The Spanish explorer Pizarro’s abduction of the Inca King Atahualpa came in 1529. His men detained the king, coerced the Incas into paying a large ransom in gold and silver, and then intentionally killed the king anyway. Their conquest of Peru established the legendary Spanish Main— Spanish holdings on the mainland of Central and South America.. The predicament for Spain’s kings was how to get the riches of the New World to Spain. Pirates and privateers ruled the waves. To distort what was actually just robbery, the king of England issued “letters of marque,” licenses that turned certain pirates into agents of the British government. Their piracy against Spanish ships and Spanish gold was considered service to the king or queen of England.
Most pirates with such letters were social deviants anyway, and predictably, they became embarrassments to the British crown. In 1603, Britain’s King James I canceled all his government’s letters of marque. The many dangerous, unemployed pirates became buccaneers, a terrifying mix of tough characters that operated from the island of Hispaniola. They conducted merciless raids on Spanish settlements and formed a brotherhood known for theft, torture, smuggling, and villainy of all sorts.