Who are Pirates: A Comparative Analysis of Piratical Movements in Europe and East Asia, 1274 – 2010s

• In Event: EHC-WG Panel 1: Expanding the Knowledge Base on Crime in History

Abstract

In the past four decades, criminologists and historians have published numerous books, articles, and investigative reports on pirates and piratical movements. As a result of this intellectual movement, pirateology has become a mainstream topic of modern criminology. While pirateology has grown into a prominent area of modern criminology, its research seems to be restricted by the approach of regionalism. That is, Western scholars tend to focus on European pirates when examining piratical movements while Eastern researchers mainly concentrate on Asian (especially Chinese) pirates when addressing the issue of maritime crime. This feature strongly implies that present-day pirateology is composed of two distinct groups. Since the boundary between these two camps appears to be clear, some issues (e.g., the origins of European-directed piratical movements in East Asia) remain to be analyzed systematically in this field of criminology Based on the statements above, the purpose of this paper is to promote a cross-regional study of piratical movements. To achieve this goal, four topics will be addressed in this paper: First, the factors that helped piratical movements take shape in Europe and East Asia after 1274 will be examined. Then the core features of such movements will be compared to each other to detect patterns of behavior. After the issue of principal characteristic has been examined, the long-term trend of these movements will be evaluated. Finally, the social implications of maritime piracy in Europe and East Asia will be discussed.

Author

• Hua-Lun Huang, University of Louisiana at Lafayette