What time period did pirates exist?

Answer 1

Pirates have been around since the first sea vessels, long before the Phoenicians both became and battled pirates around 1500 BC.

The first modern pirates were "privateers" of European countries, who appeared in the early 16th century as Spain competed with England and France for the Americas.

Answer 2

The real correct answer is:

They've always existed, and they still exist. (Ref: Pirates off the cost of Somalia hijacking oil company super-tankers and holding them for ransom. This stuff is happening right now.)

Pirates (I am assuming by "pirate" you mean a sea-going bandit), have existed since before the dawn of recoded history. Early Phoenician and Sumerian records of pirate activity referred to actions earlier still.

The South China sea, was a hot-bed of pirate activity during the imperial "Dynastic" ages of China. The Koreans, Japanese, Indian, and others in Southeast Asia fared no better. If you were shipping something valuable by sea, chances are there was someone out there who wanted to take it from you.

The Egyptians had to deal with pirates as far back as pre-dynastic Egypt.

Pirates have existed in the Mediterranean Sea since the dawn of recorded history.

Even in the New World - "pirates" existed long before the coming of the European - as groups from one area would often waylay the shipping of groups from other areas.

What is considered the "classical" period of pirate activity - as in "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" - existed from the 1500's - once nations other than Spain and Portugal arrived in the New World - up until the end of the 1700's Piracy, as we knew it, essentially came to an end by the time the American Revolution ended. By the end of the 1700's and the beginning of the 1800's, piracy was officially outlawed by most countries. There were notable exceptions off the cost of Africa, such as the Gold Coast pirates and the Barbary Pirates made famous in the Marine Hymn "... to the shores of Tripoli. . . ."

Piracy was one of the major causes for the war of 1812 between the US and Great Britain, because of the British practice of "impressing" (kidnapping) US Citizen seamen into the ranks of British warships claiming that they were "British" deserters.

British warships would stop other vessels on the high-seas, especially vessels flying the US flag, and the officers would kidnap (impress) able-bodied seamen into the ranks of the British navy. This - though they were not searching for booty - was also considered an "act of piracy" and made a lot of people, both in the Americas, as well as in other parts of Europe, quite unhappy.

Answer 3

Pirates existed as early at the 1st century B.C. There are still pirates to this day, but do not look like the stereotypical pirates we see in movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean.

Answer 4

Piracy dates back as early as the 13th century and is still around today.

Answer 5

There have always been theaves, but pirates were mainly under the riegn of Queen Elizabeth I

Answer 6

This year. Pirates are still around in various parts of the world.

Answer 7

13th century