Florida Historical Quarterly Volume 39 Number 2 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 39, Article 2 Issue 2 1960 The Spanish Conquest of British West Florida, 1779-1781 Albert W. Haarmann Part of the American Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Article is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida Historical Quarterly by an authorized editor of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Recommended Citation Haarmann, Albert W. (1960) "The Spanish Conquest of British West Florida, 1779-1781," Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 39 : No. 2 , Article 2. Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol39/iss2/2 Haarmann: The Spanish Conquest of British West Florida, 1779-1781 THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF BRITISH WEST FLORIDA, 1779-1781 1 by ALBERT W. HAARMANN LORIDA PASSED TO British control in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. A Royal Proclamation on October 7 of that year established West Florida as a colony and Pensacola was designated as its capital. West Florida was roughly rectangular in shape and included portions of the present day states of Florida, Alabama, Missis- sippi, and Louisiana. Its eastern boundary was the Chattahoochee and Appalachicola Rivers. To the west, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, the Iberville River, and the Mississippi River defined the limits of British territory. The northern boundary was a line at approximately 32 degrees 28 minutes North, running east from the confluence of the Yazoo and the Mississippi Rivers to the Chattahoochee.