The beginning of Elizabeth I's reign coincided with a time when Britain was in internal and external troubles. The internal treasury was empty, the economy was depressed, the external debt was heavy, and the enemy was full of powerful enemies, especially Spain, the colonial empire that dominated the world in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In order to get out of the difficult situation at home and abroad as soon as possible, the queen began to acquiesce in and even support the plundering of pirates. She issued a large number of "privateer licenses" to pirates, encouraging them to raid Spanish merchant ships full of treasure in the Atlantic and Caribbean Seas.
The period from the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth century was the height of the British privateer's activity, and according to statistics, "no less than two hundred volunteer ships and other ships were guarded on the Spanish coast during that time".
British privateering dealt a powerful blow to Spain, Britain's most formidable rival at the time, laying the groundwork for Britain's later rise to maritime supremacy. The vast wealth snatched by force by pirates enriched Britain's already empty treasury.
According to statistics, during the Elizabethan era, British pirates brought back as much as 12 million pounds of stolen goods. This looted wealth was quickly converted into capital, providing Britain with ample funding for the development of the capitalist economy in the coming industrial revolution. British privateer pirates have won a high social status by virtue of their achievements.
They not only became heroes in the minds of the people, but also became Queen Elizabeth's guests and even courtiers, and they were affectionately called "my sea dogs" by the queen, like Francis. Drake, John. Hawkins and others were extremely famous pirate leaders in the Elizabethan era.
Elizabeth I also received the title of "Pirate Queen". Since the beginning of the industrial age, with the strengthening of naval forces and the tightening of coastal patrols, the pirates who once roamed the sea have lost their former glory and almost disappeared in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
However, the decline of piracy does not represent the extinction of piracy, which suddenly increased at the end of the last century and extended to the international level, and piracy revived. Although the global piracy rate has declined steadily in recent years, the number of reported piracy incidents each year is still not small.
According to the annual piracy report published by the International Maritime Organization, piracy remains widespread globally, and the potential risks have not completely disappeared, mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Because piracy will seriously threaten the safety of ships during transportation, disrupt the normal maritime trade order, increase the insurance costs and operating costs of ships, thus causing widespread concerns in the shipping industry about ship safety, it has always been one of the problems that plague international trade and transportation.
With the development of the times, modern piracy has taken on new characteristics: the advancement of weapons and equipment, the internationalization of organizational methods and the combination of terrorism.
First of all, today's pirates also commonly use modern sophisticated weapons and advanced military equipment, and the high-tech content is becoming more and more obvious. Many pirate groups not only have mother ships and high-speed boats, but are also equipped with modern weapons with high lethality such as automatic rifles, rockets, torpedoes and even anti-aircraft missiles, as well as advanced radio communication facilities and global positioning systems.
Many of these weapons and military equipment were seized by pirates because the US and Soviet troops flowed into the black market after the withdrawal of US and Soviet troops after the Vietnam War and the Afghan War.
When committing crimes, pirates often use radar to determine the location of the target ship, and then use high-powered speedboats and automatic weapons to quickly attack it, so the possibility of casualties is greatly increased than before.
Second, modern pirates are more organized and have more frequent contact with the outside world. Modern pirates are no longer a group of reckless people who only know how to rob homes, many are well-trained veterans, and there are some technical pirates who know a lot about high technology, so many pirate gangs tend to be organized and grouped, with branches and high degree of internationalization of members.
According to reports, piracy in Southeast Asia is basically firmly controlled by the five major pirate groups. Through modern means of communication such as mobile phones, the Internet and e-mail, pirates can also keep in touch with criminal groups around the world and grab information about their "prey" at any time.
Moreover, some pirate groups collude with terrorists to engage in crimes at sea, and modern pirates have become a member of the terrorists. With the intensification of joint counter-terrorism efforts by various countries, terrorists will inevitably shift their positions to the sea after losing their territory on land.
As early as 2001, when the United States and other countries carried out "Operation Unlimited Freedom" military activities in the southern part of Pakistan, the southern Arabian Peninsula-Horn of Africa, they found countless al-Qaida-linked pirate ships, driving small tonnage but powerful motorboats to help al-Qaida transport members or attack passing ships.
These characteristics of the times have given new meaning to the criminal activities of piracy, making modern pirates more harmful thugs, which undoubtedly bring more serious threats to maritime security, especially the safety of persons and property at sea.
