Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Western civ Episode four seventy eight Pirates.
Speaker 1: But first a quick foray back to Peter the Great
Speaker 1: in the winter of seventeen ten. We need to start
Speaker 1: to turn our attention to the real conflict that's going
Speaker 1: to define Russia's relationship to Europe and the rest of
Speaker 1: the world, that with the Ottoman Empire. Because in seventeen
Speaker 1: sen a conflict started to flare up along the frontiers
Speaker 1: of Europe and Asia. Czar Peter the Great of Russia
Speaker 1: and Saltan Ahmed the Third of the Ottoman Empire drew
Speaker 1: their mighty realms together for a brief but important prelude
Speaker 1: to the conflicts that we're going to come. This was
Speaker 1: not a border skimmish, I want to be clear. This
Speaker 1: was The Russo Turkish War of seventeen ten to seventeen eleven.
Speaker 1: Was a brief but dramatic escalation in the long saga
Speaker 1: of confrontation between the Christian Orthodox Russians and the Muslim
Speaker 1: Mottoman Empire, each of which wanted supremacy over the contested
Speaker 1: lands of Eastern Europe and critically access to the Black Sea. Now,
Speaker 1: the war's spark did not ignite in Moscow or Constantinople,
Speaker 1: but in the fields of Poltava a battle, and we
Speaker 1: mentioned a couple of times. That was when in July
Speaker 1: of seventeen oh nine, Peter the Great delivered a crushing
Speaker 1: defeat to Charles the twelfth of Sweden, a battle that
Speaker 1: marked a turning point in the Great Northern War. Humiliated
Speaker 1: and wounded, Charles fled with a small band of royal
Speaker 1: retainers across the Neper River and into Ottoman territory. What
Speaker 1: he wanted was two things, refuge and revenge. Charles presence
Speaker 1: at the Ottoman court provided a volatile mix, a restless
Speaker 1: and charismatic figure. He constantly berated the Sultan and his ministers,
Speaker 1: portraying Peter as this growing threat to Islam, to the
Speaker 1: balance of power, and to the Ottoman Empire and its dignity.
Speaker 1: He urged Amid the Third to take up arms, not
Speaker 1: only to defend the sanctuary of an honored guest, but
Speaker 1: to strike a blow against Russian ambition. While Peter was
Speaker 1: still entangled in European conflicts and the Ottomans frankly had
Speaker 1: cause to be concerned here, Russian influence was expanding southward
Speaker 1: into the Step and the Ukrainian lands, once ruled by
Speaker 1: the Crimean Tartars and Ottoman vassals. The fortress of Asov,
Speaker 1: captured by Peter in sixteen ninety six, stood as a
Speaker 1: symbol of Russian encroachment toward the Black Sea. Now, with
Speaker 1: Charles the twelfth whispering in his ear and Peter's power
Speaker 1: on the rise, the Sultan was persuaded the time had
Speaker 1: come for the Ottoman to make a stand now. Peter,
Speaker 1: for his part, believed that he could cow the Ottomans
Speaker 1: into neutrality with diplomacy, but his emissaries, ill timed, over
Speaker 1: confidence and maybe just a bit too blunt, failed to
Speaker 1: ease tensions. When the Saltan declared war in late seventeen ten,
Speaker 1: Peter responded with surprising boldness. Rather than wait for the
Speaker 1: Ottomans to strike, he led a Russian army of nearly
Speaker 1: forty thousand men into Madavia in the summer of seventeen eleven.
Speaker 1: It was bold, yeah, sure, it was also extremely dangerous.
Speaker 1: Peter intended to join forces with the Moldovian ruler Dmitri Cantemer,
Speaker 1: who had pledged his support and promised local supplies, but
Speaker 1: the Ottomans were prepared and they moved decisively. Grand Vizier
Speaker 1: Baltaki Memet Pasha led a force at least twice as big,
Speaker 1: supported by Crimean Tartar cavalry and irregulars, and they were
Speaker 1: able to complet depletely encircled the Russian advance. By July,
Speaker 1: Peter's forces found themselves trapped on the banks of the
Speaker 1: Pruth River. The Moldovian countryside proved barren and unsupportive, and
Speaker 1: the promised provisions never arrived in sufficient quantity. Heat, hunger, disease,
Speaker 1: it all racked the Russian camp. As Peter wrote in
Speaker 1: his letter to his wife Katherine, quote, our army is
Speaker 1: in a most desperate situation, with no hope but in
Speaker 1: God and in your courage. And it was at this moment,
Speaker 1: under the scorching summer sun, as the ring of Ottoman
Speaker 1: soldiers closed tighter and tighter around the Russian camp, that
Speaker 1: a really extraordinary event happened. Catherine, then still Peter's consort
Speaker 1: and not yet Empress, accompanied her husband on the campaign.
Speaker 1: As the crisis deepened. She played an unusual role for
Speaker 1: a royal consort. She gathered the court's jewelry and her
Speaker 1: own treasures into a chest and then sent them along
Speaker 1: with a diplomatic appeal to the Ottoman busier. To be clear,
Speaker 1: this was a bribe, plain and simple. Babm Met Pasha,
Speaker 1: though poised for victory, remained cautious. His army had the
Speaker 1: Russians surrounded. Yes, that's true, but he feared prolonging the
Speaker 1: campaign because who knew fortune and the tide of war
Speaker 1: could turn against him, as it so often did. He
Speaker 1: knew the train was harsh, he knew that supplies were short,
Speaker 1: even though he had more, and he knew that the
Speaker 1: Tartars were unruly allies at the best. Perhaps more crucially,
Speaker 1: he feared that an all out assault on Peter might
Speaker 1: provoke a broader European war. The bribe rich, generous and timely,
Speaker 1: offered a face saving way to end the standoff, and
Speaker 1: so on the twenty first of July seventeen eleven, the
Speaker 1: two sides reached an agreement known as the Treaty of Pruth.
Speaker 1: The terms were relatively mild for the Russians, considering the
Speaker 1: fact that they were totally surrounded. Peter agreed to one,
Speaker 1: returned the fortress of Asov to the Ottomans to dismantle
Speaker 1: newly built Russian forts along the Nista River. Three cease
Speaker 1: interference in Polish affairs and abandoned his support for anti
Speaker 1: Ottoman elements in the Balkans. And four allowed the defeated
Speaker 1: Charles the twelfth to return freely to Sweden. In return,
Speaker 1: the Russian army was permitted to withdraw intact, and the
Speaker 1: war ended almost as fast as it started. For Peter,
Speaker 1: it was a big setback. It was an ignoble retreat, true,
Speaker 1: but it had not been a catastrophe for the Ottomans.
Speaker 1: It was a diplomatic success, but with many, including the
Speaker 1: janissaries in Pallas faction, outraged that Peter had been allowed
Speaker 1: to escape, escapegoat was necessary, while taki met met Pasha
Speaker 1: was quickly dismissed, a casualty of internal politics and the
Speaker 1: salt desire to deflect blame. True, the War of seventeen
Speaker 1: ten to seventeen eleven was brief and frankly anticlimactic, but
Speaker 1: it left its mark. The loss of Azov halted Russian
Speaker 1: ambitions toward the Black Sea, at least temporarily. Peter, chastened,
Speaker 1: but undeterred, turned back to his grand project of westernization
Speaker 1: and centralization. Catherine would later become empress in her own right,
Speaker 1: and the story of her face in the calm of
Speaker 1: crisis that the Proof became part of a romanov legend.
Speaker 1: As for Charles the twelfth, he didn't go home. He
Speaker 1: lingered in Ottoman lands for years, a royal guest turned prisoner,
Speaker 1: before he finally made a dramatic escape. His crusade against
Speaker 1: Peter ultimately failed, and Sweden's time as a great power ended.
Speaker 1: And so the Proof campaign closed with neither a thunderous
Speaker 1: battle nor glorious triumph, but with a quiet retreat and
Speaker 1: stack of signed papers. It was a moment of imperial
Speaker 1: brinksmanship and reminded all of Europe just how much things
Speaker 1: were changing, but how much at the moment they also
Speaker 1: remained the same. In the early years of the eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: France wanted to carve out a new empire along the
Speaker 1: twisting waterways of the North American Frontier. Was a bold
Speaker 1: vision for control that would link their holdings in Canada
Speaker 1: to the Gulf of Mexico and into the Caribbean, which
Speaker 1: we'll talk about in a moment. It would be fought
Speaker 1: through a series of forts, trading posts, and settlements at
Speaker 1: the very heart of a vision would rise a city
Speaker 1: unlike any other in the French colonial world. Frankly, their
Speaker 1: only success, New Orleans, a city burn of mud, ambition,
Speaker 1: imperial dreams, and Delta realities. Frankly, the story of New
Speaker 1: Orleans begins decades before its founding, with the voyage of
Speaker 1: Renee Robert Cavier Sieur de Salla, who was born in
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty two and journeyed down the Mississippi River and
Speaker 1: it's claimed entire basin for France. He named its La
Speaker 1: Luisiana in honor of the King Louis the fourteenth. Though
Speaker 1: Lassalle's efforts to settle the Gulf coast failed disastrously, he
Speaker 1: was actually murdered by his own man in a failed
Speaker 1: expedition to Texas, his claim remained. In the years that followed,
Speaker 1: the French grew increasingly anxious about Spanish and English ambition
Speaker 1: in the region. The Mississippi River, they well understood, was
Speaker 1: the key to controlling the continent's interior, and its mouth
Speaker 1: would be the gateway to an empire. But holding that
Speaker 1: key would require a foothold near the Gulf, an output
Speaker 1: that could withstand storms, hostile powers, and of course, the
Speaker 1: perils of a terrain that's so swampy it's actually below
Speaker 1: sea level. Enter stage left. Jean Baptiste le Moyen de
Speaker 1: Bndal a Canadian born officer and colonial administrator with a
Speaker 1: sharp mind and a tireless sense of duty to France,
Speaker 1: and he had explored the lower Mississippi as early as
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety nine with his brother Pierre le Moyne de Libertae,
Speaker 1: and by seventeen eighteen Bienville had become the de facto
Speaker 1: leader of France's southern colony. He had established settlements at
Speaker 1: Mobile in Biloxi, but he saw the need for a
Speaker 1: much more strategic site, something farther upriver, less exposed to hurricanes,
Speaker 1: and better situated for trade in So in the spring
Speaker 1: of seventeen eighteen, Bimville made his decision. He ordered a
Speaker 1: new city built on a crescent bend of the Mississippi River,
Speaker 1: about one hundred miles from its mouth. The land was low,
Speaker 1: marshy and flanked by swamps and bayous, but Bienville believed
Speaker 1: it offered three crucial advantages. Proximity to the river, access
Speaker 1: to Lake ponm train via Bayous Street Saint John, and
Speaker 1: bitfensibility should foreign natives threaten the Gulf coast. The site
Speaker 1: was therefore christened La Nouvelle Orleons, in honor of Philippe,
Speaker 1: the second Duke of Orleans, the regent of France during
Speaker 1: the minority of the now King Louis the fifteenth But
Speaker 1: there was very little that was regal about the land itself.
Speaker 1: According to one French officer quote, the site of New
Speaker 1: Orleans is the worst in all of Louisiana, full of mosquitoes, snakes,
Speaker 1: and stagnant water. Still the work began. The early years
Speaker 1: of New Orleans were a lesson in perseverance. The labor
Speaker 1: was grueling. Much of it was carried out by enslaved Africans,
Speaker 1: who were forced to clear cypress groves, dig canals, and
Speaker 1: haul timber and searing heat. Bienville relied heavily on enslaved labor,
Speaker 1: not only because it was cheap and durable, but because
Speaker 1: African workers brought knowledge of rice cultivation, drainage, and tropical
Speaker 1: survival that proved essential in a hostile landscape. The French
Speaker 1: also imposed labor obligations on convicts and indentured servants sent
Speaker 1: from rants. Some were debtors, others were prostitutes, petty criminals,
Speaker 1: or political reasons. In fact, I did this in a
Speaker 1: book a couple of years ago Filais des Cassette women
Speaker 1: who were sent to balance the gender ratio of the
Speaker 1: colony and encourage permanent settlement, whether they wanted to go
Speaker 1: or not. By seventeen twenty one, the layout of the
Speaker 1: city had started to take shape. Engineer Adrian de Pager
Speaker 1: drafted a formal street grid, which today we call the
Speaker 1: French Quarter. It has sixty six square blocks radiating from
Speaker 1: the Palace des Arms, known later as Jackson Square. The
Speaker 1: streets bore the name of saints, royal family members in
Speaker 1: prominent nobles chartres. Royal bourbon timber houses with pitched roofs
Speaker 1: and raised foundations began slowly but steadily to line the
Speaker 1: muddy streets. In seventeen twenty two, just four years after
Speaker 1: its founding, New Orleans became the capital of French Louisiana,
Speaker 1: replaced Biloxi. The decision with both strategic and symbolic. New
Speaker 1: Orleans was now not only a port and military post,
Speaker 1: but he was the administrative and cultural heart of France's
Speaker 1: southern colony. The city, however, remained a precarious settlement. In
Speaker 1: that exact same year, seventeen twenty two, a hurricane devastated
Speaker 1: most of what had been built. Pauger himself died shortly thereafter,
Speaker 1: likely from disease, but the colony persisted. Trade trickled up
Speaker 1: the Mississippian out to the Caribbean, Sugar, tobacco, furs, and
Speaker 1: indigo moved through the port. Slavery expanded, and so did
Speaker 1: the city's population of free people of color, Creole, and
Speaker 1: Native peoples who lived on the margins of the colony
Speaker 1: and its economy. In seventeen twenty seven, a French visitor
Speaker 1: described the city as quote an odd mixture of elegance
Speaker 1: and decay. Were the scent of perfume mixes with that
Speaker 1: of the swamp, and the sound of the church bell's
Speaker 1: echo over the cries of the marketplace end quote. By
Speaker 1: the seventeen thirties and seventeen forties, New Orleans had begun
Speaker 1: to develop a unique cultural identity. It was a city
Speaker 1: of contradictions, Catholic, of course, but raucous, hierarchical, but very fluid, French,
Speaker 1: but already full of African, Caribbean and indigenous influences. Music,
Speaker 1: markets and languages blended in the humid air. The city
Speaker 1: became a gateway for enslaved Africans, but also a refuge
Speaker 1: for some who found ways through military service, manumission, or
Speaker 1: skilled labor to rechieve freedom. New Orleans was still small,
Speaker 1: maybe only fifteen hundred people by the mid eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: but it was alive. It had become, in the words
Speaker 1: of one colonial official, a town born not of stone
Speaker 1: and law, but of river and rumor empire and entropy.
Speaker 1: The founding of New Orleans was not a straightforward tale
Speaker 1: of triumph. It was a muddy gamble, born of geopolitical
Speaker 1: anxiety and sustained through the labor of the enslaved, the
Speaker 1: ambition of a colonial elite, and the resilience of those
Speaker 1: with little choice but to survive in its swamps and shadows.
Speaker 1: But from that precarious start is going to grow, I
Speaker 1: think personally, the most distinctive city in the United States,
Speaker 1: a place where empire ironically once staked its claim and
Speaker 1: where culture would one day bloom in ways that the
Speaker 1: French court could never have imagined. To the south of
Speaker 1: New Orleans and the glittering waters of the Caribbean, where
Speaker 1: Spanish galleons once sailed heavy with New World gold. There
Speaker 1: were rows in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries,
Speaker 1: a lawless brotherhood that haunted the seas. These were the
Speaker 1: pirates of the so called Golden Age of piracy. This
Speaker 1: was a ragged, brutal, and quite frankly, often misunderstood group
Speaker 1: of seafarers who struck fear into empires and fascination into
Speaker 1: us today. They operated in crumbling havens like Nassau, Tortuga
Speaker 1: and Port Royal, where the rum flowed and kings held
Speaker 1: no sway, where a man could become rich or dead
Speaker 1: by the turn of the tide. Now, the roots of
Speaker 1: the pirate age weren't forged in lawlessness alone, but honestly
Speaker 1: throughout the building of empire. In the late sixteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: the great European powers Spain, England, France and the Netherlands
Speaker 1: waged constant battles for dominance over the Caribbean and the Americas.
Speaker 1: The Spanish, first to colonize the region, grew steadily wealthy
Speaker 1: on silver and sugar from the Indies in Peru, but
Speaker 1: they were stretched thin and their treasure fleets became tempting
Speaker 1: targets for their rivals enter stage left privateers. These were
Speaker 1: state sanctioned raiders like Francis Drake and Henry Morgan, who
Speaker 1: sailed under the flag of their crown and had what
Speaker 1: was called a letter of mark. A letter of mark
Speaker 1: was kind of like, how should I put this a
Speaker 1: navy on the cheap? So if you didn't want to
Speaker 1: build a navy, but you had a group of investors
Speaker 1: who had a ship and had some cannons, and some
Speaker 1: guys who weren't above slitting a few throats, you could
Speaker 1: give them a litter of mark, which is the right
Speaker 1: to attack the vessels of a country you're at war with.
Speaker 1: These men blurred the lines frankly between piracy and patriotism.
Speaker 1: They plundered with official blessing at least all their targets
Speaker 1: were the enemies of the realm. But peace, when it
Speaker 1: came in the early eighteenth century after the War of
Speaker 1: Spanish Succession, suddenly put thousands of privateers out of a job.
Speaker 1: The crowns of Europe had no more use for them.
Speaker 1: Sailors who had been trained in violence found themselves unemployed
Speaker 1: in a region where sugar barons grew rich and common
Speaker 1: men starved, so they turned to piracy, not out of insanity,
Speaker 1: but as a means of survival and to an extent,
Speaker 1: of revenge. Nowhere in the Caribbean did piracy flourish more
Speaker 1: than Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. There,
Speaker 1: in the second decade of the seventeen hundreds, hundreds of
Speaker 1: pirates gathered and declared what became known, at least in
Speaker 1: myth as the Pirate Republic. They flew the Jolly Roger,
Speaker 1: answered to no king, and governed themselves with a code
Speaker 1: of conduct that, crude as it was, offered sailors more
Speaker 1: freedom and more fairness than in merchant marine navies. At
Speaker 1: the center of this fraternity stood the names that we
Speaker 1: still know today, Charles Vain, the fiery Englishman who defied
Speaker 1: both kings and fellow pirates. Calico Jack Rackham, whose banner
Speaker 1: showed a skull above crosswords. And Bonnie and Mary Reid,
Speaker 1: two women who disguised themselves as men so they could
Speaker 1: join the brotherhood of plunder. But the most feared of
Speaker 1: all was a towering figure with smoke in his beard
Speaker 1: and fire in his eyes. He was born by the
Speaker 1: name Edward Teach perhaps Bach, We're not sure, but history
Speaker 1: knows him as Blackbeard. Blackbeard first emerged in the historical
Speaker 1: record around seventeen sixteen, having served a deprivateer during the wars.
Speaker 1: He was tall and broad shouldered, according to Captain Charles Johnson,
Speaker 1: an early chronicler of pirates whose seventeen twenty four book
Speaker 1: A General History of the Pirates remains foundational. If embellished,
Speaker 1: black Beard would weave lit fuses into his beard before battle,
Speaker 1: so smoke curled around his face like some demon of
Speaker 1: the deep. He captained a fearsome warship, the Queen Anne's Revenge,
Speaker 1: a former French slave ship that he fitted with forty guns.
Speaker 1: With it, he blockaded the port of Charleston, South Carolina
Speaker 1: in seventeen eighteen, holding the entire city hostage until the
Speaker 1: citizens delivered a chest of medicine for his crew. Yet,
Speaker 1: Blackbeard's terror was mostly theatrical. According to Johnson, quote, it
Speaker 1: was a principle of his not to do mischief to
Speaker 1: those he took if they did not resist end quote.
Speaker 1: His was a reign of psychological warfare, where image and
Speaker 1: reputation did most of the work for him. Still, his
Speaker 1: defiance of authority couldn't go unanswered. When Blackbeard accepted a
Speaker 1: royal pardon and briefly settled in North Carolina, he did
Speaker 1: not stay tame for long. Rumors swirled that he resumed
Speaker 1: piracy with the quiet consent of corrupt colonial officials. In
Speaker 1: November of seventeen eighteen, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood sent Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy to hunt him down.
Speaker 1: The final confrontation came near Aroca Coke Island. In a
Speaker 1: brutal hand hand fight, Maynard's men boarded Blackbeard's sloop. It
Speaker 1: said that Blackbeard took five bullets and over twenty sword
Speaker 1: wounds until he finally fell. His head was cut off
Speaker 1: and hung from the bow spirit of Maynard's ship, a
Speaker 1: grim warning to those who would follow his path. Beard's
Speaker 1: death did not end the piracy, but it signaled its turning.
Speaker 1: By the seventeen twenties, the major colonial powers began cracking
Speaker 1: down with greater force. The British Royal Navy was deployed
Speaker 1: to the West Indies. Governors offered pardons to repentant pirates,
Speaker 1: and the ports that once welcomed the outlaw crews were
Speaker 1: slowly brought to heal. The dream of pirate freedom unraveled.
Speaker 1: Many of the most infamous captains were hanged, Charles Vaine
Speaker 1: in seventeen twenty one, Calico Jack in seventeen twenty Mary
Speaker 1: Reid died in prison, and Bonnie disappeared from the record.
Speaker 1: Some say she escaped, others say she married and vanished
Speaker 1: into quiet anonymity. In the mid seventeen thirties, a golden
Speaker 1: age of Caribbean piracy was all but over. The sea
Speaker 1: was no longer a place of anarchy. It was once
Speaker 1: again the highway of empire at the age of Pirates
Speaker 1: never truly died. It lived on, of course, in ballots
Speaker 1: and tails, told in taverns, and in the minds of
Speaker 1: those who romanticize their exploits. The pirate flag would slowly
Speaker 1: become a symbol not only a plunder but of liberty. Now.
Speaker 1: Of course, in reality, piracy was brutal business. It was
Speaker 1: born of hardship, desperation, of violence. But within its ranks
Speaker 1: were glimpses of something new, something that was altogether more
Speaker 1: common in the New World, a place where people who
Speaker 1: were low born could rise, where slaves could win freedom,
Speaker 1: where women fought as men, and where empires could be
Speaker 1: mocked with impunity. The Caribbean, once choked with golden laden galleons,
Speaker 1: became the stage for this strange drama, and amid the
Speaker 1: poems and trade winds, the ghost of Blackbeard still lnkers,
Speaker 1: his name spoken not in fear but in legend. Now,
Speaker 1: next time, we're going to start a little story arc
Speaker 1: as we get into what's called the Seven Years' War
Speaker 1: in Europe, or the French and Indian War if you're
Speaker 1: more familiar in North Amyerica. That's going to set the
Speaker 1: stage as we turn to our next major historical epoch,
Speaker 1: which will of course be the age of the American Revolution.