The Caribbean Sea between North and South America is the largest inland sea in the world. It is bordered by Central America and Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico to the west, surrounded by necklace-like West Indies to the north and east, and fertile South American continent to the south. These places are rich in precious tropical crops and gold and silver deposits. In A.D. 1492, Columbus discovered this place on a long voyage, and then Spain began to colonize America. A large number of materials produced in the surrounding areas of the Caribbean are continuously transported from coastal ports to Spain. /kloc-The Caribbean in the 0/6th century was very lively, and commercial fleets kept flowing.
? When merchant ships swaggered across the sea full of goods, some people were sharpening their knives and playing with their own ideas. There are many islands in the Caribbean, and the waterways vary in width and depth, and the hydrological conditions are extremely complicated, which is very suitable for pirates to hide and ambush guerrillas. From the perspective of pirates, this new sea area developed in the era of great navigation is a unique new hunting ground.
The colonial activities of Britain, France and other countries in the Western Hemisphere are one step behind Spain, and they have long been jealous when they saw that the Spaniards earned a lot of money in the United States. 1522, at the behest of the king of France, pirates robbed Spanish merchant ships in the Caribbean and returned two ships of jewels and a ship of sugar to France. Britain saw this as a good idea and immediately followed suit. Since then, there have been some well-equipped pirates in the Caribbean, the most famous of which is Francis Drake.
Drake was an English sailor and later became an explorer. He sailed to the Caribbean twice in the 65438+60s. 1572, robbed the Spanish gold fleet in South America and robbed several Spanish ships to return home, which was a sensation and was personally summoned by Queen Elizabeth II. Five years later, he went to the United States and robbed Spanish merchant ships all the way in the Atlantic. As a result, it was chased by Spanish warships, mistakenly bypassed the southernmost tip of South America, and finally completed the second round-the-world voyage in human history. After returning home, Drake was knighted by the Queen and became a monument in the history of pirates.
The above text comes from page 75 of this issue of Natural History Journal.
The movie Pirates of the Caribbean 5 will be released soon. If you want to know the history of pirates of the Caribbean, you can refer to this issue of Natural History Magazine. History provides rich materials for movies, and in movies, people can appreciate the vividness of characters, twists and turns of plots, grandeur of scenes and magical charm, which is the embodiment that art originates from reality but transcends reality.