Is piracy just criminal chaos or the mirror to colonial empire?
In this episode, we dive into the world of piracy, from the 16th century to the modern era.
Join Triploi as we look at how the world’s oceans became highways of extraction, creating a golden age of piracy that would parallel the rise of colonial empires.
Over four centuries we look at the wars that trained and armed sailors, the peace times that discard them, and how ports like Nassau would help turn outlaw life into an organised crime economy, with rules, shares, elections, and a ruthless ideology that grew from the exploitation all around them.
Then into the modern world, where piracy has evolved with the technology and the times, trying to survive a global system where control of trade routes still decides who gets called a “criminal”… and who gets called a “state.”
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References and reading list:
- David Cordingly, *Under the Black Flag* (1995)
- Frantz Fanon, *The Wretched of the Earth* (1961)
- Eduardo Galeano, *Open Veins of Latin America* (1971)
- C.L.R. James, *The Black Jacobins* (1938)
- Peter Linebaugh & Marcus Rediker, *The Many-Headed Hydra* (2000)
- Martin N. Murphy, *Small Boats, Weak States, Dirty Money* (2009)
- Vijay Prashad, *The Darker Nations* (2007)
- Marcus Rediker, *Villains of All Nations* (2004)
- Walter Rodney, *How Europe Underdeveloped Africa* (1972)
- Janice E. Thomson, *Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns* (1994)
- Eric Williams, *Capitalism and Slavery* (1944)
