ABSTRACT
Other emerging Eumpean seafaring nations, along with virtually everyone else besides the Spanish and Portuguese, treated this division of the earth's spoils as an act of contemptible arrogance. Thus, as the seaborne empires of Spain and Portugal developed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, so too did the phenomenon of maritime predation, often in the form of piracy, or criminal sea-raiding. The Spanish and Portuguese called the interlopers--some North African in origin, others French, English, or Irish-- "corsairs" (corsarios), and quickly set about developing defensive measures to face them. Piracy had been a problem in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic for many years, but the prey, prior to the windfall of American discovery and conquest, had been only moderately attractive. Now a regular sea traffic in gold, silver, gems, and sugar, compact and valuable items which nearly everyone wanted, was growing ripe for the picking.
