Course et piraterie (privateering and piracy)

Title: Course et piraterie : études présentées à la Commission internationale d'histoire maritime à l'occasion de son XVe colloque international pendant le XIVe Congrès international des sciences historiques, San Francisco, août 1975.

Catalogue entry: can be found here. It is in three volumes:

• Vol. I : Eastern Medterranean, IV - XV centuries
• Vol. II : Apogee and decline of privateering in the Atlantic late XVIII - XIX centuries
• List of authors, summaries.

The List of Authors and the Table des matières are available in pdf format.

"Course et Piraterie" consists of papers, many in French, some in English, presented to the International Commission of Maritime History on the occasion of its 15th International Colloquium of Historical Sciences, San Francisco, 1975. The choice of the theme "Course et Piraterie" was made after the meeting of the XIII International Congress of Historical Science under the auspices of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS) (le Comité international des sciences historiques (CISH)) held in Moscow, 1970. Other organizations involved include the Insitut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

"The French formulation translates relatively well into English "Privateering and Piracy." It is uncertain that it is the same in other languages. We have reduced the title to these two terms, in order to let the authors express themselves freely on the forms of private bellicose activity, the aspects of which have varied greatly through times and seas. To make a work plan was difficult. In the absence of generally valid definitions, it was necessary either to follow a chronological plan, or to conform to the geographically different conditions of the political, economic, technical, military, social and psychological factors of the regions. Since al peoples have not evolved at the same rate, it was necessary to find a compromise between a geographical order, easy to delimit, and a more complex historical evolution. This explains the plan adopted to classify the works. The order may be subject to discussion." (Michel Mollat.)