Guarda costa or guardacosta ("coast guard") was the name used in the Spanish Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries for the privateers based off their overseas territories, tasked with hunting down piracy, contraband and foreign privateering. They rose with the naval reforms of the House of Bourbon, which mixed up private corsairs in harmony with the royal navies. Commanders like Blas de Lezo helped develop this system.[1]
They were mainly active against British, Dutch, French and Danish ships, becoming a mainstay of Spanish naval defense in the Indies and contributing to local economy with booty of their captures.[2] Guarda costas earned international infamy for their perceived brutality and excesses in the course of their work, attacking indiscriminately foreign ships and arresting or executing crews at the slightest suspicion of crime. They were often themselves implied in local contraband and acts of piracy.[2][3] Despite this, they were a notably effective and profitable force of privateering, even although piracy would remain an endemic problem in the Spanish Main.[4]
- ^ Moya Sordo, V. (2021). Los corsarios guardacostas del Golfo-Caribe hispanoamericano a lo largo del siglo XVIII. Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar. Volume 10, nº 20, 2021, pp. 125-147 ISSN: 2254-6111
- ^ a b Little (2014).
- ^ Gaudi (2021).
- ^ Nicieza Forcelledo (2022).