The State of West Florida
L'État de Floride Occidentale
El Estado de la Florida Occidental
West Florida was a colonial borderland. The Spanish built a fort at Pensacola in 1698, and the French moved in nearby at Mobile in 1702. Mobile was the first capital of the Louisiana colony, but the French soon moved their capital to New Orleans. English settlers, mostly from Carolina, began arriving in the 1750s. Their settlements were small and informal, and England made no claims to the region.
West Florida as an entity came into being in 1795. Spain organized a colonial government for East Florida, and the more sparsely populated west was not included as a part of it.
The region saw fighting in the wars of the 1800s, but the treaties did not reach any conclusion for the area. The Dominion of Carolina, by now a self-governing loyalist English state, attempted to force an arrangement in 1810 when it claimed sovereignty over all of West Florida's English settlements. This had the effect of sparking renewed war in the region. The Florida Wars ended in 1819. The nascent Grand Council negotiated a thirty-year truce, during with England, France and Spain would rule West Florida jointly. It was understood that the three countries' rule would largely be carried out by the colonial governors of Carolina, Louisiana, and East Florida.
In 1833, well before the truce was set to expire, Louisiana declared independence from France. Many of the English in West Florida took the opportunity to declare their own republic, breaking the truce. To represent their republic, they flew a blue flag with a single white star. Out of necessity, the rebels allied with some Spanish republicans. They began to fly a flag with three stars, the third added in the hope of drawing support from local French.
By now, the rest of the Boreoamerican states were committed to preventing wars between states, especially when they had the potential to draw in European colonial armies. The Grand Council, by now a permanent institution. took the lead in forming a plan to end the war. In 1838 all sides accepted a plan to return to the three-way condominium, but with a timetable for achieving independence as a separate state. A tricameral legislature came into being, the three houses representing the three ethnolinguistic communities of West Florida.
In 1841 the situation had stabilized enough that the State of West Florida was declared, even though it was not yet fully self-governing. Representatives of the new state gained seats in the Congress and the Grand Council, and soon after in the first Parliament. As their flag, the state chose the three-star blue flag that the rebels had used.
In 1845, Choctaw and Muscogi villages in West Florida were granted representation in a fourth legislative house. The state kept this constitution through the rest of the nineteenth century. Louisianan and Spanish troops left, leaving West Florida to mostly govern itself. Slavery was abolished after a fierce political fight led by a group of mixed-race politicians. Universal male suffrage, excluding freed slaves and their children, came in the 1890s following a directive from the confederal government.
It was not until the 1930s that West Florida abolished its ethnically divided legislature, replacing it with a tricameral parliament modeled on that of Louisiana. Full suffrage did not come to all of West Florida's Black population until the early 1970s as a result of negotiation between the state government and the confederal Cabinet.
West Florida as an entity came into being in 1795. Spain organized a colonial government for East Florida, and the more sparsely populated west was not included as a part of it.
The region saw fighting in the wars of the 1800s, but the treaties did not reach any conclusion for the area. The Dominion of Carolina, by now a self-governing loyalist English state, attempted to force an arrangement in 1810 when it claimed sovereignty over all of West Florida's English settlements. This had the effect of sparking renewed war in the region. The Florida Wars ended in 1819. The nascent Grand Council negotiated a thirty-year truce, during with England, France and Spain would rule West Florida jointly. It was understood that the three countries' rule would largely be carried out by the colonial governors of Carolina, Louisiana, and East Florida.
In 1833, well before the truce was set to expire, Louisiana declared independence from France. Many of the English in West Florida took the opportunity to declare their own republic, breaking the truce. To represent their republic, they flew a blue flag with a single white star. Out of necessity, the rebels allied with some Spanish republicans. They began to fly a flag with three stars, the third added in the hope of drawing support from local French.
By now, the rest of the Boreoamerican states were committed to preventing wars between states, especially when they had the potential to draw in European colonial armies. The Grand Council, by now a permanent institution. took the lead in forming a plan to end the war. In 1838 all sides accepted a plan to return to the three-way condominium, but with a timetable for achieving independence as a separate state. A tricameral legislature came into being, the three houses representing the three ethnolinguistic communities of West Florida.
In 1841 the situation had stabilized enough that the State of West Florida was declared, even though it was not yet fully self-governing. Representatives of the new state gained seats in the Congress and the Grand Council, and soon after in the first Parliament. As their flag, the state chose the three-star blue flag that the rebels had used.
In 1845, Choctaw and Muscogi villages in West Florida were granted representation in a fourth legislative house. The state kept this constitution through the rest of the nineteenth century. Louisianan and Spanish troops left, leaving West Florida to mostly govern itself. Slavery was abolished after a fierce political fight led by a group of mixed-race politicians. Universal male suffrage, excluding freed slaves and their children, came in the 1890s following a directive from the confederal government.
It was not until the 1930s that West Florida abolished its ethnically divided legislature, replacing it with a tricameral parliament modeled on that of Louisiana. Full suffrage did not come to all of West Florida's Black population until the early 1970s as a result of negotiation between the state government and the confederal Cabinet.