Spain cedes Florida to the United States,…
February 1819 CE
Spain cedes Florida to the United States, in exchange for the American renunciation of any claims on Texas that it might have from the Louisiana Purchase, and five million dollars, under the terms of the Adams–Onís Treaty, signed on February 22, 1819, by John Quincy Adams, U.S. Secretary of State, and Luis de Onís, Spanish minister, after two years of difficult negotiations and the intervention of the French ambassador Hyde de Neuville, who has defended the Spanish position against the radicalism of Henry Clay in the United States Congress, and General Andrew Jackson, who is notoriously hostile to the Spanish presence in East Florida.
The Treaty closes the first era of United States expansion by providing for the cession of East Florida under Article 2; the abandonment of the controversy over West Florida under Article 2 (a portion of which had been seized by the United States); and the definition of a boundary with the Spanish province of Mexico, that clearly makes Spanish Texas a part of Mexico, under Article 3, thus ending much of the vagueness in the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase.
For Spain, it means that it keeps Texas and retains a buffer zone between its Californian and New Mexican possessions and the territories of the United States.
Spain also cedes to the U.S. its claims to the Oregon Country, under Article 3.
The U.S. does not pay Spain for Florida, but instead agrees to pay the legal claims of American citizens against Spain, to a maximum of five million dollars, under Article 11.
Under Article 12, Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 between the U.S. and Spain is to remain in force.
Under Article 15, Spanish goods receive exclusive most-favored-nation privileges in the ports at Pensacola and St. Augustine for twelve years.
Under Article 2, the U.S. receives ownership of Spanish Florida (British East Florida and West Florida 1763–1783).
Under Article 3, the U.S. relinquishes its own claims on parts of Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas.