When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few.

February 22, 1819            The United States Buys Florida for $5MM

On February 22, 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the United States under the terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty. Spain had rejected multiple offers by the United States to purchase Florida. But by 1818, Spain was facing a troubling colonial situation in which the cession of Florida made sense.  Florida had become a burden.  After the Peninsular War against Napoleon in Europe, Spain could not afford to send settlers or man garrisons.  They decided to cede the territory to the United States in exchange for the United States paying residents’ claims against the Spanish government of about $5 million Spanish dollars and settling the boundary dispute along the Sabine River in Spanish Texas.

The Adams–Onís Treaty was negotiated by John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State under U.S. President James Monroe, and the Spanish “minister plenipotentiary” Luis de Onís y González-Vara representing King Ferdinand VII. This treaty established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean, in exchange for relinquishing the U.S. claims on parts of Spanish Texas west of the Sabine River.  The treaty remained in full effect for only 183 days: from February 22, 1821, to August 24, 1821, when Spanish military officials signed the Treaty of Córdoba acknowledging the independence of Mexico; Spain repudiated that treaty, but Mexico effectively took control of Spain’s former colony. The Treaty of Limits between Mexico and the United States, signed in 1828 and effective in 1832, recognized the border defined by the Adams–Onís Treaty as the boundary between the two nations.

The United States then invaded and annexed most of West Florida (Florida panhandle and the extreme southern portions of the modern states of Alabama and Mississippi).  Claiming that the Louisiana Purchase covered West Florida also.   Texas then rebelled against Mexico in October of 1835 over issues of slavery (Mexico had outlawed it).  On April 21, 1836 the Republic of Texas gained its independence only to be annexed by the United States in 1845.  Texas and Florida will rebel over the slavery issue again in 1861 but be defeated and reincorporated into the United States in 1865.

Seems both of these places are more trouble than they are worth.  I wonder if we can sell Florida and Texas back to Spain?  Nah, they probably don’t want them either. Seems we overpaid.

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