Piracy of the Middle Ages Compared to the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
When people think of pirates, they often think of the buccaneers that plundered the seas from roughly 1650 to 1730. This time period is also known as the ‘golden age of piracy’. These pirates included the infamous Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and Captain Kidd. However, piracy has existed long before these swashbucklers. In Medieval Europe, many towns were terrorized by pirates, but eventually pirates began to be used as mercenaries and privateers. The pirates of the middle ages, and the tactics that they used can be compared and contrasted to the piracy that took place in the late 17th to mid 18th centuries. This comparison is important because it shows how many of the tactics used during the ‘golden age of piracy’ were actually taken from preexisting methods of piracy. The Middle Ages spanned from the 5th century to the 15th century, and the first acts of piracy that can be seen in this period were the Vikings, who, beg...
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