Spanish Main

Definition

The contemporary English term for the South American Caribbean coast that ran from the mouth of the Orinoco west to the Isthmus of Panama, and northward across the Caribbean to include the Caribbean coast of Mexico. It was the collection-point coast for the Spanish silver economy: the bullion of Peru came by Pacific sea-route to Panama City, then by mule train across the Isthmus to Portobelo for embarkation on the Atlantic flotas; Cartagena de Indias served as the Tierra Firme fleet's principal staging and rendezvous port; the silver of New Spain went to Veracruz. For most of the seventeenth century the buccaneers worked the Spanish Main as their principal theatre. The term itself fell out of common use by the early nineteenth century with the dissolution of the Spanish American empire.