Why privateering survived long after 1815

Privateering remained part of maritime war well beyond the Napoleonic era rather than disappearing abruptly in 1815. Britain upheld the right of sovereign and insurgent governments to commission privateers during the Latin American independence wars, even when British shipping suffered. It also preserved a legal distinction between privateers and pirates during the Greek War of Independence so that belligerent rights remained usable and unlawful seizures could still be challenged. The policy survived as an option for France and the United States until the Declaration of Paris abolished privateering in 1856. Maritime law remained a strategic instrument as professional navies developed.