West Florida

The area known as West Florida was originally claimed by Spain as part of La Florida, which included most of what is now the southeastern United States. Spain made several attempts to conquer and colonize the area, notably including Tristán de Luna's short-lived settlement in 1559, but it was not settled permanently until the 17th century, with the establishment of missions to the Apalachee. In 1698, the settlement of Pensacola was established to check French expansion into the area. Beginning in the late 17th century, the French established settlements along the Gulf Coast and in the region as part of their colonial La Louisiane, including Mobile (1702) and Fort Toulouse (1717) in present-day Alabama included none of the territory between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers, as the title to that territory had passed immediately from France to Britain in 1763. ==Colonial period==

and Alabama. Many new settlers arrived in the wake of the British garrison, swelling the population. In 1774 the First Continental Congress sent letters inviting West Florida to send delegates, but this proposal was declined as the inhabitants were overwhelmingly Loyalist. During the American Revolutionary War, the governor of West Florida was Peter Chester. The commander of British forces during the war was John Campbell. The colony was attacked in 1778 by the Willing Expedition. Spanish era Spain entered the American Revolutionary War on the side of France, but not the Thirteen Colonies. Bernardo de Gálvez, governor of Spanish Louisiana, led a military campaign along the Gulf Coast, capturing Baton Rouge and Natchez from the British in 1779, Mobile in 1780, and Pensacola in 1781. In the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the war, the British agreed to a boundary between the United States and West Florida at 31° north latitude between the Mississippi and Apalachicola rivers. However, a separate Anglo-Spanish agreement, which ceded both Florida provinces back to Spain, did not specify a northern boundary for Florida. Spain insisted that its West Florida claim extended fully to the 1767 boundary at 32° 28′, but the United States asserted that the land between 31° and 32° 28′ had always been British territory. The purpose was to transfer the military post at San Marcos (now St. Mark's) and the district of Apalachee from East Florida to West Florida. In the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800, Spain agreed to return Louisiana to France; however, the location of the boundary between Louisiana and West Florida was not explicitly specified. After France sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803, another boundary dispute erupted. The United States laid claim to the territory from the Perdido River to the Mississippi River, which the Americans believed had been a part of the old province of Louisiana when the French agreed to cede it to Spain in 1762. The Spanish insisted that they had administered that portion as the province of West Florida and that it was not part of the territory restored to France by Charles IV in 1802, as France had never given West Florida to Spain, among a list of other reasons. ==Republic of West Florida==

The United States and Spain held long, inconclusive negotiations on the status of West Florida. In the meantime, American settlers established a foothold in the area and resisted Spanish control. British settlers, who had remained, also resented Spanish rule, leading to a rebellion in 1810 and the establishment for 74 days of the Republic of West Florida. In West Florida from June to September 1810, many secret meetings of those who resented Spanish rule, as well as three openly held conventions, took place in the Baton Rouge district. Out of those meetings grew the West Florida rebellion and the establishment of the independent Republic of West Florida, with its capital at St. Francisville, in present-day Louisiana, on a bluff along the Mississippi River. Early in the morning on September 23, 1810, armed rebels stormed Fort San Carlos at Baton Rouge and killed two Spanish soldiers "in a sharp and bloody firefight that wrested control of the region from the Spanish." The rebels unfurled the flag of the new republic, a single white star on a blue field. After the successful attack, organized by Philemon Thomas, plans were made to take Mobile and Pensacola from the Spanish and incorporate the eastern part of the province into the new republic. Reuben Kemper led a small force in an attempt to capture Mobile, but the expedition ended in failure. Support for the revolt was far from unanimous. The presence of competing pro-Spanish, pro-American, and pro-independence factions, as well as the presence of scores of foreign agents, contributed to a "virtual civil war within the Revolt as the competing factions jockeyed for position." The convention had earlier commissioned an army under General Philemon Thomas to march across the territory, subdue opposition to the insurrection, and seek to secure as much Spanish-held territory as possible. "Residents of the western Florida Parishes proved largely supportive of the Revolt, while the majority of the population in the eastern region of the Florida Parishes opposed the insurrection. Thomas' army violently suppressed opponents of the revolt, leaving a bitter legacy in the Tangipahoa and Tchefuncte River regions." Skipwith complained bitterly to Holmes that, as a result of seven years of U.S. tolerance of continued Spanish occupation, the United States had abandoned its right to the country and that the West Florida people would not now submit to the American government without conditions. ==American annexation of the territory==

, 1911, note legend. On October 27, 1810, U.S. president James Madison proclaimed that the United States should take possession of West Florida between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers, based on a tenuous claim that it was part of the Louisiana Purchase. (See The U.S. claim, below.) The West Florida government opposed annexation, preferring to negotiate terms to join the Union. Governor Fulwar Skipwith proclaimed that he and his men would "surround the Flag-Staff and die in its defense". On February 12, 1812, Congress secretly authorized President James Madison to take possession of the portion of West Florida located west of the Perdido River that was not already in the possession of the United States, with authorization to use military and naval force as deemed necessary. On April 14, 1812, Congress authorized the portion of the territory west of the Pearl River to be incorporated into the state of Louisiana, which would be formally created on April 30, but it was not formally attached until the state's legislature approved it on August 4. The U.S. annexed the Mobile District of West Florida to the Mississippi Territory on May 14, 1812, although this decision was not effected with military force until nearly a year later. (See Major Gen. James Wilkinson's role.) According to one historian, "The incorporation of West Florida into the Orleans district represents the emergence of infant American imperialism by the newly constructed union. Using force, not negotiations, Claiborne and his army, with Madison's proclamation, forced Skipwith and his sympathizers to accept foreign rule." United States claim By the secret treaty of October 1, 1800, between France and Spain, known as the St. Ildefonso treaty, Spain returned to France in 1802 the province of Louisiana as at that time possessed by Spain, and such as it was when France last possessed it in 1769. • In 1800, denominated Louisiana did not include West Florida. • In Spanish government ordinances and treaties, the Floridas were always specified as distinct from all other Spanish possessions. • France's 1801 Treaty of Aranjuez with Spain stipulated the cession of Louisiana to be a "restoration", not a retrocession. ==Later history and legacy==

The Spanish continued to dispute the annexation of the western parts of its West Florida colony, but their power in the region was too weak to do anything about it, since it was facing concurrently the wars of independence of colonies throughout the Spanish Empire. They continued administering the remainder of the colony (between the Perdido and Suwannee Rivers) from the capital at Pensacola. On February 22, 1819, Spain and the United States signed the Adams-Onís Treaty. In this treaty, Spain ceded both West and East Florida to the United States in exchange for compensation and the renunciation of American claims to Texas. Following ratification by Spain on October 24, 1820, and the United States on February 19, 1821, the treaty took effect, thereby establishing the current boundaries. As a result, the U.S. military took over and governed both Floridas with Andrew Jackson serving as governor. The United States soon organized the Florida Territory on March 30, 1822, by combining East Florida and the rump West Florida east of the Perdido River and establishing a territorial government. It was then admitted to the Union as a state on March 3, 1845. West Florida had an effect on choosing the location of Florida's current capital. At first, the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida determined to rotate between the historic capitals of Pensacola and St. Augustine. The first legislative session was held at Pensacola on July 22, 1822; this required delegates from St. Augustine to travel 59 days by sea to attend. To get to the second session in St. Augustine, Pensacola members traveled 28 days over land. During this session, the council decided future meetings should be held at a half-way point to reduce the distance. Eventually, Tallahassee, site of an 18th-century Apalachee settlement, was selected as the midpoint between the former capitals of East and West Florida. The portions of West Florida now located in Louisiana are known as the Florida Parishes. The Republic of West Florida Historical Museum is located in Jackson, Louisiana, run by the Republic of West Florida Historical Association. In 1991, the lineage society "The Sons & Daughters of the Province & Republic of West Florida 1763–1810" was founded for the descendants of settlers of the period. Its objective included to "collect and preserve records, documents and relics pertaining to the history and genealogy of West Florida prior to December 7, 1810". In 1993, the Louisiana State Legislature renamed Interstate 12, the full length of which is contained in the Florida Parishes, as the "Republic of West Florida Parkway". In 1998, Leila Lee Roberts, a great-granddaughter of Fulwar Skipwith, donated the original copy of the constitution of the West Florida Republic and the supporting papers to the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge. Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond also holds an archival collection of documents from British West Florida and the Republic of West Florida, some of them dating back to 1764. ==Governors==

Governors under British rule: • George Johnstone (1763–1766) • Montfort Browne (acting, 1766–1769) • John Eliot (appointed 1767, arrived April 1769, committed suicide shortly afterward) • Montfort Browne (acting, 1769) • Elias Durnford (acting, 1769–1770) • Peter Chester (1770–1781) Governors under Spanish rule: • Arturo O'Neill de Tyrone (May 9, 1781 – 1794) • Enrique White (1794–1796) • Francisco de Paula Gelabert (1796) • Vicente Folch y Juan (June 1796 – March 1811) • Francisco San Maxent (March 1811 – 1812) • Mauricio de Zúñiga (1812–1813) • Mateo González Manrique (1813–1815) • José de Soto (1815–1816) • Mauricio de Zúñiga (1816) • Francisco San Maxent (1816) • José Masot (1816 – May 26, 1818) • William King (United States military governor, May 26, 1818 – February 4, 1819) • José María Callava (February 4, 1819 – July 17, 1821) ==See also==