The Republic of Pirates
Pirates run the Bahamas for a decade with no king
In the early 1700s pirates took over New Providence island, home to Blackbeard, Charles Vane, Anne Bonny and hundreds more. Order rested on pirate articles, and captains were elected. In 1718 Governor Woodes Rogers arrived offering royal pardons, and the republic collapsed.
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Did you know
The pirate republic in the Bahamas was ended by the man who rescued the real Robinson Crusoe. Woodes Rogers took Alexander Selkirk off his desert island in 1709 and became governor of the Bahamas in 1718. Share →
History's most famous pirate was a pirate for only about two years. Blackbeard appears in records in 1716 and died in 1718 — and there is no reliable account of him killing anyone he held captive. Share →
Pirates had their own injury insurance. Crew articles set in advance how much a man would get for losing an arm or a leg in battle — and the captain was chosen by vote. Share →
Two women pirates escaped the gallows because they were pregnant. Anne Bonny and Mary Read of Calico Jack's crew were sentenced to death in 1720 but reprieved; Read died in prison, Bonny's fate is unknown. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1683 Battle of Vienna — 23 years earlier
- 1687 Newton's Principia — 19 years earlier
- 1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — 18 years earlier
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1682 Accession of Peter the Great — 24 years earlier
- 1703 Founding of Saint Petersburg — 3 years earlier
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — 3 years later
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — 15 years later
Middle East
- 1722 Fall of Isfahan — 16 years later
Alive at the time
- Louis XIV (aged 68)
- Isaac Newton (aged 63)
- Kangxi Emperor (aged 52)
- Peter the Great (aged 34)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 21)
- Voltaire (aged 12)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 0)
- Aurangzeb (aged 88)
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (aged 60)
- Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (aged 60)