Pirate utopia

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Autographed title page of Wilson's Pirate Utopias Pirate Utopias, autographed.jpg
Autographed title page of Wilson's Pirate Utopias

Pirate utopias were defined by anarchist writer Peter Lamborn Wilson, who coined the term in his 1995 book Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes as secret islands once used for supply purposes by pirates. Wilson's concept is largely based on speculation, although he admits to adding a bit of fantasy to the idea. [1] In Wilson's view, these pirate enclaves were early forms of autonomous proto-anarchist societies in that they operated beyond the reach of governments and embraced unrestricted freedom.

Contents

On the Barbary Coast

Located on the Barbary Coast (Salé, Algiers and Tunis), these bases were havens for renegade Muslim pirates from the 16th to the 18th century. The pirates, dubbed "Barbary Corsairs", ravaged European shipping operations and enslaved many thousands of captives. Wilson focuses on the Pirate Republic of Salé, in 17th century Morocco, which may have had its own lingua franca. Like some other pirate states, it even used to pass treaties from time to time with some European countries, agreeing not to attack their fleets. Wilson/Bey's idea of Temporary Autonomous Zones developed from his historical review of pirate utopias. In describing them, Wilson has said:

We've certainly had to use our imagination more than a "real" historian would allow, erecting a lot of suppositions on a shaky framework of generalizations, and adding a touch of fantasy (and what piratologist has ever been able to resist fantasy?). I can only say that I've satisfied my own curiosity at least to this extent: That something like a Renegado culture could have existed; that all the ingredients for it were present, and contiguous, and synchronic.

Connection to Islam

Wilson writes about the large influx of Europeans converting to Islam, forming the "Renegados" and joining the pirate holy war. He then takes an interesting approach regarding 17th century Europeans and their opposition to Islam. He asks if Europeans were opposed to Islam or if Islam had a "positive shadow" that made it so attractive for pirates? Was there something that was intriguing to a pirate about Islam, or was there a change in belief that many Europeans experienced? Wilson goes on to write that these men and women were not only apostates and traitors, as they were considered in their homelands, but their voluntary betrayal of Christendom can also be thought of as a praxis of social resistance.

Libertatia

Libertatia (also known as Libertalia) was a possibly fictional anarchist colony founded in the late 17th century in Madagascar by pirates under the leadership of Captain James Misson. [2] Whether or not Libertatia actually existed is disputed.

Captain Charles Johnson describes Libertatia in his book A General History of the Pyrates . Much of the book is a mixture of fact and fiction, and it is possible the account of Libertatia is entirely fabricated. According to Johnson's description, Libertatia lasted for about 25 years. The precise location is not known; however, most sources say it stretched from the Bay of Antongil to Mananjary, including Île Sainte Marie and Foulpointe. Thomas Tew, Misson, and an Italian Dominican priest named Caraccioli were involved in founding it.

Cities of the Red Night , a novel by American author William S. Burroughs, revolves around a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Misson.

The attempted establishment of a Republic of Pirates is a significant plot element in the Ubisoft video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag .

In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End the main characters gather at "Shipwreck Cove", a city built out of wrecked ships and constructed platforms. [3]

The TV series Black Sails is largely based on the historical pirate inhabitants of Nassau, as well as characters based on Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island .[ citation needed ]

Libertalia is also a central plot element and setting in the video game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End . However, in this interpretation, Libertalia was founded by the pirate Henry Avery and others including Tew, Anne Bonny and Edward England.

The 2015 video game Fallout 4 features an area in the game called "Libertalia". The area is a series of off-shore platforms (made of various debris) that has become home to a large gang of raiders.

British Author Warren Ellis writes in Bruce Sterling's book Pirate Utopia about Libertalia and the objections against its existence.

See also

Related Research Articles

T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone is a book by the anarchist writer and poet Hakim Bey. It was published in 1991 by Autonomedia and in 2011 by Pacific Publishing Studio (ISBN 978-1-4609-0177-9). It is composed of three sections, "Chaos: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism", "Communiques of the Association for Ontological Anarchy" and "The Temporary Autonomous Zone".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Lamborn Wilson</span> American political writer, poet, and essayist (1945–2022)

Peter Lamborn Wilson was an American anarchist author and poet, primarily known for his concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones, short-lived spaces which elude formal structures of control. During the 1970s, Wilson lived in the Middle East and worked at the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy under the guidance of Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, where he explored mysticism and translated Persian texts. Starting from the 1980s he wrote numerous political writings under the pen name of Hakim Bey, illustrating his theory of "ontological anarchy".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbary Coast</span> Coastal region of North Africa inhabited by Berber people

The Barbary Coast was the name given to the coastal regions of central and western North Africa or more specifically the Maghreb and the Ottoman borderlands consisting of the regencies in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, as well as the Sultanate of Morocco from the 16th to 19th centuries. The term originates from the exonym of the Berbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbary pirates</span> Pirates based in North Africa

The Barbary pirates, Barbary corsairs, or Ottoman corsairs were mainly Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from the Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, in reference to the Berbers. Slaves in Barbary could be of many ethnicities, and of many different religions, such as Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing merchant ships, they engaged in razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands, and Iceland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libertatia</span> Purported pirate colony

Libertatia was a purported pirate colony founded in the late 17th century in Madagascar under the leadership of Captain James Misson. The main source for Libertatia is Volume 2 of A General History of the Pyrates, a 1724 book which describes Captain Misson and Libertatia. Little to no corroborating evidence for Libertatia beyond this account has been found, however. Whether Libertatia was real but somehow "lost" to history, a pirate legend that the author recorded based on interviews with sailors, or a concocted work of utopian fiction by the author from the start is contested.

Murat Reis the Elder was an Ottoman privateer and admiral, who served in the Ottoman Navy. He is regarded as one of the most important Barbary corsairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pirate haven</span> Settlement or port occupied by pirates

Pirate havens are ports or harbors that are a safe place for pirates to repair their vessels, resupply, recruit, spend their plunder, avoid capture, and/or lie in wait for merchant ships to pass by. The areas have governments that are unable or unwilling to enforce maritime laws. This creates favorable conditions for piracy. Pirate havens were places where pirates could find shelter, protection, support, and trade.

John Ward, also known as Birdy or later as Yusuf Reis, was an English pirate who later became a Corsair for the Ottoman Empire operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sack of Baltimore</span> 1631 raid by Barbary slave traders on Baltimore, County Cork, Kingdom of Ireland

The sack of Baltimore took place on 20 June 1631, when the village of Baltimore in West Cork, Ireland, was attacked by pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa — the raiders included Dutchmen, Algerians, and Ottoman Turks. The attack was the largest by Barbary slave traders on Ireland.

Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, commonly known as Reis Mourad the Younger, was a Dutch pirate who later became a Barbary corsair in Ottoman Algeria and the Republic of Salé. After being captured by Algerian corsairs off Lanzarote in 1618, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Mourad. He became one of the most famous of the 17th-century Barbary corsairs. Together with other corsairs, he helped establish the independent Republic of Salé at the city of that name, serving as the first President and Commander. He also served as Governor of Oualidia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbary slave trade</span> Slave markets in North Africa

The Barbary slave trade, part of the Arab slave trade, involved the capture and selling of European slaves at slave markets in the Barbary states. European slaves were captured by Barbary pirates in slave raids on ships and by raids on coastal towns from Italy to the Netherlands, Ireland and the southwest of Britain, as far north as Iceland and into the Eastern Mediterranean.

This timeline of the history of piracy in the 1650s is a chronological list of key events involving pirates between 1650 and 1659.

Claes Gerritszoon Compaen, also called Claas Compaan or Klaas Kompaan, was a 17th-century Dutch corsair and merchant. Dissatisfied as a privateer for the Dutch Republic, he turned to piracy and captured hundreds of ships operating in Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa during the 1620s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zymen Danseker</span> Dutch privateer and corsair

Siemen Danziger, better known by his anglicized names Zymen Danseker and Simon de Danser, was a 17th-century Dutch privateer and Barbary corsair based in Ottoman Algeria. His name is also written Danziker, Dansker, Dansa or Danser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic of Salé</span> 17th-century city-state in North Africa

The Republic of Salé, also known as the Bou Regreg Republic and the Republic of the Two Banks, was a city-state maritime corsair republic based at Salé in Morocco during the 17th century, located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg river. It was founded by Moriscos from the town of Hornachos, in western Spain. The Moriscos were the descendants of Muslims who were nominally converted to Christianity, and were subject to mass deportation during Philip III's reign, following the expulsion of the Moriscos decrees. The republic's main commercial activities were the Barbary slave trade and piracy during its brief existence in the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salé Rovers</span> 17th century band of Barbary corsairs

The Salé Rovers, also known as the Sallee Rovers, were a group of Barbary pirates active during the 17th and 18th centuries in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Like other Barbary pirates, they attacked Christian merchant shipping and ransomed or enslaved any crew members and passengers they captured. Numerous Salé Rovers operated out of the Republic of Salé, which was established on the mouth of the Bou Regreg river and existed from 1627 to 1668. Many of the corsairs of the Salé Rovers were of European descent, most whom were English and Dutch Protestants. One such corsair was the Dutchman Jan Janszoon, who converted to Islam after being captured by Barbary pirates in 1618 and was renamed Murat Reis. By the 18th century, anti-piracy operations by European navies such as the British Royal Navy led to the eventual decline and disappearance of the Salé Rovers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Verney</span> English adventurer and pirate

Sir Francis Verney was an English adventurer, soldier of fortune, and pirate. A nobleman by birth, he left England after the House of Commons sided with his stepmother in a legal dispute over his inheritance, and became a mercenary in Morocco and later a Barbary corsair.

Sir Walter Coppinger was a member of the Irish nobility from County Cork, Ireland, who was a magistrate of Cork city, a lawyer, and a landlord. Coppinger came from one of the most prominent families in Cork city; though himself of Hiberno-Norse rather than Old English or Gaelic descent, he was hostile to the English settlement of Cork, and had a reputation for ruthlessness.

David Graeber was an American anthropologist and social theorist. Unless otherwise noted, all works are authored solely by David Graeber.

The Sack of Lanzarote occurred in 1618, when 36 Algerian Galleys, sacked the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, taking 900 men, women and children with them to be sold.

References

  1. Wilson, Peter (2003). Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes. Autonomedia. ISBN   1-57027-158-5.
  2. Halley, Catherine (4 August 2021). "Return to Pirate Island". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  3. "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Story So Far". ign.com. 17 May 2017.

Further reading