Spanish Main

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Caribbean coast. For the film, please see The Spanish Main.

The Spanish Main was the mainland coast of the Spanish Empire around the Caribbean. It included Florida, Mexico, Central America and the north coast of South America.

From the 16th to the 18th century the Spanish Main was the point of departure for enormous wealth in the form of gold, silver, gems, spices, hardwoods, hides and other treasures. The famous Spanish treasure fleets transported these to Spain. The traffic in treasure made the Spanish Main a haunt of pirates and privateers.

[edit] See also

• History of Spain
• Spanish treasure fleet
• Piracy in the Caribbean

[edit] External links

• Notorious Places: The Spanish Main