Pirate is now the commonly accepted term around the world for a person who commits a variety of treachery on the high seas. Earlier in the history of pirates, they were given more specific names that helped to better identify them.
Privateers would have been pirates legally commissioned by a country or government giving them permission to wage war against another country or government. The French and English pirates that were living in the Caribbean about the time of the seventeenth century went by the name, buccaneer. Of course the name buccaneer is a very anglicized version of the French word, boucanier.
Off the North African and Mediterranean coasts were Muslim pirates called the Barbary corsairs. The French considered them straight up pirates but the locals and Islamic governments considered them privateers, as they tended to raid only non-Islamic people.
In the rich waters of the Mediterranean area where vigorous sea trading was taking place, pirating came to develop and be very effective. The nations and kingdoms warring amongst themselves would set pirates against their foes. To collect taxes from the locals the city-states of Greece gave pirates the job as tax collector because the pirates were so feared.
Pirate activity was sometime made legal by a country, when this happened the pirates became known as privateers. Warring countries like England, France and Spain would direct their privateers to attack enemy ships and disrupt trade. Privateers were often more successful than the navies at fighting and the theft of merchants and government treasure could badly hinder a country.
Many times though countries or governments would ban together to help each other rid themselves of pirate infestations.
Pirates would escape to sea running from poverty, escaping the local navy or cruel laws of the land. Pirates needed their own laws on board ship so that they could come together and operate successfully. This inadvertently led to pirates creating what became known as the first true individual democracy in which every pirate had a voice by having an equal vote in what took place on board the ship. But shipboard lawbreakers found they had to face harsh penalties to pay for their transgressions against fellow crew members.
Pirates around this time in the early to mid 1600’s also established rules to take care of their own by compensation if they were injured or lost a body part. Typically a body part on the right side was worth more than on the left side.
While many boys and men were captured or pressed into serving on a pirate ship, most pirates joined up willingly. It provided a way to escape the navy of the day that was no better and often worse in pay and living conditions. A pirate ship provided you choices that the navy didn’t and men were often forced into the navy.
It would not be unusual for a pirate who had spent months at sea, to collect his share of the treasure and then blow it all in a night or two of excessive pleasure.
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