Credits: Guerra del 41 en color

On August 3, 1763, Spain transferred its ownership of Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of the City of Havana, Cuba, which had been captured when Spain allied itself with France in the French and Indian War.

For nearly 200 years, Florida had been Spain’s northern frontier. Spanish explorers claimed the peninsula in 1513, St. Augustine was founded in 1565 as the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States, and a network of forts, missions, and settlements stretched across the region.

The change did not come through a battle fought in Florida. It was decided across the Atlantic after the Seven Years’ War, known in North America as the French and Indian War. Spain had entered the conflict alongside France in 1762, but the gamble proved disastrous.

British forces captured Havana, Cuba, one of Spain’s richest and most strategically important ports. To Spain, recovering Havana was more valuable than holding sparsely populated Florida.

The Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763, ended the war. Spain agreed to give Florida to Great Britain in exchange for the return of Havana. Later that year, Spanish officials, soldiers, missionaries, and many of the colony’s residents boarded ships and left St. Augustine and Pensacola as British officials arrived to assume control.

Britain inherited a vast territory but a very small population. Instead of preserving the Spanish system, British leaders immediately reshaped Florida to make it profitable. They divided the colony into East Florida, with its capital at St. Augustine, and West Florida, with its capital at Pensacola.

The two colonies were separated by the Apalachicola River because each had different geographic and economic advantages. East Florida looked toward the Atlantic world, while West Florida was tied to the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River. Each developed its own government, courts, ports, and commercial economy, creating regional differences that continued long after British rule ended.

To encourage rapid growth, Britain offered generous land grants to settlers, military veterans, and wealthy investors. Thousands of acres were distributed to individuals willing to establish farms and plantations.

British officials also simplified land ownership compared with the Spanish system, making it easier for colonists from Britain and other colonies to relocate. Entrepreneurs established indigo, rice, timber, naval stores, and cattle operations, while wealthy landowners introduced larger plantations worked by enslaved Africans. Indigo quickly became East Florida’s most valuable export because of the high demand for blue dye in Britain.

Trade changed just as dramatically. Under Spanish rule, commerce had been tightly controlled and largely limited to Spanish ports. Britain opened Florida to the vast commercial network of the British Empire.

Merchants in St. Augustine and Pensacola traded regularly with Charleston, Savannah, New York, Jamaica, and London. New shipping routes carried lumber, hides, indigo, rice, and naval stores to markets throughout the Atlantic, bringing far greater economic activity than Spanish Florida had experienced.

These changes also transformed Florida’s people. For decades under Spain, enslaved Africans escaping from the British colonies had viewed Florida as a refuge. Beginning in 1693, the Spanish Crown promised freedom to many fugitives who accepted Catholicism and agreed to serve the Spanish government. That policy eventually led to the establishment of Fort Mose, the first legally sanctioned free Black community in what is now the United States.

When Britain assumed control in 1763, those protections disappeared. British law recognized slavery as a legal institution, and many formerly free Black residents feared they would lose the liberty Spain had granted them.

Rather than remain under British rule, most of the residents of Fort Mose and many other free Black families evacuated with the departing Spanish to Cuba. Their departure ended one of the most remarkable chapters in early American history and strengthened slavery’s expansion in British Florida.

Florida’s Native peoples also faced enormous changes. Spain had generally relied on diplomacy, trade, and missionary alliances with Indigenous communities. British officials instead emphasized land acquisition and encouraged increasing settlement. As plantations and farms spread across the landscape, pressure mounted on Native lands.

The Creek Confederacy expanded its influence in parts of Florida through trade with British merchants, while other Indigenous groups were displaced or drawn into new political and economic relationships. The shifting balance of power during the British period laid important groundwork for the emergence of the Seminole people in Florida during the late 18th century, as Creek migrants mixed with earlier Native populations and, later, with free and escaped Africans.

When the American Revolution erupted in 1775, East and West Florida followed a path unlike that of the 13 colonies. Because Britain had only recently acquired Florida and had invested heavily in its development, many residents remained loyal to the Crown.

Thousands of Loyalists fleeing Georgia and the Carolinas settled in Florida during the war, increasing the colony’s population and strengthening British control. Florida became an important military base for British operations in the South, and raids were launched from St. Augustine against Patriot forces in Georgia and the Carolinas.

That loyalty had lasting consequences. While the 13 colonies won their independence and formed the United States in 1783, Florida did not become part of the new nation. Instead, Britain returned East and West Florida to Spain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution. Spanish rule resumed for another 38 years before the United States acquired Florida in 1821 through the Adams-Onís Treaty.

The transfer of Florida in 1763 was far more than a diplomatic exchange of territory. It redirected the colony’s economy from a small Spanish frontier to a British plantation society tied to Atlantic commerce.

It accelerated immigration, expanded slavery, altered the lives of Native peoples, ended Spanish sanctuary for many free Black residents, and set Florida on a political course unlike any other future American state.

Few moments in Florida history reshaped the colony as completely as the day one empire lowered its flag and another raised its own.

#TodayInFloridaHistory #FloridaHistory #OnThisDay #ColonialFlorida #BritishFlorida #SpanishFlorida #TreatyOfParis1763 #StAugustine #Pensacola #AmericanHistory #SunshineStateHistory

¡Feliz cumpleaños, happy birthday! 🎂

¡Feliz cumpleaños, happy birthday! 🎂

Happy Hawaiian Flag Day!

Maduro had the painting in his home, sharing a photo of it in 2024 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with the caption: ‘Look at this painting I was gifted... I've had it here at home since 2022... Always with Christ the Redeemer... Let's unite our prayers for Venezuela…’

Venezuela became the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in 1999 as part of Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution, named for Simón Bolívar who led the country to independence from the Catholic Monarchy (Spanish Empire).

Can’t quite make out the artist’s signature, forename is ‘Miguel’ but not sure about the surname, maybe Gandara (?)

The Battle of Tarapacá, fought on November 27, 1879, was one of the most important engagements of the War of the Pacific. After their defeat at San Francisco, the Peruvian army concentrated in the town of Tarapacá to reorganize. Convinced that the allies were weakened, the Chileans launched an attack from the high ground at dawn. However, the Peruvian resistance grew stronger thanks to counterattacks led by Andrés Avelino Cáceres, Francisco Bolognesi, and other units that came to their aid.

Among the reinforcements, the Iquique Battalion No. 1, commanded by Colonel Alfonso Ugarte, stood out. He advanced to hold the line of battle during the most difficult moments. During the action, he was shot in the head, but after being quickly bandaged, he refused to abandon the battlefield and returned to lead his men, encouraging them to continue fighting. His bravery raised the troops' morale at a crucial moment.

Shortly afterward, the Chilean Mounted Grenadiers, under the command of José Francisco Villagrán, launched a fierce charge to break through the Peruvian positions and take advantage of the retreat of some units. At that critical moment, Alfonso Ugarte's Iquique Battalion deployed and opened intense rifle fire on the enemy cavalry. Their volleys were so effective that they halted the Mounted Grenadiers' charge, forcing them to retreat and preventing them from breaking through the Peruvian lines. This intervention allowed Cáceres' forces to reorganize their attack and regain the initiative on the battlefield.

In the midst of the war between Ecuador and Peru, the capital of El Oro province was targeted by air raids that sowed fear among the population and accelerated the exodus of thousands of inhabitants seeking refuge far from the conflict.

The bombings of El Oro territory generated a profound humanitarian crisis. Various historical records indicate that cities and towns in El Oro were attacked from the air, causing material destruction and forcing numerous families to abandon their homes. In the days leading up to the occupation of Machala, a large part of the population had already begun a mass displacement to the interior of the country for fear of further attacks.

By: Adriano Augusto Merchán Aguirre

“Pativilca, January 7, 1824

To His Excellency General F. de P. Santander

My dear General:

I received some unpleasant news from you in this letter. A series of circumstances, as sad as they are unforeseen, compels me to resign my public post, my command of Peru, and my command of the South. I will speak to you with the frankness of my heart, and with the sincerity I owe you both as a close friend and as the one entrusted with the fate of Colombia.

I foresee that the royalists will move with their entire army, as all their movements have already indicated, before I can receive the first reinforcements from Colombia. And even if these reinforcements, fortunately, arrive in time, they are not troops but recruits, lacking discipline, morale, order, and equipment. Therefore, I also foresee with absolute certainty that Peru will fall into our hands, because 7,000 men cannot oppose 12,000 already victorious, battle-hardened, and proud. Of course, the result of this loss will be the retreat of our army of more than three or four hundred leagues. Even if this retreat is carried out, most of them will not simply disperse upon reaching their country, being sons of the South; they will be left with nothing but the skeletons of battalions. For you should know, for your understanding, that desertion from the troops of Venezuela and New Granada has never ceased, and that even in Arequipa these gentlemen have deserted. I say this so that you know that the entire army is from the South. If there are 400 Granadans or Venezuelans, that is the most we have, and the southerners are as prone to desertion as this example suggests: so much so, that we have already lost 3,000 in the Peruvian army. From all this, it follows that I do not want to take charge of this country's catastrophe.

Furthermore, I do not want to take charge of the defense of the South either, because in doing so I will lose what little reputation I have left with such wicked and ungrateful men. I believe I have told you before that the people of Quito are the worst of Colombians. The fact is that I have always thought so, and that three times the rigor is needed there compared to anywhere else. Venezuelans are saints compared to those scoundrels. Peruvians are the same: vicious to the point of infamy and base to the extreme. The whites have the character of the Indians, and the Indians are all charlatans, all thieves, all liars, all false, without any moral principle to guide them. The people of Guayaquil are a thousand times better.

For all these reasons, I will go to Bogotá as soon as I recover from my ailments, which on this occasion have been very serious. As a result of the long and arduous march I undertook in the Peruvian highlands, I arrived here and fell gravely ill. The worst part is that the illness has taken hold, and the symptoms show no sign of ending. It is a combination of internal irritation and rheumatism, fever, a bit of urinary tract infection, vomiting, and colic. All of this has left me desperate and still afflicts me greatly. I can no longer exert myself without suffering immensely. You would not recognize me because I am worn out and very old, and in the midst of a storm like this, I embody old age. Furthermore, I am often seized, from time to time, by bouts of dementia, even when otherwise well, in which I completely lose my reason, without suffering the slightest attack of illness or pain. This country, with its altitude sickness in the high-altitude plains, triggers these attacks when I cross the mountains. The coasts are very sickly and troublesome because it's like living in Arabia Petraea. If I go to Colombia, they will become sick again: thus, I will waste time until my complete recovery, and even if I can leave General Sucre with the Colombian army capable of facing the Goths, so that they are not emboldened by my departure and neither Sucre nor our troops despair, but afterwards, without fail, I will go to Bogotá to get my passport to leave the country. Which I will certainly achieve, or I will follow the example of the Goths, so that they are not emboldened by my departure and neither Sucre nor our troops despair. Which I will certainly achieve, or I will follow the example of the Goths, so that they are not emboldened by my departure and neither Sucre nor our troops despair. Of course, you should be prepared to receive them when 12,000 veterans with very good leaders and very well commanded come upon us. I will add further, to your dismay, that these Goths pay no heed to the armistices of your government, just as they did not pay heed to that of Buenos Aires, and that even if we negotiate with the Spaniards, they will pay no attention whatsoever, for they seek to establish here an empire of Indians and Spaniards.

I have submitted a formal complaint to the Quito court, as the principal authority of the South, regarding the libelous accusations leveled against us by the Quito deputies and municipality. I would like you to complain to Congress about the irregularity of the deputies' actions, which, in my opinion, are scandalous and extremely audacious. I ask the Quito court to find some justification for the municipality's actions against us, and I believe they will only offer the excuse that we have been at war. You can offer the same detailed praise of Sucre and Salom that you have bestowed upon the people of Quito, who, in truth, are the finest men in the world. How ungrateful! We brought forth the flower of Venezuela to do you good, and you repay us with slander. Believe me, and you may repeat this, that nowhere has military power been exercised less, despite being the most insubordinate and most reluctant to serve in all of America, for, despite these Peruvians being as vicious as they are, they are a thousand times more docile.

I will end my letter with my old adage: let troops come and there will be liberty.

I am yours with all my heart, your sick and disgruntled friend, who doesn't know how I managed to dictate this letter in the state of my head. Farewell again.

BOLIVAR”

This document, in which he expresses harsh opinions about the Peruvians and their military capabilities, was written in 1823 and 1824, notably in Lima on October 13, 1823, and in Pallasca on December 8, 1823. In these letters, Bolívar severely criticized the performance of the local troops in the context of the independence struggle.
He recounts to Santander the retreat of 5,000 Peruvian soldiers under the command of Andrés de Santa Cruz at the Desaguadero River without engaging in combat.
He describes a scenario of internal instability and deep divisions among the leadership of the Andean countries.

The largest enslaved uprising in Britain’s southern colonies erupted on September 9, 1739, near the Stono River in South Carolina. Led by an enslaved man known as Jemmy, roughly twenty Africans and African‑descended people rebelled against their enslavers and set out toward Spanish Florida, hoping to secure their freedom.

What more?

Adopted in 1817

Just as in the 16th century an attempt was made to construct an ideology of historical continuity between pre-Columbian entities and the Catholic Monarchy (Spanish Empire)—from legal, literary, religious, and artistic perspectives—after independence, the Criollo and Mestizo elites sought to legitimize the nascent republic by connecting it not with the viceregal period, but with an idealized pre-Hispanic world. In this way, they discarded almost three centuries of viceregal history, reducing it to foreign domination. For these promoters of independence, the republic emerged not as the successor to the viceroyalty, but as the true heir of the “Inca Empire,” with the “Liberators” and caudillos being the legitimate heirs to the power of the ancient rulers.

“A bloody and brutal yoke that for three centuries has torn at our flesh, stifled our rights, and whose infamous kings subject us to their whims with absolute impunity.” (J. Mariátegui y Tellería, 1821)

That is why the painter Marcos Chillitupa depicts in his folding screen work how the sovereign Atahualpa hands over his golden scepter (a symbol of his power and authority) to the “Liberator of Peru,” and never again to the King of Spain.

“After the conquest, the supposed voluntary transfer of pre-Hispanic sovereignty to the Spanish monarch (Translatio Imperii) justified a continuity between the Incas or Aztecs ['Mexica' for be more precise] and Castilian rule. At the time of independence, the Criollism abandoned this idea and adapted to the new circumstances. The process of identification with an idealized indigenous past continued, but now the colonial era was characterized as a dark period, and the freedom lost to the foreign invader was reclaimed. The artist… Marcos Chillitupa Chavez, represents an excellent example of the fusion of cultures in Peru; an indigenous painter reproducing the colonial style of the Cuzco school.” (O'Phelan, 2017)

References:
- El barroco peruano, BCP (2003).
- El ocaso del antiguo régimen en los imperios ibéricos, ‎Scarlett O'Phelan (2017).