Title: Spanish Main - Wikipedia
Headings: Spanish Main
Spanish Main
Contents
Etymology
Composition
Economic importance and piracy
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content: Spanish Main - Wikipedia
Spanish Main
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Spanish Main
Region of Spanish Empire
Spanish possessions (yellow) in the Caribbean region, with the coastline of the Spanish Main indicated (thick maroon line). This article is about the Caribbean coast and Gulf of Mexico. For the film, see The Spanish Main. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish Main was the collective term 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 . Contents
1 Etymology
2 Composition
3 Economic importance and piracy
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Etymology
The word main in the expression is a contraction of mainland. 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, Porto Bello, Cartagena de Indias 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 in Panama to the Orinoco delta on the coast of Venezuela.