The Notoriety of Chinese Pirates between 1700 and 1850
Chinese pirates have a well-known reputation of having been particularly cruel and frightening. However, the height of Chinese piracy began for purely economic reasons. During the Ming dynasty, China closed its borders to the outside world and became increasingly isolationist. Because of the ban imposed upon maritime trade, people were forced to trade illegally in order to stay afloat economically. During the Qing dynasty, the number of Chinese pirates began to increase as the laws regarding maritime trade with outside nations grew stricter. Piracy in the South China Sea was a way for Chinese merchants to continue with their business ventures. The crews on these merchant vessels were involved
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They were also known for taking captive from the vessels that they raided. Many of these captives were able to escape and went on to write narratives of their time amongst the pirates. Through these accounts, the methods of torture and the pirates’ behaviours become known. John Turner was taken captive by Chinese pirates in 1807, and his works written following his escape shed light on the atmosphere aboard the pirate vessel. While the pirates appeared to act quite peacefully towards those who cooperated with them, people who resisted often faced terrible acts of torture. According to Turner, one of the captives who was taken by the vessel was “nailed to the deck through his feet, with large nails; then beat with four rattans, till he vomited blood. And after remaining sometime, in this horrid state, he was taken on shore and cut to pieces.” He goes on to state that this kind of treatment was quite typical for anyone who angered the pirates. Torture was mainly only used on captives, but there were also harsh punishments for wrong-doings of the crew themselves. These were much worse than those of the pirates in the West Indies and included beheading as a penalty for disobeying an order , and attempting to desert would result in having your ears perforated. Physical torture was not the only form of punishment practices by the Chinese pirates. They also had forms of emotional and mental torture to exercise upon victims, which included threats of death if they did not comply with the orders of the pirate crew. Fanny Loviot was captured by Chinese pirates in 1854 and reports that she and the other captives were forced into a small, dark room in the hull with barely enough room to sit upright. Chinese pirates were also known dismember their victims, a form of torture designed to harm not only the body but the soul as well. The ancient reasoning behind
Before the emergence of silver, Chinese society isolated themselves from the global economy. Due to Confucian teachings and heavy voyage expenditures, Chinese officials restricted foreign interaction and trade. Also, being
I believe many more would very soon have done the same if they had not been prevented by the ship's crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most active were in a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion among the people of the ship as I never heard before to stop her and get the boat out to go after the slaves. However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other and afterwards flogged him unmercifully for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery. I can now relate to the hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together.
Other more cruel punishment was carried out--not only in the North, but throughout the other colonies as well. The idea was that the criminal should be marked and humiliated. Whipping posts were used, flesh was branded with hot irons, and ears and hands were cut off.
The Chinese empire had once been one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the world. Before the 19th century, China had a large population and was ruled by families or dynasties. It was considered technologically advanced as China had a history of many miraculous inventions, such as: writing, magnetic compasses, movable sails, porcelain, abacus and paper money. Although China was isolated from the rest of the world, it coped well on its own, and saw no need to begin trading with the west, (as Lord McCartney proposed in 1793), since it was a self-sufficient nation. At that particular time, the Chinese empire was still able to exclude the ‘barbarians’, thus forcing them to only trade at one port. However, China soon took a turn for the worst as important ...
Others had the Achilles tendon cut; worst of all, some were killed. Not only were these punishments given if they tried to escape, but the punishments that may have been given if they tried to escape where nothing compared to what could have been done just to keep the slaves in check. On a few accounts, owners in Virginia, would smoke their slaves like meat. Another master would nail the slaves in a box with the nails sticking out and toss them off a steep hill so that they would hit the nails as they went down. These are only a few examples of what could have happened.
All were subject to harsh circumstances and the relentless fears of shipwreck and disease outbreaks. It took as long as five to twelve weeks, depending on the weather circumstances and point of departure. The captain and the crew workers treated the slaves like wild animals, giving them barely enough food to survive and leaving them to suffer with lice, fleas, and rats, which led to many diseases (“Middle Passage”). The records stated that about two –thirds of the fatalities were caused by malaria, yellow fever, and intestinal disorders (Postma 25). The enslaved Africans were linked with heavy iron chains around their hands and feet with barely enough room to lie down (Howarth). Constant odors of urine, vomit...
The Chinese navy in the early 1400’s was very powerful but unfortunately it grew weaker and weaker over time. The cause of this was that China ran into political problems which prevented future voyages.
Japan had to open ports to foreign commerce when they lost the fight against Europe and America in Tokyo Bay (Bentley 508). After losing, Japan began industrializing and soon enhanced their military by investing in tools from western empires, who had very strong and powerful militaries. Once Japan had built a strong military they began to fight for Korea. They fought China and “demolished the Chinese fleet in a battle lasting a mere five hours,” and they later gained Korea and treaty rights in China (Bentley 550). China’s military was very weak. After losing Hong Kong and many trading ports to western empires following the Opium War, China was in trouble. Chinese people began rebelling against the Qing Dynasty. After the most popular rebellion, The Taiping Rebellion, China began the Self-Strengthening Movement. “While holding to Confucian values, movement leaders built shipyards, constructed railroads, established weapons industries, opened steel foundries with blast furnaces, and founded academies to develop scientific expertise” (Bentley 543). After doing all of these things, China still did not have a strong enough military. They continued to deal with problems from the western
The three main reasons Ming China ended its treasure fleet was Confucian beliefs, lack of money and resources, and the two most important people of the seven voyages were dead. Confucians were not greedy for to travel and explore like the Europeans. They believed that China should be focused on internal topics rather than involve in foreign affairs. The confucians held a more lot of power towards the end of the voyages so they had a big part in stopping any more voyages from happening. China was also running out of money very quickly. The emperor, Zhu Di emptied almost half of the treasury with his ambitious projects, like the treasure fleets, the Great Wall of China, and his father’s memorial. Many natural disasters were happening in China,
Also, the ship’s crew often treated the Africans badly; they often whipped them because many of the people resisted and tried to escape from the cargo ship.
Modern piracy has touched nearly every corner of the globe and has increased with globalization. The tentacles of piracy now extend from South America to the South China Sea. The greatest numbers of piracy incidents occur along maritime commercial trade routes. Since China dominates the world’s container shipping industry, the South China Sea has become a hotspot for piracy (Kraska 2011). The prominence of cargo activity increases opportunity for pirates and indisputably triggered the sixty- nine incidents of piracy that were reported in 2009 in the South China Sea (Kraska 2011).
Even before the actual revolt, the slaves were not men who merely resisted; they were not passive objects. James offers graphic detail of the random and frequent beatings, killings and tortures in order to show the immense brutality of San Domingo's slavery. The severity and harshness of the slavery was due primarily to the fact that the colonists understood that "To cow [the slaves] into the necessary docility and acceptance necessitated a regime of calculated brutality and terrorism" (12)
With deserts and the Himalayas running along most of the border, it was extremely difficult to cross over one of the most dangerous mountain ranges in the world and a few other scorching deserts with the little transport they had during that time. The only way merchants could come into the country was the southeastern coast of China, where most of the prosperous cities resided. What led China to become conceited was because they had an abundance of goods that most of the world wanted. In the 1760-1830s, China was famous for its porcelain (rich Europeans loved it), silk, and of course, tea. Since this Eastern Powerhouse’s goods were so popular, therefore, there were only a few things that interested them to trade with.
conditions aboard ship were dreadful. The maximum number of slaves was jammed into the hull, chained to forestall revolts or suicides by drowning. Food, ventilation, light, and sanitatio...
Internet piracy is not a victimless crime. Piracy is a term used to describe the illegal downloading of music, movies, games, and even software online. Although many people don’t feel that piracy is a crime that affects anybody, it really does. People pirate stuff online because it is free and does not require one to run to a store to get their product. People that pirate these things don’t think of the repercussions that go along with it. You can have to serve up to 10 years in prison, and pay a fine of $250,000.