Lane, Kris E. Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500-1750 (M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1998). Kris E. Lane’s Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500- 1750 focuses on Spain and Portugal’s encounters with pirates in the Americas during the early modern era. Lane diverges from traditional history on piracy through his attempt to place pirates in a world-historical perspective and he emphasizes how pirates were motivated by their desire for money rather than patriotic motives. Lane is a professor of Colonial Latin American History at Tulane University. The purpose of Pillaging the Empire is to provide a chronological survey of piracy in the Americas and introduce maritime predation in Spain’s colonial holdings between 1500 and1750. Lane illustrates this purpose by surveying piracy in the Americas from 1500 to 1750 and through his placement of piracy in a world-historical perspective. Pillaging the Empire is paramount to the study of Atlantic world history as Lane provides an overview of maritime predation in the Americas in the early modern era, while placing piracy in the America’s in a world-historical perspective as well as proving that pirates were motivated by pecuniary motives which is an important lesson for the study of the history of piracy. Pillaging the Empire is a synthesis of secondary sources on piracy in the Americas in the early modern era. Lane does not use many primary sources in formulating his synthesis and argument. His primary sources are