The word pirate comes from the Greek word πειρατης which comes in its turn from the verb πειραω meaning “to make an effort”, “to test”, “to try its chance with the adventure”.
A pirate is a person who practices piracy. The piracy is the practice, as old as the navigation, which have as an aim the attack of a boat with an aim of stealing its loading, and sometimes the boat entire. However, the pirates did not limit themselves only to the other boats but sometimes attacked coastal small towns. The word “ pirate ” is attached to the actions at sea without the downstream of a sovereign nation, contrary to the Corsaires, captains of private boat working for the account of a nation or an important person in the company. Maritime piracy knew its apogee during the 18th century then disappeared, had little by little with the capacity growing of the nations on all the areas of the world. Many Anarchistes took as a starting point the philosophy by the pirates which consisted in exiling of all Nation in order to carry out a freer life.
In spite of its maritime origin, the pirate word is mentioned in different contexts, such as the “pirates of the road”, which one formerly called “highwaymen”.
By Shift in meaning, a Hacker designates an individual devoting himself to carried out by Internet, or copy embezzlements of works without respecting the Royalty or the Copyright. There are other more villainous forms like the Hameçonnage, which consists in usurping an identity, generally corporative.
Sometimes one speaks about political pirates in the case of acts and terrorists: it is the case of the hijackers. However, it is here about a deformation of the direction of pirate: the absence of the lucrative interest of an terrorist activity makes that one cannot really bind these criminals to the true pirates.
History of maritime piracy
Piracy is a corollary of the maritime trade and existed already in the Antiquité. All old civilizations having had a marine practiced it, the Phéniciens like the Mycéniens.Jules César had itself to suffer from the activity of the pirates. At the time of a voyage towards the East between the years 75 av. J. - C. and 74 av. J. - C., it was captured by those, with height of the island of Pharmacuse, near the town of Milet in Asia Mineure. As of its release against ransom, he undertook to be avenged. After having joined together in all haste a flotilla, it surprised and captured the pirates whom it made carry out thereafter. Pompée was made famous while cleaning the the Mediterranean pirates Cilicie NS.
Terminology
See also: Piracy in the Caribbean
It comes from the Greek word peiratès , pirated in Latin, which gives finally pirate in French.
The pirates who prevailed in the Caribbean Sea were sometimes called wrongly Boucanier S. In fact, the buccaneers live without chief, and deal especially with the meat supply of the pirates and flibustiers. They drive out primarily ox and the pig which they deposit in districts on trays of branch (din). They light then below a green wood fire and smoke the meat. Their preferred hunting grounds are in the North-West of Saint-Domingue and in bay of Campeche. On the occasion, it is able to them to mingle with a forwarding, but it is not their principal activity. The majority of the buccaneers are at the origin either of the adventurers, or of the deserters of the various European nations.
The pirates Dutch were called “vrij buiters” ( vrij meaning free and buit meaning at the same time acquisition, prey and game, this expression thus means “free plunderer”), which gave by deformation Flibustier in French and freebooter in English. It should besides be noted that the terms of pirate and flibustier are overall equivalent until the 18th century.
But with the control growing of the great European nations on the Caribbean, certain flibustiers agree to line up punctually behind a royal banner, to obtain a certain legitimacy. This engagement is very specific, and it should well be distinguished from the statute of Corsaire. Indeed, when they acted with the profit of a great European nation, for example by running the ships of a country with which this nation was in war, the pirates had the statute, superior, of Corsaire (in Arab language modern, قرصان and in Turkish, Korsan ).
In fact, during the 18th century, the term of pirate is used more only to appoint the flibustiers of high-sea, often Anglo-American, who remain independent and whose apogee is between 1716 and 1726.
Corsair or pirate?
There exists an enormous difference between pirates and Corsaires. If the seconds employed methods vaguely similar to those of the first, they were provided with a letter with mark and reprisals or Lettre with race given by a king or a government, who authorized them to attack the ships of an enemy nation. The Barbaresque , in the Mediterranean were corsairs, just as certain Maltese sailors, who were authorized by the Ordre of Malta. The letter of mark was recognized by convention and avoided with the corsair being marked of piracy, liable to the capital punishment, but that was not always enough to save the life to him. The British corsair most famous was Sir Francis Drake at one time when the England began only its maritime adventure (end 16th century) and where it had interest to encourage the race. Two centuries later, whereas the Royal Navy reigned on all the seas of the world, Great Britain had only to make corsairs, become useless and cumbersome. In France, following the severe defeat of the admiral de Tourville in Hougue (1692) Louis XIV encouraged private initiatives. Jean Bart and his cousin Jacobsen, of Dunkirk, the count of Forbin, the Inhabitant of Saint Malo Duguay-Trouin, the Nantes Jacques Cassard transfer himself encouraged by Versailles to pile up considerable spoils on the back of the British and the Netherlanders. Following the French revolution and with the escape in exile of many naval officers because of their membership of the nobility, France sudden of many reverses on the floods, except the big hits of a pack of adventurous corsairs who foamed the Indian Ocean between 1792 and 1815. One of them, Robert Surcouf, native of Saint-Malo, thus gained glory, honor and fortune with the point of its cutlass: it finishes its life opulent ship-owner inhabitant of Saint Malo at a advanced age. At the 19th century, after the Napoleonean adventure, the race lost its importance gradually. Its last last-ditch struggle was undoubtedly at the time of the War of Greek Independence (1824-1830), where certain sailors of the fatherland of Socrate gave wire to retordre with the Othoman navy.Seven nations got along in the declaration of Paris of 1856 to give up the use of the letters of mark. However, the the United States and the Spain reserve the right explicitly, by their Constitution, to have still recourse there.
Social organization
The pirates of the last centuries are imagined carrying out a romantic life of intelligent rebels and crafty ones, acting groups some apart from the life governed by the laws and the obligations, such as we know it today. Actually, few pirates ate with their hunger or became rich, the majority died young people, because the carried provisions were infested rats and other small animals.However, certain aspects of the organization of the pirates are surprising. Contrary to the Western companies of the time, of many clans of pirates functioned like limited democracies: one elected and replaced the leaders, for example. The captain of a boat pirates was often a wild combatant in whom it crew had confidence, rather than an authoritative chief resulting from an aristocratic elite. It was often the Master of Timonerie, called “the second” or “the bosco”, who was responsible for the crew and which was charged to make reign the order day after day, except during the battles where it is the captain who gave the orders.
Many groups of pirates divided all the spoils which they obtained, while following a rather complicated diagram in which each man received the share which was reserved to him. The pirates wounded during a battle received even sometimes a special premium. Moreover, several works report the power struggle very right between the captain of a ship and the others at the time of a victory. Indeed, the spoils were divided so that the captain receives as much as the others, at most 1,5 times or twice as much as the others, but never again.
The pirates had chosen to be banished traditional companies, in particular because the life of sailor was particularly painful, dangerous and that the discipline on board was particularly hard. Many sailors had not really chosen this trade, that is to say that they were sold like foams to a captain, or that they were enlisted of force by the press, a system largely employed by the British. It often happened that they release from the slaves found in the captured ships, incorporating them in their crew or the depositor at ground.
However, these levelling practices were limited only to very little aspects of the life of the pirates, and did not attenuate really the roughness of their lifestyle.
See also: List of famous pirates and List of famous corsairs
Pirates in the imaginary collective
Piracy inspired by many authors and continuous to fascinate the public beyond the centuries, by conveying a certain number of stereotypes.See also: List of famous pirates
Stereotypes on the pirates
- the pirate is often depicts with a gash with the face, one-eyed with a mask on the eye, and amputee of a hand, replaced by a hook. It lost also often a leg because of gangrene or a ball, and is pressed then on a wooden leg.
- All at the beginning, each boat of pirates had his own flag, and the victims did not know what that wanted to say. Little by little, the flags became generals and they had each one a different significance.
- the pirates use a black flag representing of the human bones (like the Jolly Roger and its derived), because they are famous not to make prisoners.
- the pirates hide their treasure on an island and they mark its site on a chart with the treasure.
- the pirates are often accompanied by a Perroquet.
Pirate Utopias
It is Hakim Bey, figure Anarchiste, and specialist in the “pirate cause” which introduces concepts of Idéologie and in Utopie pirate through his book TAZ . For him, the basic principle of the definition of the pirate is his autonomy.
Modern piracy
See also: modern Piracy
Piracy and international law
In the field of the International law piracy is generally regarded as the oldest example of use of the principle of universal Juridiction. To plunder the ocean liners, to block trade route or to endanger the maritime communications were regarded by the sovereign states as being hosti humanis generis (crimes against humanity). Since piracy, by definition, is practiced apart from the national jurisdictions, the legal actions by sovereign states against pirates constitute an exceptional legal situation.
Convention of the United Nations on the right of the sea
- Article 100 : Obligation to cooperate with the Répression of piracy
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Article 101 : Definition of piracy
References
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