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Buccaneers were a cross between genuine privateers, commissioned to defend a country’s colonies and trade, and outright pirates. Typically English, French, and Dutch adventurers, the buccaneers plied the waters among the Caribbean islands, and along the coasts of Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia more than 300 years ago. “The ...
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Perhaps what distinguished the buccaneers from earlier Caribbean sailors was their use of permanent bases in the West Indies. During the mid 17th century, the Bahama Islands attracted many lawless people who had taken over New Providence. Encouraged by its large harbour, they were joined by several pirates who made their living by raiding the ...
In 1641 the Spanish retook the island. Thereafter, however, the Spanish and the buccaneers fought over the island and its harbors and inlets for decades. After the English seized Jamaica in 1655, that island, in the center of the Spanish Caribbean, became the center of privateering and privacy.
- Name & Origins
- The New World
- Buccaneer Havens
- The Scourge of The Spanish Main
- Sir Henry Morgan
- The End of The Buccaneers
The name 'buccaneer' comes from the French terms boucan and boucanier ("barbecuer") which were themselves derived from the Arawak Indian word bukan. All of these terms were first applied to those European hunters who, from 1620, had camped illegally in the western part of Hispaniola (modern Haiti) and who smoked their meat using a grill and a smoky...
Spain had been busy colonising and exploiting the New World throughout the 16th century, but rival European countries were soon eyeing this part of the world with envy. Spain was seen as the common enemy of other European powers for several reasons. It was a Catholic country, and the other great maritime nations were Protestant (with the exception ...
The buccaneers operated from havens like Port Royal (Jamaica), Tortuga, and Petit Goâve on Saint Domingue (Hispaniola). These places provided safe harbours and a plentiful supply of freshwater and food. The great buccaneer haven from the 1630s was Tortuga (Ile de la Tortue), located in northwest Hispaniola (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic)....
Buccaneers were, then, privateers rather than out-and-out pirates since they did not generally attack ships of their home country and many carried official Letters of Marque (aka Letters of Reprisal) or commissions issued by British, French, and Dutch colonial authorities to pursue and attack forces of an enemy state. A colonial governor noted for ...
The most infamous of the buccaneers was Captain Henry Morgan. In 1668, buccaneer warfare had developed to such an extent that commanders now led large amphibious "armies". Morgan led one such multinational force which attacked the Spanish treasure port of Portobelo in Panama. The port was one of the three main Spanish treasure ports and through it ...
From the 1670s, Spain finally began to see the value of investing more heavily in the defence of its empire. Morgan's attack on Portobelo was followed by other large-scale raids like Laurens De Graaf's attack on Veracruz in 1683. Consequently, the Spanish ensured their fortresses were renovated, soldiers were sent from Spain to man them, and the lo...
- Mark Cartwright
The buccaneers were the semi-lawful sailors and soldiers who harassed Spanish ships and ports in the Caribbean Sea during 17th century. To Spain, they were just the ordinary pirates, but for their nations the buccaneers were a lot more than that. The Spanish considered region of the Caribbean Islands, from the Isthmus of Panama to the mouth of ...
The buccaneering era was a period of French, British and Dutch privateering and piracy in the Caribbean mostly launched from the Locations of Tortuga and Port Royal. This era saw the rise of famous buccaneers and corsairs such as Henry Morgan and Francois L’Ollonais who laid the framework for piracy for the rest of the 17th century and part ...
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Buccaneers and Privateers. Although the term "buccaneer" is sometimes used to refer generally to maritime freebooters, in Latin American history it refers specifically to a group that arose in the Caribbean between about 1630 and 1670 to attack Spanish commerce and settlements. The buccaneers of the seventeenth century were in many ways the ...
