Abstract
In North America and Europe, numerous books, articles, and monographs on pirates have been published in the past three decades. Although these publications do provide readers valuable information about piratical activities around the world, few of these contain a categorization of pirates. The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology for historical and modern pirates. This taxonomy is composed of three factors: position of state managers, ideology, and continuity of piracy. Each of these factors is divided into two levels: state-supporting vs. non state-supporting for stance of state managers; distinctiveness vs. indistinctiveness for ideology, and professional vs. amateur for continuity of piracy. Based upon these different levels, the author of this paper argues that pirates can be conceptually categorized as SDP, SDA, SIP, SIA, NDP, NDA, NIP, and NIA types. This typology will allow researchers of pirates to distinguish between sea bandits around the world.
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Notes
This focus can be seen from the bibliography section of the book Pirates [16].
Obviously, numerous pirates “specializing” in robbery and other violent crimes can be considered as sea bandits. However, viewing pirates as desperados identical with sea robbers/bandits will surely downplay the heterogeneity of pirates. One example of this is that during the years of American civil war, some privateers were also revolutionaries ([14]: 65-78). Such privateers, despite their frequent involvements in robbery, smuggling, and other illegal activities, undoubtedly cannot be simply seen as sea robbers.
From the perspective of methodology, using this approach to study pirate history is problematic because such a history involves environmental factors and problems which cannot be recapitulated by personal lives and individual decisions.
Although new technologies are extremely important in fighting pirates, the emergence of newly-invented “weapons” may let the public assume that piratical activities can be rooted out by technological innovations. This assumption perhaps is too idealistic because the appearance of piracy, almost without exceptions, is related to social structural factors, such as economic underdevelopment, civil war, and/or institutionalized corruption. Such factors, just like chronic diseases, are hard to eradicate and will last for years.
In this regard, some criminological theories (e.g., the rational choice, social disorganization, subculture, differential association, and control theories) may help researchers explain the etiology of piratical acts. However, given that maritime environment is entirely different from that of land, this application might be limited, if not inadequate.
The chief reason why these three variables were selected in this paper is that they are “cultural universals” in pirateology. In other words, most literature on pirates reveal that piratical acts are related to one or some of these variables. Based on these connections, the author of this article will use these globally applicable factors to distinguish between pirates. What should be emphasized is that there are many indicators that can be selected to operationalize these three variables. One of the possibilities is suggested as follows:
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a.
position of state managers in the course of piracy can be determined by poverty rates, unemployment rates, rates of economic growth, and level of international conflict.
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b.
ideology can be any political philosophy supported by a government (or a minority group) and has the function of mobilizing the public.
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c.
continuity of piracy can be measured by the number and size of public groups which attempt to challenge or wipe out established institutions.
Since this paper centers on the creation of conceptual models for piracy, it is beyond the range of this article to quantify or to evaluate the appropriateness of such indicators.
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a.
In this paper, state managers refer to those persons who are responsible for the task of state-construction. State-construction includes two interrelated dimensions: the creation of a new country and the expansion of state power.
One of the representative works that overlooks the role of the Continental Navy in the Revolutionary War of America is 1776 [46]. In this book, almost no pages contain information about the functions and “contributions” of the Continental Navy. Mevers [45] also indicates that the “American navy of the Revolution has received the studied attention of only a comparatively few historians.”
In addition to ideology, material rewards seemed to play a key role in American privateering as well. As Bradford [9] argues: “Although many cited patriotic motives, profits were at least as strong an incentive.”
Greenfeld [26] argues that the emergence and development of mercantilism in Europe should be examined in the context of nationalism. Although her argument is plausible, it is beyond the scope of this paper to summarize and review her causal model.
According to Marks [44], the Dutch were “the first Europeans to apply vast amounts of capital to their trading enterprises in both Asia and the Americas.”
According to Tang [66], the Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish merchants of the 16th and 17th centuries usually would earn huge profits if they could obtain Chinese commodities (especially lacquer ware, silk fabrics, and porcelain) and sell those “goodies” in Europe. This prospect of obtaining extravagant profits perhaps was the main reason why the Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish were enthusiastic to establish formal commercial ties with the Ming China.
This policy, after the Qing dynasty was created in 1644, evolved into the coastal evacuation policy in 1661 ([66]: 224). The new policy not only banned coastal Chinese from contacting with Westerners, it also ordered coastal people to move 10 miles inland. Numerous people lost their homes/jobs, became bankrupt, or even died because of this radical policy ([66]: 224).
One of the typical examples of this is that in 1601, a Portuguese carrack carrying lacquer ware, silk textiles, and earthenware from China was seized by a Dutch fleet. The Dutch sent the spoils back to Amsterdam for auction. The capital secured from that auction, to everyone’s surprise, exceeded half of the whole funds used to establish the Dutch East India Company ([66]: 51).
On of the major factors that would lead emperors of the Ming China to enforce strictly the seclusion policy was the continuous struggle between conservative and liberal officials in the Court. More specifically, when conservative officials, who opposed international trade, gained the upper hand, then all channels of foreign trade (including illegal ones) would be severed.
Some people believe that Li Dan was Iquan’s adoptive father or godfather. No matter which one is correct, the relationship between these two persons must be very close.
Due to the seclusion policy, people like Li Dan were viewed by the Ming government as smugglers. Since it was impossible to ask the authorities to provide protection for sea transportation, Li could only use private force to defend his vessels.
From the perspective of international law, viewing robbery and other aggressive acts perpetrated by state managers (including law enforcement agents) at sea as piracy is inappropriate because it will cause international arguments or even wars (see [58]). Although international law professionals argue that piracy must be limited to private behaviors, following a politically correct definition, however, is not the major concern of this paper. With this in mind, all predatory acts committed by authority figures at sea are still regarded as piracy in this article.
One of the best examples is that in October 25, 2005, one Taiwanese fishing vessel operating in the international waters near Chi Chi Jima (the Father Island) was assaulted by a patrol boat of the Fisheries Agency of Japan. See “Ri Ben Shui Chan Ting Xun Luo Chuan Zhui Zhu Qu Gan Tai Wan Yu Chuan, Yi Qi Dan Gong Ji [A patrol boat of the Fisheries Agency of Japan chased and attacked, by paintballs, a Taiwanese fishing vessel],” at www.xinhuanet.com, October 27, 2005.
Abuza [1] provides the following information to show the popular sense of injustice among the Acehnese:
The Acehnese do have legitimate grievances, especially regarding revenue sharing. For example, in the 1990s only 7 percent of Aceh’s revenues stayed in the province and all revenue from Indonesia’s oil and gas production went directly to the central government. Aceh’s gas exports in 1998 were worth $1.3 billion, though it got almost none of that revenue.
For the chronology of the development of Free Aceh Movement, see Ta Hai Xiao (Rhythms Monthly, [56]: 50–51).
This event is called the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. For a detailed history about the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the occurrence of the Sino-Japan War, see Hsu [30].
These Japanese-controlled areas can be seen in a map provided by Hsu [30].
The etiology and dynamics of the civil war in Somalia are discussed in detail by Peterson [55].
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Huang, HL. Who are sea cutthroats? A typological analysis of pirates. Crime Law Soc Change 53, 277–298 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-009-9225-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-009-9225-x