Buccaneering Vs Piracy

Piracy, buccaneering and privateering are commonly confused with each other in media and literature. In this paper, all three will be evaluated separately on their impact on the Spanish and North American colonies in North America. This requires an explanation of the distinction between all three. Although very similar, these practices do hold some differences ; while piracy was the practice of illegally attacking and robbing ships at sea, privateering was privately-owned armed ships (usually pirates) that were issued a government commission and authorized for the use of war. Buccaneers were actually runaway sailors and deserters who arrived to the waters of the Caribbean Sea, where they kept themselves alive by roasting stolen cattle on makeshift

Without privateers, the colonies would have most likely failed in their rebellion against the British. When the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, they were in no position to go against the British on the high seas. In 1776, Britain’s navy was the most powerful in the world. States would build their own warships so that the Congress could establish a navy, but it was a slow going. Never in the American Revolution did the American naval forces have enough resources to offensively confront the Royal Navy. The Americans knew they had to have outside help to defeat the British, so they turned to privateering. About 1,700 Letters of Marque- which were government issued licenses for privately armed ships to commit piracy against that particular government's enemies- were issued on a per-voyage basis during the American revolution. From start to finish, nearly 800 boats were commissioned as privateers and are credited with destroying or capturing about 600 British ships. The Continental Congress even issued a proclamation authorizing large-scale privateering against English ships. There were even advertisements for recruiting sailors onto privateer ships, like this one featured in the Boston newspaper: “An Invitation to all brave Seamen and Marines, who have an inclination to serve their Country and make their

Even though there could be other reasons why these events happened other than piracy as mentioned before, piracy is still one of the main influencers. While the deeds that pirates, buccaneers and privateers did in the Atlantic World are rarely talked about in modern day history teachings, it does not change the fact that they had a large influence on how American society grew and