Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the Golden Age of Piracy?
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation given to usually one or more outbursts of piracy in the maritime history of the early modern period. In its broadest accepted definition, the Golden Age of Piracy spans the 1650s to the late 1720s and covers three separate outbursts of piracy:
By the early 18th century, tolerance for privateers was wearing thin in all nations. After the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, the excess of trained sailors without employment was both a blessing and a curse for all pirates. Initially the surplus of men had caused the number of pirates to multiply significantly. This inevitably led to the pillaging of more ships, which put a greater strain on trade for all European nations. In response European nations bolstered their own navies to offer greater protection for merchants and to hunt down pirates. The excess of skilled sailors meant there was a large pool that could be recruited into national navies as well. Piracy was clearly on a strong decline by 1720. The Golden Age of Piracy did not last the decade.
When their ship was assaulted in 1720, the two women and an unknown man were the only ones to defend it, the other crew members being too drunk to fight. In the end they were captured and arrested. After their capture both women were convicted of piracy and sentenced to death, but they stalled their executions by claiming to be pregnant. Read died in jail months later, many believe of a fever or complications of childbirth. Bonny disappeared from historical documents, and no record of her execution or a childbirth exist.[28]
Rediker, in 2004, described the most complex definition of the Golden Age to date. He proposes a "golden age of piracy, which spanned the period from roughly 1650 to 1730", which he subdivides into three distinct "generations": the buccaneers of 1650–1680, the Indian Ocean pirates of the 1690s, and the pirates of the years 1716–1726.[13]
Piracy was a phenomenon that was not limited to the Caribbean region. Golden Age pirates roamed off the coast of North America, Africa and the Caribbean.
While most pirates were men, there were at least fifty cases of women entering the career of piracy (usually disguised as men). The best known female pirates were Anne Bonny (also sometimes spelled Bonney) and Mary Read.
Between the years 1719 and 1721 Edward England, John Taylor, Olivier LaBuse and Christopher Conduct operated from Madagascar. Taylor and LaBuse reaped the greatest prize in the history of the Golden Age of Piracy, the Plunder of the Portuguese East Indiman Nossa Senhora Do Cabo at Réunion in 1721, getting diamonds and other treasures worth a total of £800,000.
Pirate ships would often impress those who had skills that were deemed to be beneficial for the running of a successful ship. Although this was not standard policy early on in the Golden Age of Piracy, by the early 1720s pirate ships began to take on more impressed hands because of lack of seamen willing to join of their own volition. When Blackbeard captured the French frigate "La Concorde" and renamed her the "Queen Anne's Revenge" he forced the three surgeons on board, carpenters and a cook to remain with his pirate crew.
Pirates, during what is called the "Golden Age of Piracy" of the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century operated on a truly global scale.
Narrower definitions of the Golden Age sometimes exclude the first or second periods, but most include at least some portion of the third. The modern conception of pirates as depicted in popular culture is derived largely, although not always accurately, from the Golden Age of Piracy.
In 1897, a more systematic use of the phrase "Golden Age of Piracy" was introduced by historian John Fiske, who wrote: "At no other time in the world's history has the business of piracy thriven so greatly as in the seventeenth century and the first part of the eighteenth. Its golden age may be said to have extended from about 1650 to about 1720."[2] Fiske included the activities of the Barbary corsairs and East Asian pirates in this "Golden Age," noting that "as these Mussulman pirates and those of Eastern Asia were as busily at work in the seventeenth century as at any other time, their case does not impair my statement that the age of the buccaneers was the Golden Age of piracy."[3]
Of recent definitions, Pringle appears to have the widest range, an exception to an overall trend among historians from 1909 until the 1990s, toward narrowing the Golden Age. As early as 1924, Philip Gosse described piracy as being at its height "from 1680 until 1730." In his highly popular 1978 book The Pirates for TimeLife's The Seafarers series, Douglas Botting defined the Golden Age as lasting "barely 30 years, starting at the close of the 17th Century and ending in the first quarter of the 18th."[7] Botting's definition was closely followed by Frank Sherry in 1986.[8] In a 1989 academic article, Professor Marcus Rediker defined the Golden Age as lasting only from 1716 to 1726.[9] Angus Konstam in 1998, reckoned the era as lasting from 1700 until 1730.[10]
The late 17th century, when the “Golden Age of Piracy” was getting underway, saw a major shift in British policy, accompanying their rise as a maritime power. However, Britain itself had multiple competing legal systems which could claim jurisdiction over piracy. 
The legal system of the English during the late seventeenth century was built upon common law (28 Henry VIII, c. 15). This allowed circumstantial evidence to be admissible, but also forced the captured to be transferred to England where the law was enforceable. This made it burdensome for the colonial governments to enforce extradition. Additionally, Common law’s emphasis on local courts, the right to a jury of peers, and different treatment of Englishmen and foreigners clashed with the international nature of piracy; foreign pirates preyed on British ships and vice versa, and piracy often took place in waters outside British dominion, although the nationality of those involved might be British. Complicating matters was the British crown’s insistence on judging any piracy case which involved a British subject in any way. The inadequacies of common law led to the adoption of the Admiralty Law system, a system originating in the Middle Ages, to govern cases of piracy.
Many of the most well known pirates in historical lore originate from this Golden Age of Piracy.
Piracy in the British Virgin Islands was prevalent during the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy", mainly during the age of 1690-1730. Privateering was also widely practised in the jurisdiction throughout frequent colonial wars, not least by emancipated slaves who, with in preference to back-breaking labour in the fields for pitiful wages, took enormous risks to capture fortunes on the seas with the sanction of the Crown. In 1808, Patrick Colquhoun, a prize agent for the Territory spoke of "the most daring outrages which are frequently committed by people of colour."
Perhaps the ultimate step in restricting the Golden Age was in Konstam's 2005 The History of Pirates, in which he retreated from his own earlier definition, called a 1690–1730 definition of the Golden Age "generous," and concluded that "The worst of these pirate excesses was limited to an eight-year period, from 1714 until 1722, so the true Golden Age cannot even be called a 'golden decade.'"[11]
Although some of the details are often misremembered, the effect upon popular culture of the Golden Age of Piracy can hardly be overstated. A General History of the Pirates (1724) by Captain Charles Johnson is the prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates of the Golden Age, providing an extensive account of the period.[34] In giving an almost mythical status to the more colourful characters such as the notorious English pirates Blackbeard and Calico Jack, it is likely that the author used considerable licence in his accounts of pirate conversations.[34] In 2002, English naval historian David Cordingly wrote an introduction to Johnson's 1724 book, stating: "it has been said, and there seems no reason to question this, that Captain Johnson created the modern conception of pirates."[34] Johnson's book would influence the pirate literature of Robert Louis Stevenson and J. M. Barrie.[34] Such literary works as Stevenson's Treasure Island and Barrie's Peter Pan, while romanticized, drew heavily on pirates and piracy for their plots.[35]
This is a list of pirate films and series, primarily in the pirate film genre, about the Golden Age of Piracy from the 17th through 18th centuries. The list includes films about other periods of piracy, TV series, and films somewhat tangentially related, such as pirate-themed pornographic films. Films about other types of piracy, such as music piracy, are not included.
Pirate historians of the first half of the 20th century occasionally adopted Fiske's term "Golden Age," without necessarily following his beginning and ending dates for it.[4] The most expansive definition of an age of piracy was that of Patrick Pringle, who wrote in 1951 that "the most flourishing era in the history of piracy ... began in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and ended in the second decade of the eighteenth century."[5] This idea starkly contradicted Fiske, who had hotly denied that such Elizabethan figures as Drake were pirates.[6]
Factors contributing to piracy during the Golden Age included the rise in quantities of valuable cargoes being shipped to Europe over vast ocean areas, reduced European navies in certain regions, the training and experience that many sailors had gained in European navies (particularly the Royal Navy), and ineffective government in European overseas colonies. The colonial powers at the time constantly fought with pirates and engaged in several notable battles and other related events.
Jennings first recorded act of piracy took place in early 1716 when, with three vessels and 150–300 men, Jennings' fleet ambushed the Spanish salvage camp from the 1715 Treasure Fleet. After the Florida raid, Jennings and his crew also linked up with Ben Hornigold's "three sets of pirates" from New Providence Island. Starting in 1716 and for around a year and a half, Jennings sailed during the Golden Age of Piracy, sailing with individuals such as pirate "Black Sam" Bellamy.
The term "Golden Age" is at present frequently used in the context of various fields, such as the "Spanish Golden Age", "Dutch Golden Age", "Golden age of alpinism", "Golden Age of American animation", "Golden Age of Comics", "Golden Age of Science Fiction", "Golden Age of Television", "Golden Age of Hollywood", "Golden age of arcade video games", "Golden Age of Radio", "Golden Age of Hip Hop" and even "Golden Age of Piracy" or "Golden Age of Porn". Usually, the term "Golden Age" is bestowed retroactively, when the period in question has ended and is compared with what followed in the specific field discussed.
David Cordingly, in his influential 1994 work Under the Black Flag, defined the "great age of piracy" as lasting from the 1650s to around 1725, very close to Fiske's definition of the Golden Age.[12]
Historians, such as John Fiske, mark the beginning of the Golden Age of Piracy at around 1650, when the end of the Wars of Religion allowed European countries to resume the development of their colonial empires. This involved considerable seaborne trade, and a general economic improvement: there was money to be made—or stolen—and much of it traveled by ship.
Flemming, Gregory. At the Point of a Cutlass: The Pirate Capture, Bold Escape, and Lonely Exile of Philip Ashton. ForeEdge (2014) ISBN978-1611685152 Lunsford, Virginia. Piracy and Privateering in the Golden Age Netherlands, Palgrave Macmillan 2005 ISBN1403966923, ISBN978-1403966926 Rediker, Marcus. Villains of all Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Beacon Press: Boston (2004). Rediker, Marcus. “Pirates and the Imperial State.“ Reviews in American History 16.3 (1988): 351-357 Swanson, Carl E. “American Privateering and Imperial Warfare, 1739–1748.” The William and Mary Quarterly 42.3 (1985): 357-382