Acts of robbery committed or attempted on trade routes, typically on the high seas.
The exact definition of piracy is somewhat blurry. For example, some view the German sinking of Allied merchant ships during World War I as piracy, despite the fact that it was carried out by a nation-state in the course of war. Others debate whether privateering, which similarly is conducted with the approval of a nation-state, constitutes piracy per se.
Because ancient maritime powers depended on secure sea-lanes for their revenue, piracy was typically dealt with very harshly when such states were strong. Piracy in ancient times flourished during periods of unrest or cultural decline, such as that which followed during the late 1200s B.C.E. in the Mediterranean. The Sea Peoples, who raided and colonized large sections of the Levant during this period, can be viewed as pirates.
Pirates typically founded their bases on small islands, which were easy to defend and yet were close to major maritime trade routes. Many such islands existed in the Aegean. Pirates were so active during the latter part of the first millennium B.C.E. that by the first century B.C.E. Rome nearly starved because of the interception of grain shipments from Egypt. Rome was the first empire to exercise control over the entire Mediterranean, and in the early first century B.C.E. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) was empowered by the Senate to sweep the Mediterranean clear of pirates. According to one possibly apocryphal account from this period, Anatolian pirates while touring the Hellenistic states of the eastern Mediterranean captured a young Gaius Julius Caesar. After being ransomed, he led a Rhodian fleet back to the pirate’s den and had them all crucified.
With the decline of Roman power, piracy again began to plague the Mediterranean. Moreover, because of a virtually worldwide collapse of centralized states during the period between 400 C.E. and 700, pirate activity increased in the Indian Ocean, along the coast of China and in the North Sea, among other places. The Vikings, whose rise came toward the end of this period, were extraordinarily successful pirates and raiders, though their raids were more frequently directed against trade centers than against loan merchant vessels. Even after the emergence of strong, centralized states in Scandinavia, Norse pirates continued to plague the Baltic until the rise of the Hanseatic League in the 1200s.
In the Mediterranean, the Middle Ages saw a marked increase in piracy as the sea quickly became a no-man’s-land between the Muslim and Christian spheres. Corsairs from the Aghlabid emirate in what is now Tunisia began a systematic process of harassment and piracy against Christian shipping; retaliation by Venetian ships (who also preyed on vessels of rival Christian states) and the Byzantine fleet made the Mediterranean very unsafe for shipping. Piracy continued to be carried out from bases in North Africa; eventually, piracy and protection racketeering became the main sources of income for the so-called Barbary States, which emerged in that region. Muslim pirates were greatly feared in Christian Europe; in the 1600s, a group of such corsairs raided as far away as Iceland, carrying off large quantities of slaves and goods.
With the discovery of the New World, the rise of mercantilism, and the increasing competition between the European powers, piracy became even more prevalent. New trade routes and goods and the shipment of precious metals from Spanish America made piracy extremely lucrative. Moreover, as maritime law had not yet been universalized, no great stigma was attached to piracy or to being a pirate. Increasingly, nations began to promote their national cause by tacitly or overtly approving of pirate attacks on the colonies and commerce of rival states. The West Indies became known as a pirates’ haven. English buccaneers (in the parlance of the day, “sea dogs”) were especially famous. They raided Spanish treasure armadas and pillaged Spanish settlements before returning to England, where they received royal pardons in exchange for a share of the earnings. In some cases, nations issued letters of marque, which authorized the bearer to seize the shipping of a specified foreign power in the name of the Crown. In the Far East, the development of a strong navy by the Chinese had for a time curbed the ability of pirates to operate. However, beginning in the 1600s increasing isolationism and reduced interest in naval operations gave pirates a free hand in the South China Sea, and especially in the Strait of Malacca (Melaka).
During the 1700s, the development of national navies and the increasing depredations of the pirates caused the great maritime powers to band together. In a few short decades, piracy in the Caribbean and the Atlantic had been all but wiped out. In 1803, and again in 1815 and 1816, the United States (later joined by Great Britain and the Netherlands), destroyed the power of the North African pirates, and shortly thereafter United States and British fleets wiped out the last pirates in the Caribbean. By 1824, the only area of significant pirate activity was in the Far East. After the Opium Wars (1839–1842), Britain and other European colonial powers conducted extensive operations aimed at eliminating this threat and were largely successful.
After World War I, significant steps were taken by the international community to eliminate the threat of piracy. In 1921 at the Washington Conference, a treaty was signed stating that any improper visit, search, or seizure by vessels of or guided by a particular nation would be considered piracy. In 1937, following a series of mysterious attacks on merchant ships in the Mediterranean (possibly connected to the Spanish civil war), another pact was signed at the Nyon Conference.
Under current international law, piracy is considered a crime against humanity. As such, pirates may be tried in any competent court of any nation, which may add to the charges specific acts committed in violation of its own laws or against its own vessels. This is the case regardless of the nationality of the pirates or their victims.
Piracy is for the most part extinct. However, small-scale acts of piracy continue to occur in poorly patrolled regions, particularly in Indonesia and elsewhere in the seas of Southeast and South Asia, in the Red Sea and off the Horn of Africa, along the Gulf of Guinea coast, and off Ecuador.
Brian M. Gottesman
See also: Roman Empire.
Cordingly, David, ed. Pirates: Terror on the High Seas, from the Caribbean to the South China Sea. Atlanta: Turner, 1996.
Gosse, Phillip. The History of Piracy. Detroit: Gale Research, 1976
Gottschalk, Jack A. Jolly Roger with an Uzi: The Rise and Threat of Modern Piracy. Annapolis: Naval Institute, 2000.
Rubin, Alfred P. The Law of Piracy. Irvington on Hudson, NY: Transnational, 1998.