Why were Highwaymen so common in 17th and 18th century England?
Why did other European nations not have so many?
(Inb4 "Angl*s are criminals")
Highwaymen
Samuel Nelson
Daniel Gomez
Juste your usual mixture of English perfidy, cowardice and greed desu
Zachary Torres
Well the English civil war made it quite easy to be a highwayman due to the lawless chaos. Furthermore when others saw how successful they were, they decided to become highwaymen themselves.
Also highwaymen were highly romanticised which contributed to its popularity
They were not so big in the 18th century
Mason Cooper
What gives you the idea that there weren't as many highwaymen in the rest of Europe when you're probably American don't speak any languages besides English and haven't been exposed to culture and history of countries besides the US and Britain?
Ryder Taylor
Yes I'm American, but that doesn't change anything
en.m.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia talks like it only happened in Britain and rarely elsewhere
Austin Flores
Quads
Hudson Miller
Why were so many pirates English and Welsh?
Ryder Turner
This is also a good question.
Most of the golden age pirates were from the isles.
Charles Roberts
What a shitty post.
Hell, I would have rather seen a stormfag get the get.
Carson Cox
Probably because the term "highwayman" is associated with Anglosphere culture. Robbers that preyed on travellers existed throughout Europe, in particular in the HRE and what is nowaday's Italy, due to the politically fractured nature there and the various wealthy city states that would always receive rich merchants, making them popular targets.
John Smith
There was a fuckload in 17th and 18th century Hungary. One of them even became a Slovak national hero for some reason.
Jason Evans
They were founded by the English crown to harash Spanish colonial imports.
Ayden Evans
Because they started as privateers
Just like how nobles became robber Barron’s in time of peace, seamen became pirates
Connor Howard
When trade with the new world became more important, the prevalence of piracy shifted to the parties involved there.
During the middle ages, when the Baltic trade was more important, most pirates were Scandinavian, Baltic or German.
Jaxon Bailey
Thanks
Cameron Gonzalez
youtube.com
This thread reminded me of this beautiful song/poem
Jordan Nelson
>Why did other European nations not have so many?
They did
It's just you hear less of them because American (current cultural hegemon) is obsessed with his "ancestor" Britain and not with the rest of Europe (except for WW2 Germany, "muh enemy))
Christopher Gonzalez
Why does wikipedia talk like it was an England-only phenomenon
Ryder Brown
You had plenty outside of Britain
de.wikipedia.org
It's just that the English wiki is self-centered (as usual)
Elijah Jones
Not all robbers are highwaymen
Charles Murphy
Top fucking kek. Every balkan nibba who killed hungarians eventually became a local hero.
Nathaniel Morris
In addition to that, the English crown regularly gave out contracts to "privateers" of dubious character. It's easy to see how this could encourage real piracy so far from England proper
Noah Hughes
England had much better roads than most of Europe, meaning more traveling along the roads, meaning more people to rob.
Jackson Green
Highway man is an English thing where they romanticised them and on the continent there where robbers
Easton Wright
Stealing others' property is what Perfidious Albion does, and is the biggest factor in them being confined to their containment island today.
Jace Garcia
People here are talking about the criminals but I like the mercenary opposites set up to counter them, the bow street runners are, I think are a pretty good example. en.m.wikipedia.org
A good mix of both is the "thief-taker general"
Liam King
>Why did other European nations not have so many?
But they did are you dumb
Jeremiah Jenkins
Seriously its in our blood we wuz Celts,Saxons,Danes, and Normans after all.
I knows its a bit before the 17-1800s but in the middle ages continental Europe was much more dangerous the England dont know about Scotland but in nations that kept records England had 20 murders per 100k people which is much higher than modern England but in Italy they had like 90 per 100k people.
Ryder Lopez
BLOKES IFFY
LAD GOT THE BLICKY