Pirates of the Caribbean

What lured pirates to the Caribbean? 

While it seems like a playground today, the Caribbean was originally the wild frontier of the early European colonies.  Many nations vied for the new, warm, and superficially hospitable islands of the Caribbean.  In fact, official settlements came and went as weather, food supplies, tropical disease, and warfare allowed. 

The Spanish Main was known as the “Treasure House of the World,” because all the wealth of Spain’s colonies traveled through there.  Whether it was gold from Mexico, silver from Peru, or pearls and spices from the Orient, everything had to be brought to the Caribbean colonies in order to be shipped home to Europe.

The Caribbean soon became the ideal pirate’s hunting ground.  The lawless nature of life “over the line” was facilitated by the geography of the area.  While small islands and coves provided shelter, the reefs of the Caribbean created a unique natural resource.  Pirates took advantage of the reefs and sandbars, sailing nimbly over these dangerous areas in their shallow-drafted flyboats and pinnaces to take larger vessels by surprise, plunder them, and then escape as easily as they arrived. 

The Golden Age of Piracy

Pirates of the Caribbean

Tortuga

Pirate Flags