Piracy from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century

During the Middle Ages and Modern times, piracy represented an inevitable element of developing commercial exchange. Whenever merchants travelled, they were always exposed to attacks and pillages. Between the 8th and 11th centuries, Vikings posed a great threat to shipping in the seas surrounding Europe. Subsequently they were replaced primarily by Arab and Berber pirates on the Mediterranean sea, British pirates on the English Channel and by Slavic Pirates on the Baltic sea1. In the 16th century, along with the creation of new trade routes linking Europe with Asia and the Americas, the patterns of European piracy spread all over the world. In the period from the beginning of the 18th century until the 1730s, known as “the golden age of piracy”, thousands of men were involved in piracy along the shores of both Americas. Merely between 1716 and 1726, almost 5,000 Anglo-American pirates attacked and robbed merchant ships transporting goods between Europe and the New World2. During subsequent decades, their number gradually decreased and by the 19th century classic piracy had practically vanished.