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The term buccaneer comes from the French boucan, a grill for the smoking of viande boucanée, or dried meat, for use in ships at sea. The French called their adventurers flibustiers (from the Dutch vrijbuiter, “freebooter”), and the Dutch called theirs zeerovers (“sea robbers”); the Spaniards called them corsarios (“corsairs”).
- Pirates, Privateers, Corsairs, Buccaneers: What’s the ...
Pirate is the most general of the four terms. Originating...
- Pirates, Privateers, Corsairs, Buccaneers: What’s the ...
The term buccaneer derives from the Caribbean Arawak word buccan, which refers to a wooden frame on which Tainos and Caribs slowly roasted or smoked meat, commonly manatee. The word was adopted into French as boucan, hence the name boucanier for French hunters who used such frames to smoke meat from feral cattle and pigs on Hispaniola.
Pirate is the most general of the four terms. Originating with the Greek peiratēs, meaning brigand, it can be applied to a wide range of nautical misbehavior, including coastal raiding and intercepting ships on high seas. Robbery, kidnapping, and murder all qualify as piratical activities, provided there’s some water and a boat involved.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- 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
Jan 18, 2022 · While the terms ‘buccaneer’ and ‘corsair’ can refer to both pirates and privateers, the difference between the former pair had more to do with geography. ‘Corsair’ was the name given to those operating on the Mediterranean Sea and the Barbary Coast of North Africa, many of whom were privateers authorised by their governments in the ...
- Elinor Evans
Sep 20, 2012 · Greetings readers, and welcome back to the Library blog. As we delve deeper into the realm of piracy, a lot of potentially confusing terms are used to make sense of the men and women who struggled over wealth in the late 17th and early 18th century Caribbean. Terms like Pirate, Buccaneer, and Privateer crop up with noticeable frequency, and are often used as synonyms. However, each of these ...
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Sep 16, 2021 · A buccaneer is a pirate, but the word’s origin is rooted in a method of barbeque (cf. barbecue) used by the Indigenous people of the Caribbean region. A boucan was a grill used for roasting meat and vegetables, and the term buccaneer was first applied to hunters in Hispaniola who killed and smoked wild cattle on boucans. That was a rough ...
