Buccaneers

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

The Buccaneers (plural also: Buccaneer , Buccaniere ., English buccaneers ) were settlers, mostly of French origin, which in the early 17th century on Hispaniola pursued and surrounding islands hunting feral bulls and pigs. Later, towards the end of the 17th century, they changed their way of life and became pirates in the English service. Their counterparts in French service were in particular the Flibustiers .

As privateers, they attacked Spanish, French and Dutch shipping traffic between the Caribbean islands during the late 17th century. Originally, buccaneer ship crews were larger, better suited to attack coastal cities, and limited to making the Caribbean unsafe. The term “ buccaneers ” thus generalized to a synonym for privateers and ultimately for pirates in general . They called themselves brothers of the coast .

etymology

The name is derived from the French term boucanier , which means something like "meat smoker ", which in turn comes from the Indian word bukan . The Caribbean Arawak used this term to describe a type of grill on which they smoked meat (preferably manatee ) that was adopted by the Buccaneers on a low flame using green wood .

The English settlers who occupied Jamaica ensured that the term “buccaneers” was used to denote this type of pirate. The name spread and became common property from 1684, when the first English translation of Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin's " The Buccaneers of America " was published.

history

Around 1630, some French fled the island of Hispaniola to the nearby island of Tortuga . The Spaniards tried to drive them out of there again, but the Buccaneers were reinforced by a large number of other French, Dutch and English people and from then on they were engaged in attacks on Spanish shipping. For this purpose, they preferably used small, agile vehicles with which they attacked the large Spanish galleons near the Windward Passage . Eventually they got so strong that they even sailed to mainland Spanish America and plundered cities there.

From a London perspective, buccaneers' bustle was an inexpensive way of waging war on Britain's rival, Spain. So the approved English crown the privateers and legalized their machinations against a share of the profit. The Buccaneers were invited by Jamaica's Governor Thomas Modyford to make Port Royal their base of operations.

They looted Spanish, French, and Dutch ships and settlements and returned to Jamaica with their booty. This made Port Royal the wealthiest city in the West Indies . Sometimes naval officers such as Christopher Myngs were even dispatched to lead the pirates. These continued their activities regardless of whether England was at war with Spain, Holland or France.

The old buccaneer methods began to die out in the 1690s when European governments changed their previous policies and turned away from tolerating the undeclared war in the Caribbean. Buccaneers were difficult to control and repeatedly involved the colonies in unwanted wars. Ultimately, local Caribbean officials tolerated the pirates' increasing settlements and legal employment. Some, however, formed pirate teams and plundered just like before in the Caribbean, now in the Indian Ocean , on the east coast of America or in West Africa .

literature

Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin : The pirate book of 1678. ("The history of the bucaniers of America.") Thienemanns, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-522-61120-9 .
Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950): Captain Blood. The Riverside Press Houghton Mifflin Company, Cambridge 1922, Strange, Erkrath 2002 (German), ISBN 3-89064-812-6 .
Douglas Botting et al. a .: History of seafaring - the pirates. Bechtermünz, Eltville Rhein 1992. ISBN 3-86047-029-9 .
Douglas Botting et al. a .: History of seafaring - adventurers of the Caribbean. Bechtermünz, Eltville Rhein 1992. ISBN 3-86047-025-6 .
Oliver Steinke : Capture trip to Palmares or the true story of the Irish pirate Hugh O Driscoll. Dutschke Verlag, Neustadt Weinstrasse 2011. ISBN 3943078000 .
Andreas Obenaus, Eugen Pfister and Birgit Tremml (eds.): Terror of the traders and rulers: Pirate communities in history. Mandelbaum, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3854764038 .
Frank Bardelle: Buccaneers in the Caribbean Sea: On the emergence and social transformation of a historical "marginal movement". Westphalian steam boat, Münster 1986. ISBN 3-924550-20-4 .
Janusz Piekałkiewicz : Privateer in the Caribbean Sea. The colorful wild life of the Buccaneers in the Caribbean Sea. Südwest Verlag, 1973.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin in: The American sea robbers, discovered, in a current description of the largest, by the French and English sea prey, against the Spaniards in America, perpetrated robbery and cruelty ... together with a short report of the cron Spain makes and riches in America, as well as from all the most distinguished Christian places there: put on, supported and enjoyed by AO of all robberies understood here: with beautiful figurines, and true conterfeytes, decorated. C. Riegels, Nuremberg 1679, p. 74 f and p. 89 (digitized version of the Library of Congress )

[1] Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin in: The American sea robbers, discovered, in a current description of the largest, by the French and English sea prey, against the Spaniards in America, perpetrated robbery and cruelty ... together with a short report of the cron Spain makes and riches in America, as well as from all the most distinguished Christian places there: put on, supported and enjoyed by AO of all robberies understood here: with beautiful figurines, and true conterfeytes, decorated. C. Riegels, Nuremberg 1679, p. 74 f and p. 89 (digitized version of the Library of Congress )