Adams-Onís Treaty
The Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 (formally: Treaty of Amity, Settlement, and Limits between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty , also known as the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 and the Florida Purchase Treaty ) was a historic treaty between the United States and Spain , the boundaries in North America regulated between the two nations. The treaty resulted from growing tensions between the United States and Spain over the position of the Spanish colonies in North America after the power of the Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain waned in the early 19th century.
In the treaty, Spain ceded Florida to the United States, but the United States waived claims in relation to Texas west of the newly drawn border on the Sabine River . In addition, the wider New Spain border up to and including the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean was established. In return, the United States took over all existing claims of the residents of the state transferred to them against the Spanish crown up to a total of 5 million dollars.
history
The treaty was negotiated by John Quincy Adams , then Secretary of State of the United States under President James Monroe and later his successor as President, and the Spanish Secretary of State Luis de Onís and signed on February 22, 1819 in Washington, DC .
prehistory
Spain's colonial power in America was in decline. Since the beginning of the 19th century, independence movements emerged in most of the colonies , and the revolutionaries gained ground under the symbolic figure of Simón Bolívar . In North America, the United States, which had only been independent since 1776, had emerged as a new great power that had bought the Spanish colony of Louisiana in the Louisiana Purchase from Napoléon Bonaparte France between 1763 and 1800 and thus advanced to the limits of the Spanish possessions in the west. The exact borders of Louisiana had never been determined by Spain, France, or the United States, so that many areas were disputed.
Florida, originally Spanish, has been divided into East and West Florida since the brief rule of the British in 1763–84 . In 1810/12, US President James Madison annexed parts of West Florida, which stretched from today's western Florida border along the Gulf Coast to New Orleans , on the grounds that these areas belonged to Louisiana and were also sold by France. In the British-American War of 1812-14, the British operated partly from Florida, which was formally Spanish, and were served by US troops under General Andrew Jackson , later President of the USA, at Fort Barrancas near Pensacola and after the signing of the peace treaty near New Orleans beaten. During and after the war, the United States waged several campaigns against the Seminole Indians in Georgia . General Jackson repeatedly pursued Indians fleeing to Florida and slaves who had escaped there across the border. In 1817/18 these battles took the form of a campaign in Florida, they are referred to as the first of several Seminole Wars. The Spaniards had only weak crews in the three forts St. Augustine , Saint Marks and Fort Barrancas, which was rebuilt after the previous destruction, and accepted the invasions. Jackson fought the Indians to a large extent, destroyed their villages and the Negro Fort , built mainly by former slaves , in whose place he had Fort Gadsden built. He also attacked the Spanish forts of St. Marks and Barrancas unprovoked and took them.
The border between American Louisiana and Spanish Texas was also controversial on the southwestern border of Louisiana. A third border dispute was in the far west on the Pacific Ocean : Louisiana's western border was the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains. But in the course of 1818 the United States negotiated the London Treaty with the United Kingdom, according to which both nations could jointly use the so-called Oregon Country in the future . This was west of the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains to the coast. Its southern border with the Spanish area on the Pacific was controversial. The established Alta California ended in the north at the 42nd parallel, but Spain still formally claimed the entire Pacific coast of the entire American continent from the papal bull Inter caetera of 1493 . In the three Nootka agreements of 1790, 93 and 94 they had to admit to the British and Russia that they too could operate on the coast of the North Pacific, and their real power did not extend far beyond San Francisco , but the fundamental ones were Claims still in effect.
When Jackson took the Spanish forts in Florida, negotiations between Adams and Onís had already begun in Washington to buy Florida. Some members of President Monroe's cabinet have therefore called for Jackson's army to withdraw and punish him. Monroe saw the events as a diplomatic advantage. Spain had no military or other means to defend Florida. As a gesture of goodwill, Monroe initially returned Pensacola, St. Marks and the entire northwestern part of Florida ( Florida Panhandle ) to Spain and suggested an agreement on the final assignment.
Details of the contract
In the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain ceded Florida ( east and west Florida ) to the United States, but the United States waived claims regarding Texas west of the newly drawn border on the Sabine River . In addition, the wider New Spain border up to and including the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean was established. In return, the United States took over all existing claims of the residents of the state transferred to them against the Spanish crown up to a total of 5 million dollars . The treaty was signed in Washington, DC on February 22, 1819, ratified by both sides and proclaimed on February 22, 1821. The U.S. commission found an estimated 1,800 claims and agreed that those claims were valued at $ 5,454,545.13. Since the contract limited the compensation for the claims to $ 5 million, the commission reduced the amount paid out accordingly by 8 1/3 percent.
The Adams-Onís Treaty settled the dispute by drawing firm boundaries. In essence, Florida and Louisiana were given to the United States, while Spain was given all areas west of Louisiana from Texas to California . The precise border ran on the Sabine River from its confluence with the Gulf of Mexico to the 32nd parallel, then north to the Red River ; it followed the Red River in a westerly direction up to the 100th degree of longitude, then north to the Arkansas River , westwards to its source (not yet mapped at the time), from there northwards to the 42nd degree of latitude and further west on the latitude to the Pacific Ocean.
The Spanish claims to the Oregon Country dated to the papal bull of May 4, 1493, which guaranteed Spain the right to colonize the west coast of North America , as well as the proclamation of Vasco Núñez de Balboa of 1513, when this the whole "South Sea" ( the Pacific Ocean) and the adjacent land for the Spanish Crown. To reinforce these 250-year-old claims, Spain established a military and trade outpost in what is now British Columbia , Santa Cruz de Nuca, in the late 1700s . As a further consequence of the Adams-Onís Treaty, the United States acquired from Spain the claims relating to the Oregon Country north of the 42nd parallel.
meaning
For the United States, this treaty meant that their territorial claims extended westward across the Mississippi to the point where the Pacific Ocean was reached. For Spain, it meant that it kept its colony in Texas and a buffer zone between its colonies in California and New Mexico and the US territories. Adams saw this treaty as his greatest success, foreseeing that Oregon would be allowed to trade with the Orient and the economic powers in the Pacific.
Later problems with the contract
The treaty was ratified by Spain in 1820 and by the United States in 1821 . Independence from Mexico made it possible to resume talks about the controversial border line with Texas, in which the United States demanded the Sabine and Neches Rivers as a new border line. It was an attempt to claim more land. As a result of this dispute, the eastern border of Texas was not firmly defined, which only changed with the independence of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and the conclusion of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, which ended the Mexican-American War . Mexico had already ratified the rest of the treaty before the war, including the setting of the 42nd parallel as the northern border of California in 1831.
swell
- Avalon Project - Treaty Text
- Text of the Adams-Onís Treaty
- Treaty of Amity, Settlement, and Limits between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty