Territorial Disputes over Florida
Territory is a major cause of wars and crises betweencountries. Throughout history people have been fightingover who owns what land. In this essay I will be going overjust one of these conflicts involving territory. This essay will go over and explain the territorialdisputes over Florida between the United States of Americaand Spain. The early part of the nineteenth century saw theUnited States expanding under an impulse known to historiansas manifest destiny. Manifest destiny was not only a movewestward but also towards the south. " The Acquisition ofFlorida was part of this southward movement, and thoughSpain did not care to let Florida Pass from under herjurisdiction, conditions made it impossible for her to domore than delay the action" (Martin, 1). For years before 1810 Spanish Florida spread across anarrow strip of the Gulf of Mexico all the way to theMississippi River. Temptation was high to acquire thisterritory, so on October 27, 1810, President James Madisonproclaimed American authority over all the section ofFlorida between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers. By theyear 1814 American troops were stationed throughout thisarea and thereafter Spain never gained control of it again.
Spain did not agree onthis view and protested against it to the bitter end , butto no avail. The Minister of theState in the new government was Evaristo Perez de Castro. The envoy did not arriveuntil April 7, 1820, by which time officials of the UnitedStates had become quite impatient. The Spanishoffer was met with a blunt "no" from Secretary of StateAdams. to have full control of the eastcoast allowed for influence in the Caribbean. (Brooks, 3) Negotiations were begun between Luis de Onis, theSpanish Minister, and John Quincy Adams, Secretary of Stateto the United States, in October of 1818 (Martin, 4). ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**Martin, Sidney Martin. The council, who was under the control ofIrujo, was greatly disturbed over the cession of Florida,and vowed that it would rather lose Florida by invasion thanby cession. Onis took this as an act of unfriendliness towardshim as well as his country (Brooks, 7). (Brooks 12) Realizing the need of impressing the new government,the United States informed the new government that unlessthere was immediate ratification of the treaty the UnitedStates would take Florida as well as Texas by force. Theoccupation of most of West Florida was a flagrant aggressionon Spanish territory, but the Madison administrationinsisted that the territory had actually been acquired bythe purchase of Louisiana in 1803. General Andrew Jackson led andExpeditionary force across the border into Florida in 1818and Suppressed the Indian disturbances from St.
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