The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard

This led to large numbers of unemployed privateers making their way to New Providence to join the republic and swell its numbers. By 1713, the War of the Spanish Succession was over, but many British privateers were slow to get the news, or reluctant to accept it, and so slipped into piracy. Pirates established themselves in Nassau, and essentially established their own republic with its own governors. The pirates attacked French and Spanish ships, while the French and Spanish forces burned Nassau several more times. Nassau was then taken over by English privateers, who became completely lawless pirates over time. The era of true pirate control occurred when a combined Franco- Spanish fleet attacked Nassau in 1703 and again in 1706 the island was effectively abandoned by many of its settlers and left without any English government presence. Although the governors were still legally in charge, the pirates became increasingly powerful. This established Nassau as a base where pirates could operate safely, although various governors regularly made a show of suppressing piracy. Avery bribed the governor Nicholas Trott with gold and silver, and with the Fancy itself, still loaded with 50 tons of elephant tusks and 100 barrels of gunpowder. The era of piracy in the Bahamas began in 1696, when the privateer Henry Avery brought his ship the Fancy loaded with loot from plundering Indian trade ships into Nassau harbour.

See also: Piracy in the Caribbean and Golden Age of Piracy Rogers, a former privateer himself, offered clemency to the pirates of the Bahamas, known as the ' King's Pardon', an offer many pirates took advantage of, and though a few would return to piracy in the following years, British control of the Bahamas had been secured. The activities of the pirates caused havoc with trade and shipping in the West Indies until newly-appointed Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands Woodes Rogers reached Nassau in 1718 and restored British control. The term comes from Colin Woodard's book of the same name. While it was not a republic in a formal sense, it was governed by an informal pirate code, which dictated that the crews of the Republic would vote on the leadership of their ships and treat other pirate crews with civility. The Republic of Pirates was the base and stronghold of a loose confederacy run by privateers-turned- pirates in Nassau on New Providence island in the Bahamas during the Golden Age of Piracy for about eleven years from 1706 until 1718.

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard