Privateer was the denomination that received both the vessel as its navigator who were authorized by their country to pursue and plunder the merchant ships corresponding to an enemy nation.
The aforementioned corsair permit was granted by the government through a marque or marque patent.
While the line that separates the corsair from the pirate is really very, very fine, the main difference between the two is that the pirate attacked any vessel without having to report to anyone laterOn the other hand, the privateer was limited by the patent obtained, being able to capture merchant ships from certain countries and then having to distribute yes or yes the assets captured with the State that granted the patent. Almost exclusively, until the nineteenth century, privateering was mainly carried out by private individuals who assembled themselves, on their own account, the boats that they would use once they had obtained the marque license.
The heyday of corsair activity occurred between the centuries XVI and XVIIIDuring this time, almost all naval powers made use of the corsair's resource in order to hinder the transit of their rivals to their colonies. Until the 19th century the activity continued and finally it was disappearing.
The corsair arose as a necessity in the absence of the development of international law, that is, in those times if a nation suffered a grievance it did not have any type of legal recourse to solve it, then, in the face of this legal vacuum, the use of the figure of the corsair and also avoided entering an open war.
Whereas, for the rival nation, the corsair was simply a pirate, the subtle difference that we mentioned before did not exist. Then, whether a pirate or a corsair approached, there was no difference, the damage that would be suffered would be exactly the same.
