The British gained control over Spanish Florida in 1763 as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War.

It had also been the most populated region of Spanish Florida, but before control was transferred to Britain, most residents – including virtually everyone in St. Augustine – left the territory, with most migrating to Cuba.

The sparsely populated colonies were invited to send representatives to the Continental Congress but chose not to do so, and they remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War.

By the early 1800s, Spain had proved uninterested in and incapable of organizing or defending either of the two Floridas much beyond the two small capital cities.

After a decade of intensifying border disputes and American incursions, Spain ceded both Floridas to the U.S. in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819.

At the same time, Britain received all of French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of New Orleans, from France.

[1] The settlement of East Florida was heavily linked in London to the same interests that controlled Nova Scotia.

Halifax (Nova Scotia) was the command post for both the admiral and general in charge of the American forces.... St. Augustine evoked the same strategic considerations.

Thoroton frequently acted as the go-between for Richard Oswald and James Grant, particularly after those two gave up their Nova Scotia Grants to focus on East Florida, where a drumbeat of steady speculation (particularly from Andrew Turnbull and William Stork) had fanned the flames of interest in London.

[2] It was not until March 1781 that the Governor of East Florida, Patrick Tonyn, called elections for a provincial legislature.

[5] The seal for East Florida had on one side a depiction of a fortified town and harbor with the Latin motto Moresque Viris et Moenia Ponet[6] ("He will establish customs for men, and walls").

[14] In the end, most of the loyalist and British residents, approximately 10,000 people, left with most of these going to the Bahamas or West Indies and some going to Nova Scotia and England.

[15] A settlement named Rollestown was established by Denys Rolle 30 miles (48 km) southeast of St. Augustine,[17] on the east shore of the St. Johns River, south of Deep Creek.

[20] Bernard Romans wrote the first account of Spanish fishing ranchos existing along Florida's southwest coast in 1770.

At one point the fishing boats were suspected of being a threat to British control, but a complete review in 1767-68 found they were harmless.

[26] In 1783, another printer named David Zubly, who was a loyalist refugee from Savannah, Georgia, printed the first book in the colony, a copy of John Tobler's Almanack, at his home.

The Spanish offered favorable terms for acquiring land, which attracted many settlers from the newly formed United States.

There were several territorial disputes between the U.S. and Spain, some resulting in military action, including the Patriot War in 1812 and the filibuster at Amelia Island in 1817.

Jackson's forces captured San Marcos on 7 April 1818; as well as Fort Barrancas at West Florida's capital, Pensacola, on 24 May 1818.

James Monroe's secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, defined the American position on this issue.

[39] With the return of the Spanish, the system of plantation agriculture developed in the colony during the British period remained.

Although the production levels were not as high as other British colonies, cash crops like indigo, hemp, and rum made in Spanish East Florida led to economic growth there.

Ships would travel often to Charleston, South Carolina and Cap Français in Haiti where goods were traded and crews learned the latest news as well.