Piracy: History

Since the 1980s, piracy has emerged as an international problem, raising the concern of national governments as well as ship owners and transportation companies. However, piracy is an old phenomenon, dating back to the beginning of seafaring, and the analysis of its history and causes can facilitate the understanding of its modern manifestations. For a complete narration of its history throughout the centuries, enumerating all the forms in which it manifested itself, the definition of piracy proposed by the International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce (the ICC-IMB) is preferred to narrower definitions. The ICC-IMB defines maritime or sea piracy as any act of boarding or attempting to board a ship, regardless of the location of the incident. Both piratical attacks on the ...