Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign cover
Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign
by Stephan Talty
ISBN: 0307236609
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defen · 2010-11-01 · Original thread
That's not entirely true. Some were, sure, but it also depends on your perspective. Piracy was a way to wage war against foreign powers without openly declaring it. For example here is a Letter of Marque granted to Henry Morgan (the Captain Morgan) by the governor of Jamaica: http://www.piratedocuments.com/Letters%20of%20Marque/henry_m.... To the Spanish he was a pirate, but to the English he was a hero fighting against the Black Legend. Sir Francis Drake is another example of this. A really fun book if you're interested is Empire of Blue Water - http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Blue-Water-Americas-Catastrophe.... If you read it you'll see that pirates were actually a lot closer to modern entrepreneurs than you might think, except they operated in a much less regulated system.