Once a Pirate, Always a Pirate
the Strange History of New Providence
the island where Honour is Law
Of all the nations of the Earth, few are as much of a curiosity as the Pirate Republic of New Providence (which yes, it is it's official name), the last surviving relic of the Golden Age of Piracy of the Caribbean, which, for all of its History, if one is being honest, is not so much a nation as it is a piece of territory controlled by a myriad of organisations whose only common goal is not be bothered by anyone else which, ultimately, one could argue is the definition of a nation. Which makes it all the more fascinating.
Situated in an island of the Bahaman Archipelago, mostly part of the Caribbean Province of Canada, the history of piracy in the island started back in 1696, when an English privateer, seeking to keep his ships safe while negotiating for the sale of the loot he kept ransom, realised the low depths of the bay of Nassau allowed his smaller ships to sail, while keeping the large State fleets that pursued them literally at bay, allowing him and his colleagues to operate safely and finding what was literally a safe harbour from the law. As oft happens among sailors, the secret was gossiped into common knowledge, and Nassau prospered as a place where English privateers could ransom the loot from Spanish and French galleons without fearing their reprisal. It would stay a British colony for the time being, however, with that only changing when, in 1703, the French and Spanish would raid the island, forcing the British government to abandon it and forcing many of the settlers to flee for safer shores.
Pirates continued using the harbour for their own goals, however and, after three years of lawlessness which isn't always the friend of the pirate, an assembly of captains declared the formation of a compact of government, a republic of their own, to serve as a mediator between offenses and settle disputes. The principles were simple, run by a code of conduct that simply expanded what was already in place among pirate ships - run democratically, the plunder was shared equally, and captains were voted or deposed by popular vote. In terms of affairs of the Republic, each shipcrew was to be represented by its captain, and each would have one vote.
As the War of Spanish Succession, and therefore the British need for pirates, ended, two positions began developing in the island that would become important posts for its republican structures: the Governor, an official protector of all pirate-citizens of the Republic, who had the power and responsibility to organise attacks to defend the lives and integrity of any pirate-citizen captured by a foreign power, and a Magistrate, being in command of the laws within the island and enforcing them as he saw fit. Captain Benjamin Hornigold would be the first true power in the island, serving as its governors through its early days, while his second-in-command, Edward Teach, dubbed
Blackbeard, would serve as Magistrate. Those two would shape much of the affairs of the Pirate Republic for its first age.
The Republic would survive its early days by the cleverness of those two, as the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end. Understanding that their traditional sources of income were disappearing fast, Hornigold and Teach resorted to two methods: employing a formal bribe over struggle, as their Barbary counterparts had been doing for centuries, which was made easier by having one single man with authority over the vast majority of Caribbean pirates (and, most importantly, being ready to enforce his monopoly of violence), essentially receiving tribute from the European nations to clear the waters of other pirates who wouldn't abide to their truce, and going for new and exciting routes that still held profits, in particularly the newly-found wealth of Brazilian gold.
The system of bribery and monopoly on piracy also helped shift the Republic into what it became: the headquarters for a professional navy that served as mercenaries for the European powers, keeping the seas clean from piracy (and, during wartime, serving the highest bidder, of course), rather than a loosely-connected patchwork of criminals. The plunder was no longer the property of a ship captain, but rather the property of the Republic, distributed equally among all pirate-citizens who took part in a campaign. The pirates of olde became salaried workers, with the peculiarity of having a finely instilled system of what would later be called workplace democracy.
Through the next century, although piracy would never return to the glory of its heyday, the Pirate Republic would survive, mostly because it happened to be a century with plenty of war to be fought. Through the several succesion wars, the Seven Years War, the Revolutionary Wars (both American and French!) and the Napoleonic Wars, it seemed the pirates could do pretty well. Until, of course, the industrialisation of Europe and the development of naval traditions, in particular steamships, caught up with the pirates, who no longer could pose a true threat to the might of an European navy.
Fortunately for the Republic, the descendants (only spiritually, mind you, not biological, as the republic has, for centuries, relied very little on birth rates and rather on heavy immigration) of the pirates came up with a clever scheme to adapt to the new times: it seemed that, for some reason, the elites of Europe and the US were fascinated with the idea of health resorts, places where one could go and enjoy unmatchable health conditions. The Alpine regions were greatly benefiting from this and soon many entreprising New Providence dwellers decided it was time for them to get in on the action.
A group of many pirates would sell their ships, purchase land and resources and create what would be called the New Providence Estates, in what is now Culvert's Bay and Jonestown, an until-then underdeveloped area that was mostly marshy land, but that they turned into a rather reputable resort, which was said to be miraculous for curing health, enjoying the benefits of the sun and the sea winds. Considering their relative remoteness from civilised society, to appeal to their customers, the Estates promoters would claim that a myriad of diseases could be treated in their resort, in particular tuberculosis, a much dreaded ailment. Soon, a flock of wealthy and sickly people started arriving at their shores, where they were greeted by the loveliness of the Estates.
Never missing an opportunity, other citizens of New Providence would start their own entreprises, surrounding the Estates, in particular casinos, where those same wealthy, sickly people would spend a lot of their time, distracting themselves with gambling and other fun activities. Of course, a pirate being a pirate, it was all a sham. The Estates didn't cure anything and were, in fact, actively poisoning their guests to ensure they stayed around longer, perfecting the balance between too sickly to spend and too healthy to stay. And the casino district was renowned for being particularly fierce, even compared to the most sinful of their European counterparts. Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was a notable guest during his life, having written many tales surrounding the mythos of the island and his experience there. By the end of it, countless young socialites, newrich industrialists and old aristocrats found themselves penniless and at the mercy of the pirates. The legend says those incurring in debt were made to walk the plank in the open sea, or fed to sharks. Probably a myth, of course.
This posed an issue, of course, since, while the owners of the Estates and the casinos were certainly the wealthiest citizens of New Providence, a casino is not a ship, and so they had, technically, no representation in government. However, power resides where power resides, and the Code of Conduct was quickly ammended to replace 'ship' by entreprise, making the Estates and the casinos effectively democratic institutions run by the people working in them, all of them pirate-citizens of New Providence. Once again, New Providence was not so much a nation, but a territory where a number of swindlers and charlatans could lure people to bankrupt them dry.
However, no good things are meant to last and, with the end of the Belle Époque, the Great War and all that, the luck and wealth of Europe was drained and fewer had the ability to get to the Caribbean to be thieved. After a great last huzzah draining many of the White Russians in exile, the fortunes of the Republic fell again, and there was even talk of selling the island (back) to Britain.
It wouldn't take long for a new form of piracy to emerge, however, this time introduced my newly-arrived immigrants from the United States who, abhorring some of the taxes they were meant to pay in the continent, decided to allocate their assets to New Providence where those weren't effectively taxed. When word got out, many American and European businessmen started doing the same, effectively creating what History would call a tax haven. Each new created banking institution became a citizen with a vote and, quickly enough, New Providence became an island where the rich of the West would drop their bank accounts at. And that has been, without doubt, the business that has most profitted in New Providence through the years.
The 20th and 21st centuries brought along its own peculiar innovations, for sure, which nowadays form the cultural tissue of New Providence, whatever that means. The Cold War made it unsavory for superpowers to have their men fight their own battles, so a new age of mercenary companies emerged, highly technical and specialised, which just fit New Providence like a glove, gaining renown when, in 1961, a mercenary company from Nassau assassinated Fidel Castro and overthrew his regime, returning Fulgenico Batista to power. The rise of the Internet also brought new innovations, such as cryptocurrency, which is highly popular in New Providence, and digital piracy, which has many of its collectives represented in the New Providence citizenship, including a number of Wikileaks editors.
Today, New Providence is what one could describe "a mess from top to bottom" as casinos, resorts, banks, mercenaries, hacking collectives and, of course, services of local need, in particular brothels, but also foodchains and hospitals (not a lot of schools, though) coexist, electing a Governor who serves as a head of diplomacy for the island, and a Magistrate that enforces the existing laws. A surprising number of people inhabit the small island, and many more are citizens, with all the privilege coming from that. It is certainly the nation with the highest GDP per capita in the world, and for good reason - it is not so much a nation, but a large group of mostly criminal entreprises with a State tagged into them.
One imagines Blackbeard is smiling up from Hell.
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I... kinda enjoyed walking the line with the "Army with a State" thing here. If I went too far, I suppose you can go with the interpretation the Republic started as an "Army with a State", but I do enjoy the interpretation.
The map could be fuller, but I didn't want to overdo it. Hopefully next time I'll have an idea that's not an island
Anyway, I hope you all like it!
