User blog:Goddess of Despair/Season 4 battle 8 Pirates vs Kaizoku

Season 4 continues as Pirates take on the Kaizoku in an coastal blackpowder battle! Who is deadliest? To find out, our wikians are testing fiction's most lethal weapons. No rules, no sfety, no mercy. Its a duel to death to decide who is the deadliest warrior!

History
The term "pirate" refers to one who attacks ships on the high seas with the intent of hijacking the vessel and/or stealing its cargo. The "golden age" of piracy was from the late 1600s to the early 1700s, in part due to a large number of unemployed ex-navy sailors from wars that had taken place in Europe previously. Many of their weapons were the early black powder muskets, pistols, or grenades, but they did make excellent use of bladed weapons (like a cutlass sword or a boarding pike). Pirates did present a serious threat to English ships, especially when lead by capable leaders like the infamous Blackbeard. In general, pirates of the era were either Europeans, particularly English or French, or in the case of the Barbary Coast pirates, Arabs. Today piracy still exists, especially in Somalia where Somali Pirates present a serious threat to merchant ships in the area.

History
The term kaizoku, or wokou in Chinese refers to Japanese pirates, who typically attacked Chinese and Korean shipping, raiding coastal towns, and even making their way up major river systems such as the Yangtze. Wokou raids on China took place from the 13th to the 16th century. Japanese pirates were typically Ronin former soldiers, and smugglers, who smuggled goods into Japan in spite of Korean and Chinese restrictions on trade with Japan. The kaizoku fell into decline with the loosening of trade restrictions in the late 1500s, as well as anti-piracy military actions by Korea and the newly arrived Portuguese, as well as within Japan itself.

Voting/battle information
Battle will be a five on five and will take place in a Japaneese harbor. Voting is in the form of points, 2 points for edges or a descriptive paragraph. 1 point for a decent paragraph and 0 for one word or one sentence. Voting ends 3/12/2013.