El Morro Fortress, San Juan, Puerto Rico
by Lara López
PIRACY AND SMUGGLING IN THE CARIBBEAN
MOST PEOPLE DON'T QUESTION the veracity of the myth of pirates of the Caribbean. Portrayed in the media as gold-toothed foul mouthed ruffians marked by their battle-scarred bodies–with eye patches, peg legs, and hook arms to replace their missing parts–pirates are assumed to be greedy opportunists.
The truth is that pirates often worked under orders from European monarchs, and their outlaw activities contributed to the formation of the elite class in Caribbean colonial societies. Their activities included smuggling of arms, merchandise, and slaves; attacking, looting and stealing ships from other countries; and raiding seacoast colonial villages.
"Pirate is a global concept that is strongly stereotyped and commercialized. In order to study this phenomenon, we must avoid current generalizations and use documents of the period," says Milton Zambrano Pérez, a graduate student and professor of history at the UPR, RP currently writing his Ph.D. thesis on trade, smuggling, and piracy in Puerto Rico from 1580 to 1640.
"The Spanish, who were in power at the time, defined pirates as malicious, almost diabolic. But if we study documents from, for example France and England, we can see that they weren't viewed as outlaws but as outstanding individuals who followed the orders of their monarchs."
Using microfilmed material of the Archivo General de las Indias in the campus's Centro de Investigaciones Históricas, Zambrano is examining the interactions between smugglers and the people of Puerto Rico. Smuggling was more frequent than earlier believed, and the network of smuggling even involved Spanish officials. Zambrano also is analyzing the direct relationship between smuggling and piracy and how participation in smuggling helped form the Puerto Rican elite class.
"Smuggling, piracy, the island's frontier condition, and the geopolitical conflict that was taking place in the Caribbean turned Puerto Rico into a partially militarized space, which depended on Spain for defense costs. The island's productive structure split into two economies: one legal, one illegal.
"This affected the country's class structure and created conditions in which crime was often overlooked–officials, merchants, and direct producers became smugglers. But what especially interests me is the participation in smuggling by the Puerto Rican elite and many officials," says Zambrano.
Often, the distinction between smuggler and pirate is not made, since both used the same clandestine routes; generally, pirates were known for attacking populations and ships, while smugglers were seen as more peaceful.
Spain's policy of Mare Clausum, which was supported by the Pope, allowed Spain to deny foreigners the right to navigate or trade in areas considered to be Spanish property. In response, the French monarchy sent mercenaries to attack Spanish colonies and the ships loaded with riches that sailed between Spain and the Americas. These mercenaries were called corsairs, after the Corsicans who infested the waters of the Mediterranean before the discovery of America. The concept corsair was quickly associated with that of "pirate."
"It's impossible to understand the problem of piracy and smuggling in the Caribbean without analyzing the battle over economic, political, territorial, and religious interests of the European monarchies. The roaring of cannons, the ambition of men of the sea, the hunt for galleons loaded with gold and silver, and the pillage and plunder of cities and towns depended on truces, peace treaties, or alliances between governments. European powers confronted each other in the Caribbean for precious metals, products, land, and labor force, each power building its empire upon the ruins of another." It was European expansion and the struggle for world power that promoted, in many ways, piracy and smuggling.
mzp1951@hotmail.com
