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Golden Age Of Piracy Essay

444 Words2 Pages

When we think of pirates we usually think of cruel, treasure-burying scoundrels with eye patches and peg legs. But there is much more to piracy than just the initial picture we get from movies and books. For instance, most books and movies depict pirates from the “golden age of piracy” (1715-1725), but pirates have always existed and are still fairly common today. Are the pirates of old anything like the modern-day pirates in places like Somalia? What drives people to piracy, and is it really what we think it is? I’ll explore these questions in following paragraphs.
The “Golden Age of Piracy” went on at the same time that Europe was colonizing the Americas, this was very useful to pirates because there were lots of merchant ships going back …show more content…

In 1991, civil war ended the functionality of Somalia’s government, sending the country into total anarchy. Commercial fishing companies took advantage of the situation and started harvesting fish from Somalia’s tuna-rich waters. But with no working coastguard, the local fishermen decided to take matters into their own hands, thus holding ships and crews hostage. Eventually the impoverished fishermen realized that they could make millions off every ship they held hostage; this was extremely appealing and many fishermen decided to make their livings as pirates. The really interesting thing is that the Somali people don’t see piracy as a crime. They believe that the pirates are doing good as they protect Somalia’s fishing industry. However, this doesn’t change the fact that holding ships and crews hostage is considered terrorism and is wrong. In my opinion, the main difference between the “Golden Age of Piracy” and the pirates in Somalia is that in Somalia many locals think that the pirates are doing good, but in the 1700s most people agreed that pirates were cruel and evil. It is clear that the pirates of the 1700s were greedy and selfish, but the line is much more blurry now. Are the pirates of Somalia an unofficial coastguard or are they terrorists? The answer is extremely subjective. However, it is clear that both pirates use force, fear, and cruelty to get what they want, and the main motive is money and

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