Pirates, merchants, and imperial authority in the British Atlantic, 1716-1726

Thesis

Creator

Rights statement

Awarding institution

Date of award

Thesis identifier

Person Identifier (Local)

Qualification Level

Qualification Name

Department, School or Faculty

Abstract

Between 1716 and 1726, there was a surge in piracy in the Caribbean Sea, NorthAmerica, Africa, and the Indian Ocean. British state, colonial, and local responses toincreased reports of piracy differed across these colonial and geographical divides.British mercantile groups with stakes in the Caribbean sugar, Virginian tobacco, andAfrican slave trade lobbied when these markets were impacted by piracy. Likewise, theEast India Company exerted extensive influence when piratical operations spread to theIndian Ocean. The British state, moved by these groups, responded with multipleinitiatives to stem the impact of piracy on important commercial areas. At the sametime, colonial agents both supplied pirates and subsidised local campaigns against piracy.This project explores the multifaceted nature of the suppression of piracy withincolonial and metropolitan contexts to explain that multiple participants operating indistant but connected theatres influenced and shaped anti-piracy campaigns. Such anexamination challenges current understanding of the war against piracy, while providingnovel insight into imperial authority, state-empire relations, and the multilateral Atlanticeconomy. In this way, both pirate ships and the ships that hunted them are the lensthrough which to observe and understand the British Atlantic world in the earlyeighteenth century.

Advisor / supervisor

Resource Type

Note

This thesis was previously held under moratorium from 25th April 2018 until 1st May 2023

DOI

Date Created

Former identifier

Relazioni

Thumbnail	Titolo	Data caricata	Visibilità	Azioni
	PDF of thesis T14838	2021-07-02	Pubblico	Scaricare