21 Facts About Spanish Florida

Spanish Florida was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery.

Spanish Florida was never more than a backwater region for Spain and served primarily as a strategic buffer between New Spain, Spain's Caribbean colonies, and the expanding English colonies to the north.

Large free-range cattle ranches in north-central Spanish Florida were the most successful agricultural enterprise and were able to supply both local and Cuban markets.

Spanish Florida was established in 1513, when Juan Ponce de Leon claimed peninsular Florida for Spain during the first official European expedition to North America.

Spanish control of the Florida peninsula was much facilitated by the collapse of native cultures during the 17th century.

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Extent of Spanish Florida began to shrink in the 1600s, and the mission system was gradually abandoned due to native depopulation.

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.

Sparsely populated British Spanish 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.

Spanish Florida was appointed Adelantado of Florida and governor of Cuba and assembled a large expedition to 'conquer' Florida.

Spanish Florida's death sent shock waves through the Dominican missionary community in New Spain for many years.

In 1566, the Spanish Florida established the colony of Santa Elena on what is Parris Island, South Carolina.

The Spanish Florida abandoned Santa Elena and the surrounding area in 1587.

Spanish Florida's raids exposed Spain's inability to properly defend her settlements.

Some Spanish Florida 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.

Spanish Florida was a destination for escaped slaves from the Thirteen Colonies.

The Spanish Florida authorities offered them freedom if they converted to Catholicism and served in the colonial militia.

However, in the companion Peace of Paris between Britain and Spain, West Spanish Florida was ceded to Spain without its boundaries being specified.

The Spanish government assumed that the boundary was the same as in the 1763 agreement by which they had first given their territory in Florida to Britain, claiming that the northern boundary of West Florida was at the 32° 22' boundary established by Britain in 1764 after the Seven Years' War.

Spain occupied or built several forts north of the old British West Spanish Florida border, including Fort Confederacion, Fort Nogales, and Fort San Fernando .

British agents working in Spanish Florida provided arms and other assistance to Native Americans, resulting in raids across the border that sometimes required intervention by American forces.