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Welcome to
History 397/597—History of Piracy in the
Americas, 1500-1750
This course examines the history of piracy in
the Americas from the point of European contact
to the mid-eighteenth century. This period was
an age marked by new ideas in science, medicine,
and religion, by advances in shipbuilding,
mining, and artillery manufacture, but also a
time of endemic religious conflicts, expansive
empires, and wars. In terms of overseas trade
and conquest, Spain and Portugal were at the
forefront throughout much of this period, and
their successes in the Americas and elsewhere
led their northern neighbors, particularly the
French, English, and Dutch, to cast covetous
eyes upon slow-moving, inbound treasure ships.
These predators and the prey they seized upon
are the primary subject of this course. The
course will cover the social history of pirate
bands as well as the history of the
Transatlantic Treasure fleets and the Spanish
Empire’s defensive networks. A final
examination of the course will focus on the long
term consequences, economic and otherwise, that
piracy entailed for its mostly Spanish victims.
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