West Florida in the context of "The Floridas"

Play Trivia Questions online!

or

Skip to study material about West Florida in the context of "The Floridas"

Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: West Florida

West Florida (Spanish: Florida Occidental) was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Great Britain established West and East Florida in 1763 out of land acquired from France and Spain after the Seven Years' War. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former Spanish Florida (East Florida formed the eastern part, with the Apalachicola River as the border), along with land taken from French Louisiana. Pensacola became West Florida's capital. The colony included about two thirds of what is now the Florida panhandle, as well as parts of the modern U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

As the newly acquired territory was too large to govern from one administrative center, the British divided it into two new colonies separated by the Apalachicola River. British West Florida included the part of former Spanish Florida, which lay west of the Apalachicola, as well as parts of former French Louisiana. Its government was based in Pensacola. West Florida thus encompassed all territory between the Mississippi and Apalachicola Rivers, with a northern boundary which shifted several times over the subsequent years.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<

👉 West Florida in the context of The Floridas

The Floridas (Spanish: Las Floridas) was a region of the southeastern United States comprising the historical colonies of East Florida and West Florida. They were created when Great Britain obtained Florida in 1763 (see British Florida), and found it so awkward in geography that it split the territory in two. The borders of East and West Florida varied. In 1783, when Spain acquired West Florida and re-acquired East Florida from Great Britain through the Peace of Paris (1783), the eastern British boundary of West Florida was the Apalachicola River, but Spain in 1785 moved it eastward to the Suwannee River. The purpose was to transfer the military post at San Marcos de Apalachee (now St. Mark's) and the surrounding district from East Florida to West Florida. From 1810 to 1813, the United States extended piecemeal control over the part of West Florida that comprised the modern-day Gulf coasts of Alabama and Mississippi and the Florida Parishes of Louisiana. After the ratification of the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1821 the United States combined East Florida and what had been the remaining Spanish-controlled rump of West Florida into the territory that comprises modern-day Florida.

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier

West Florida in the context of Southern Colonies

The Southern Colonies within British America consisted of the Province of Maryland, the Colony of Virginia, the Province of Carolina (in 1712 split into North and South Carolina), and the Province of Georgia. In 1763, the newly created colonies of East Florida and West Florida were added to the Southern Colonies by Great Britain until the Spanish Empire took back Florida. These colonies were the historical core of what became the Southern United States, or "Dixie". They were located south of the Middle Colonies, although Virginia and Maryland (located on the expansive Chesapeake Bay in the Upper South) were also called the Chesapeake Colonies.

The Southern Colonies were overwhelmingly rural, with large agricultural operations, which made extensive use of slavery and indentured servitude. During a period of civil unrest, Bacon's Rebellion shaped the way that servitude and slavery worked in the South. After a series of attacks on the Susquehannock, attacks that ensued after the group of natives burnt one of Bacon's farms, Bacon's arrest, along with other arrest warrants, were issued by Governor Berkely, for attacking the natives without his permission. Bacon avoided detainment, though, and then burnt Jamestown, in response to the governor previously denying him land in fear of native attacks. Bacon hadn't believed his policies were entirely conventional, saying that they didn't ensure protection to the English settlers, as well as the exclusion of Bacon from Berkeley's social clubs and friend groups. The rebellion dissolved some time in 1676, following Charles II's initial sending of troops to restore order in the colony. This rebellion influenced the view of the Africans, helping create a completely African servitude and workforce in the Chesapeake Colonies, alleviating primarily White servitude, a working class that could be repugnant at times through disobedience and mischief. This also helped racial superiority in white regions, helping the poor and wealthy white people feel almost equal. It diminished alliances between white and black people, as had happened in Bacon's Rebellion.

↑ Return to Menu

West Florida in the context of Florida Parishes

The Florida Parishes, on the east side of the Mississippi River—an area also known as the Northshore or Northlake region—are eight parishes in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana.

The Florida Parishes were part of what was known as West Florida in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Unlike most of the state, this region was not part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, which applied to territory west of the Mississippi River. First settled by the French, it was ceded to Great Britain in 1763 after France's defeat in the Seven Years' War. The British exchanged it with Spain following the American Revolutionary War for territory outside North America. This area was acquired by the U.S. in 1812 and combined with the new state of Louisiana.

↑ Return to Menu

West Florida in the context of East Florida

East Florida (Spanish: Florida Oriental) was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of the Spanish Empire from 1783 to 1821. The British gained control over Spanish Florida in 1763 as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War. Deciding that the colony was too large to administer as a single unit, British officials divided Florida into two colonies separated by the Apalachicola River: the colony of East Florida, with its capital located in St. Augustine; and West Florida, with its capital located in Pensacola. East Florida was much larger and comprised the bulk of the former Spanish colony and most of the current state of Florida. It had also been the most populated region of Spanish Florida, but before control was transferred to Britain, most residents – including virtually everyone in St. Augustine – left the territory, with most migrating to Cuba.

Britain tried to attract settlers to the two Floridas without much success. The sparsely populated colonies were invited to send representatives to the Continental Congress but chose not to do so, and they remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. However, as part of the 1783 treaty in which Britain officially recognized the independence of thirteen of its former colonies as the United States, it ceded both Floridas back to Spain, which maintained them as separate colonies while moving the boundary east to the Suwannee River.

↑ Return to Menu

West Florida in the context of Treaty of Versailles (1783)

The Peace of Paris of 1783 was the set of treaties that ended the American Revolutionary War. On 3 September 1783, representatives of King George III of Great Britain signed a treaty in Paris with representatives of the United States of America—commonly known as the Treaty of Paris (1783)—and two treaties at Versailles with representatives of King Louis XVI of France and King Charles III of Spain—commonly known as the Treaties of Versailles (1783). The previous day, a preliminary treaty had been signed with representatives of the States General of the Dutch Republic, but the final treaty which ended the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War was not signed until 20 May 1784; for convenience, however, it is included in the summaries below.

The treaty dictated that Great Britain would recognize the independence and sovereignty of the United States of America, formerly their Thirteen Colonies on the Eastern seaboard of North America. The treaty marked the end of the First British Empire. The United States gained more than it expected, thanks to the award of western territory. France got its revenge over Britain after its defeat in the Seven Years' War and gained Tobago and Senegal but ended up financially exhausted. It was already in financial trouble and its borrowing to pay for the war used up all its credit and created the financial disasters that marked the 1780s, and some historians link those disasters to the coming of the French Revolution. The Spanish regained Minorca, West Florida and East Florida from Britain, but not Gibraltar. The Dutch did not gain anything of significant value at the end of the war.

↑ Return to Menu

West Florida in the context of Florida panhandle

The Florida panhandle (also known as West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida. It is a salient roughly 200 miles (320 km) long, bordered by Alabama on the west and north, Georgia on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined. It is defined by its southern culture and rural demographics in contrast to urbanized central and southern Florida, as well as closer cultural links to Alabama and Georgia. Its major communities include Pensacola, Navarre, Destin, Panama City Beach, and Tallahassee.

As is the case with the other eight U.S. states that have panhandles, the geographic meaning of the term is inexact and elastic. References to the Florida panhandle always include the ten counties west of the Apalachicola River, a natural geographic boundary, which was the historic dividing line between the British colonies of West Florida and East Florida. These western counties also lie in the Central Time Zone (with the exception of Gulf County, which is divided between the Eastern and Central Time zones), while the rest of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone. References to the panhandle may also include some or all of eleven counties immediately east of the Apalachicola known as the Big Bend region, along the curve of Apalachee Bay.

↑ Return to Menu

West Florida in the context of Burr conspiracy

The Burr conspiracy of 1805–1807, was a treasonous plot alleged to have been planned by American politician and former military officer Aaron Burr (1756–1836), in the years during and after his single term as the third vice president of the United States (1801–1805), during the presidential administration and first term of the third president Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826, served 1801–1809).

Burr was accused of attempting to use his international connections and support from a cabal of American planters, politicians, and United States Army officers to establish an independent country in the old federal Southwest Territory (1790–1796), south of the Ohio River (future states of Kentucky, Tennessee and the future federal Territories of later Mississippi Territory (1798–1817), and adjacent Alabama Territory), and east of the Mississippi River and north of the southern coast along the Gulf of Mexico; or to invade/conquer the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase of 1803, west of the Mississippi River, later organized as the Louisiana Territory (1804–1812), then divided into future 18th state of Louisiana and upper/northern portion as Missouri Territory (1812–1821); or plotting against the northern parts of the colonial New Spain (later Mexico), still held by Spain; or against and seizing the Florida peninsula of the longtime Royal Spanish colony of Spanish Florida (consisting of West Florida and East Florida), in the Americas/Western Hemisphere, part of the world-wide Spanish Empire since the early 16th century.

↑ Return to Menu

West Florida in the context of Cape Romano

Cape Romano is a cape on the Gulf Coast of Florida, United States. It is on Cape Romano Island, one of a group of islands known collectively as Kice-Morgan Island.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas stated that the cape was named for Bernard Romans, who charted all of the coasts of East and West Florida in 1774. The feature is called "Cape Roman or Punta Larga" on Romans's 1774 map. John Lee Williams, in 1837, refers to the south point of "Isle Roman" as "Cape Roman" "of the British [charts]", and "Puerta Longa", "Punta Longa", and "Cape Acies" "of the Spanish charts".

↑ Return to Menu

West Florida in the context of Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the French Quarter of New Orleans, in the current suburb of Chalmette, Louisiana.

The battle was the climax of the five-month Gulf Campaign (September 1814 to February 1815) by Britain to try to take New Orleans, West Florida, and possibly the Louisiana Territory which began at the First Battle of Fort Bowyer. Britain started the New Orleans campaign on December 14, 1814, at the Battle of Lake Borgne and numerous skirmishes and artillery duels happened in the weeks leading up to the final battle.

↑ Return to Menu