West Florida

Historic administrative area now divided among four states on the Gulf Coast: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Created by the British in 1763, it came under Spanish control for almost 40 years after the American Revolution. Finally a treaty concluded in 1819 brought it, together with the rest of Florida, within US jurisdiction.

When the British gained Florida from Spain and parts of Louisiana from France at the end of the Seven Years' War, they created East Florida (all of modern Florida east of the Apalachicola River) and West Florida. This latter area extended from the far west of modern Florida to the Mississippi River (though it excluded the city of New Orleans, Louisiana and its environs). The following year, the British unilaterally extended the northern boundary of West Florida from 31° north (the line of the current Mississippi-Louisiana border) to a line drawn east from near Vicksburg. Accordingly, when Spain regained control of West Florida from the British in 1781, it laid claim to all territory up to the more northerly line, but eventually settled for the 31° north line as its boundary in a treaty concluded with the USA in 1795. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase introduced another point of contention, over the portion of West Florida that lay in (modern) Louisiana, with an uprising against the Spanish in Baton Rouge in 1810 declaring a ‘Republic of West Florida’.