Although some havens were merely hidden coves, some were established by governments who employed privateers to disrupt the overseas trade of rival nations.
This caused losses and damages to traders and shippers who had to pay higher insurance premiums or avoid certain routes or regions altogether.
[3] One of the major effects of pirates disrupted trade and commerce by attacking and capturing merchant vessels of all nations.
Pirates targeted valuable cargoes such as sugar, tobacco, spices, textiles, slaves, and gold.
[4] Pirate havens influenced the relations and conflicts among various colonial powers, who competed for control over trade and territory in different parts of the world.
One of the most well-known of these officials was Charles Eden, the governor of North Carolina, who granted pardons to famous pirates like Edward Teach (also known as Blackbeard) and Stede Bonnet.
These include: Historically, the Barbary Coast contained a number of pirate havens, notably Salé, Algiers, and Tunis.
[13] Munster's coast provided favorable geography in the form of harbors, bays, islands, anchorages and headlands, while the province's remoteness made it difficult to control from London or Dublin.
[14] Literate pirates in Ireland could, till 1613, escape secular trial (making their prosecution much more difficult) by pleading "benefit of clergy".
[17]: 202–215 Madagascar was an island off the coast of Africa that became a refuge for pirates who operated in the Indian Ocean in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
It was a place where pirates could find friendly merchants, governors, and judges who were willing to trade with them or protect them from prosecution.
During this same time period, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia was believed to be unable to enforce maritime laws.
This forms part of his thesis of Temporary Autonomous Zones, spaces or polities in which anarchist conceptions of freedom were briefly enacted during various historical periods.