For a few years, pirates ran their own self-governed republic in the Bahamas

After the 1715 wreck of a Spanish treasure fleet drew looters to the Bahamas, a loose band of pirates known as the Flying Gang — including Blackbeard and Calico Jack — took over Nassau and governed it by their own codes, free of any colonial power. The 'Republic of Pirates' lasted only a few years before the Royal Navy and infighting broke it up, but it briefly made Nassau the undisputed capital of the Golden Age of Piracy.

— Wikipedia contributors, Flying Gang — Nassau, New Providence, the Bahamas, 1706–1718