Buccaneers were a specific group operating in the Caribbean in the s — and not all of them were actually pirates! In order to understand the difference between pirates and buccaneers, we first need to look at a group of high seas raiders known as privateers. Privateers were essentially "legal pirates", engaging in activities that could only be described as piracy, but which had the express support and authority of a sovereign nation.
Privateers were usually used during times of war to attack ships and coastal areas belonging to enemy nations. As long as the privateer restricted his activities to what was covered by that document, his actions were considered legal. If a privateer were captured, the Letters of Marque would — theoretically — guarantee that he be treated as a prisoner or war, rather than as an international criminal to be tried and executed.
In reality, privateers were often seen as pirates by those they were attacking, and were treated as such. Drake, a hero in England, was considered a pirate by the Spanish. Privateering provided a way for nations to engage in naval warfare without the cost of maintaining or expanding a navy. The costs involved in operating privateer vessels were often provided by investors, in return for a portion of plundered profits. Remaining profits were divided between the privateers and their crew and the government.
Famous privateers include Sir Francis Drake, who fought for England against the Spanish Armada in the s, and Captain Kidd, who began his career as an privateer for England in the late s, but who conducted raids outside of the authority granted him by his Letters of Marque, and was ultimately hanged in England for piracy.
Possibly the most famous privateer, Captain Henry Morgan, is discussed below, in the section on buccaneers. Captain Kidd, originally an English privateer, was later hung in England for piracy. The United States has used privateers during wartime, specifically in the Revolutionary War and the War of Privateers have not been used by the US since the War of , although the Confederate States used privateers during the American Civil War to attack Union vessels and ports.
In , the Declaration of Paris abolished privateering, although the US and some other nations were not parties to the agreement. Technically, the US Constitution still grants Congress the power to issue Letters of Marque, and the idea of using them has been discussed as recently as The term buccaneer originally referred to a group of French settlers living in the Caribbean in the early s, who were known for smoking their meat on frames known as boucans.
Driven from their island homes by the Spanish, many of these men formed a brotherhood, the Brethren of the Coast, and began attacking Spanish vessels at sea and plundering Spanish towns. Buccaneers had a reputation for being particularly brutal and ruthless. Buccaneers originally settled on the island of Hispaniola , which now contains the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic:. Later in that century, France and England began hiring some of these buccaneers to protect their colonies in that part of the world from attacks by Spanish forces.
When even more might was needed, these nations sent additional privateers to the Caribbean to fight alongside the buccaneers. The term buccaneer usually refers to all who were operating against the Spanish in the Caribbean during that time, whether part of the original group or not. One of the best-known buccaneers, Captain Henry Morgan, was a privateer working for England, whose raids on Portobello and Panama City made him a legend. Francois L'Olonnais, another well-known buccaneer, was a full-fledged pirate.
Because not all buccaneers were operating legally, nor did those with Letters of Marque always restrict their attacks to authorized targets, the term buccaneer became synonomous with pirate to many people. Henry Morgan, a buccaneer who was not a pirate, but a privateer in the employ of England, divides plundered treasure among his crew. George Alfred Williams, illustrator.
They usually conduct their robbery over a boat. Pirates aim to conduct criminal violence. Buccaneer is referred to privateers or sailors of the Caribbean Sea especially during the 17th and 18th centuries. These Caribbean privateers were also called the Brethren of the Coast. Buccaneer was also referred to as hunters of Tortuga and Hispaniola that survived on wild boars and cattle.
The meat caught was smoked over a slow fire. Buccaneers are different from other Caribbean sailors as the sailors have permanent bases built in the West Indies. Buccaneers even arranged for legal covers for their attacks. So they had the potential to plunder any nation with protection usually a letter of marque granted by the authorities of Dutch, British, and French.
Even if they did not have valid letters, they did not care for legal niceties. Buccaneers have expertise in climbing aboard before the rise of alarm and kills of any officers or helmsman causing hindrance. They even raided towns from the landward side. The sack of Campeche is the first land attack by buccaneers. Buccaneers even had severe punishments whenever they were caught.
The punishments were like public execution or dead bodies enclosed in iron cages. Historical definitions tended to be a lot broader. During the 17th and 18th centuries, England regarded piracy as any criminal act committed on the high seas or below the low tide mark around shores, rivers, and estuaries.
Hundreds of years earlier, in the year CE, Plutarch—a noteworthy Greek scholar— talked about pirates as anybody who attacked a ship or maritime city without legal authority.
Usually, a privateer vessel was allowed to operate under a license that was granted by the country it served. Dubbed the Letter of Marque, this document laid out a code of conduct and payment policy for the crew.
Privateers almost always got to keep a percentage of whatever they took. Essentially, privateers were independent contractors, acting as hostile, government-commissioned, seafaring mercenaries.
But the dividing line here was pretty blurry. Many privateers eventually became pirates and vice versa. Also, a captured privateer would sometimes be tried as a pirate by the country he or she was victimizing. This brings us back to buccaneers: Throughout the 16th through 18th centuries, Spain more or less controlled the Caribbean. However, in the s, she started to get some not-so-friendly competition.
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