Walking on the board

Pirates, we all know who they are, or at least whe think whe know who they are, but today I am going to tell you their history.

The pirates exist since navigation exist, in the ancient times we dont have many references but in some miths like Jason and the Argonauts they make piracy acts. 

In the Middle Ages the main pirates were the know well vikings, sea men who kill people and steal everything.

The first thing you must know about them is that the helmet with horns that apears in the movies dont were used by them

Their boats were small, flat and very fast, the draft (calado) was very small so they could navigate through not very big rivers.

They make many ravages (estragos) in French, Spain, Germany and the UK.

But they weren´t as bad as why think in their houses they cultivate, they have animals, a estable economy, and thir incursions to Europe were only 3 or 4 times a year.

In the mediterranean when the arabs start invading the Iberian Peninsula they make some incursions to steel goods.

 

The golden age of the pirates

The great moment for them was in the 16th century, the New world had been discovered and the europeans have to steel all its goods, also the comerce of slaves in Africa and America was generating many profits, and all that profit had to travel by some way and that way was through sea.

Corsairs, freebooters, pirates and bucaners

Usually people dont know the diference between this 4, but there are many diferences:

Corsairs: they were people who were take on by some goverment to atack the boats of other country, probabily the most known well of them is Sir Francis Drake a corsair under the goverment of Isabel I of England

Bucaners: people native from the caribe that atack the ships full of trasures, they dont care if they were Spanish, French, or English. Certain time later they join the Brotherhood of the Coast. The diference of the pirates was that the only place they ``work´´ was in the caribean sea. 

Pirates: people that navigate ilegally and assault boats or towns near the coast, the difference that they have with the bucaners and the freebooters is that they act all around the world and they exists in all ages. They were many very famus as: Edward Teach (Black beard), Calico Jack, Mary Read, Anne Bonne, Captain Kidd (Is is maybe more corsair than pirate), Robert the Pleasant (this was the gratest of all the, he capture a total amount of boats that superate the 300 in only 2 years, he is certainly the greatest pirate of all the times )

Freebooters: were the first pirates in the caribean, first they only atacked boats that were near the coast or towns near coast, they were very similar to bucaners, but his name come from the fact that they use very small boats (Brigantines, gunboats, etc). At first they were only small groups of people that assault boat to find a little money but later thy join to the bucaners and they form the Brotherhood of the Coast, but the europeans countries looking that they have many power they take on them making them someting like a mix between corsairs and pirates. The most famous of them was The Olones.

 

Robert the pleasant