Archivo de Indias: AARRGH!

Today I visited the Archivo General de Los Indias (The General Archive of the Indies), a museum and the place where archival documents are stored that illustrate the history of Spain's empire in the Americas and the Philippines. King Carlos III, the king who my Civ profe argues is the best king of all the Bourbons, started a project to bring together under a single roof all the documentation regarding the overseas empire, which until that time had been dispersed among various archives. At the moment there is an exhibition about pirates in the Caribbean (not the movies, the REAL pirates). The exhibition gave a history about famous pirates, what piracy meant for Spain, and how the Spanish goverment tried to fight back. If you did not know, almost all the territory (and thus gold) of the Americas and the West Indies belonged to Spain. Other countries, England and France specifically (but Spain has always had problems with France, so what else is new?), wanted "un trozo de la pastel" and decided the best way to get it was to steal from Spain. Remember Sir Francis Drake? Hey was a privateer, meaning he was paid by the Queen of England to be a pirate and rob as much gold and silver from Spain as he could. Then he was knighted for doing a good job. Imagine how Spain felt about that... Then, the Dutch government saw what a success the English had had with that plan and decided to give it a try as well with their brand of privateers called corsairs. After that, it was anybody's game and buccaneers, freebooters, and smugglers roamed the open seas. Aarrrgh, me mateys! Drink up, me hearties, yo ho! And all those other pirate things... Anyway, the Islands of Tortuga, Saint-Domingue, and Jamaica (which was owned by the English, who consequently did not care that Spain was being robbed blind) turned into bases for them because the governors there promoted their expeditions and offered them refuge when needed. Reading about all of this coincidentally made me feel very piratey and I admit that I rather wanted to get some rum, but I had to run back to class asking myself "Why is the rum always gone?"