Blog post on piracy by Christopher Bouchard

Christopher Bouchard

Professor shirk

POL:357B

2/22/2017

Piracy

            Piracy is undeniably terrorism.  The word terrorism may not have been used to describe these pirates back then but if these acts were to occur today then we would most definitely classify them as terrorists.  These pirates were mostly non-state actors but also acted in the name of states sometimes.  They largely targeted non-combatant based ships to maximize their potential for taking over the ship.  And there ends goal was to use their terror that they spread to make those fear them and to reach their end goal which was economic gain and freedom from the rule of others. 

            Pirates or buccaneers as they were called back then, largely acted in one of two ways.  Either they were acting in the name of a state such as England or France for example and they were given letters of marque by their “states” in which they were acting in their name and these letters allowed them to participate in piracy in the name of the state that was there by forgiving them in advance of their acts if their acts proved helpful to that state.  Today we can relate this too rebel groups or insurgency groups as they know as that are sponsored by other countries to inadvertently help them.  An example of this would-be America during the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.  America backed the Mujahidin to halt the growth of the Soviet Union across the globe.  The acts they committed were considered terroristic but we gave them money, weapons, and training to commit those acts.  In a sense this was what was happening during the 17^th century with pirates and trading ships.  This is not to say that they didn’t act outside of those letters of marque at all.  There were plenty of cases of when pirates acted outside of their letters of marque in which they did what they wanted to and then that state condemned them and their acts.  Also, sometimes these pirates just didn’t have any letters of marque at all meaning they were just free lancing pirates after they were no longer being contracted by states.  Now there is also a great example of this happening today.  The Taliban which grew out of the Mujahidin which America, along with several other countries, supported.  The Taliban then turned around and attacked America just as these pirates did when they were no longer being contracted by these states or simply whenever they felt that they wanted to.  Now both of these groups goals were different.  The Pirates were simply just after economic means such as gold and silver whereas the Mujahidin and Taliban were after taking back their country and then later the Taliban was after political means with their religion.  But I think that these two groups are a great example of terrorism from today’s world and form history.  These pirates may not have been referred to as terrorist but they acted in the ways in which we now classify terrorism today.  Which I think is a great example of how terrorism is not just a new topic of discussion that was created a little while ago it has always gone on but the word terrorist and terrorism itself is new and groups that we classify as terrorists have existed throughout history.