Latin American History

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Spanish Main

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Spanish Main mainland of Spanish America, particularly the coast of South America from the isthmus of Panama to the mouth of the Orinoco River. Spanish treasure fleets, sailing home from the New World, passed through the Caribbean N of the Main and were attacked by English buccaneers raiding from the islands and coast. Pirates congregated there until the 19th cent., and the words "Spanish Main" have become the symbol of piratic romance.

Bibliography: See C. O. Sauer, The Early Spanish Main (1966); A. O. Exquemelin, The Buccaneers and Marooners of America (1891, repr. 1971).

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Spanish Main, the

The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military | 2001 | Copyright

Spanish Main, the
1. the former name for the northwest coast of South America between the Orinoco River and Panama.

2. the area of the northwest coast of South America, the Caribbean Sea, and the West Indies, where Spanish merchant ships traveled and were often preyed upon by pirates from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

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"Spanish Main, the." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-SpanishMainthe.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	: Fine Foods: Spanish mains.(Features) Newspaper article from: Daily Post (Liverpool, England); 5/11/2002
	New-boy Aaron is Spanish main man of the future ; One for the future: Aaron... Newspaper article from: Daily Mail (London); 8/15/2008
	The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main 1674-1688.(Brief... Magazine article from: California Bookwatch; 1/1/2008