Editing Age of Enlightenment (section)

==The Golden Age of Piracy== 
If you have ever seen a pirate movie, or read ''Treasure Island'', or seen ''Muppet Treasure Island'', then this is the period where it probably takes place. Between the 1650s and the 1730s, organized and legal privateering (authorized by a letter of marque and reprisal) became a very common weapon in the numerous wars between the colonial European powers in order to disrupt the movement of gold, spices, trade goods, and other stuff from the American colonies and Indian companies to the European mainland. This period was quite brutal for many colonies involved; for example, the settlement of Maracaibo (located in modern day Venezuela) alone was sacked 3 times in the span of just ten years. 

This first golden age paled in comparison to the second, which lasted between 1707 and 1721. The end of the War of the Spanish Succession, the first major pan-European war of the century, left a lot of trained and press ganged seamen unemployed. In turn, these sailors used their newfound skills to take over several ships and plunder their way to endless riches. At least in theory. While being a pirate earned you a modicum of freedom when compared to your average European laborer at the time (or a lot in the case of blacks, a not insignificant number of pirates of that time were former slaves) life at sea was very harsh, and by the time the European powers started to crack down on piracy in earnest, the risks of piracy started to outweigh the benefits to many. It should be noted that your typical pirate crew was fairly democratic: when a pirate crew formed they laid out a charter with rules that were generally followed, pirate captains were elected by all crewmen and loot was split fairly evenly and there were even clauses for compensation for those guys who lost a hand or something in battle.

The end of the golden age is universally agreed to be around 1721, when the last former privateers that still operated from Madagascar were hunted down and mostly executed. The Barbary States of north Africa briefly attempted to revitalize piracy in the late 1700s to profit off the African slaves that were still in high demand in the US, where slavery was legal (even more so when the Great Powers of Europe one by one outlawed slavery in their colonies), but the Royal Navy and the newly formed US Navy stepped in pretty quickly to shut that down. 

For more roleplaying and worldbuilding inspirations, consult [[Pirate|this page]].