Spanish Florida

Spanish Florida refers to the Spanish territory of La Florida, which is the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery.

La Florida forms part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the Spanish Empire during Spanish colonization of the Americas.

While it has no clearly defined boundaries, the territory is 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, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and southeastern Louisiana.

Spain's claim to this vast area is based on several wide-ranging expeditions mounted during the sixteenth century.

However, Spain never exercises real control over La Florida much beyond several settlements and forts, which are predominantly located in present-day Florida.

Spanish Florida is established in 1513, when Juan Ponce de León claims peninsular Florida for Spain during the first official European expedition to North America.

This claim is enlarged as several explorers (most notably Pánfilo Narváez and Hernando de Soto) land near Tampa Bay in the mid-1500s and wander as far north as the Appalachian Mountains and as far west as Texas in largely unsuccessful searches for gold and other riches.

The presidio of St. Augustine is founded on Florida's Atlantic coast in 1565; a series of missions were established across the Florida panhandle, Georgia, and South Carolina during the 1600s; and Pensacola is founded on the western Florida panhandle in 1698, strengthening Spanish claims to this section of the territory.

Spanish control of the Florida peninsula is made possible by the collapse of native cultures during the seventeenth century.

Several Native American groups (including the Timucua, Calusa, Tequesta, Apalachee. Tocobaga, and the Ais people) had been long-established residents of Florida, and most resist Spanish incursions onto their land.

However, conflict with Spanish expeditions, raids by the English and their native allies, and (especially) diseases brought from Europe result in a drastic decline in the population of all the indigenous peoples of Florida, and large swaths of the peninsula are mostly uninhabited by the early 1700s.

During the mid-1700s, small bands of Creek and other Native American refugees begin moving south into Spanish Florida after having been forced off their lands by English settlements and raids.

They are later joined by African-Americans fleeing slavery in nearby colonies.

These newcomers—plus perhaps a few surviving descendants of indigenous Florida peoples—eventually coalesce into a new Seminole culture.

The extent of Spanish Florida begins to shrink in the 1600s, and the mission system is gradually abandoned due to native depopulation.

Between disease, poor management, and ill-timed hurricanes, several Spanish attempts to establish new settlements in La Florida end in failure.

With no gold or silver in the region, Spain regards Florida (and particularly the heavily fortified town of St. Augustine) primarily as a buffer between its more prosperous colonies to the south and west and several newly established rival European colonies to the north.

The establishment of the Province of Carolina by the English in 1639, New Orleans by the French in 1718, and of the Province of Georgia by Great Britain in 1732 limit the boundaries of Florida over Spanish objections.

The War of Jenkins' Ear (1739 - 1748) includes a British attack on St. Augustine and a Spanish invasion of Georgia, both of which are repulsed.

At the conclusion of the war, the northern boundary of Spanish Florida is set near the current northern border of modern-day Florida.

Great Britain temporarily gains control of Florida beginning in 1763 as a result of the Anglo-Spanish War, but while Britain occupies the territory, it does not develop it further.

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