Editing Spanish Main

{{Short description|Historical region  known as the Spanish West Indies}}
{{About|the Caribbean coast and Gulf of Mexico|the film|The Spanish Main}}

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| image_map_caption      = [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish possessions]] (yellow) in the Caribbean region around 1650, with the coastline of the Spanish Main indicated (thick maroon line).
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}}

During the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]], the '''Spanish Main''' was the collective term used by English speakers for the parts of the [[Spanish Empire]] that were on the [[mainland]] of the [[Americas]] and had coastlines on the [[Caribbean Sea]] 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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Spanish_Main/ |title=Spanish Main |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |publisher=World History Foundation ~ World History Publishing}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The word "main" in the expression is a contraction of [[mainland]].<ref name=etymology>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=main Online Etymology Dictionary: main (n.)] Retrieved 20 August 2014</ref>

== Composition ==
The Spanish Main included [[Spanish Florida]] and [[New Spain]], the latter extending through modern-day [[Texas]], [[Mexico]], all of [[Central America]], to [[Colombia]] and [[Venezuela]] on the north coast of [[South America]]. Major ports along this stretch of coastline included [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]], [[Portobelo, Colón|Porto Bello]], [[Cartagena, Colombia#History|Cartagena de Indias]] and [[Maracaibo]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

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]] in [[Panama]] to the [[Orinoco delta]] on the coast of [[Venezuela]].<ref name=etymology/><ref>{{cite web |title=Spanish Main |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Spanish-Main |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=26 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref> In this sense, the Spanish Main roughly coincides with the 16th century [[Province of Tierra Firme]] ([[Spanish language|Spanish]] for "mainland province").{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

== Economic importance and piracy ==
[[File:Bermuda sloop - privateer.jpg|thumb|A [[Bermuda sloop]] on the Spanish Main, circa 1807]]

From the 16th to the early 19th century, enormous wealth was shipped from the Spanish Main to Spain in the form of [[gold]], [[silver]], [[gemstone]]s, [[spice]]s, [[hardwood]]s, [[Hide (skin)|hides]] and other valuable goods.<ref name=little>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YRM-RpBiyTEC& ''The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main, 1674–1688''] by Benerson Little ([[Potomac Books]], 2007)</ref> Much of the wealth was [[silver]] in the form of [[pieces of eight]], from the mines near [[Potosí]]. It was carried to the Spanish Main by [[llama]] 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]]s, often through the port of [[Acapulco#History|Acapulco]], then transported overland to the Spanish Main for onward shipment to Europe.

The Spanish Main became a frequent target for [[pirate]]s, [[buccaneer]]s, [[privateer]]s and [[List of wars involving Spain|countries at war with Spain]], seeking to capture some of these riches.<ref name=little/> To protect this wealth, the [[Spanish treasure fleet]] was equipped with heavily armed [[galleon]]s. 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 [[Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1586)|capture of Cartagena de Indias]] by [[Francis Drake]] in 1586; the [[Battle in the Bay of Matanzas|capture of a Spanish treasure fleet sailing from Mexico]] by the [[Dutch West India Company]] in 1628; the [[Henry Morgan's Panama expedition|capture of Chagres and Panama City]] by [[Henry Morgan]] in 1670–71; and the [[Raid on Cartagena (1697)|Raid on Cartagena]] by the French in 1697. Pirates operating in the area included the Dutchman [[Laurens de Graaf]], who raided [[Attack on Veracruz|Veracruz in 1683]] and [[Raid on Cartagena (1697)|Cartagena in 1697]].

==See also==
* [[History of the Caribbean]]
* [[Piracy in the Caribbean]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Carl O. Sauer|Sauer, Carl O.]] ''The Early Spanish Main''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: [[University of California Press]] 1969.

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120206112400/http://www.melfisher.org/reefswrecks/spanish.htm Melfisher.org: ''Reefs, Wrecks and Rascals''] — ''archived version''.

{{Spanish colonization of the Americas|footer=true}}
{{Pirates}}

[[Category:Spanish colonization of the Americas]]
[[Category:Age of Sail]]
[[Category:Piracy in the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Colonial Central America]]
[[Category:Colonial Mexico]]
[[Category:Colonial Venezuela]]
[[Category:Spanish Florida]]
[[Category:Spanish West Indies]]
[[Category:Viceroyalty of New Granada]]
[[Category:History of the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:History of international trade]]
[[Category:History of New Spain]]
[[Category:Gulf Coast of Mexico]]
[[Category:Gulf Coast of the United States]]
[[Category:Economic history of Spain]]
[[Category:Naval warfare of the Early Modern period]]
[[Category:Anti-piracy]]
[[Category:Sea lanes]]
[[Category:Piracy in the Caribbean]]
[[Category:History of Latin America]]