This... this didn't come out as well as I wanted, but it was satisfactory. Pirates, probably my least-favored of the four popular stereotype characters, this is done, researching this subject was no picnic, damn it.

Piracy is, simply put, the act of theft on the high sea by a ship that is not showing the markings of a certain nationality, or showing the markings of a nationality without the permission of the government that uses said markings.

As you might expect, piracy has existed ever since water-based trade routes were implemented. The first documented case was of a group called the "Sea Peoples" who prowled the Aegean and Mediterranean in 13^th BC. The first documented pirates who took part in the slave trade were the Phoenicians, who kidnapped particuarly young children of either gender to be raised as slaves.

One famous ancient incident involving pirates was when the Cilician pirates kidnapped Julius Caesar, throughout his time as a hostage Caesar had an air of superiority towards the pirates, when the Cilician pirates attempted to ransom Caesar they demanded twenty thousand talents of gold, Julius insisted that he was worth forty thousand, in response the pirates raised the ransom to fifty thousand. After the ransom was paid, Caesar rounded up a fleet, hunted down the Cilicians, and had them all put to death.

The kidnapping of Caesar convinced Rome and many other countries of the world to make efforts to combat piracy, sending patrol routes across the seas, along with excessively brutal punishments for any captured pirates, said punishments were a warning to stop people from becoming a pirate, yet for all the efforts, piracy continued, although the amount of successful ship raids severely lessened.

The time from the middle ages to the 19^th century could be considered the "golden age" of piracy, although few besides pirates would have liked that fact. The lack of a central power in Europe led to lackluster anti-pirate systems, the infamous Vikings thrived during this era in their pillaging and looting, the Vikings were raiding nearly every corner of Europe, and occasionally a few corners of Africa as well. At the same time, Muslim pirates terrorized the Mediterranean Sea, from the 9^th century to nearly the 14^th century, Muslim piracy was a constant threat to anyone who lived near the shores in Europe.

There were many other pirate groups in this time frame, too many to reasonably archive here, but put simply it was not a good time to have a life that depended on the sea.

In the modern age, piracy is still a significant problem, with an estimation of 13 to 16 billion dollars stolen each year, primarily in the areas of the Red Sea and the Indian Oceans. Modern pirates have a strong favoritism for commercial cargo vessels, due to the very small number of people who crew such ships, this allows the pirates to raid the vessel, steal the valuables, and escape with minimal risk.

The efforts of the U.S. Coastal Guard have nearly terminated piracy in U.S. waters. Nearly. For the most part, modern pirates prefer to stay away from well developed and organized nations, preferring to hunt the waters that struggling nations lay claim to.

Pirate attacks have been decreasing since 2004, with most piracy centralized in indonesian waters.

I'm sure you know how pirates are portrayed in popular culture, care-free rogues who follow adventures of heroism and romance, as you should know, the truth is far from it.

For one, pirates rarely buried their treasure, most pirate raids in olden times were meant for the sake of stealing clothes, food, equipment, and other living necessities, for this reason they typically used their ill-gotten gains immediately. When pirates stole money, it was quickly divided up among the pirates who swiftly spent it, actually burying treasure was a rarity.

Pirate ships typically had a nearly democracy style of ruling, pirate crews elected either captains to their position, and the captain had to maintain the cheer of his "subjects" else he would be impeached, which, as you would expect for pirates, tended to be a bit more... violent... then a standard political impeachment.

Eye-patches were common among pirates, with all the swords and guns, people lost an eye with a suprising, perhaps unsettling, frequency. Although other stereotypes of piracy, such as peg-legs, parrots, and etc. were rather rare.