Spanish Florida

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Governorate of Florida
La Florida  (Spanish)
Territory of New Spain
Flag of New Spain
Cross of Burgundy
Pinckney's Treaty line 1795.png
Spanish Florida after Pinckney's Treaty in 1795
Marcha Real
(Royal March)
CapitalSan Agustín
 • TypeMonarchy
 • MottoPlus Ultra
transl. Further Beyond
• Spanish exploration and settlement
• San Miguel de Gualdape establishment and abandonment
• Initial Pensacola establishment, abandonment, and re-establishment
• Fort Caroline establishment and sacking
• St. Augustine establishment
• Santa Elena establishment and abandonment
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Indigenous peoples of Florida
East Florida
West Florida
Today part ofUnited States

Spanish Florida (Spanish: La Florida) was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North 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] Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,[2] and Louisiana. Spain's claim to this vast area was based 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 served primarily as a strategic buffer between Mexico (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 Mexico and Peru, there was no gold or silver to be found. Due to disease and, later, raids by Carolina colonists 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 call.

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 Apalachees who lived at the missions were required to send workers to St. Augustine every year to perform labor in the town. The missions were destroyed by Carolina and Creek raiders in a series of raids from 1702-1704, further reducing and dispersing the native population of Florida and reducing Spanish control over the area.

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 they traded Florida back to Spain after the American War of Independence in 1783. 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, finally decided to sell the territory to the United States. The parties signed the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819, and the transfer officially took place on July 17, 1821, over 300 years after Spain had first claimed the Florida peninsula.

Establishment of Spanish Florida[edit]

Narváez expedition in 1528, Apalachee Bay.



Contraction of Spanish Florida[edit]


Other European powers[edit]

Great Britain temporarily gained control of Florida beginning in 1763 as a result of the Anglo-Spanish War when the British captured Havana, the principal port of Spain's New World colonies. Peace was signed in February, 1763, and the British left Cuba in July that year, having traded Cuba to Spain for Florida (the Spanish population of Florida likewise traded positions and emigrated to the island). But while Britain occupied Floridan territory, it did not develop it further. Sparsely populated British Florida stayed loyal to the Crown during the American Revolutionary War, and by the terms of the Treaty of Paris which ended the war, the territory was returned to Spain in 1783. After a brief diplomatic border dispute with the fledgling United States, the countries set a territorial border and allowed Americans free navigation of the Mississippi River by the terms of Pinckney's Treaty in 1795.



Discovery and early exploration[edit]

Florida from the 1502 Cantino planisphere

European discovery[edit]

Juan Ponce de León is generally credited as being the first European to discover Florida. However, that may not have been the case. Spanish raiders from the Caribbean may have conducted small secret raids in Florida to capture and enslave native Floridians at some time between 1500 and 1510.[5]: 107 [6] Furthermore, the Portuguese Cantino planisphere of 1502 and several other European maps dating from the first decade of the 16th century show a landmass near Cuba that several historians have identified as Florida.[7][8][9][10][11] This interpretation has led to the theory that anonymous Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to map the southeastern portion of the future United States, including Florida. This view is disputed by at least an equal number of historians.[12][13][14][15][16]

Juan Ponce de León Expedition[edit]

Juan Ponce de León claimed Florida for Spain in 1513




Other early expeditions[edit]


First colonization attempts[edit]

In 1521, Ponce de León sailed from Cuba with 200 men in two ships to establish a colony on the southwest coast of the Florida peninsula, probably near Charlotte Harbor. However, attacks by the native Calusa drove the colonists away in July 1521. During the skirmish, Ponce de León was wounded in his thigh[21] and later died of his injuries upon the expedition's return to Havana.[22]


Narváez expedition[edit]




De Soto expedition[edit]



Ochuse and Santa Elena[edit]


Settlement and fortification[edit]


At the same time, in response to French activities, King Philip II of Spain appointed Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Adelantado of Florida, with a commission to drive non-Spanish adventurers from all of the land from Newfoundland to St. Joseph Bay (on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico).[25] Menéndez de Avilés reached Florida at the same time as Ribault in 1565, and established a base at San Agustín (St. Augustine in English), the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the continental United States.[26] Menéndez de Avilés quickly set out to attack Fort Caroline, traveling overland from St. Augustine. At the same time, Ribault sailed from Fort Caroline, intending to attack St. Augustine from the sea. The French fleet, however, was pushed out to sea and decimated by a squall. Meanwhile, the Spanish overwhelmed the lightly defended Fort Caroline, sparing only the women and children.[24]: 200–202 [27] Some 25 men were able to escape. When the Spanish returned south and found the French shipwreck survivors, Menéndez de Avilés ordered all of the Huguenots executed.[27]: 94  The location became known as Matanzas.[24]: 202 


Following the expulsion of the French, the Spanish renamed Fort Caroline Fort San Mateo (Saint Matthew).[27] Two years later, Dominique de Gourgues recaptured the fort from the Spanish and slaughtered all of the Spanish defenders. However, he did not leave a garrison, and France would not attempt to settle in Florida again.[29]

To fortify St. Augustine, Spaniards (along with forced labor from the Timucuan, Guale, and Apalache peoples) built the Castillo de San Marcos beginning in 1672. The first stage of construction was completed in 1695. They also built Fort Matanzas just to the south to look for enemies arriving by sea.[30] In the eighteenth century, a free black population began to grow in St. Augustine, as Spanish Florida granted freedom to enslaved people fleeing the Thirteen Colonies. Fort Mose became another fort, populated by free black militiamen and their families, serving as a buffer between the Spanish and British.[31]

Missions and conflicts[edit]


In 1566, the Spanish established the colony of Santa Elena on what is now Parris Island, South Carolina.[27]: 95  Juan Pardo led two expeditions (1566-1567 and 1567-1568) from Santa Elena as far as eastern Tennessee, establishing six temporary forts in interior. The Spanish abandoned Santa Elena and the surrounding area in 1587.[32]

In 1586, English privateer Francis Drake plundered and burned St. Augustine, including a fortification that was under construction, while returning from raiding Santo Domingo and Cartagena in the Caribbean.[33]: 429 [34] His raids exposed Spain's inability to properly defend her settlements.[34]

The Jesuits had begun establishing missions to the Native Americans in Florida in 1567, but withdrew in 1572 after hostile encounters with the natives.[33]: 311  In 1573 Franciscans assumed responsibility for missions to the Native Americans, eventually operating dozens of missions to the Guale, Timucua and Apalachee tribes.[35] The missions were not without conflict, and the Guale first rebelled on October 4, 1597, in what is now coastal Georgia.[36]: 954 

The extension of the mission system also provided a military strategic advantage from British troops arriving from the North.[33]: 311  During the hundred-plus year span of missionary expansion, disease from the Europeans had a significant impact on the natives, along with the rising power of the French and British.[37] During the Queen Anne's War, the British destroyed most of the missions.[37] By 1706, the missionaries abandoned their mission outposts and returned to St. Augustine.

Period of friendship[edit]


Spanish Governor Pedro de Ibarra worked at establishing peace with the native cultures to the South of St. Augustine. An account is recorded of his meeting with great Indian caciques (chiefs).[38] Ybarra (Ibarra) in 1605 sent Álvaro Mexía, a cartographer, on a mission further South to meet and develop diplomatic ties with the Ais Indian nation, and to make a map of the region. His mission was successful.

In February 1647, the Apalachee revolted.[36]: 27  The revolt changed the relationship between Spanish authorities and the Apalachee. Following the revolt, Apalachee men were forced to work on public projects in St. Augustine or on Spanish-owned ranches.[39] In 1656, the Timucua rebelled, disrupting the Spanish missions in Florida. This also affected the ranches and food supplies for St. Augustine.

The economy of Spanish Florida diversified during the 17th century, with cattle ranching playing a major role.[40] Throughout the 17th century, colonists from the Carolina and Virginia colonies gradually pushed the frontier of Spanish Florida south. In the early 18th century, French settlements along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast encroached on the western borders of the Spanish claim.



Some Spanish men married or had unions with Pensacola, Creek, or African women, both slave and free, and their descendants created a mixed-race population of mestizos and mulattos. The Spanish encouraged slaves from the southern colonies to come to Florida as a refuge, promising freedom in exchange for conversion to Catholicism. King Charles II of Spain issued a royal proclamation freeing all slaves who fled to Spanish Florida and accepted conversion and baptism. Most went to the area around St. Augustine, but escaped slaves also reached Pensacola. St. Augustine had mustered an all-black militia unit defending Spain as early as 1683.[41]

During the 18th century, the Native American peoples who would become the Seminoles began their migration to Florida, which had been largely depopulated by Carolinian and Yamasee slave raids. Carolina's power was damaged and the colony nearly destroyed during the Yamasee War of 1715–1717, after which the Native American slave trade was radically reformed.

Spanish Florida was a destination for escaped slaves from the Thirteen Colonies. The Spanish authorities offered them freedom if they converted to Catholicism and served in the colonial militia. (Some, such as those from Angola, were already Catholic.) This policy was formalized in 1693.[42]

Possession by Britain[edit]

The expanded West Florida territory in 1767.


Notably, most of the Spanish population departed following the signing of the treaty, with the entirety of St Augustine emigrating to Cuba.[43]




Second Spanish period[edit]


Spain gained possession of West Florida and regained East Florida from Britain in the Peace of Paris of 1783, and continued the British practice of governing the Floridas as separate territories: West Florida and East Florida. When Spain acquired West Florida in 1783, the eastern British boundary was the Apalachicola River, but Spain in 1785 moved it eastward to the Suwannee River.[44][45] The purpose was to transfer San Marcos and the district of Apalachee from East Florida to West Florida.[46][47]


After American independence, Spain claimed far more land than the old British West Florida, including the east side of the Mississippi River north to the Ohio and Tennessee rivers.[50] This expanded claim was based on Spain's successful military operations against the British in the region during the war. Spain occupied or built several forts north of the old British West Florida border, including Fort Confederación, Fort Nogales (at present-day Vicksburg), and Fort San Fernando (at present-day Memphis).[51][52] Spain tried to settle the dispute quickly, but the U.S. delayed, knowing that time was on its side.[50] By Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 with the United States, Spain recognized the 31st parallel as the border, ending the first West Florida Controversy. Andrew Ellicott surveyed this parallel in 1797, as the border between the United States and Spanish territories. In 1798, Ellicott reported to the government that four American generals were receiving pensions from Spain, including General James Wilkinson.




See also[edit]


  3. ^ Ralph H. Vigil (1 January 2006). "The Expedition and the Struggle for Justice". In Patricia Kay Galloway (ed.). The Hernando de Soto Expedition: History, Historiography, and "discovery" in the Southeast. U of Nebraska Press. p. 329. ISBN 0-8032-7132-8.
  4. ^ Charles M. Hudson (15 January 2018). Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms. University of Georgia Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-8203-5290-9.
  6. ^ a b Gannon, Michael (2013). The History of Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0813044644.
  23. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Antonio Montesino". Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  30. ^ Augustine, Mailing Address: 1 South Castillo Drive Saint; Us, FL 32084 Phone:829-6506 Contact. "Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)". Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  31. ^ "Fort Mose Historic State Park". Florida State Parks. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  32. ^ Worth, John E. "Missions of Spanish Florida 1565–1763". University of West Florida. Archived from the original on 28 September 2016.
  38. ^ Rouse, Irving (1981). Survey of Indian River Archaeology. Yale University Publications in Anthropology 45. ISBN 978-0-404-15668-8.
  40. ^ Arnade, Charles W. (1961). "Cattle Raising in Spanish Florida, 1513-1763". Agricultural History. 35 (3): 116–124. ISSN 0002-1482. JSTOR 3740622.
  42. ^ Smith, Bruce (March 18, 2012). "For a century, Underground Railroad ran south". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
  43. ^ "The British Period (1763-1784) - Fort Matanzas National Monument". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  46. ^ "The Evolution of a State, Map of Florida Counties – 1820". 10th Circuit Court of Florida. Archived from the original on 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2016-01-26. Under Spanish rule, Florida was divided by the natural separation of the Suwanee River into West Florida and East Florida.
  48. ^ Article 2, Treaty of Paris (1783).
  51. ^ Fort Tombécbe, Alabama Forts
  52. ^ "Fort San Fernando De Las Barrancas" Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  53. ^ Tebeau, p. 103
  55. ^ Tebeau, p. 104-105
  56. ^ Tebeau, p. 112
  58. ^ Tebeau, p. 113
  59. ^ a b Tebeau, p. 114

Further reading[edit]

  • Forbes, John (1979). Coker, William S. (ed.). John Forbes' Description of tbe Spanish Floridas. 1804. Translated by Vicki D. Butt, Joyce Lee Durbin, Maria del Carmen McDonald, Mary Ellen West, and William S. Coker. Pensacola, Florida: Perdido Bay Press. ISBN 0933776020. OCLC 4858053.

External links[edit]