Pirates in the Middle Ages

The piracy, As an activity dedicated to boarding ships at sea to steal, it has its origins in ancient times in history, being almost as old as maritime navigation and commerce. In the Middle Ages it became an occupation with great activity, mainly starring Vikings, Narentines and Saracen and Berber pirates.

Next, in this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we are going to offer you a summary history of pirates in the Middle Ages.

Index

1. The Vikings
2. Piracy in Northern Europe
3. Piracy in the Mediterranean
4. The Saracens
5. The Indian and the Orient

Among the pirates, in the Middle Ages will be the vikingsthe true protagonists in Europe, having its fullness at the beginning of the 11th century. Originally from Scandinavia, They will extend their power from Scotland to Sicily, thanks to their own strong organization and strict laws that applied to the distribution of the loot.

The French called them Normans, men of the north, and their ships or drakkars, long and narrow and of little draft, served them to carry out

Its first appearance on a large scale takes place on the coast of England, in the year 789, later extending its radius of action to Ireland and Scotland. In the middle of the 9th century, they will venture upriver on the Rhine, the Scheldt, the Seine and the Soma, conquering in the year 912 the country that since then carries the name of Normandy.

They also operated on the German shores and fleets of the Vikings will reach the coast of Spain, to those of Africa and gradually they spread eastward, reaching the mouths of the Rhone and drawing ever closer to Italy. About the end of its piracy activities, a series of reasons are considered, such as its acceptance of the Christian faith and its commercial opening to other areas of Europe.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we discover a summary of the Viking invasions in Spain.

Image: XLSemanal

Continuing with this summarized history of pirates in the Middle Ages we have to bear in mind that piracy activities do not disappear with the Vikings in this area of ​​Europe. For example, merchants in certain northern European cities formed an association, the Hanseatic League (1241), in order to ensure the protection of maritime trade and to suppress the pillage of pirates and corsairs who ambushed the estuaries of the German rivers that flow into the North Sea and the Baltic.

In the second half of XIV century, Two particularly famous anseatic pirates emerge in the North Sea, Godeke and Stortebeker, who come to loot the city of Bergen (Norway).

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, England took on political importance as well as its trade, with piracy flourishing in the nearby seas, especially in the English Channel. In the time of Henry II, special prominence won Irish, Scottish, Walloon and French pirates.

The piracy in the Mediterranean suffered a defendant decline after the fall of Rome due to the decrease in maritime traffic and the shortage of loot. At this juncture, Byzantium will become a major Mediterranean power but with a deficient control of the coasts, arising the danger of Narentine pirates, crusaders and North Africans.

The Narentines were a Slavic tribe originally from Pagania, in southern Dalmatia. They will be known for their great maritime prowess, which they played on the Adriatic, and their penchant for piracy. Carried out raids on the Italian coast in the 9th century, coming into conflict with the Venetian Republic. They will be defeated by Basil I, the Eastern Roman Emperor, who will convert them to Christianity, submitting their lands to the Byzantine protectorate.

With the Crusades An important trade with the Orient resurfaces, which gave rise to a resurgence of the Italian republics and with it the practices of piracy. These were practiced openly, giving rise to the appearance of important commercial cities.

In the late Middle Ages, with the taking of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, piracy on the eastern coasts and the slave trade increased. The trade routes of the Italian republics will be attacked by Catalan, Sicilian and Maltese pirates.

Image: BBC.com

The Saracens were another important people in the summarized history of pirates in the Middle Ages. The power of Islam had been emerging as much in the Arab towns as in North Africa and with the Turks in the Asian coasts, giving rise to sultanates that will acquire power. Both Arabs, Saracens and Berbers will carry out acts of piracy against the Christian kingdoms, considering this activity as a way of waging holy war against the infidels.

As early as the 9th century, Muslim pirates from the north of Africa, especially from Tunisia and Algeria, they will carry out maritime attacks, unlike the previous Islamic expansion, exclusively terrestrial. One of the emirates created at the beginning of the 9th century in North Africa, that of the Aglabies, had enough strength to carry out incursions into Sicily and southern Italy, even reaching the suburbs of Rome in the year 846.

Later, Berber pirates will control piracy in the Mediterranean and the north of the African continent in the last years of the Middle Ages, supported by the Muslims expelled from the Peninsula Iberian in 1492 and united with the corsairs of the Sultan of Constantinople after being taken by the Turks, continuing their control until the battle of Lepanto in 1571.

Piracy is not a phenomenon only limited to Europe, in the East, in the 12th century, the wokou Japanese were known for their fierceness as pirates, managing to control coasts of China and Korea, putting in check the navy of the Japanese emperor and, later, the Ming dynasty.

Also, the expansion of Arab trade towards the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf gave rise to the creation of important trade routes and with it to the occurrence of acts of piracy in these areas.

If you want to read more articles similar to Pirates in the Middle Ages - Brief History, we recommend that you enter our category of Story.