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This article refers to the type of pirate. For other uses, see Buccaneer (disambiguation)

"Buccaneer of the Caribbean" from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates

Buccaneer is a term that was used in the later 17th centuryin the Caribbean Islands to refer to pirates who attacked Spanish shipping. The term "buccaneer" derives from the Arawak word buccan, a wooden frame for smoking meat, hence the French word meaning boucan and the name boucanier for French hunters who used such frames to smoke meat from poached cattle and pigs on the islands that are now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.^[1] British colonists Anglicized the word boucanier to "buccaneer." Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... A Buccaneer can be one of a number of things: A Buccaneer is a specific kind of pirate. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 386 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,860 × 2,884 pixels, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 386 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,860 × 2,884 pixels, file size: 1. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... West Indies redirects here. ... Arowak woman (John Gabriel Stedman) The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for cassava flour), was used to designate the Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in the West Indies. ... Buccan (noun) a device made and used by certain American Indian peoples. ... For other uses, see Poaching (disambiguation). ... For general information about the genus, including other species of cattle, see Bos. ... For other uses, see Pig (disambiguation). ...

Conflict with Spanish forces from the east of Hispaniola drove many of the buccaneers from the mainland to the island of Tortuga. Here, they turned to piracy against Spanish shipping, generally using small craft to attack galleons in the vicinity of the Windward Passage. English settlers occupying Jamaica began to spread the name with the meaning of pirates or privateers sailing in the Caribbean ports and seas. The name became universally adopted in 1684 when the first English translation of Alexandre Exquemelin's book The Buccaneers of America was published. Tortuga (ÃŽle de la Tortue in French) is a Caribbean island that forms part of Haiti, off the northwest coast of Hispaniola. ... This article is about maritime piracy. ... A Spanish galleon. ... The Windward Passage marked in red The Windward Passage is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. ... Events France under Louis XIV makes Truce of Ratisbon separately with the Empire and Spain. ... Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin [Esquemeling, Oexmelin] (c. ...

History

The buccaneers were pirates or privateers who attacked Spanish, and later French, shipping in the West Indies during the 17th and 18th centuries. The term is now used generally as a synonym for pirate. However, properly speaking only native Caribbean pirates, the original boucaniers or their later allies, are buccaneers. Generally, buccaneer crews were larger, more apt to attack coastal cities, and more localized to the Caribbean than later pirate crews who sailed to the Indian Ocean on the Pirate Round in the late 17th century or who bedeviled the world's shipping in the early 18th century during and after the War of the Spanish Succession. Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the concept in naval history. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Synonyms (in ancient Greek, συν (syn) = plus and όνομα (onoma) = name) are different words with similar or identical meanings. ... The Pirate Round was a sailing route followed by certain Anglo-American pirates, mainly during the late 17th century. ... Combatants Habsburg Empire England (1701-6) Great Britain (1707-14)[1] Dutch Republic Kingdom of Portugal Crown of Aragon Duchy of Savoy [2] Kingdom of France Kingdom of Spain Electorate of Bavaria Hungarian Rebels [3] Commanders Eugene of Savoy Margrave of Baden Count Starhemberg Duke of Marlborough Marquis de Ruvigny...

About 1630, some Frenchmen who were driven away from the island of Hispaniola fled to nearby Tortuga (now part of Haiti). They lived by hunting wild cattle and selling the hides to Dutch traders. The Spaniards tried to drive them out of Tortuga, but the buccaneers were joined by many other French, Dutch and English and finally became so strong that they attacked Spanish ships and even sailed to the continent of Spanish America and sacked cities. Events February 22 - Native American Quadequine introduces Popcorn to English colonists. ... Early map of Hispaniola Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-largest and most populous island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east. ... Tortuga (Île de la Tortue in French) is a Caribbean island that forms part of Haiti, off the northwest coast of Hispaniola. ... For general information about the genus, including other species of cattle, see Bos. ... Spanish colonization of the Americas began with the arrival in the Americas of Christopher Columbus in 1492. ...

Viewed from London, buccaneering was a low-budget way to wage war on Britain's rival, Spain. So, the English crown licensed buccaneers as "privateers", legalizing their operations in return for a share of their profits. The buccaneers were invited by Jamaica's Governor Modyford to base ships at Port Royal. The buccaneers robbed French, Dutch and Spanish shipping and colonies, and returned to Port Royal with their plunder, making the city the most prosperous in the West Indies. There even were navy officers sent to lead the buccaneers, such as Christopher Myngs. Their activities went on irrespective of whether England happened to be at war with Spain, the United Provinces or France. For other uses, see Privateer (disambiguation). ... Colonel Sir Thomas Modyford, first Baronet (c. ... Port-Royal was a Cistercian convent in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Vallée de Chevreuse southwest of Paris that launched a number of culturally important institutions. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... Sir Christopher Myngs (1625 - 1666), British admiral and pirate, came of a Norfolk family. ... Map of Dutch Republic by Joannes Janssonius United Netherlands redirects here. ...

Among the leaders of the buccaneers was a Frenchman named Daniel Montbars, who destroyed so many Spanish ships and killed so many Spaniards that he was called "the Exterminator." Another noted leader was a Welshman named Henry Morgan, who sacked Maracaibo, Portobello, and Panama City, stealing a huge amount from the Spanish. Morgan became rich and went back to England, where he was knighted by Charles II. Sir Henry Morgan (Hari Morgan in Welsh), (ca. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Knight (disambiguation) or Knights (disambiguation). ... Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. ...

In the 1690s, the old buccaneering ways began to die out, as European governments began to discard the policy of "no peace beyond the Line." Buccaneers were hard to control and might embroil their colonies in unwanted wars. Notably, at the 1697 joint French-buccaneer siege of Cartagena, the buccaneers and the French regulars parted on extremely bitter terms. Less tolerated by local Caribbean officials, buccaneers increasingly turned to legal work or else joined regular pirate crews who sought plunder in the Indian Ocean, the east coast of North America, or West Africa as well as in the Caribbean. The Raid on Cartagena was a successful attack by the French on the fortified city of Cartagena, Colombia on May 6, 1697, as part of the War of the Grand Alliance. ...

Legal status

The status of buccaneers as pirates or privateers was ambiguous. As a rule, the buccaneers called themselves privateers, and many sailed under the protection of a letter of marque granted by British or French authorities. Henry Morgan in particular had some form of legal cover for all of his attacks. For the Patrick OBrian novel, see The Letter of Marque. ... Sir Henry Morgan (Hari Morgan in Welsh), (ca. ...

Nevertheless, these rough men had little concern for legal niceties, and exploited every opportunity to pillage Spanish targets, whether or not a letter of marque were available. Many of the letters of marque used by buccaneers were legally invalid, and any form of legal paper in that illiterate age might be passed off as a letter of marque. Furthermore, even those buccaneers that had valid letters of marque often failed to observe their terms; Morgan's 1671 attack on Panama, for instance, was not at all authorized by his commission from the governor of Jamaica. Events May 9 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. ...

The legal status of buccaneers was still further obscured by the practice of the Spanish authorities, who regarded them as heretics and interlopers, and thus hanged or garrotted captured buccaneers entirely without regard to whether their attacks were licensed by French or English monarchs.

Simultaneously, French and English governors tended to turn a blind eye to the buccaneers' depredations against the Spanish, even when unlicensed. But as Spanish power waned toward the end of the 17th century, the buccaneers' attacks began to disrupt France and England's merchant traffic with Spanish America. Merchants who had previously regarded the buccaneers as a defense against Spain now saw them as a threat to commerce, and colonial authorities grew hostile. This change in political atmosphere, more than anything else, put an end to buccaneering.

Buccaneer culture

A hundred years before the French Revolution, the buccaneer companies were run on lines in which liberty, equality and brotherhood were the rule, although only for white members of the crew. In a buccaneer ship, the captain was elected and could be deposed by the votes of the crew. The crew, and not the captain, decided the destination of the each voyage and whether to attack a particular ship.^[2] The buccaneers' democratic model was adopted by many later pirate crews. The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... For other uses, see Liberty (disambiguation). ... EQUAL is a popular artificial sweetener Equal (sweetener) Equality can mean several things: Mathematical equality Social equality Racial equality Sexual equality Equality of outcome Equality, a town in Illinois See also Equity Egalitarianism Equals sign This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might... Look up brotherhood in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Spoils were evenly divided into shares; the captain received an agreed amount for the ship, plus a portion of the share of the prize money, usually five or six shares.^[3] Crews generally had no regular wages, being paid only from their shares of the plunder, a system called "no purchase, no pay" by Modyford or "no prey, no pay" by Exquemelin. There was a strong esprit de corps among buccaneers. This, combined with overwhelming numbers, allowed them to win sea battles and shore raids. There was also, for some time, a social insurance system guaranteeing compensation for battle wounds at a worked-out scale.^{[citation needed]} Generally, prize money is a monetary prize that is given to the winner of a competition. ...

A common myth about buccaneers is that they were racially egalitarian and liberated slaves when capturing slave ships. In fact, buccaneers fully participated in the slave society of their time, selling slaves as captured booty and even giving slaves to wounded buccaneers as compensation. Nevertheless, it is quite true that the relationship between officers and men among the buccaneers was much more egalitarian than that aboard merchant or naval vessels of the time.^{[citation needed]} Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal or level) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals from birth. ... Slave redirects here. ...

Warfare

Naval

Buccaneers initially used small boats to attack Spanish galleons surreptitiously, often at night, and climb aboard before the alarm could be raised. Buccaneers were expert marksmen and would quickly kill the helmsman and any officers aboard. Buccaneers' reputation as cruel pirates grew until most victims would surrender, hoping they would not be killed. ^[4] For the fictional unit of money called a galleon, see Money in Harry Potter. ... A marksman (also designated marksman) is a profession which is mostly to be found in military context. ... A helmsman is an person who steers a ship. ...

Land

When buccaneers raided towns, they did not sail into port and bombard the defenses, as naval forces typically did. Instead, they secretly beached their ships out of sight of their target, marched overland, and attacked the towns from the landward side, which was usually less fortified. Their raids relied on mainly two things: surprise and speed. ^[4] One such example is of Sir Henry Morgan's raid on Portobello. Sir Henry Morgan (Hari Morgan in Welsh), (ca. ...

External links

• Unraveling Pirate Myths, a collection of pirate myths and practices explained

References

See also

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Buccaneers.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

The Buccaneers of America

• Piracy in the Caribbean
• Henry Morgan