After unifying much of Japan, fearsome samurai Oda Nobunaga is dead. His loyal supporter Toyotomi Hideyoshi has launched a coup and seized power for himself. Enraged, powerful General Katsuie has launched his own bid to control the nation. After defeating Katsuie, Hideyoshi finally ascends to power as the de facto ruler of Japan. Still, Date Masamune, a young daimyo in the north, ignores his missives.
After ending 120 years of civil war and reunifying Japan under his banner, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the supreme ruler of Japan, lays dead. In a desperate attempt to protect his dynasty, just before his death, Hideyoshi created a council of five powerful warlords. They are to govern Japan until his young son comes of age. But the power hungry Tokugawa Ieasyu declares war on those who oppose him.
There had been other pirate settlements in different places but none of them had worked quite the same way that Nassau did. There was a fort there. People stayed, they built a community on the land. Larger and larger numbers of pirate-minded people were showing up there and starting to develop an economy around themselves. Men like Edward Thatch, later known as Blackbeard, his sidekick, Black Caesar, a former slave, and the pied pirate that led them all there, Captain Benjamin Hornigold. In the second episode, tensions rise between Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings; their rivalry takes a new direction when Hornigold declares Nassau a pirate republic.
The pirates of the Caribbean's humble base in Nassau turns into a boomtown run by Benjamin Hornigold. But Hornigold's crew deposes him for his refusal to attack English ships; but one man, Edward Thatch, remains loyal. Meanwhile, pirate raids on British slaves provokes outrage.
In 1717, the seas of the Caribbean are ruled by the Flying Gang: Black Sam Bellamy, Edward Thatch and Benjamin Hornigold. From their base in the Bahamas, these pirates steal a fortune from the wealthiest empires in Europe and disrupt the lucrative slave trade. English authorities tap Woodes Rogers to put a stop to the pirate attacks. He is on a mission to destroy the Flying Gang of the Caribbean.
The Pirate Republic of Nassau gets fat attacking trade between Britain and the Americas. But its foundations are rocked by the death of the most successful pirate who ever lived, Black Sam Bellamy, washed up on a New England beach. But Edward Thatch reinvents himself and becomes the most devilish pirate of all, Blackbeard. Woodes Rogers' campaign begins with the offer of a pardon, which Hornigold and Jennings accept; but not all Nassau pirates agree.
After defeating Katsuie, Hideyoshi finally ascends to power as the de facto ruler of Japan. Still, Date Masamune, a young daimyo in the north, ignores his missives.