AHC: Pirates of the Great Lakes

altamiro

By the time the Great Lakes had any shipping worth a pirate's while IOTL it is too late. The lakes system is easily swept clean by a moderate early-1800s fleet if that happens. The only way for the pirates to have any hope to survive is if a contested border, say between the unsold but more densely settled French Louisiana and the Northeastern American states - if a patrol cannot cross the border for fear of sparking a war, as long as the pirates are merely annoying and not a vital threat for the commerce they can use the political situation. Of course any collaboration is going to instantly lead to ther destruction.
 
NHBL

NHBL

Balkanization...

You would need to have several different nations along the lakes in order for piracy to be viable--3 or 4 or more nations that don't trust each other. Then, the pirates can lurk in one country, and raid others--then relocate when things get hot.
 
minifidel

minifidel

The sort of anarchy necessary to foster piracy is difficult to get on the Great Lakes, but it's not impossible. An inconclusive ARW with a less densely populated Northwest Territory (or equivalent), perhaps with occasional flare ups, might create the right conditions.
 
Kaiphranos

Kaiphranos

Donor
It seems to me any pirates on the Great Lakes are going to gave some geographical obstacles--passages between the lakes are comparatively narrow, and it seems like those chokepoints could be kept under control even by fairly weak government presence, at least once the already is developed enough for there to be much of anything worth pirating. There were forts on the Straits of Mackinac as early as the Seven Years' War OTL, and the Niagara and Detroit areas would be additional chokepoints. So pirates could have significant trouble moving from one lake to another, and I'm not sure that any one lake could support much of a pirate population.
 
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