Spanish America

American  

noun

1. the Spanish-speaking countries south of the U.S.: Mexico, Central America (with the exception of Belize), South America (with the exceptions of Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname), and most of the West Indies.

---

Spanish America British  

noun

1. the parts of America colonized by Spaniards from the 16th century onwards and now chiefly Spanish-speaking: includes all of South America (except Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, and Surinam), Central America (except Belize), Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and a number of small Caribbean islands

---

Example Sentences

Their crushing victory, which Miller called “the most brilliant ever fought in South America,” sealed the fate of Spanish America.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

This unprecedented move set the tone for the independence of Portuguese America, which was pursued relatively peacefully compared to the liberation movements in Spanish America.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

How did events in early nineteenth-century Western Europe, Spanish America, and the United States affect Brazilian independence?

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Upon disembarking, Africans who survived the horrors of the middle passage were sold to English buyers or to foreign traders looking to acquire slaves for transshipment to Spanish America.

From Slate • Jul. 28, 2020

These slender excuses may, in some degree, account for and palliate the maladministration of Spanish America from the middle of the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

From Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican Vol. 1 of 2 A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of That Country From the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time; With a View of the Ancient Aztec Empire and Civilization; A Historical Sketch of the Late War; And Notices of New Mexico and California by Mayer, Brantz