During yesterday's show Cenk asked about Buccaneers and what the difference with Pirates are.
The answer is there is no difference between a Buccaneer and a Pirate.
The history of Buccaneers -
When Spain was colonizing Central America, they released a number of pigs, goats, and chickens on islands throughout the Caribbean, so they would multiply. That way when their ships were sailing between the new world and Spain, they would be able to make quick stops to replenish their food stocks with fresh meat. Actually it was pretty smart.
Over the years a number of Europeans ended up on these islands, sailors who found sea-life was not for them, colonists, or who knows. Some of the more enterprising individuals among these started hunting the game and preparing meat for when ships would come by, and at first the ships paid. The pig meat was called bucca, and so these men were called "Buccaneers".
Later as the Buccaneers started charging more for the meat, the ship's captains started to say "hell no; the animal's are free, and so why pay?" and so they stopped paying. This put the Buccaneers in a tough situation, and so they decided, well we'll just take the ships, and thus the Buccaneers became a term for pirates.
And that is today's history geek lesson.
| < Bush's pardon speaks volumes | One other Note On Heidi Klum and Bill O'Reilly > |
