GOVT3999 Lecture 3: wk 3 Maritime Violence- personalities and economics

• School: University of Sydney
• Department: Government and International Relations
• Course: GOVT3999
• Professor: all

Document Summary

States had to find ways to deploy violence against their enemies which were more economical then large navies. This led to settlers taking up arms, the building of fortificaions on foreign shores by trading companies and privateering . It led to gaps and opportunities within the oceanic world of overextended imperial rivals, poorly defended merchant ships and badly provisioned settlers. There are political, economic and social dimensions to the history of piracy. Those engaged at sea are from legitimate or illegitimate political and economic activities ordered according to valued or denigrated forms of social organistion. Piracy is in the eye of the beholder. For example sir francis drake was knighted by the english queen but was to his spanish enemies a pirate. The influence of definations is a matter of power since the oceans are beyond national law - nations deploy definations in their own interests becomes issues of economics and politics.