Global InformationSpanish Florida information
| Governorate of Florida La Florida (Spanish) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Territory of New Spain | |||||||||||
| 1513–1763 1783–1821 | |||||||||||
 Cross of Burgundy | |||||||||||
 Spanish Florida after Pinckney's Treaty in 1795 | |||||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||||
| Marcha Real "Royal March" | |||||||||||
| Capital | San Agustín | ||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||
| • Type | Monarchy | ||||||||||
| • Motto | Plus Ultra transl. Further Beyond | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Spanish exploration and settlement | 1513–1698 | ||||||||||
• San Miguel de Gualdape establishment and abandonment | 1526 | ||||||||||
• Initial Pensacola establishment, abandonment, and re-establishment at Presidio Santa Maria de Galve | 1559–1561; 1698 | ||||||||||
• Fort Caroline establishment as part of French Florida and Spanish sacking | 1564–1565 | ||||||||||
• St. Augustine establishment | 1565 | ||||||||||
• Santa Elena establishment at Charlesfort and abandonment | 1566–1587 | ||||||||||
• Transferred to Britain | 1763 | ||||||||||
• Returned to Spain | 1783 | ||||||||||
• Pinckney's Treaty | 1795 | ||||||||||
• Occupation of Pensacola | 1814 | ||||||||||
• American conquest | 1818 | ||||||||||
• Adams–Onís Treaty ratified. Joined U.S. | 1821 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | United States
| ||||||||||
Spanish Florida (Spanish: La Florida) was the first major European land-claim and attempted settlement-area in northern America during the European Age of Discovery. La Florida formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the Spanish Empire during Spanish colonization of the Americas. While its boundaries were never clearly or formally defined, the territory was initially much larger than the present-day state of Florida, extending over much of what is now the southeastern United States, including all of present-day Florida plus portions of Georgia,[1] South Carolina,[2] North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Parishes of Louisiana. Spain based its claim to this vast area on several wide-ranging expeditions mounted during the 16th century. A number of missions, settlements, and small forts existed in the 16th and to a lesser extent in the 17th century; they were eventually abandoned due to pressure from the expanding English and French colonial settlements, the collapse of the native populations, and the general difficulty in becoming agriculturally or economically self-sufficient. By the 18th century, Spain's control over La Florida did not extend much beyond a handful of forts near St. Augustine, St. Marks, and Pensacola, all within the boundaries of present-day Florida.
Florida was never more than a backwater region for Spain and came to serve primarily as a strategic buffer between New Spain (whose undefined northeastern border was somewhere near the Mississippi River), Spain's Caribbean colonies, and the expanding English colonies to the north. In contrast with the conquistadors of Mexico or of Peru, the Spaniards in La Florida found no gold or silver. Due to disease and, later, raids by colonists of the Province of Carolina (chartered in 1663) and their Native American allies, the native population was not large enough for an encomienda system of forced agricultural labor, so Spain did not establish large plantations in Florida. Large free-range cattle ranches in north-central Florida were the most successful agricultural enterprise and were able to supply both local and Cuban markets. The coastal towns of Pensacola and St. Augustine also provided ports where Spanish ships needing water or supplies could stop and resupply.
Beginning in the 1630s, a series of missions stretching from St. Augustine to the Florida panhandle supplied St. Augustine with maize and other food crops, and the Spaniards required Apalachees who lived at the missions to send workers to St. Augustine [3] every year to perform labor in the town. The missions were destroyed by Carolina and Creek raiders in a series of raids from 1702 to 1704, further reducing and dispersing the native population of Florida and reducing Spanish control over the area.
Great Britain took possession of Florida as part of the agreements ending the Seven Years' War in 1763, and the Spanish population largely emigrated to Cuba. The new colonial ruler divided the territory into East and West Florida, but despite offers of free land to new settlers, Britain was unable to increase the population or economic output, and traded Florida back to Spain in 1783 after the American War of Independence. Spain's ability to govern or control the colony continued to erode, and, after repeated incursions by American forces against the Seminole people who had settled in Florida, Spain finally decided to sell the territory to the United States. The parties signed the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819, and the transfer officially took place on July 17, 1821, over 300 years after Spain had first claimed the Florida peninsula.
- ^ J. Michael Francis; Kathleen M. Kole; David Hurst Thomas (3 August 2011). "Murder and Martyrdom in Spanish Florida: Don Juan and the Guale uprising of 1597". Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. 95. American Museum of Natural History: 40. doi:10.5531/sp.anth.0095. hdl:2246/6123.
- ^ Linda S. Cordell; Kent Lightfoot; Francis McManamon; George Milner, eds. (30 December 2008). Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 348. ISBN 978-0-313-02189-3.
The first capital of La Florida was founded at Santa Elena in 1566 (at present Parris Island, South Carolina) with St. Augustine serving as a separate military post.
- ^
Compare:
Alderson, Doug (2 January 2013). The Great Florida Seminole Trail: Complete Guide to Seminole Indian Historic and Cultural Sites Open to the Public. Sarasota, Florida: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781561646166. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
Apalachee men were forced to leave their families and carry corn and other foods by foot to the city [St. Augustine]. [...] In 1676, a 33-year Spanish veteran of the Florida missions, Fray Alonso Moral, provided a graphic portrayal of how Apalachee laborers were forced to carry loads on their backs for two hundred miles to and from St. Augustine [...].