Spanish Main

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Spanish Main, in red. Spanish possessions in yellow

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

The Spanish Main was the mainland coast of the Spanish Empire around the Caribbean. The mainland of what was initially called "Spanish America" (thus, "Spanish Main"), it included Florida, Mexico, Central America and the north coast of South America. In time it became a general term for the seaways around the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean.

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 riches.

Major loading ports were Cartagena de Indias in New Granada, Porto Bello on the Isthmus of Darien and Veracruz in New Spain (with wares brought by the Manila Galleons transported overland from Acapulco), and from there they were shipped to Spain by the famous Spanish treasure fleets. This made the Spanish Main a haunt of pirates and privateers, and gave the name a notorious and romantic allure.