After the Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of Spanish Succession, European empires have turned their eyes back from the continent to their colonies in the Americas. Their biggest scourge? Pirates plunder ships and disrupt trade routes in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, seeking freedom from the constraints of lawful civilization at the expense of imperial coffers. Can a settlement be reached to restore order in the colonies and reconcile pirates with the law? Or are their differences too great such that either pirates or civilization must win out in the end?