British West Florida was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1763 until 1783, when it was ceded to Spain as part of the Peace of Paris.

To secure the return of this valuable city, Spain agreed to cede its territory of La Florida to the victorious Great Britain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris.

By a separate treaty, France ceded its lands west of the Mississippi to Spain, which formed Spanish Louisiana with the capital at New Orleans.

Ministers appointed to the Floridas petitioned the London authorities to build churches, parsonages, supply bibles and prayer-books, and help pay their passage to the colonies.

In 1778, the Willing Expedition proceeded with a small force down the Mississippi, ransacking estates and plantations, until they were eventually defeated by a local militia.

[4] The royal proclamation that established West Florida served a purpose similar to a constitution, describing how the colony was to function.

[5] With the issuing of the 1763 Royal Proclamation, which set a border on Western expansion, the British hoped that the creation of both Floridas and Quebec would take pressure off the line of settlement.

[8] Governor George Johnstone, in office 1763-1767, estimated the population of British West Florida at 1800 or 2000 white people, mostly residing in Pensacola and Mobile, or new colonists settling along the Gulf Coast and in the more fertile lands around Natchez.

Indigo production grew dramatically between the 1760s and 1770s with 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg) shipped out of Mobile and Pensacola in 1772, making it one of the most common and successful of agriculture efforts made in the colony.

The exact numbers are hard to assess but authorities in both Florida and Louisiana were well aware of this issue but were not well equipped to monitor the situation.

[9] Following an agreement signed at Aranjuez, Spain entered the American Revolutionary War on the side of France but not the Thirteen Colonies.