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The Real Pirates of the Caribbean

Khalid Elhassan January 7, 2020 32 min

27. From Pirate to Lieutenant Governor

In 1669, Henry Morgan pillaged the wealthy Spanish settlements around Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. In 1671, he mounted his most daring and ambitious expedition, when he led a fleet of 36 ships and 2000 pirates against Panama City. Landing on Panama’s Caribbean coast, Morgan led his men across the isthmus and through thick jungles to attack and seize the city on the Pacific coast.

However, England had signed a peace treaty with Spain by then. To appease the livid Spanish, Morgan was arrested and sent to London for appearances’ sake, but upon arrival, he was lionized and treated as a hero. In 1674, he was knighted by King Charles II and sent to Jamaica as its Lieutenant Governor. There Morgan remained, a wealthy plantation owner and powerful political figure, occasionally subbing in as governor during that officeholder’s absence, until his death in 1688.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.