]). It is estimated that from 1770 to 1870, around 200,000 to 300,000 people were enslaved by [[Iranun]] and [[Banguingui]] slavers.<ref name="warren"/><ref name="warren2"/> David P. Forsythe put the estimate much higher, at around 2 million slaves captured within the first two centuries of Spanish rule of the [[Philippines]] after 1565.<ref>David P. Forsythe (2009). "''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1QbX90fmCVUC Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226081028/https://books.google.com/books?id=1QbX90fmCVUC |date=December 26, 2022 }}''". Oxford University Press. p. 464. {{ISBN|0195334027}}</ref>

[[File:Bombardment Balanguingui.jpg|thumb|left|Spanish warships bombarding the [[Moro Pirates]] of the southern Philippines in 1848]]
These slaves were taken from piracy on passing ships as well as coastal raids on settlements as far as the [[Malacca Strait]], [[Java]], the southern coast of China and the islands beyond the [[Makassar Strait]]. Most of the slaves were [[Tagalogs]], [[Visayans]], and "Malays" (including [[Bugis]], [[Mandarese people|Mandarese]], [[Iban people|Iban]], and [[Makassar people|Makassar]]). There were also occasional European and Chinese captives who were usually ransomed off through [[Tausug people|Tausug]] intermediaries of the [[Sulu Sultanate]]. Slaves were the primary indicators of wealth and status, and they were the source of labor for the farms, fisheries, and workshops of the sultanates. While personal slaves were rarely sold, they trafficked extensively in slaves purchased from the Iranun and Banguingui [[slave market]]s. By the 1850s, slaves constituted 50% or more of the population of the Sulu archipelago.<ref name="warren">{{cite book|author=James Francis Warren|title =The Sulu Zone, 1768–1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State|publisher =NUS Press|year =2007|pages=257–258|isbn =9789971693862}}</ref><ref name="turbulent waters"/><ref name="warren2">{{cite book|author =James Francis Warren|title =Iranun and Balangingi: Globalization, Maritime Raiding and the Birth of Ethnicity|publisher =NUS Press|year =2002|pages =53–56|isbn =9789971692421|url =https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/iranun-and-balangingi|access-date =July 9, 2019|archive-date =July 4, 2019|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190704132211/https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/iranun-and-balangingi|url-status =live}}</ref>

The scale was so massive that the word for "pirate" in [[Malay language|Malay]] became ''lanun'', an [[exonym]] of the Iranun people. The economy of the Sulu sultanates was largely run by slaves and the slave trade. Male captives of the Iranun and the Banguingui were treated brutally, even fellow Muslim captives were not spared. They were usually forced to serve as [[galley slave]]s on the ''[[lanong]]'' and ''[[garay (ship)|garay]]'' warships of their captors. Female captives, however, were usually treated better. There were no recorded accounts of rapes, though some were starved for discipline. Within a year of capture, most of the captives of the Iranun and Banguingui would be bartered off in [[Jolo, Sulu|Jolo]] usually for rice, opium, bolts of cloth, iron bars, brassware, and weapons. The buyers were usually Tausug ''[[datu]]'' from the [[Sultanate of Sulu]] who had preferential treatment, but buyers also included European ([[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] and [[Portuguese empire|Portuguese]]) and Chinese traders as well as [[Visayan]] pirates (''renegados'').<ref name="warren2"/>
[[File:Top view Baluarte Watch Tower.jpg|thumb|236x236px|[[La Union Watchtowers|Baluarte Watchtower]], [[La Union]]. A 400-year-old Spanish-era structure built to guard against ''pirates'', later used in [[World War II]] as a communication tower for the [[United States Army Forces in the Philippines – Northern Luzon|USAFIP-NL]] airfield.]]
[[File:Curimao Watchtower, Curimao, Ilocos Norte.jpg|thumb|237x237px|Currimao Watchtower, [[Ilocos Norte]]. '[[Currimao]]' comes from the [[Ilocano language|Iloco]] term ''cumaws'' (pirates) and the Spanish word ''correr'' (to run), reflecting the warnings given by watchmen during pirate attacks.]]
Spanish authorities and native Christian Filipinos responded to the Moro slave raids by building watchtowers and forts across the Philippine archipelago, many of which are still standing today. In [[Northern Luzon]] particularly in the [[Pangasinan]], [[Ilocos Region|Ilocos]] and [[Cagayan]], the coastal villages and towns, were frequently raided by Moro and Chinese pirates, locally known as ''tírong or cumaw'' (raiders, attackers or pirates). These pirates looted and burned villages (''[[Barrio|barrios]]'') and captured women and children for enslavement. To counter these threats, Spanish authorities constructed circular adobe [[Watchtower|watchtowers]], or ''baluartes'', measuring 6 to 7 meters high. These structures, built strategically along the coastline using coral blocks bonded with a mixture of lime and egg whites, served as both lookout points and defensive fortifications to protect villages from pirate attacks.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Meimban |first=Adriel Obar |title=La Union: The Making of a Province 1850-1921 |date=1997 |publisher=A.O. Meimban |isbn=9719183217 |edition=18 |series=La Union Before its Creation: Muslim Tirongs |location=Quezon City |publication-date=1997 |pages=22–23 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":62">{{Cite book |last=de los Reyes |first=Isabelo |title=History of Ilocos |date=1890 |publisher=University of the Philippines Press |isbn=9789715427296 |language=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Go |first=Antonio Calipjo |date=2015-12-24 |title=Ghost towns and pirates |url=https://opinion.inquirer.net/91426/ghost-towns-and-pirates |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=INQUIRER.net |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:A Fight with Buginese perahu, watercolour by J.E. van Heemskerck van Beest, 1820.jpg|thumb|A fight between Filipino pirates, Bugis trading ship, and Dutch mariners.|left|240x240px]]
Some provincial capitals were also moved further inland. Major command posts were built in [[Manila]], [[Cavite City|Cavite]], [[Cebu City|Cebu]], [[Iloilo City|Iloilo]], [[Zamboanga City|Zamboanga]], and [[Iligan]]. Defending ships were also built by local communities, especially in the [[Visayas Islands]], including the construction of war "''barangayanes''" (''[[balangay]]'') that were faster than the Moro raiders and could give chase. As resistance against raiders increased, ''[[Lanong]]'' warships of the Iranun were eventually replaced by the smaller and faster ''[[garay (ship)|garay]]'' warships of the Banguingui in the early 19th century. The Moro raids were eventually subdued by several major naval expeditions by the Spanish and local forces from 1848 to 1891, including retaliatory bombardment and capture of Moro settlements. By this time, the Spanish had also acquired [[steamship|steam gunboat]]s (''vapor''), which could easily overtake and destroy the native Moro warships.<ref name="warren" /><ref name="non">{{cite journal |last1=Non |first1=Domingo M. |title=Moro Piracy during the Spanish Period and Its Impact |journal=Southeast Asian Studies |volume=30 |issue=4 |date=1993 |pages=401–419 |doi=10.20495/tak.30.4_401 }}</ref><ref name="barrows">{{cite book|author =David P. Barrows|title =A History of the Philippines|publisher =American Book Company|year =1905|url =https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38269/38269-h/38269-h.htm|access-date =July 9, 2019|archive-date =February 8, 2019|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190208005625/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38269/38269-h/38269-h.htm|url-status =live}}</ref>

Several famous pirates, such as ''Intjeh Cohdja'' and ''Wassingrana'', were hunted by the VOC for hijacking their merchant ships in the [[Eastern salient of Java]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anwar |first=H |date=2017 |title=TIGA ZAMAN SUKU BAJO MENGUASAI PERAIRAN NUSANTARA (Sejak Kerajaan Sriwijaya, Majaphit, sampai Republik Indonesia dan dari Selat Malaka sampai Mindanao) |url=https://conference.unsri.ac.id/index.php/sns/search/search?simpleQuery=TIGA+ZAMAN+SUKU+BAJO+MENGUASAI+PERAIRAN+NUSANTARA&searchField=query |journal=Seminar Nasional Sejarah III |volume=1 |pages=1}}</ref> 

Aside from the Iranun and Banguingui pirates, other polities were also associated with maritime raiding. The Bugis sailors of [[South Sulawesi]] were infamous as pirates who used to range as far west as Singapore and as far north as the Philippines in search of targets for piracy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.on-the-edge.com/articles/raja_ampat.php|title=The Buginese of Sulawesi|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927102743/http://www.on-the-edge.com/articles/raja_ampat.php|archive-date=September 27, 2007}}</ref> The [[Orang laut]] pirates controlled shipping in the Straits of Malacca and the waters around Singapore,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://thingsasian.com/story/pirates-east|title=Pirates of the East &#124; ThingsAsian|website=thingsasian.com|access-date=November 4, 2019|archive-date=October 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024015434/http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/1997|url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]] and [[Sea Dayak]] pirates preyed on maritime shipping in the waters between Singapore and Hong Kong from their haven in [[Sarawak|Borneo]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fullbooks.com/Wanderings-Among-South-Sea-Savages-And-in3.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609213932/http://www.fullbooks.com/Wanderings-Among-South-Sea-Savages-And-in3.html|archive-date=June 9, 2008|title=Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines by H. Wilfrid Walker}} [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2564/2564-h/2564-h.htm Alt URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924211540/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2564/2564-h/2564-h.htm |date=September 24, 2015 }}</ref>

===East Asia===
In East Asia by the ninth century, populations centered mostly around merchant activities in coastal [[Shandong]] and [[Jiangsu]]. Wealthy benefactors including [[Jang Bogo]] established [[Silla]] Buddhist temples in the region. Jang Bogo had become incensed at the treatment of his fellow countrymen, who in the unstable milieu of late Tang often fell victim to coastal pirates or inland bandits. After returning to Silla around 825, and in possession of a formidable private fleet headquartered at Cheonghae ([[Wando County|Wando]]), Jang Bogo petitioned the Silla king Heungdeok ({{reign|826|836}}) to establish a permanent maritime garrison to protect Silla merchant activities in the [[Yellow Sea]]. Heungdeok agreed and in 828 formally established the Cheonghae ({{lang|ko-Hani|淸海}}, "clear sea") Garrison ({{lang|ko|청해진}}) at what is today Wando island off Korea's South Jeolla province. Heungdeok gave Jang an army of 10,000 men to establish and man the defensive works. The remnants of Cheonghae Garrison can still be seen on Jang islet just off Wando's southern coast. Jang's force, though nominally bequeathed by the Silla king, was effectively under his own control. Jang became arbiter of Yellow Sea commerce and navigation.<ref>Chong Sun Kim, "Slavery in Silla and its Sociological and Economic Implications", in Andrew C. Nahm, ed. ''Traditional Korea, Theory and Practice'' (Kalamazoo, MI: Center for Korean Studies, 1974)</ref>

From the 13th century, Wokou based in Japan made their debut in East Asia, initiating invasions that would persist for 300 years. The wokou raids [[Jiajing wokou raids|peaked in the 1550s]], but by then the wokou were mostly Chinese smugglers who reacted strongly against the [[Ming dynasty]]'s strict prohibition on private sea trade.

[[File:Wokou.jpg|thumb|right|Sixteenth century [[Wokou|Japanese]] pirate raids]]

During the [[Qing]] period, Chinese pirate fleets grew increasingly large. The effects large-scale piracy had on the Chinese economy were immense. They preyed voraciously on China's junk trade, which flourished in [[Fujian]] and [[Guangdong]] and was a vital artery of Chinese commerce. Pirate fleets exercised [[hegemony]] over villages on the coast, collecting revenue by exacting tribute and running [[extortion]] rackets. In 1802, the menacing [[Zheng Yi (pirate)|Zheng Yi]] inherited the fleet of his cousin, captain Zheng Qi, whose death provided Zheng Yi with considerably more influence in the world of piracy. Zheng Yi and his wife, [[Zheng Yi Sao]] (who would eventually inherit the leadership of his pirate confederacy) then formed a pirate coalition that, by 1804, consisted of over ten thousand men. Their military might alone was sufficient to combat the Qing navy. However, a combination of famine, Qing naval opposition, and internal rifts crippled piracy in China around the 1820s, and it has never again reached the same status.

In the 1840s and 1850s, [[United States Navy]] and Royal Navy forces campaigned together against Chinese pirates. Major battles were fought such as those at [[Battle of Ty-ho Bay|Ty-ho Bay]] and the [[Battle of Tonkin River|Tonkin River]] though pirate [[junks]] continued operating off China for years more. However, some British and American individual citizens also volunteered to serve with Chinese pirates to fight against European forces. The British offered rewards for the capture of westerners serving with Chinese pirates. During the [[Second Opium War]] and the [[Taiping Rebellion]], piratical junks were again destroyed in large numbers by British naval forces but ultimately it was not until the 1860s and 1870s that fleets of pirate junks ceased to exist.
[[File:4ChinesePirates.jpg|thumb|Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863]]
Chinese Pirates also plagued the Tonkin Gulf area.<ref name="KleinenOsseweijer2010">{{cite book|author1=John Kleinen|author2=Manon Osseweijer|title=Pirates, Ports, and Coasts in Asia: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nEgb15isFZkC&pg=PA60|year= 2010|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|isbn=978-981-4279-07-9|page=60}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=New Peterson magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0nhFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA578|year=1896|page=578}}</ref>

==== Piracy in the Ming dynasty ====
Pirates in the [[Ming]] era tended to come from populations on the geographic periphery of the state.<ref>MacKay, Joseph. "Pirate Nations: Maritime Pirates as Escape Societies in Late Imperial China." ''Social Science History'' ''37'', no. 4 (2013): 551–g573. {{doi|10.1017/S0145553200011962}}. p. 554</ref> They were recruited largely from the lower classes of society, including poor fishermen, and many were fleeing from obligatory labor on state-building projects organized by the dynasty.  These lower-class men, and sometimes women, may have fled taxation or conscription by the state in the search of better opportunities and wealth, and willingly joined local pirate bands.<ref>MacKay. 2013. p. 553</ref><ref>MacKay. 2013. p. 555</ref>  These local, lower class individuals seem to have felt unrepresented, and traded the small amount of security afforded them from their allegiance to the state for the promise of a relatively improved existence engaging in smuggling or other illegal trade.

Originally, pirates in the coastal areas near Fujian and Zhejiang may have been Japanese, suggested by the Ming government referring to them as "''[[wokou]]'' (倭寇)", but it is probable that piracy was a multi-ethnic profession by the 16th century, although coastal brigands continued to be referred to as ''wokou'' in many government documents.<ref>Higgins, Roland L.  "Pirates in Gowns and Caps: Gentry Law-Breaking in the Mid-Ming." ''Ming Studies Volume 1980'', Issue #1.  pp. 30–37 [31]</ref>  Most pirates were probably [[Han Chinese]], but Japanese and even Europeans engaged in pirate activities in the region.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Robinson |first1=David M. |title=Banditry and the Subversion of State Authority in China: The Capital Region During the Middle Ming Period (1450–1525) |journal=Journal of Social History |date=2000 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=527–563 |id={{Gale|A61372233}} {{Project MUSE|17725}} |jstor=3789210 |doi=10.1353/jsh.2000.0035 |s2cid=144496554 }}</ref>

==== Illegal trade and authority ====
Pirates engaged in a number of different schemes to make a living.  Smuggling and illegal trade overseas were major sources of revenue for pirate bands, both large and small.<ref name="Higgins. 1980. p. 31">Higgins. 1980. p. 31</ref>  As the Ming government mostly outlawed private trade overseas, at least until the overseas silver trade contributed to a lifting of the ban, pirates basically could almost by default control the market for any number of foreign goods.<ref name="Higgins. 1980. p. 31"/><ref>Von Glahn, Richard. ''The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century''. Cambridge, UK. {{ISBN|9781107030565}}. {{OCLC|919452147}}. p. 307</ref><ref name="Von Glahn. 2016. p. 308">Von Glahn. 2016. p. 308</ref>  The geography of the coastline made chasing pirates quite difficult for the authorities, and private overseas trade began to transform coastal societies by the 15th century, as nearly all aspects of the local society benefitted from or associated with illegal trade.<ref>Higgins. 1980. p. 32</ref> The desire to trade for silver eventually led to open conflict between the Ming and illegal smugglers and pirates.  This conflict, along with local merchants in southern China, helped persuade the Ming court to end the [[haijin]] ban on private international trade in 1567.<ref name="Von Glahn. 2016. p. 308"/>

Pirates also projected local political authority.<ref name=":1">MacKay. 2013. p. 558</ref>  Larger pirate bands could act as local governing bodies for coastal communities, collecting taxes and engaging in "protection" schemes.  In addition to illegal goods, pirates ostensibly offered security to communities on land in exchange for a tax.<ref name=":2">MacKay. 2013. p. 557</ref>  These bands also wrote and codified laws that redistributed wealth, punished crimes, and provided protection for the taxed community.<ref name=":1" />  These laws were strictly followed by the pirates, as well.<ref name=":3">MacKay. 2013. p. 567</ref>  The political structures tended to look similar to the Ming structures.<ref name=":3" />

==== Hierarchy and structure ====
Pirates did not tend to stay pirates permanently.  It seems to have been relatively easy both to join and leave a pirate band, and these raiding groups were more interested in maintaining a willing force.<ref name=":4">MacKay. 2013. pp. 564, 568</ref>  Members of these pirate groups did not tend to stay longer than a few months or years at a time.<ref name=":4" />

There appears to have been a hierarchy in most pirate organizations.  Pirate leaders could become very wealthy and powerful, especially when working with the Chinese dynasty, and, consequently, so could those who served under them.<ref name=":2" />  These pirate groups were organized similarly to other "escape societies" throughout history, and maintained a redistributive system to reward looting; the pirates directly responsible for looting or pillaging got their cut first, and the rest was allocated to the rest of the pirate community.<ref name=":2" />  There seems to be evidence that there was an egalitarian aspect to these communities, with capability to do the job being rewarded explicitly.  The pirates themselves had some special privileges under the law when they interacted with communities on land, mostly in the form of extra allotments of redistributed wealth.<ref name=":2" />

==== Clientele ====
Pirates, of course, had to sell their loot.  They had trading relationships with land communities and foreign traders in the southeastern regions of China. [[Zhu Wan]], who held the office of Grand Coordinator for Coastal Defense, documented that pirates in the region to which he had been sent had the support of the local elite gentry class.<ref>Higgins. 1980. p. 30</ref>  These "pirates in gowns and caps" directly or indirectly sponsored pirate activity and certainly directly benefitted from the illegal private trade in the region.  When Zhu Wan or other officials from the capital attempted to eliminate the pirate problem, these local elites fought back, having Zhu Wan demoted and eventually even sent back to Beijing to possibly be executed.<ref>Higgins. 1980. p. 34</ref>  The gentry who benefitted from illegal maritime trade were too powerful and influential, and they were clearly very invested in the smuggling activities of the pirate community.<ref>Robinson. 2000. p. 547</ref>

In addition to their relationship with the local elite class on the coast, pirates also had complicated and often friendly relationships and partnerships with the dynasty itself, as well as with international traders.<ref>MacKay. 2013. pp. 552, 557</ref>  When pirate groups recognized the authority of the dynasty, they would often be allowed to operate freely and even profit from the relationship.  There were also opportunities for these pirates to ally themselves with colonial projects from Europe or other overseas powers.<ref name="MacKay. 2013. p. 559">MacKay. 2013. p. 559</ref>  Both the dynasty and foreign colonial projects would employ pirates as mercenaries to establish dominance in the coastal region.<ref>MacKay. 2013. p. 551</ref>  Because of how difficult it was for established state powers to control these regions, pirates seem to have had a lot of freedom to choose their allies and their preferred markets.<ref>Szonyi, Michael. ''The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China''. Princeton. {{ISBN|9781400888887}}. {{OCLC|1007291604}}. pp. 101, 102</ref>  Included in this list of possible allies, sea marauders and pirates even found opportunities to bribe military officials as they engaged in illegal trade.<ref>Szonyi. 2017. pp. 101–102</ref>  They seem to have been incentivized mostly by money and loot, and so could afford to play the field with regards to their political or military allies.

Because pirate organizations could be so powerful locally, the Ming government made concerted efforts to weaken them.  The presence of colonial projects complicated this, however, as pirates could ally themselves with other maritime powers or local elites to stay in business.  The Chinese government was clearly aware of the power of some of these pirate groups, as some documents even refer to them as "sea rebels," a reference to the political nature of pirates.<ref name="MacKay. 2013. p. 559"/>  Pirates like [[Zheng Zhilong]] and [[Zheng Chenggong]] accrued tremendous local power, eventually even being hired as naval commanders by the Chinese dynasties and foreign maritime powers.<ref>MacKay. 2013. pp. 559, 561</ref>

===South Asia===
[[Bawarij]] were [[Sindhi people|Sindhi]] pirates named for their distinctive [[Dhow|barja warships]]<ref>"Indian Pirates: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day", by Rajaram Narayan Saletore, page 18</ref> who were active between 251 and 865 AD.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Agius |first=Dionisius A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RP2uHT06zYgC&dq=bawarij&pg=PA385 |title=Classic Ships of Islam: From Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean |date=2008 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15863-4 |language=en |page=385 |access-date=April 29, 2023 |archive-date=April 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429072223/https://books.google.com/books?id=RP2uHT06zYgC&dq=bawarij&pg=PA385 |url-status=live }}</ref> Their frequent piracy and the incident in which they looted two treasure ships coming from Ceylon became the [[casus belli]] for the [[Umayyad conquest of Sindh]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saletore |first=Rajaram Narayan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1PVMMoChwY4C&dq=bawarij&pg=PA18 |title=Indian Pirates |date=1978 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |language=en |page=21 |access-date=April 29, 2023 |archive-date=May 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513082535/https://books.google.com/books?id=1PVMMoChwY4C&dq=bawarij&pg=PA18 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Pirates who accepted the Royal Pardon from the [[Chola Dynasty|Chola Empire]] would get to serve in the [[Chola Navy]] as "Kallarani". They would be used as coast guards, or sent on recon missions to deal with Arab piracy in the [[Arabian Sea]]. Their function is similar to the 18th century [[privateers]], used by the Royal Navy.

Starting in the 14th century, the [[Deccan]] (Southern Peninsular region of India) was divided into two entities: on the one side stood the Muslim [[Bahmani Sultanate]] and on the other stood the [[Hindu king]]s rallied around the [[Vijayanagara Empire]]. Continuous wars demanded frequent resupplies of fresh horses, which were imported through sea routes from Persia and Africa. This trade was subjected to frequent raids by thriving bands of pirates based in the coastal cities of Western India. One of such was [[Timoji]], who operated off [[Anjadip Island]] both as a privateer (by seizing horse traders, that he rendered to the [[raja]] of [[Honavar]]) and as a pirate who attacked the Kerala merchant fleets that traded pepper with [[Gujarat]].

During the 16th and 17th centuries, there was frequent European piracy against [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] Indian merchants, especially those [[Capture of the Grand Mughal Fleet|en route to Mecca]] for [[Hajj]]. The situation came to a head when the Portuguese attacked and captured the vessel ''Rahimi'' which belonged to [[Mariam Zamani]] the Mughal queen, which led to the Mughal seizure of the Portuguese town Daman.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Findly |first1=Ellison B. |title=The Capture of Maryam-uz-Zamānī's Ship: Mughal Women and European Traders |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |date=1988 |volume=108 |issue=2 |pages=227–238 |doi=10.2307/603650 |jstor=603650 }}</ref> In the 18th century, the famous [[Maratha Confederacy|Maratha]] privateer [[Kanhoji Angre]] ruled the seas between Mumbai and Goa.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Risso |first1=Patricia |title=Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Piracy: Maritime Violence in the Western Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf Region during a Long Eighteenth Century |journal=Journal of World History |date=2001 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=293–319 |doi=10.1353/jwh.2001.0039 |s2cid=162191347 |id={{Project MUSE|18418}} }}</ref> The Marathas attacked British shipping and insisted that [[East India Company]] ships pay taxes if sailing through their waters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/exhibitions/soldiersSeahawks/page2.shtml|title=Soldiers, Seahawks and Smugglers|access-date=July 20, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906064531/http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/exhibitions/soldiersSeahawks/page2.shtml|archive-date=September 6, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Persian Gulf===
{{Main|Piracy in the Persian Gulf}}
The southern coast of the [[Persian Gulf]] was known to the British from the late 18th century as the ''[[Pirate Coast]], ''where control of the seaways of the Persian Gulf was asserted by the Qawasim ([[Al Qasimi]]) and other local maritime powers. Memories of the privations carried out on the coast by Portuguese raiders under Albuquerque were long and local powers antipathetic as a consequence to Christian powers asserting dominance of their coastal waters.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates|last = Heard-Bey|first = Frauke|publisher = Longman|year = 1996|isbn = 0582277280|location = UK|pages = 282–284}}</ref> Early British expeditions to protect the Imperial [[Trade route|Indian Ocean trade]] from competitors, principally the Al Qasimi from [[Ras Al Khaimah]] and [[Lingeh]], led to campaigns against those headquarters and other harbours along the coast in [[Persian Gulf campaign of 1809|1809]] and then, after a relapse in raiding, again in [[Persian Gulf campaign of 1819|1819]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197306/from.pirate.coast.to.trucial.htm|title=From Pirate Coast To Trucial|access-date=July 20, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829143613/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197306/from.pirate.coast.to.trucial.htm|archive-date=August 29, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> This led to the signing of the first formal treaty of [[General Maritime Treaty of 1820|maritime peace]] between the British and the rulers of several coastal sheikhdoms in 1820. This was cemented by the Treaty of Maritime Peace in Perpetuity in 1853, resulting in the British label for the area, 'Pirate Coast' being softened to the 'Trucial Coast', with several emirates being recognised by the British as [[Trucial States]].<ref name=":0" />

===Madagascar===
[[File:Pirates Cemetery Ile Ste Marie Madagascar.jpg|thumb|The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island)]]
At one point, there were nearly 1,000 pirates located in Madagascar.<ref>Gemma Pitcher, Patricia C. Wright. " ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=m2eLhe7CpMMC&pg=PA178 Madagascar & Comoros] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226081051/https://books.google.com/books?id=m2eLhe7CpMMC&pg=PA178 |date=December 26, 2022 }} ''" p. 178.</ref> [[Île Sainte-Marie]] was a popular base for pirates throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The most famous [[pirate utopia]] is that of the probably fictional Captain Misson and his pirate crew, who allegedly founded the free colony of [[Libertatia]] in northern Madagascar in the late 17th century, until it was destroyed in a surprise attack by the island natives in 1694.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=869187%7ctitle=Libertatia|title=Libertatia|work=everything2.com|access-date=November 15, 2015|archive-date=July 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710091804/https://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=869187%7ctitle=Libertatia|url-status=live}}</ref>

===The Caribbean===
{{Main|Piracy in the Caribbean|Golden Age of Piracy}}
[[File:Jacquesdesores.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Jacques de Sores]] looting and burning Havana in 1555]]
[[File:Puerto del Príncipe - being sacked in 1668 - Project Gutenberg eText 19396.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Camagüey|Puerto del Príncipe]] being sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan]] 
[[File:Bok om sjörövare De Americaensche Zee-Roovers publicerades första gången 1678 i Amsterdam - Skoklosters slott - 102633.tif|thumb|Book about pirates "De Americaensche Zee-Roovers" was first published in 1678 in Amsterdam]]
The classic era of piracy in the [[Caribbean]] lasted from circa 1650 until the mid-1720s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lucie-Smith|first=Edward|title=Outcasts of the Sea: Pirates and Piracy|publisher=Paddington Press|year=1978|isbn=9780448226170|url=https://archive.org/details/outcastsofseapir0000luci}}</ref> By 1650, France, England and the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] began to develop their colonial empires. This involved considerable seaborne trade, and a general economic improvement: there was money to be made{{snd}}or stolen{{snd}}and much of it traveled by ship.

French [[buccaneer]]s were established on northern [[Hispaniola]] as early as 1625,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/history-of-piracy/tortuga.php|title=Tortuga – Pirate History – The Way Of The Pirates|access-date=October 23, 2014|archive-date=March 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150314032603/http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/history-of-piracy/tortuga.php|url-status=live}}</ref> but lived at first mostly as hunters rather than robbers; their transition to full-time piracy was gradual and motivated in part by Spanish efforts to wipe out both the buccaneers and the prey animals on which they depended. The buccaneers' migration from Hispaniola's mainland to the more defensible offshore island of [[Tortuga (Haiti)|Tortuga]] limited their resources and accelerated their piratical raids. According to [[Alexandre Exquemelin]], a buccaneer and historian who remains a major source on this period, the Tortuga buccaneer [[Pierre le Grand (pirate)|Pierre Le Grand]] pioneered the settlers' attacks on galleons making the return voyage to Spain.

The growth of buccaneering on Tortuga was augmented by the English capture of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. The early English governors of Jamaica freely granted letters of marque to Tortuga buccaneers and to their own countrymen, while the growth of [[Port Royal]] provided these raiders with a far more profitable and enjoyable place to sell their booty. In the 1660s, the new French governor of Tortuga, Bertrand d'Ogeron, similarly provided privateering commissions both to his own colonists and to English cutthroats from Port Royal. These conditions brought Caribbean buccaneering to its zenith.

[[File:Pg 003 - Engraving (bw).jpg|thumb|left|[[Henry Every]] is shown selling his loot in this engraving by Howard Pyle. Every's capture of the Grand Mughal ship ''[[Ganj-i-Sawai]]'' in 1695 stands as one of the most profitable pirate raids ever perpetrated.]]
A new phase of piracy began in the 1690s as English pirates began to look beyond the Caribbean for treasure. The fall of Britain's Stuart kings had restored the traditional enmity between Britain and France, thus ending the profitable collaboration between English Jamaica and French Tortuga. The devastation of Port Royal by an [[1692 Jamaica earthquake|earthquake in 1692]] further reduced the Caribbean's attractions by destroying the pirates' chief market for fenced plunder.<ref>Nigel Cawthorne (2005), ''Pirates: An Illustrated History,'' Arturus Publishing Ltd., 2005, p. 65.</ref> Caribbean colonial governors began to discard the traditional policy of "no peace beyond the Line," under which it was understood that war would continue (and thus letters of marque would be granted) in the Caribbean regardless of peace treaties signed in Europe; henceforth, commissions would be granted only in wartime, and their limitations would be strictly enforced. Furthermore, much of the Spanish Main had simply been exhausted; [[Maracaibo]] alone had been sacked three times between 1667 and 1678,<ref>Cawthorne, pp. 34, 36, 58</ref> while [[Rio de la Hacha|Río de la Hacha]] had been raided five times and [[Tolú]] eight.<ref>Peter Earle (2003), ''The Pirate Wars'', {{ISBN|0-312-33579-2}}, p. 94.</ref>
[[File:Bartholomew Roberts.jpg|thumb|Bartholomew Roberts was the pirate with most captures during the Golden Age of Piracy. He is now known for hanging the governor of [[Martinique]] from the yardarm of his ship.]]
At the same time, England's less favored colonies, including [[Bermuda]], New York, and [[Rhode Island]], had become cash-starved by the [[Navigation Acts]], which restricted trade with foreign ships. Merchants and governors eager for coin were willing to overlook and even underwrite pirate voyages; one colonial official defended a pirate because he thought it "very harsh to hang people that brings in gold to these provinces."<ref>Earle, p. 148.</ref> Although some of these pirates operating out of New England and the Middle Colonies targeted Spain's remoter Pacific coast colonies well into the 1690s and beyond, the Indian Ocean was a richer and more tempting target.  India's economic output was large during this time, especially in high-value luxury goods like silk and calico which made ideal pirate booty;<ref>Geoffrey Parker, ed. (1986), ''The World: An Illustrated History'', Times Books Ltd., p. 317.</ref> at the same time, no powerful navies plied the Indian Ocean, leaving both local shipping and the various East India companies' vessels vulnerable to attack. This set the stage for the famous pirates, [[Thomas Tew]], [[Henry Every]], [[Robert Culliford]] and (although his guilt remains controversial) [[William Kidd]].

In 1713 and 1714, a series of peace treaties ended the [[War of the Spanish Succession]]. As a result, thousands of seamen, including European [[privateer]]s who had operated in the West Indies, were relieved of military duty, at a time when cross-Atlantic colonial shipping trade was beginning to boom. In addition, European sailors who had been pushed by unemployment to work onboard [[merchantmen]] (including [[slave ship]]s) were often enthusiastic to abandon that profession and turn to pirating, giving pirate captains a steady pool of recruits from various coasts across the Atlantic.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kuhn, Gabriel |title= Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy|publisher= PM Press|date= 2010}}</ref>

In 1715, pirates launched a major raid on Spanish divers trying to recover gold from a sunken treasure galleon near Florida. The nucleus of the pirate force was a group of English ex-privateers, all of whom would soon be enshrined in infamy: [[Henry Jennings]], [[Charles Vane]], [[Samuel Bellamy]], and [[Edward England]]. The attack was successful, but contrary to their expectations, the governor of Jamaica refused to allow Jennings and their cohorts to spend their loot on his island. With Kingston and the declining Port Royal closed to them, Jennings and his comrades founded a new pirate base at [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]], on the island of [[New Providence]] in the Bahamas, which had been abandoned during the war. Until the arrival of governor [[Woodes Rogers]] three years later, Nassau would be home for these pirates and their many recruits.

Shipping traffic between Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe began to soar in the 18th century, a model that was known as [[triangular trade]], and was a rich target for piracy. Trade ships sailed from Europe to the African coast, trading manufactured goods and weapons in exchange for slaves. The traders would then sail to the Caribbean to sell the slaves, and return to Europe with goods such as sugar, tobacco and cocoa. Another triangular trade saw ships carry raw materials, preserved cod, and rum to Europe, where a portion of the cargo would be sold for manufactured goods, which (along with the remainder of the original load) were transported to the Caribbean, where they were exchanged for sugar and molasses, which (with some manufactured articles) were borne to New England. Ships in the triangular trade made money at each stop.<ref>Mark Kurlansky, ''Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World.'' Penguin, 1998.</ref>
[[File:Pirata Cofresi.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Born to a noble family in [[Puerto Rico]], [[Roberto Cofresí]] was the last notably successful pirate in the Caribbean.]]
As part of the peace settlement of the [[War of the Spanish succession]], Britain obtained the ''[[asiento]]'', a Spanish government contract, to [[History of slavery|supply slaves]] to Spain's new world colonies, providing British traders and smugglers more access to the traditionally closed Spanish markets in America. This arrangement also contributed heavily to the spread of piracy across the western Atlantic at this time. Shipping to the colonies boomed simultaneously with the flood of skilled mariners after the war. Merchant shippers used the surplus of sailors' labor to drive wages down, cutting corners to maximize their profits, and creating unsavory conditions aboard their vessels. Merchant sailors suffered from mortality rates as high or higher than the slaves being transported (Rediker, 2004). Living conditions were so poor that many sailors began to prefer a freer existence as a [[pirate]]. The increased volume of shipping traffic also could sustain a large body of brigands preying upon it. Among the most infamous Caribbean pirates of the time were [[Edward Teach]] or ''Blackbeard'', [[Calico Jack Rackham]], and [[Bartholomew Roberts]]. Most of these pirates were eventually hunted down by the Royal Navy and killed or captured; several [[Action of 20 October 1720|battles]] were [[Battle of Cape Lopez|fought]] between the brigands and the colonial powers on both land and sea.

Piracy in the Caribbean declined for the next several decades after 1730, but by the 1810s many pirates roamed the waters though they were not as bold or successful as their predecessors. The most successful pirates of the era were [[Jean Lafitte]] and [[Roberto Cofresi]]. Lafitte is considered by many to be the last [[buccaneer]] due to his army of pirates and fleet of pirate ships which held bases in and around the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. Lafitte and his men participated in the [[War of 1812]] [[battle of New Orleans]]. Cofresi's base was in [[Mona Island]], Puerto Rico, from where he disrupted the commerce throughout the region. He became the last major target of the international anti-piracy operations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wombwell |first=A. James |title=The Long War Against Piracy: Historical Trends |year=2010 |ref=Wombell |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |page=204 |isbn=978-0-9823283-6-1}}</ref>

[[File:Hanging of William Kidd.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|Hanging of [[Captain Kidd]]; illustration from ''The Pirates Own Book'' (1837)]]
The elimination of piracy from European waters expanded to the Caribbean in the 18th century, West Africa and North America by the 1710s and by the 1720s even the Indian Ocean was a difficult location for pirates to operate.

England began to strongly turn against piracy at the turn of the 18th century, as it was increasingly damaging to the country's economic and commercial prospects in the region. The [[Piracy Act 1698]] for the "more effectual suppression of Piracy"<ref>''[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=46966 William III, 1698–99: An Act for the more effectual suppression of Piracy.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200623163139/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol7/pp590-594 |date=June 23, 2020 }}'' [Chapter VII. Rot. Parl. 11 Gul. III. p. 2. n. 5.]', Statutes of the Realm: volume 7: 1695–1701 (1820), pp. 590–594. Date accessed: February 16, 2007.</ref> made it easier to capture, try and convict pirates by lawfully enabling acts of piracy to be "examined, inquired of, tried, heard and determined, and adjudged in any place at sea, or upon the land, in any of his Majesty's islands, plantations, colonies, dominions, forts, or factories." This effectively enabled admirals to hold a court session to hear the trials of pirates in any place they deemed necessary, rather than requiring that the trial be held in England. Commissioners of these vice-admiralty courts were also vested with "full power and authority" to issue warrants, summon the necessary witnesses, and "to do all thing necessary for the hearing and final determination of any case of piracy, robbery, or felony." These new and faster trials provided no legal representation for the pirates; and ultimately led in this era to the execution of 600 pirates, which represented approximately 10 percent of the pirates active at the time in the Caribbean region.<ref name="Max 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Boot |first1=Max |title=Pirates, Then and Now: How Piracy Was Defeated in the Past and Can Be Again |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=2009 |volume=88 |issue=4 |pages=94–107 |jstor=20699624 }}</ref> Being an accessory to piracy was also criminalised under the statute.

[[File:Capture-of-Blackbeard.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|''Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, 1718'' depicting the battle between [[Blackbeard]] and [[Robert Maynard]] in Ocracoke Bay; romanticized depiction by [[Jean Leon Gerome Ferris]] from 1920]]
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]] that 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. Fears over the rising levels of crime and piracy, political discontent, concern over crowd behaviour at public punishments, and an increased determination by [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] to suppress piracy, resulted in the [[Piracy Act 1717]] and [[Piracy Act 1721]]. These established a seven-year [[penal transportation]] to North America as a possible punishment for those convicted of lesser felonies, or as a possible sentence that capital punishment might be commuted to by [[royal pardon]]. In 1717, a [[1717–1718 Acts of Grace|pardon was offered to pirates]] who surrendered to British authorities.

After 1720, piracy in the classic sense became extremely rare as increasingly effective anti-piracy measures were taken by the Royal Navy, making it impossible for any pirate to pursue an effective career for long. By 1718, the British Royal Navy had approximately 124 vessels and 214 by 1815; a big increase from the two vessels England had possessed in 1670.<ref name="Max 2009"/> British Royal Navy warships tirelessly hunted down pirate vessels, and almost always won these engagements.

[[File:Blackbeard head bow.gif|thumb|right|upright=0.95|[[Blackbeard]]'s severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from ''The Pirates Own Book'' (1837)]]
Many pirates did not surrender and were killed at the point of capture; notorious pirate Edward Teach, or "Blackbeard", was hunted down by Lieutenant [[Robert Maynard]] at [[Cape Lookout National Seashore|Ocracoke Inlet]] off the coast of [[North Carolina]] on November 22, 1718, and killed. His flagship was a captured French slave ship known originally as ''La Concorde'', he renamed the frigate ''[[Queen Anne's Revenge]]''. Captain [[Chaloner Ogle]] of HMS ''Swallow'' cornered Bartholomew Roberts in 1722 at Cape Lopez, and a fatal broadside from the ''Swallow'' killed the pirate captain instantly. Roberts' death shocked the pirate world, as well as the Royal Navy. The local merchants and civilians had thought him invincible, and some considered him a hero.<ref name="Pike1876">{{cite book|last=Pike|first=Luke Owen|title=A History of Crime in England: From the accession of Henry VII to the present time|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorycrimein03pikegoog|year=1876|publisher=Smith, Elder & Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistorycrimein03pikegoog/page/n286 266]|isbn=9780875850191}}</ref> Roberts' death was seen by many historians as the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. Also crucial to the end of this era of piracy was the loss of the pirates' last Caribbean safe haven at Nassau.

In the early 19th century, piracy along the East and Gulf Coasts of North America as well as in the Caribbean increased again. Jean Lafitte was just one of hundreds of pirates operating in American and Caribbean waters between the years of 1820 and 1835. The United States Navy repeatedly engaged pirates in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and in the Mediterranean. Cofresí's ''El Mosquito'' was disabled in [[Capture of the El Mosquito|a collaboration]] between Spain and the United States. After fleeing for hours, he was ambushed and captured inland. The United States landed shore parties on several islands in the Caribbean in pursuit of pirates; Cuba was a major haven. By the 1830s piracy had died out again, and the navies of the region focused on the slave trade.

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

Privateering would remain a tool of European states until the mid-19th century's [[Declaration of Paris]]. But [[letters of marque]] 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.

=== Canary Islands ===
[[File:La Gomera church M.jpg|thumb|250px|Mural representing the attack of [[Charles Windon]] to [[San Sebastián de La Gomera]] (1743)]]
Due to the strategic situation of this Spanish archipelago as a crossroads of maritime routes and commercial bridge between Europe, Africa and [[Americas|America]],<ref name=A>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gevic.net/info/contenidos/mostrar_contenidos.php?idcat=1&idcap=187&idcon=675|title=La piratería – Historia – (GEVIC) Gran Enciclopedia Virtual Islas Canarias|website=www.gevic.net|access-date=August 3, 2018|archive-date=March 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303213748/http://www.gevic.net/info/contenidos/mostrar_contenidos.php?idcat=1&idcap=187&idcon=675|url-status=live}}</ref> this was one of the places on the planet with the greatest pirate presence.

In the [[Canary Islands]], the following stand out: the attacks and continuous looting of [[Barbary pirates|Berber]], English, French and Dutch corsairs sometimes successful and often a failure;<ref name=A/> and on the other hand, the presence of pirates and corsairs from this archipelago, who made their incursions into the [[Caribbean]]. Pirates and corsairs such as [[François Le Clerc]], [[Jacques de Sores]], [[Francis Drake]] defeat in [[Gran Canaria]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gran-canaria-info.com/en/content/history/sir-francis-drake-s-epic-failure-at-las-palmas |title=The Gran Canaria Mistake That Cost Sir Francis Drake His Life |work=Gran-Canaria-Info.com |access-date=June 23, 2021 |archive-date=May 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509034136/https://gran-canaria-info.com/en/content/history/sir-francis-drake-s-epic-failure-at-las-palmas |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Pieter van der Does]], [[Murat Reis the Elder|Murat Reis]] and [[Horacio Nelson]] attacked the islands and was defeated in the [[Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797)]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://etenerifeholidays.co.uk/tenerife-island/history/the-defeat-of-nelson-at-the-battle-of-santa-cruz-de-tenerife-1797|title=The Defeat of Nelson at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1797|first=Peter|last=Allan|website=etenerifeholidays.co.uk|access-date=October 6, 2020|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112023241/https://etenerifeholidays.co.uk/tenerife-island/history/the-defeat-of-nelson-at-the-battle-of-santa-cruz-de-tenerife-1797|url-status=live}}</ref> Among those born in the archipelago stands out above all [[Amaro Pargo]], whom the monarch [[Felipe V of Spain]] frequently benefited in his commercial incursions and corsairs.<ref name="ColFar">{{cite news|last = Fariña González|first = Manuel|title = La evolución de una fortuna indiana: D. Amaro Rodríguez Felipe (Amaro Pargo).|access-date = June 10, 2016|url = http://mdc.ulpgc.es/cdm/ref/collection/coloquios/id/1321|archive-date = March 4, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001809/http://mdc.ulpgc.es/cdm/ref/collection/coloquios/id/1321|url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name="AmaroHeroe">{{cite book | title=Amaro Pargo: documentos de una vida, I. Héroe y forrajido | date=2017 | publisher=Ediciones Idea | isbn=978-8416759811 | pages=520 | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321110986 | access-date=March 20, 2018 | archive-date=March 17, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317143401/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321110986_Amaro_Pargo_documentos_de_una_vida_I_Heroe_y_forajido | url-status=live }}</ref>

===North America===
[[File:Dan Seavey around 1920 (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|[[Dan Seavey]] was a pirate on the [[Great Lakes]] in the early 20th century.]]

Piracy on the east coast of North America first became common in the early seventeenth century, as English privateers discharged after the end of the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)|Anglo-Spanish War]] (1585–1604) turned to piracy.<ref>Clive Malcolm Senior, [https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34506574/544142.pdf An Investigation of the Activities and Importance of English Pirates, 1603–40] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531144419/https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34506574/544142.pdf |date=May 31, 2022 }} (University of Bristol, PhD thesis, 1973)</ref><ref>Clive Senior, ''A Nation of Pirates: English Piracy in its Heyday'' (Newton Abbot, 1976)</ref> The most famous and successful of these early pirates was [[Peter Easton]].

[[River pirate|River piracy]] in late 18th-mid-19th century America was primarily concentrated along the [[Ohio River]] and [[Mississippi River]] valleys. In 1803, at [[Grand Tower, Illinois|Tower Rock]], the [[U.S. Army]] [[Cavalry|dragoons]], possibly, from the frontier army post up river at [[Fort Kaskaskia]], on the [[Illinois]] side opposite St. Louis, raided and drove out the river pirates.

[[Stack Island (Mississippi River)|Stack Island]] was also associated with river pirates and [[counterfeit money|counterfeiters]] in the late 1790s. In 1809, the last major river pirate activity took place, on the Upper Mississippi River, and river piracy in this area came to an abrupt end, when a group of [[flatboat]]men raided the island, wiping out the river pirates. From 1790 to 1834, [[Cave-In-Rock, Illinois|Cave-In-Rock]] was the principal [[outlaw]] lair and headquarters of river pirate activity in the Ohio River region, from which [[Samuel Mason]] led a gang of river pirates on the Ohio River.

River piracy continued on the lower Mississippi River, from the early 1800s to the mid-1830s, declining as a result of direct military action and local [[law enforcement]] and [[vigilante|regulator-vigilante]] groups that uprooted and swept out pockets of outlaw resistance.

[[Dan Seavey|"Roaring" Dan Seavey]] was a pirate active in the early 1900s in the [[Great Lakes]] region who joined the [[United States Marshals Service]] in later life, working to curb poaching, smuggling, and piracy on [[Lake Michigan]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sandusky |first=Trent |date=February 14, 2008 |title=Great Lakes Piracy: Pirates Thrived on the Great Lakes Long After Their Golden Age |url=http://voices.yahoo.com/great-lakes-piracy-pirates-thrived-great-lakes-893177.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729042052/http://voices.yahoo.com/great-lakes-piracy-pirates-thrived-great-lakes-893177.html |archive-date=July 29, 2014 |access-date=November 25, 2024 |website=Yahoo}}</ref>