18th Century Dbq

The connotation of the word terror has changed drastically from the 18th century to now due to the prominent terrorist groups, such as ISIS, in today’s society. This is due to the fact that in the 18th century terror most prominently meant the act of inflicting terror upon others, while today terror is often associated with acts of terrorism. Rediker states that there were two types of terror during the “golden age”, including terror conducted by the states and terror inflicted by the pirates. The buildup of states and pirates being portrayed as terrorists was inevitable due to the self interests of colonial empires. The beginning of pirates being seen as terrorist is evident in Document one by Excellencies Command Isaac Addington. Before

The document shows that pirates and their activities began with privateering. This document was written as a contract to allow Captain Plowman to do whatever necessary for the English with no repercussions for Plowman himself. Privateers had a contract with a state in which they had to abide by. The document talks about how Captain Plowman, a privateer, was hired by the English during Queen Anne’s War which allowed him to attack and destroy all vessels of France and Spain. In the document, it states, “Her Majesties Royal Commission commissionate you the Daniel Plowman…” which shows that the top position hired the privateers. When analyzing document one, it showed that Queen Anne had her ambitions of having an empire and wanted to disrupt other states such as Spain and France and that the leaders of states were allowing privateers to attack their enemies. This is important because she is the head of a state and if something bad were to happen it would fall back on her. Although this document was for a privateer, however it looked more pirate-like because it states “Hereby Authorize