Analyzing the rise and subsequent fall of international piracy from the perspective of colonial hinterlands, Mark G. Hanna explores the often overt support of sea marauders in maritime communities from the inception of England’s burgeoning empire in the 1570s to its administrative consolidation by the 1740s. Although traditionally depicted as swashbuckling adventurers on the high seas, pirates played a crucial role on land. Far from a hindrance to trade, their enterprises contributed to commercial development and to the economic infrastructure of port towns. English piracy and unregulated privateering flourished in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean because of merchant elites' active support in the North American colonies. Sea marauders represented a real as well as a symbolic challenge to legal and commercial policies formulated by distant and ineffectual administrative bodies that undermined the financial prosperity and defense of the colonies. Departing from previous understandings of deep-sea marauding, this study reveals the full scope of pirates' activities in relation to the landed communities that they serviced and their impact on patterns of development that formed early America and the British Empire. “Will surely become the definitive work on early modern piracy for maritime and imperial historians alike.”— Itinerario “Hanna’s well-argued and exhaustively researched book will stand as the critical work on early modern British piracy for some time, but it is also essential reading for anyone interested in the development of the empire.”— William and Mary Quarterly “An important book . . . with little patience for swashbuckling. Instead, [Hanna] treat[s] pirates as being tightly enmeshed in the societies surrounding them.”— New Yorker “A fascinating and informative history of the rise and fall of international piracy from the late sixteenth through mid-eighteenth centuries.”— American Historical Review “An ambitious investigation into the political role of pirates in shaping colonial British American society in the seventeenth century. . . . A valuable addition to a sparse literature on politics in this period.”— Journal of Southern History “By piling up a treasure-trove of archival information from Britain and its colonies, Hanna has written one of the most important works on piracy to appear in the last three decades.”— Canadian Journal of History “An excellent read for popular audiences who are curious about the history of piracy, and it will also be an essential piece of historiography for future historians and researchers.”— Journal of Maritime Research “Enriched by copious notes that will reward readers with a wealth of data, as well as entertaining and engrossing historiographical context.”— H-Net Reviews “This carefully researched, beautifully written, and exquisitely detailed monograph turns the study of piracy on its head. In contrast to previous scholarship, which has focused on isolated accounts of colorful individuals and their flamboyant behavior, Mark Hanna concentrates on the nexus between land and sea.”—Dian Murray, New West India Guide "Hanna’s engaging book has opened up a rich new chapter in the history of piracy through its emphasis on trade. His excellent contribution will do much to supplement social, labor, and political histories of piracy from below. — Engish Historical Review Mark Hanna sets piracy in motion. He traces his subjects across their lives and their lives across the centuries. Insisting that Atlantic pirates be understood in terms of the imperial forces that spawned them in one century and then destroyed them in another, he has written a powerfully revisionist work."—Daniel Vickers, University of British Columbia Pirates built the British Empire Mark G. Hanna is associate professor of history at the University of California, San Diego.