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▶ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 This is getting out of hand! Now there are two of them?!
00:37 What was the second Florida?
01:35 Spanish La Florida Colony
01:57 Transfer of Florida to the British (Seven Years War)
02:46 British Separation of East & West Florida
03:09 Spanish Reconquest of Florida
03:48 Spanish Floridas Boundaries Disputes with the USA
04:49 Second Dispute - the Western Boundary with Louisiana
07:24 West Florida "Republic"
08:51 How Florida had become a burden for Spain
09:15 State of Muskogee
09:58 Spanish Sale of the two Floridas
10:51 American Annexation and Unification of the two Floridas
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0:00
Today this is Florida. As you most likely know there is only one of them but what if
0:05
I told you that just like today we have North and South Carolina or Virginia and West Virginia
0:09
we also used to have an East and West Florida because we did, specifically between the years
0:15
of 1763 and 1821. So why was this the case and why is it not anymore? In this video we're going
0:23
to learn about the existence and disappearance of the two Floridas. Understanding the historical context is the best way to understand this topic
0:41
The territory we know today as Florida which includes the Florida peninsula but also its
0:46
panhandle used to be separate. The now panhandle was called West Florida and the peninsula was
0:52
was called East Florida. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former
0:57
Spanish Florida using the river Apalachicola as the dividing line with the eastern part
1:03
Pensacola was its capital settlement and at its maximum extent, their territory extended
1:09
into what is today the Florida Panhandle as well as small areas of what are today Louisiana
1:14
Mississippi and Alabama. Because West Florida also included lands taken from French Louisiana
1:20
before it was sold to the US, as the Spanish temporarily administered these territories
1:25
on behalf of the French. But before the US were even created and bought Louisiana off of France
1:31
another territorial purchase was made between Great Britain and France and Spain. Despite being the
1:37
first major European land claim in North America, Spanish Florida was never really important for the
1:42
Spanish. It had no gold or silver, not enough people for farming production, and was under
1:47
constant raids by English settlers and Native Americans to the north. It was essentially a
1:52
buffer to keep the English from expanding into the rest of New Spain more than anything else
1:58
And so in 1763, following the British victory in the Seven Years' War against France
2:03
a set of territorial reorganizations and transfers took place, which included Florida. France
2:09
essentially lost all of its North American colonies, as well as most of its Caribbean islands
2:14
and ceded Louisiana to be administered by the Spanish, albeit temporarily. Spain itself was forced to sell Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana and Manila
2:24
which had been occupied by the British during the war. And so, La Florida became British with its few Spanish inhabitants moving to Cuba
2:32
Funnily enough, centuries later, the opposite migration pattern would take place as many Cubans fled the island towards Florida due to the Cuban Revolution
2:40
some perhaps returning to the land their Spanish ancestors had first settled in North America
2:46
As the newly acquired territory was too large to govern from one administrative center
2:51
the British decided to divide it into two new colonies separated by that Apalachicola River, West and East Florida
2:59
In summary, West Florida encompassed all territory between the Mississippi and Apalachicola Rivers
3:04
with a northern boundary which shifted several times over the subsequent years But as you know Britain wasn meant to hold on to the two Floridas for much longer Soon after in 1765 the American Revolution started And despite the
3:18
fact that both Floridas remained loyal to Britain in the conflict, even serving as a haven for
3:24
British leaders who fled the 13 colonies, the war indirectly caused the British to lose it
3:29
As in 1781, and remember the revolution only really ended in 1783, the Spanish, perhaps sensing
3:35
British fragility due to their war with the Americans, invaded West Florida from the Louisiana
3:40
territory. After the war, Britain ceded the two Floridas back to Spain, who kept the West-East
3:46
administrative divide. However, the lack of defined boundaries led to a series of border disputes
3:52
between the Spanish and the now-independent United States, which would culminate with U.S
3:57
annexation of the two Floridas. This dispute, which only focused on the boundaries of West
4:02
Florida lasted for about 37 years and it had two key moments. The first was a moment of initial
4:08
disagreement over the boundaries inherited by Spain from the British, essentially disputing
4:13
which parallel line defined the northern border. The US asserted that the land between the 31st
4:19
and 32nd degrees had always been British territory and so rightfully belonged to the United States
4:24
while Spain insisted that its West Florida claim extended fully to the 32 degrees and 22 minutes
4:30
line. Regardless, this dispute was resolved with the Pinckney Treaty of 1795, named after Thomas
4:36
Pinckney who negotiated the treaty for the US, Don Manuel de Godoy, represented Spain. This treaty
4:42
defined the border between the US and Spanish Florida and guaranteed the United States navigation
4:47
rights on the Mississippi River. However, the dispute wasn't fully resolved and a second moment
4:53
arose following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. But before we keep going, a quick message from our
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6:32
And now, back to the video. You see, Louisiana had now been given back to France by Spain
6:37
And while the US only wanted to buy the city and port of Louisiana itself from the French, France decided to sell them the whole territory
6:44
as they seemingly gave up on the idea of having a colonial empire
6:48
partly because of their failure to put down a rebellion in Haiti, partly because they wanted to focus all their resources in conquering Europe
6:55
And so, buying Louisiana from the French, the US now had another border dispute with the Spanish territory of West Florida
7:02
Sure, the Northern land was resolved, but what about the Western one
7:06
Because unknown to the Americans, in 1762, France signed a secret treaty with Spain
7:11
that, upon being revealed in 1764, had effectively ceded all French lands west of the Mississippi River
7:18
plus the island of New Orleans, to Spain. The Spanish were quick to annex this to their territory of West Florida
7:24
And so, when the Americans bought Louisiana off the French, they felt like they were entitled to this secretly ceded land
7:30
and thus a part of what was de facto Spanish West Florida. This controversy led to the secession of that part of West Florida
7:38
known precisely as the Republic of West Florida, from Spanish control in 1810 and its subsequent
7:44
annexation by the United States. The legitimacy of a local revolt seems to be pretty non-existing
7:49
and this was fully a US-fueled movement to put pressure on the Spanish to A, cede the territory
7:56
to them and or B, agree to finally sell both Floridas to them. In fact, we later came to know
8:02
how on February 12th of 1812, Congress secretly authorized President James Madison to take
8:08
possession of that portion of West Florida with authorization to use military and naval force
8:12
as deemed the necessary. The moment is actually defined by some historians as representing the
8:18
emergence of infant American imperialism. This republic's territory is now part of Louisiana
8:23
which perhaps shows the US argument back then. It wasn't a part of Florida, and that's why it
8:28
should have been given to them with the Louisiana Purchase. The Republic sought to control the
8:32
Mobile District, which included parts of what would become Mississippi and Alabama, however
8:37
a military expedition failed to defeat Spanish forces. I think this shows us how the point
8:42
of the US-led and supported movement wasn't only to get this territory they felt cheated from
8:47
but to pressure Spain to let go of all of Florida. However, despite initially resisting US advances
8:53
the Spanish still didn't really care about Florida. For them, it had become a burden to afford to send settlers and soldier garrisons
9:00
to a territory that wasn't that economically profitable for them. They were also exhausted from the Peninsular War against Napoleon
9:08
An example of that was the fact that they allowed another breakaway state to temporarily exist in East Florida, Muscogee
9:15
I've mentioned it in a previous video, but the state of Muscogee was a proclaimed sovereign nation
9:19
located in Florida, founded in 1799 and led by William Augustus Bowles, a loyalist veteran
9:26
of the American Revolutionary War who lived among the Muscogee and envisioned uniting the Native Americans of the Southeast into a single nation that could resist the expansion of the United States Even though it eventually failed due to the abandonment of previous British support and
9:41
opposition from the US and Spain together, it demonstrated Spain's inability to control the interior of East Florida, at least
9:48
de facto. The Spanish presence had been reduced to the capital, San Agustin, and other coastal cities, while the interior
9:55
really did belong to the Seminole nation. Since the Spanish were also facing local revolts in South America and another border dispute
10:03
with the US in the west in Texas, Madrid decided to cede the territory of west and east Florida
10:09
to the United States in exchange for settling that boundary dispute along the Sabine River
10:14
in Spanish Texas. Because of this, in 1819, the US and Spain negotiated the Adam-O'nish treaty in which
10:21
the US purchased the remainder of Florida from Spain, even though they had previously
10:24
refused US efforts to try and purchase this land. The treaty established the boundary of US territory and claims throughout the Rocky Mountains
10:33
and west to the Pacific Ocean in exchange for Washington paying residents' claims against
10:38
the Spanish government up to a total of 5 million Spanish dollars and relinquishing
10:43
the US claims on parts of Spanish Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas
10:49
under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase. And so, the territory that was initially a Spanish colony, then being split into two
10:55
by the British when they got it off Spain, kept divided by Spain upon reconquest and
11:00
which became a target of disputes between them and the US was finally meeting its fate
11:05
being annexed by the United States in 1819. The US didn't want to keep the West-East divide, as a result the US military took over
11:13
and governed both Floridas with founding father Andrew Jackson serving as the first governor
11:19
The United States soon organized the Florida Territory on March 30, 1822 by combining East
11:25
and West Florida east of the Perdido River and establishing a territorial government
11:29
It was then admitted to the Union as a state on March 3, 1845
11:34
While the territories were united, the previous existence of West Florida still had an effect
11:38
on choosing the location of Florida's current capital. At first, they rotated between the historical capitals of both of them, Pensacola and St
11:46
Augustine. But this required delegates to travel almost a month by land, so they ended up choosing
11:51
a halfway point, Tallahassee, to become the new capital, which it still is today. Some people still
11:57
claim that Florida shouldn't have its panhandle, which essentially represents the territory of the
12:02
formerly separate West Florida. Many in Alabama claim that the panhandle should be a part of their
12:07
state instead, expanding their coastal access. And the truth is, local culture is closer to that of
12:13
Alabama than it is to the rest of Florida. The reason why it remained part of Florida was probably the fact that it was a part of
12:19
Florida since the start, even if separated at one point. What do you think
12:24
Should Florida be again split into east and west and if so, should the west be its own
12:29
state or join Alabama? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching this video, subscribe if you want to catch future ones and I will
12:35
see you next time for more general knowledge. But remember before you click away, consider trying out War Thunder today through the link
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