During the

Spanish colonization of America Spain began colonizing the Americas under the Crown of Castile and was spearheaded by the Spanish . The Americas were invaded and incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, British America, and some small regions of ...

, the Spanish Main was the collective term for the parts of the Spanish Empire that were on the mainland of the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with t ...

and had coastlines on the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

or Gulf of Mexico. The term was used to distinguish those regions from the numerous islands Spain controlled in the Caribbean, which were known as the Spanish West Indies.

Etymology

The word "main" in the expression is a contraction of mainland.Online Etymology Dictionary: main (n.)
Retrieved 20 August 2014

Composition

The Spanish Main included Spanish Florida and New Spain, the latter extending through modern-day Texas, Mexico, all of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. C ...

, to Colombia and Venezuela on the north coast of South America. Major ports along this stretch of coastline included Veracruz, Porto Bello,

Cartagena de Indias Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a lin ...

and Maracaibo. The term is sometimes used in a more restricted sense that excludes the territories on the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish Main then encompassed the Caribbean coastline from the

Isthmus of Darien An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...

in Panama to the

Orinoco delta The Orinoco Delta is a vast river delta of the Orinoco River, located in eastern Venezuela. Location The Orinoco Delta is one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela. It covers the whole of Delta Amacuro State and a few square kilometers of ...

on the coast of Venezuela. In this sense, the Spanish Main roughly coincides with the 16th century

Province of Tierra Firme During Spain's New World Empire, its mainland coastal possessions surrounding the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico were referred to collectively as the Spanish Main. The southern portion of these coastal possessions were known as the Provin ...

(

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

for "mainland province").

Economic importance and piracy

From the 16th to the early 19th century, enormous wealth was shipped from the Spanish Main to Spain in the form of gold, silver, gemstones, spices, hardwoods, hides and other valuable goods.''The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main, 1674–1688''
by Benerson Little (

Potomac Books The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Univer ...

, 2007) Much of the wealth was silver in the form of

pieces of eight The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight ( es, Real de a ocho, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content ...

, from the mines near

Potosí Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location o ...

. It was carried to the Spanish Main by

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with othe ...

and mule trains via the Pacific coast. Other goods originated in the Far East, having been carried to the Pacific coast of Spain's possessions on the

Manila galleon fil, Galyon ng Maynila , english_name = Manila Galleon , duration = From 1565 to 1815 (250 years) , venue = Between Manila and Acapulco , location = New Spain ( Spanish Empir ...

s, often through the port of

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

, then transported overland to the Spanish Main for onward shipment to Europe. The Spanish Main became a frequent target for pirates,

buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 168 ...

s, privateers and countries at war with Spain, seeking to capture some of these riches. To protect this wealth, the Spanish treasure fleet was equipped with heavily armed galleons. The organization of the fleets in large convoys proved highly successful, with only a few successful examples of major privateer attacks along the Spanish Main, such as the capture of Cartagena de Indias by Francis Drake in 1586; the capture of a Spanish treasure fleet sailing from Mexico by the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ...

in 1628; the capture of Chagres and Panama City by Henry Morgan in 1670–71; and the Raid on Cartagena by the French in 1697. Pirates operating in the area included the Dutchman Laurens de Graaf, who raided Veracruz in 1683 and Cartagena in 1697.

References

External links

*
Melfisher.org: ''Reefs, Wrecks and Rascals''
— ''archived version''. {{Pirates Spanish colonization of the Americas Age of Sail Piracy in the Atlantic Ocean Colonial Central America Colonial Mexico Colonial Venezuela Spanish Florida Spanish West Indies Viceroyalty of New Granada History of the Atlantic Ocean History of international trade History of New Spain Gulf Coast of Mexico Gulf Coast of the United States Economic history of Spain Naval warfare of the Early Modern period Anti-piracy Sea lanes

Etymology

Composition

Economic importance and piracy

See also

References

Further reading

External links