ABSTRACT
Almost everyone is thrilled and intrigued by stories of swashbuckling pirates as portrayed in literature or shown in motion pictures. These romantic tales, always full of imagination, are about buried or sunken treasure, blood-curdling sword fights, torture, plunder, heroism, and dashing gallantry on land and the high seas. However, there is much more to the actual event than mere thrills and excitement, for piracy played an immensely important role in the international economic and political rivalries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. More often than not, these rivalries were played out against the lush tropical backdrop of the Caribbean.
