Trade, of course, attracts crime, and on the open water, pirates. In the early 1900s a man who looked little like a character from pirates of the Caribbean made a name for himself in that ancient profession.
More Essex class aircraft carriers were built than any other capital ship in the 20th century, and the class would be witness to events that would come to define the modern world, and the age of the aircraft carrier.
The Reconquista, or Christian reconquest of Iberia, took nearly 800 years. The fighting did not come without great attempts by Muslim powers across the strait trying to reestablish their presence in mainland Europe. The last gasp of that effort came in the 1330s, when the powerful Marinid sultanate of what is modern Morocco invaded in an attempt to reverse Christian gains and secure the perilous position of the Sultanate of Granada.