Golden Age of Piracy

Quick Facts: Who was Golden Age of Piracy?

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Golden Age of Piracy

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The era (c. 1650–1730) when maritime piracy flourished across the North and Indian Oceans.

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Origins & Early Life

The Golden Age of Piracy was the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Histories of piracy often subdivide the Golden Age of Piracy into three periods: The buccaneering period (approximately 1650 to 1680), characterized by Anglo-French seamen based in Jamaica, Martinique, and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies, and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific to western Pacific. The Pirate Round (1690s), associated with long-distance voyages from various Caribbean and North American ports to established bases in countries like Madagascar, in order to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. The post-Spanish Succession period (1715 to 1730), when English sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the North American eastern seaboard, and the West African coast. Narrower definitions of the Golden Age sometimes exclude the first or second periods, but most include at least some portion of the third.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

The modern conception of pirates as depicted in popular culture is derived largely, although not always accurately, from the Golden Age of Piracy. Factors contributing to piracy during the Golden Age included the rise in quantities of valuable cargoes being shipped to Europe over vast ocean areas, reduced European navies in certain regions, the training and experience that many sailors had gained in European navies (particularly the British Royal Navy), and corrupt and ineffective government in European overseas colonies. Colonial powers at the time constantly fought with pirates and engaged in several notable battles and other related events. The oldest known literary mention of a "Golden Age" of piracy is from 1894, when the English journalist George Powell wrote about "What appears to have been the golden age of piracy up to the last decade of the 17th century." Powell uses the phrase while reviewing Charles Leslie's A New and Exact History of Jamaica, then over 150 years old. Powell uses the phrase only once.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

In 1897, a more systematic use of the phrase "Golden Age of Piracy" was introduced by historian John Fiske, who wrote, "At no other time in the world's history has the business of piracy thriven so greatly as in the seventeenth century and the first part of the eighteenth. Its golden age may be said to have extended from about 1650 to about 1720." Fiske included the activities of the Barbary corsairs and East Asian pirates in this "Golden Age," noting that "as these Mussulman pirates and those of Eastern Asia were as busily at work in the seventeenth century as at any other time, their case does not impair my statement that the age of the buccaneers was the Golden Age of piracy." Pirate historians of the first half of the 20th century occasionally adopted Fiske's term "Golden Age," without necessarily following his beginning and ending dates for it. began in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and ended in the second decade of the eighteenth century." This idea starkly contradicted Fiske, who had hotly denied that such Elizabethan figures as Francis Drake were pirates. Of recent definitions, that given by Pringle appears to have the widest range, an exception to an overall trend among historians from 1909 until the 1990s, toward narrowing the Golden Age. As early as 1924, Philip Gosse described piracy as being at its height "from 1680 until 1730." In his highly popular 1978 book The Pirates for TimeLife's The Seafarers series, Douglas Botting defined the Golden Age as lasting "barely 30 years, starting at the close of the 17th Century and ending in the first quarter of the 18th." Botting's definition was closely followed by Frank Sherry in 1986.

Chronological Milestones & Life Events

1. 1650: 1650 Milestone — Histories of piracy often subdivide the Golden Age of Piracy into three periods: The buccaneering period (approximately 1650 to 1680), characterized by Anglo-French seamen based in Jamaica, Martinique, and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies, and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific to western Pacific.
2. 1715: 1715 Milestone — The post-Spanish Succession period (1715 to 1730), when English sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the North American eastern seaboard, and the West African coast.
3. 1894: 1894 Milestone — The oldest known literary mention of a "Golden Age" of piracy is from 1894, when the English journalist George Powell wrote about "What appears to have been the golden age of piracy up to the last decade of the 17th century.
4. 1897: 1897 Milestone — In 1897, a more systematic use of the phrase "Golden Age of Piracy" was introduced by historian John Fiske, who wrote, "At no other time in the world's history has the business of piracy thriven so greatly as in the seventeenth century and the first part of the eighteenth.
5. 1909: 1909 Milestone — Of recent definitions, that given by Pringle appears to have the widest range, an exception to an overall trend among historians from 1909 until the 1990s, toward narrowing the Golden Age.
6. 1924: 1924 Milestone — As early as 1924, Philip Gosse described piracy as being at its height "from 1680 until 1730.
7. 1978: 1978 Milestone — " In his highly popular 1978 book The Pirates for TimeLife's The Seafarers series, Douglas Botting defined the Golden Age as lasting "barely 30 years, starting at the close of the 17th Century and ending in the first quarter of the 18th.
8. 1986: 1986 Milestone — " Botting's definition was closely followed by Frank Sherry in 1986.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Golden Age of Piracy

True or False: “The Golden Age of Piracy was exclusively limited to the period between 1700 and 1725.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): While some historians favored narrower dates, the accepted broad definition spans from the 1650s through the 1730s.

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