Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740

Analyzing the rise and subsequent fall of international piracy from the perspective of colonial hinterlands, Mark G. Hanna explores the often overt support of sea marauders in maritime communities from the inception of England's burgeoning empire in the 1570s to its administrative consolidation by the 1740s. Although traditionally depicted as swashbuckling adventurers on the high seas, pirates played a crucial role on land. Far from a hindrance to trade, their enterprises contributed to commercial development and to the economic infrastructure of port towns.

English piracy and unregulated privateering flourished in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean because of merchant elites' active support in the North American colonies. Sea marauders represented a real as well as a symbolic challenge to legal and commercial policies formulated by distant and ineffectual administrative bodies that undermined the financial prosperity and defense of the colonies. Departing from previous understandings of deep-sea marauding, this study reveals the full scope of pirates' activities in relation to the landed communities that they serviced and their impact on patterns of development that formed early America and the British Empire.

Author: Mark G. Hanna
Publisher: Omohundro Institute and Unc Press
Published: 04/03/2017
Pages: 464
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.43lbs
Size: 8.98h x 6.18w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9781469636047
ISBN10: 1469636042
BISAC Categories:
- History | Maritime History & Piracy
- History | Europe | Great Britain | General
- History | Americas (North Central South West Indies)