Piracy in OP and the cause of Piracy in History.

[Taleran]

This just dawned on me recently and it is that Oda may be using the history or piracy as another reason for the Great Pirate Age.

Now I know the age was 'started' by Roger but I highly doubt on that instant everyone found crews and went off to sea, it was more likely that they were waiting around for something to do and then he gives them something and all the pre-formed crews head off to destiny.

the reason I believe this is because the Great Pirate age in the Caribbean back in the past, was formed after the wars the country's of (Britian, French, Spanish etc etc), waged on each other, and after the conflict was over the soilders from those wars were left with nothing to do to support a way of life so they decided to make they're own on the high seas.

Now we know there was a nation that used to exist but now doesn't, my theory is that all of the pirates or at least most of pirates are decendants of the soldiers that fought in that War (which I believed happened) when the WG gained control of the world in the Void century.

[FireFistAce 0]

The Great age of Piracy was caused by a conflict known as the Queen Anne's War. Hence, why Blackbeard's ship was called the "Queen Anne's Revenge".

The Queen Anne's War was one of several conflicts between the French and the Native Americans (Together, btw; AND DOES MEAN TOGETHER SOMETIMES), vs. Great Britain. When the war ended, a treaty was signed that ended the service of many buccaneers (Blackbeard was one of these). In retaliation, these people become rogue pirates that attacked settlements in the Caribbean.

Another reason for the conflict was that Spain controlled the vast majority of the wealth coming to and from the New World. They had conquered Peru and controlled what was called the Spanish Silver Train. The only person to successfully capture the Silver Train was Sir Francis Drake, which is one of the reasons he became one of the wealthiest pirates in history.

[Masta D.]

Who would the French and the British be in the OP world…?

Maybe the kingdom in North Blue whom Norland sailed for could be France. I don't know, this might be another "Thinking-too-much" issue, but it is interesting. Oda said himself he gathered lots of reference material before he started writing.

[Taleran]

the nations don't mean that much what matters is that the War created alot of people without jobs / lives to go back to which lead to piracy.

[Bounty1Berry]

It's probably simpler and more abstract.

While the Spaniards did have a lot of wealth flowing, a big factor was that you had an entire economy of sitting-duck shipping. There wasn't enough defensive forces to keep the ships safe, or enough settlement and strong government to clamp down on piracy.

[FireFistAce 0]

@Bounty1Berry:

It's probably simpler and more abstract.

While the Spaniards did have a lot of wealth flowing, a big factor was that you had an entire economy of sitting-duck shipping. There wasn't enough defensive forces to keep the ships safe, or enough settlement and strong government to clamp down on piracy.

Be that as it may, the Silver train and the Spanish treasure fleet had an assload of Spanish Naval Ships escorting them. To actually bust into those fleets and loot them successfully was a "Holy shit" moment.

You're absolutely right though, and that's why many pirates were paid to be escorts. Privateers also assisted ships of their particular nation.

The biggest thing I find ironic about the Golden Age of Piracy is that Woodes Rogers ended it, and Oda's great piracy age was BEGUN by a man named Roger.

Coincidence?

[Chlodwig Shillingsfürst]

Seriously, Oda seems to know one hell of a lot more about piracy then he's supposed to. Honestly, he draw this one pilot, that Shonen Jump wanted an entire manga on and he's just "Okay, I've always wanted to be a professional mangaka anyway…" and in basically no time at all he creates this fantastic story, that's not only filled with plot-twists, substories, and all with serious historical and mythological backgrounds and sources of inspiration.

It's suspiciuos...

Anyway, piracy in One Piece is completely different from real life piracy. It's more or less piracy as we want piracy to be. You know like that little scene from 'Pirates of the Caribbean':

Jack Sparrow: "Not just the Spanish main, luv. The entire ocean. The entire world! Wherever we want to go, we'll go! That's what a ship is, you know! It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs, but what a ship is… What the Black Pearl really is... is... freedom…!"

And suddenly, a couple of criminals going around the oceans killing innocent women and children in order to steal their money and spend it on whores and liquor suddenly becomes Romantic Freedom-Lovers, and that's something really beautiful.

Then of course, with that terminology, you can make basically anything beautiful. Hell, people still worship Che Guevara, even though I guess nobody today would like to live in a communist dictature. People like to worship Che Guevara, but wouldn't wanna live in North Korea. Duble-moral perhaps, but it servas a good point. Anything that can be accossiated with searching for freedom can be turned into something beautiful.

Now, the civilians of the 17th and 18th century hated and feared pirates probably even more than we fear and hate terrorists.

But I think that's what One Piece really is about, not piracy, but search for freedom. And that is something that everyone can accossiate themselves to.