EUROPEAN AND WORLD HISTORY: DIPLOMACY, SOCIETY, ECONOMY, IDEOLOGY

Knowledge Deepening / Consolidation

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: Understand the conditions that led to the development of piracy on a global scale Relate piracy and privateering to international developments, particularly in Europe Identify common traits among key figures in the field of piracy Evaluate the survival of piracy in popular culture Explain the economic mechanisms behind pirate activities, with an emphasis on the slave trade Relate the evolution of piracy and privateering to advancements in naval technology.

Detailed course description per week (Syllabus) Week #1 "Visiting the terms": modern legal terminology. Pirates and corsairs. Ancient and medieval raids. Comparison of robbery and piracy. Prerequisites of piracy. Week #2 Types, equipment and technology of ships in modern times Week #3 Pirates of the Caribbean. The Anglo-Spanish conflict and the first generation of pirates (sea dogs). Sir Francis Drake. Cromwell's "western plan" and the creation of the "Brotherhood of the Coast" at Tortuga. The rise of Port-Royal and the legend of Henry Morgan. The less successful: Roche Braziliano, Bartolomeu Português, François l'Olonnais, William Dampier. The French Filibusters (Michel de Grammont) and the last great attack on Cartagena, Colombia (1696). Week #4 The golden age of piracy. Definition of the period and the geography of piracy. Its causes and characteristics. Measures to suppress it. Types of pirates of the period 1713-1720: Calico Jack Rackham, Bartholomew Roberts, Edward Teach (Blackbeard) Women pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Week #5 Pirates of the East. The Pirate Round. The Pirates of the Straits of Malacca. Pirates in the Far East. Chinese tradition and the involvement of pirates in colonial struggles. The great pirate confederacy "of the widow". The opium war. Week #6 Piracy in the Mediterranean. Muslims and deniers in holy war. The place of the North African states in the Ottoman Empire. Their administrative structure: Yenitsars and captains. The organization and conduct of piracy. The objectives on land and at sea. The evolution of pirate diplomacy. The sale of booty. Week #7 Piracy in the Mediterranean. Descendants of the crusaders and the Uskoks. The Knights of Malta and the evolution of piracy until the conquest of Crete. The rise of Christian piracy. Organization of the Maltese state of the Knights. War tactics and distribution of booty. The problem of Christian booty. The organization of the raiding circuit. The Order of the Knights of St. Stephen. French, English and Greek pirates of the 17th century. Week #8 Piracy in the Mediterranean in the 17th century. The issue of slavery. The process of enslavement. Types and fates of Christian slaves. The process of redemption, intermediaries and financiers. Freedmen and freemen. Muslim slaves in the Christian world. Week #9 Privateers in the 18th century. The causes of the phenomenon in relation to the situation in the merchant navy. The organization and rules of privateering in Britain. The participation of privateers in the naval wars of the 18th century (especially on the fronts of the Seven Years' War: Mediterranean and Caribbean). The Bermuda Corsairs and the War of American Independence. The semi-war between the French and the Americans. Reasons for the cessation of Corsair activity in the early 19th century. The international treaties. Famous corsairs of the time. Week #10 The expiration of the pirates and the Greek revolution. The American wars in Barbary. Piracy during the Greek maritime struggles. The role of the Olympian thieves and his persecution under Kapodistrias. The persecution of piracy from the Thermaikos gulf after the Revolution. The international persecution. The fate of the pirate states of North Africa after 1830. Week #11 Pirate democracy and utopia. Between history and legend, pirates set up their own societies in the Caribbean and the Indian with preaching of equality far beyond their time. In Salé in Morocco and Algiers, peculiar societies of Negroes, Turks, Moors and Berbers relied economically on piracy and politically on pioneering democratic institutions created by the lack of strong central authority. Week #12 "The invisible hook" or the economics of pirates. The statistics and the experience of the merchant navy. Analysis of pirates' economic choices. Pirate codes and crew rights. The logic of advance intimidation and torture. Forced recruitment. The use of Africans Week #13 Pirates in the popular imagination of the 18th century. In prose, poetry, art, theatre, film, comics and video games.

Piracy, privattering, Mediterranean, Atlantic, Pacific, slave-trade, navigation

08-10-2025