After playing AC4, I was imbued with a pirate romance, an atmosphere of adventure and endless freedom. With the theme of piracy, I was familiar in passing and represented the era not completely, and sometimes just mistaken. And having understood it, he learned a lot of new things and deepened his knowledge from a number of questions. But many do not have an adequate idea of ​​such a phenomenon as "piracy". And their opinion is based only on the AC4 already noted and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” or the “Treasure Island”.
I thought and decided, as an enlightener, briefly state the history of piracy. Well, besides, such a topic was already (about the Templars), and was warmly met.

First of all, the era of great geographical discoveries (XV-XVII centuries) is associated with piracy. But the pirates began to queen in the waters of the Atlantic for a couple of centuries early (it is worth noting that they remained near continental Europe and Great Britain). Piracy began as a spontaneous phenomenon, but by gaining the scope of the interstate scale, it was politicized, first of all, by countries such as England and France and directed against the then heroes of heroes such as Holland and Spain.

The origins of terminology and the beginning of time

I have already used the words “pirate” and “piracy” several times, but I have not given an intelligible explanation – what is “piracy”. For many, piracy is inextricably linked with the lawlessness of those who go against the norms of morality. The logical chain pirate – bandit – killer – rapist – thief – robber, etc. But such a production is too simplified when a black canvas with a skull and bones is cut off from a complex historical concept. And first, let’s try to figure out what the historical piracy phenomenon consists of. What concepts are associated with it and how much the image of the pirate is displayed in them.

The word "pirata", "pirate" dates back to ancient times, although with reliable accuracy its origin is not clarified. His root, apparently, is associated with the Greek. "Piarao" – "I try", "try", t. e., Actually, it matters to "experience fate". Late derivative. Pirata was used in ancient Rome in relation to the marine robber, while the Romans were generally designated by the word Latrunculus or Praedo. Piracy was extremely widespread in that distant era, and the ancient authors constantly lamented how dangerous it was to swim around the seas in a teeming "men who are engaging the sea". Pirates could be Kilician, Phoenician, Illyrian – there were dozens of other names that emphasized the “national” piracy features, but the occupation – robbery, robbery, looting at sea – remained an unchanged sign of those who hunted all this.
At the same time, people of antiquity, unlike us, did not consider the sea robbery with something shameful, they treated it as an adventure and even an honorary occupation.

From the V century, the whole West was devastated or immersed in the greatest barbarism. Peoples, conquered once by ancient Romans, lived until the 5th century, at least in a happy humility. Barbarians brought devastation, poverty, ignorance with them. Among these hungry and wild peoples, rushing to plunder the empire, there were francs; They existed, although the country in which they settled was as fertile as beautiful. Europe was then chaos, in which the strongest rose on the corpse of the weakest, so that later, in turn, to be, in turn, overwhelmed by others. The whole story is the history of several barbaric leaders who argued about the possession of one or another plot of land, people did not get reason and courage. Everything was divided, everything was unhappy and weak. This mess revealed the way to the nations of the Scandinavian and the inhabitants of the Baltic coasts. These too numerous savages, processing barren soil, without manufacturing, devoid of arts, took care of how to get away from their homeland. Robberies and sea robberies were as necessary for them as blood to wild beasts. They traveled around the shores, landed where they did not find resistance, and returned home with prey, which they later shared.

“The peoples of the North,” says Helmold Nigel, the poet of the 9th century and the pan -nagist of the Frankish King Louis of the Pious, “they have been named after Danas or Danes. They are also called Northmanns in Frankish. They are alive, turning and brave to excess, their glory penetrated into remote countries. Living near the sea, they are looking for food on brittle ships; High growth, the beauty of the face and the nobility of movements forced to conclude that the Frankish nation comes from them ". It is enough to glance at the map of the North to see that the sea was supposed to represent much more means of existence than land, when agriculture was in infancy and the mineral wealth of the Scandinavian mountains were still unknown to those who trampled them with their feet. Therefore, the disadvantage of bread plants and other plant works forced the northern peoples to resort to the inexhaustible fertility of the Norwegian Sea, the most abundant fish in our hemisphere.

Meanwhile, as the France rivers in the VIII century accepted the first visits to the pirates of the North, they also went to the shores of England, and their formidable appearance aroused their memory in the inhabitants.
In an era, the exact time of which is lost in the darkness, a large emigration from the eastern limits of Europe, through the German sea, fell into the Strait, now called Lamanshsky, threw part of the immigrants to the Gall coast, and the other – on the British Island, an extensive desert in which, according to ancient traditions, only bears and wild buffaloes lived. This happened in the VIII-IX centuries. And at about the same time, England, France, Germany began to form, and the pirate raids of the barbarians have grown out large military clashes that are no longer possible to attribute to piracy. Major resettlement of peoples from the north and east to the west and numerous conquest wars occur.

Second wind. From the Middle Ages to https://dragoniacasino.co.uk/bonus/ the New Time

The second wind of piracy opened in the XIII century while trading with India was in full swing, and the main trade routes were in the Indian Ocean. And piracy, in his original sense (capture and robbery of merchant ships). But the scale was adequate and did not threaten trade as a whole. And were from the category of inevitable inconvenience. Pirates were akin to modern Somali pirates. Pirates of the Persian Gulf of Persian never appeared in Australia, and the Malay sea robbers did not seek to the shores of Africa. It was a "cabinage" piracy.

In the XIII century, this picture was observed by Marco Polo. He especially recalls pirates when he describes the Malabar coast of India.
“From the field of Melibar,” writes the traveler, “and even from another thing that is called by Guzurat, every year more than a hundred vessels come out other vessels to capture and robberies to rob. They are large robbers at sea; Both wives and children are taken with them; All summer in swimming; Merchants make many losses. Other of these courts are separated from others, swim there and soh, wait and spy merchant shoes and repair all sorts of nasty things. They will gather like a detachment; One from the other will become five miles; And so the vessels will be arranged up to twenty, the sea will take over a hundred miles, and, as they envy a ship with goods, light the lights and give each other signs; and therefore not a single ship will go through, everything will be captured. Merchants know robber customs, know that they must meet them; They are equipped and manufactured well and are not afraid to meet the robbers; They protect them bravely and the robbers do harm, but still those vessels captivate. And the robbers will capture some ship with goods, take the goods, and they do not make people evil. “Go,” they say to them, “to extract other property: it will happen, maybe give it to us” ””.

The end of the 15th century marks the birth of marine robbery in the Indian Ocean; From now on, anywhere in the ocean, the ship could become a victim of an attack. And the moment when such a piracy arose in the Indian Ocean, you can set for sure: this is the day on which the ships of Vasco da Gama circled the cape of good hope and headed for the north, along the coast of East Africa.

A number of circumstances made a country from Portugal, the first to send ships to distant voyages. A significant part of the Middle Ages has passed in this small country addressed to the Atlantic Ocean, in the fight against the Arabs. The Moors were replaced from Portugal already in the 13th century, but the struggle with the Spaniards continued, and only in 1385 in the battle of albarrot the Portuguese inflicted such a crushing defeat of the Castille cavalry that Portugal for two hundred years secured an independent existence.

Portugal was a country of fishermen, peasants, somehow interrupted by the wrong and dry lands, it was also a country of numerous fidalgo-small and medium nobles, most of the poor, soldiers from generation to generation, only in the wars, who hoped to profit from the prey, and the marine location of a small country served as an incentive for turning the land knights into knights of sea. The Portuguese with varying success stormed Seutu and Tanger, landed in Morocco, but until they went beyond the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa, their successes were transient. Past Portugal, "saddled" the access to the Atlantic Ocean, by sea passed goods from east to north of Europe, and in this trade there were Mavra, and from Europeans – Venetians and Genoese. Portuguese could only observe how income swim into the wrong hands.

Africa research and the path to India

When the Portuguese captured Seutu (1415), the young Portuguese prince Enrique ordered the merchants captured by the captured merchants. Enrique carefully and consistently collected information about the trade routes along which the seuta reached pepper and cloves, ivory and porcelain, silk and precious stones. What Fidalgo sought unknowingly, he put on the form of a systematic search. This was the first great traveler, direct predecessor of Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Bartolomeu Diar, although he himself never sailed far from Portugal. Enrique Sailor bought Books Marco Polo, Venice and Genoese cards.

Enrique gathered the best shipbuilders, geographers, scientists of his time. In a country crushed by the oppression of the Catholic Church and covered by blind hatred to heretics and “infidels”, Enrique brought the Genoese and Jews, Catalans and Moors, Portuguese and Venetians, Dances and Hamburgers, Astronomers, carpenters, cartographers, feeders, mathematicians and adventurers. Under the supervision of the prince, the best ships in the world were invented and built and accurate maps were compiled. Enrique sent ships to the south and west. His people made many geographical discoveries.

The ivory, the skins of leopards and, most importantly, slaves began to enter Portugal. Slaves were an important help in the Portuguese economy: long years of the war and feuds caused a shortage of workers. A tragic event in the history of Europe – a fall under the blows of the Turks of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 – showed how right Enrica was, directing ships to the shores of Africa. Türkiye has become an impassable barrier on the way of Asian goods in the Mediterranean. The Venetians and Genoese were forced to pay three times for them, and accordingly the price of spices and luxury items in all of Europe jumped with this. Portugal as the discoverer of the west coast of Africa and was owed its power to the raw material base of Africa. Portuguese were not enthusiastic about the sharp influx of competitors. Attacks on merchant ships of competing powers were a natural reaction. It was classified as sea robbery. However, it was called not piracy but raiding. Raiding the phenomenon of the new time when it became clear that the enemy’s loss is always profit. Unlike pirates, raiders drowned the vessels not robbing.

Vasco da Gama as the main force of robbery

In the then history of Portugal, it is worth noting two personalities of Bartolomeu Diash and Vasco da Gama. If the first can be considered exclusively a traveler in the service of King Portugal Joan II. Then the second has the most direct relation to marine robbery. Joan sent him to capture all the French vessels standing in the Portuguese harbors, in revenge for the fact that the French corsar captured the Portuguese caravel loaded with gold, returning from Guinea. When in the spring of 1493 Vasco da Gama returned to the court, excitement reigned there. And inspired by his successes he was sent on the next trip in search of India (1497-1499). The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, starting from the first trip of Vasco da Gama, behaved like raiders, that is, they simply destroyed all the Muslim ships that they caught their eyes, and not always pre -robbed them. The Portuguese also robbed and ruined cities. After all, Muslims lived in them, and for them they were outlawed. Vasco da Gama successfully got to India and stopped in Kalikut. Unlike the African mambass, Kalikut merchants were sophisticated traders, and Portuguese goods were not competitive for them. Muslim merchants spread ideas about the evil intentions of the Portuguese. As a result, they were offered to sell what there is, and get out aside. But yes, Gama has knocked out another audience with freezers (ruler of local scale). But then ships from Africa arrived from Africa with messages about the atrocities of the Portuguese. And Vaska and Gama were taken into custody. Saved and Gama Hindus, for whom Muslim merchants were competitors. Hindu advisers persuaded Zamorin to release the Portuguese. Moreover, Zamorin decided to buy the entire Portuguese cargo himself and sell in return spices that in Europe were ten times more expensive. He returned to Portugal Hero.

Vasco da Gama went into a new voyage in 1502 by the Admiral of India with a hereditary annual pension of three hundred thousand flights. The main goal of his expedition was to undermine and, if possible, the complete destruction of Mauritan trade in the Indian Ocean. To do this, from the very first day of the stay there, Vasco da Gama began to issue passes to the ships, which he considered it necessary to allow swimming. Everyone else was doomed to plunder. In addition, yes Gama invited the king to leave part of the squadron off the coast of India. This permanent patrol was supposed to accustom local merchants to the idea that the owners of the Indian Ocean are Portuguese. And it was decided to erase the calicut from the face of the earth. In edification to the rest.

Massage in a calicut

The squadron fired at the city for a day and interrupted the bombardment only when the leaks appeared in the hulls of ships. At this time, twenty -four Indian ships entered the harbor, on which they did not suspect what was happening in Kalikut. All of them, with the exception of six ships from Canaanor, were immediately captured and looted. More than eight hundred sailors and merchants were captured.
The prisoners chopped off their hands, ears and noses and dumped all this into the boat. Then, the ambassador of Zamorin – the Supreme Priest of Kalikut, whom the Portuguese accepted as the head of local Christians and who had nothing to do with the Morahs or Islam, was brought to the admiral. The old priest was also chopped off his nose, ears, hands and laid him, bloody blood, in a boat. A letter was attached to his chest, in which Vasco da Gama advised to prepare pilaf from the contents of the boat.

According to an eyewitness: “When they did this with all the Indians, he ordered to tie their legs together. They did not have hands to untie, and so that they did not untie the bonds to each other’s teeth, he ordered them to knock their teeth with rivets from the barrels … Then they were poured in a bunch on the ship. From above, the admiral ordered them to cover them with mats and palm leaves and, lifting the sails, let the ship in the wind to the shore, and ordered to shoot at it. There were more than eight hundred mavrov. A small boat, where there was a priest and all his ears and hands, he also ordered to send under sails to the shore, forbidding to shoot at it. These ships quickly reached the shore, and there the crowd began to save those who were still alive from the fire, mourning them loudly. ".

Even against the backdrop of the cruelty that reigned in the years when the bonfires of the Inquisition in Spain and the Netherlands were burning, when the Spaniards beat the Incas and Maya, these acts were a phenomenon of the number of out. This is not a single act of revenge, but a cold policy. The actions of Vasco da Gama cannot be justified by religious zeal or hatred of Islam. It is known that he treated the ruler of Malindi well and Muslims from Kochin and Canaanor, who expressed his readiness to obey. His hatred was selective, and therefore there is no need to talk about any feelings.

CARE from the world arena
By 1505, terror went too far, and the Turkish Sultan even threatened that he would destroy all Christian shrines in Palestine and Syria if the Portuguese would not stop terror.
Not only Muslim merchants of the Middle East suffered from Portuguese politics – it was a blow to Christian Venice. Therefore, when the Egyptians began to gather a fleet to defeat the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, they were secretly supported by Venetian merchants. A ship forest and guns came from Venice, from there arrows and advisers.
In 1508, the Egyptian fleet entered the Red Sea. Under Chaul, he overtook the Portuguese squadron, commanded by the son of the Vice-Korol. The Portuguese squadron was destroyed in battle and its commander died. The hegemony of Portugal ended on this. It was no longer possible to achieve the former greatness. Slow wilting began. Meanwhile, the development of America began in the West. Christopher Columbus successfully held 4 expeditions to the shores of North and South America. But then they just started to suspect that not a new path to India was opened at all. And after a few years, settlers from Europe, military, researchers and any rabble will begin to move there. The shores of America will become a haven for marine robbers of all stripes for the next 200 years.