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Pillaging the Empire:
Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750
Colonial Period
Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750. By Kris E. Lane. Foreword by Robert M. Levine. Latin American Realities. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. Illustrations. Maps. Tables. Appendix. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. xxiv, 237 pp. Cloth, $58.95. Paper, $19.95. Buccaneers, the catchall word for pirates, are embedded in our popular culture as a result of a constant flow of books that began while they were still in action. Most of these works tell and retell the same stories, and more often than not, it all comes out reminding us of Errol Flynn. Kris E. Lane's book is a refreshing change, because while he does repeat some of the old tales, he focuses more on the impact of piracy upon Spain and the empire's response to the successive waves of pirates originating from its maritime rivals.
The basic dilemma facing the European powers in the age of expansion was that they often had to carry out state policy by private means. In other words, it was good to have an empire as long as the treasury paid little of the cost but received a substantial [End Page 174] part of the profits. As colonists appropriated territory and produced bonanzas of mineral wealth and trade, the problem was how to protect the new riches. The center had trouble projecting power to distant places and thus could do little to protect the periphery. At best, it could provide rewards to colonial governments that managed to protect themselves. The Spanish government was particularly adept at this and was ready to reward local initiative with lavish praise and titles.
Spain suffered as wave after wave of Dutch, French, and English pirates assaulted its colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Almost from the beginning, but especially from 1650 to 1730, the pirates despoiled nearly every Spanish town and village near the shore. The central government's response was to protect the treasure fleets and trade through the Flota system and to fortify the checkpoints. Everyone else was left to their own resources. This policy had its worst results in the Pacific, where great distances and the fact that the government never believed it important to control the offshore islands left the resourceful buccaneers with places to rest, careen their ships, and resupply. With such bases, the buccaneers could raid the coast from Mexico to Chile at will. Ironically, the buccaneers were a source of strength for the other empires. On the occasions when the Spanish could organize raids against the encroaching French, Dutch, and English colonies, the governments in Europe and the Caribbean counted on the buccaneers to help defend the colonies, as they, like the Spanish, could not afford to provide for the defense of their colonies. Never was the dividing line between privateering and piracy as blurred as it was on the frontiers of empire.
In time, the Spanish did get better at defense, even in the Pacific, as local societies gained wealth and power, but the real solution to the problem of piracy would come from their rivals. As they became more and more successful at colonizing and establishing trades, they attracted the attention of the pirate. They now had more to lose, and so they turned their forces away and their navies toward the pirates. The English were all- important in this regard as the Royal Navy, enlarged to fight the wars of 1689-1713, had enough ships, and the state was now wealthy enough, to project English power into all of the pirate habitats, driving them into ever remoter corners and finally destroying them. With this, the long travail of the Spanish would come to an end. Lane has told this story with great verve, bringing alive the fabulous characters who were the buccaneers while also filling out the less well known story of Spanish efforts at defense.
Robert C. Ritchie
Huntington Library
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Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750 (review)
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