Spanish Florida

Governorate of Florida La Florida (Spanish)
1513–1763
Left: Cross of Burgundy Right: Early modern flag
Motto: Plus Ultra transl. Further Beyond
Anthem: Marcha Real "Royal March"
Spanish Florida after Pinckney's Treaty in 1795
Status	Governorate of the Spanish Empire
Capital	San Agustín
Government	Monarchy
History
• Spanish exploration and settlement	1513
• San Miguel de Gualdape establishment and abandonment	1526
• Initial Pensacola establishment, abandonment, and re-establishment at Presidio Santa Maria de Galve	1559–1561
• 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	10 February 1763
Preceded by Succeeded by Indigenous peoples of Florida East Florida West Florida
Today part of	United States Southern Alabama Florida Southeastern Georgia Southeastern Louisiana Southern Mississippi Southern South Carolina

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 in 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 that came to serve primarily as a strategic buffer between the rest of New Spain 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.