Shared borders between the Hispanic Monarchy and the U.S.

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The Hispanic Monarchy ruled over much of the current United States. It had an actual presence and exercised genuine administration in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, southern Arizona and California, as well as in a part of an immense territory with poorly defined borders known as Louisiana, located mostly west of the Mississippi River. This presence in North America lasted more than three centuries. During that time, Hispanics explored, colonized and brought their culture, language and religion to those lands. They also shared borders. We talk about all this below.

The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) can be considered to be a first world war, actually a series of conflicts, in which almost all European countries participated. It was fought throughout many parts of the world. The part of the Seven Year's War that took place in North America is known as the French and Indian War and was motivated by English intentions to expand its colonies at the expense of the French. Spain entered the war late and ill-prepared under France's leadership. In the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which put an end to hostilities, Spain lost East and West Florida, which passed into British hands. France, which lost Canada and its possessions east of the Mississippi, ceded Louisiana to Spain as compensation.

Despite its victory, Great Britain emerged with its economy in battered condition and decided to raise taxes, which, together with trade restrictions imposed by the mother country and the desire for freedom derived from Enlightenment ideas, caused great unrest in its American colonies. This increased with the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonization beyond the west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent depopulation in Atlantic coast settlements and settler conflicts with Indian tribes. Some of those who would later become rebel leaders, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, had explored and acquired thousands of acres along the upper Potomac and Ohio and in western Virginia in previous years. The prohibition harmed their interests and rights and was a major reason for the insurrection, which finally took place in 1775. France and Spain supported the insurgents.

Borders After the Treaty of Paris and the Royal Proclamation of 1763. British territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi was an Indian reserve.
Map based on one by John Francis (Wikipedia Commons)

The Treaty of Paris of 1783, signed by Great Britain, the United States, France and Spain, recognized the independence of the Thirteen Colonies and gave Florida back to Spain. However, the Spanish territorial claims by right of conquest on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, or its exclusive right of navigation on this river, were not taken into consideration. This happened because one of the representatives of Congress traveled from Paris to London and signed a preliminary treaty with the former mother country in which England awarded territories that no longer belonged to it and allowed freedom of navigation on a river that it did not control. This meant going back to the situation of the peace of 1763. The Hispanic Monarchy and the United States now shared a border, but also a dispute related to it.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1795. The Captaincy General of the Philippines, which included the Philippines, Guam and other islands under Spanish sovereignty in the Pacific, was also part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

After many years of fruitless negotiations between the Spanish Crown and the new state, the Treaty of San Lorenzo de El Escorial was finally signed in 1795 and ratified by George Washington and Charles IV in 1796, which defined the border between the United States and north of Florida. The border with Louisiana already was located at the Mississsipi River. Spain gave up much of what it gained during the war and agreed to free navigation on that river for Americans and Spaniards.

By the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain ceded Louisiana in 1803 to the France of Napoleon, which immediately sold it to the young nation. According to Spanish diplomacy, the sale of Louisiana was null and void, since Napoleon did not comply with the signed conditions, which included the non-alienation of the territory to a country other than Spain. But nothing could be done to avoid it.

In the following years, United States westward expansion provoked new grievances and territorial conflicts with Spain. The Adams-Onís Treaty, named after the representatives of each country who conducted the negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Luis de Onís, representative of Fernando VII, signed in 1819 and ratified in 1821, established the new borders between the two nations.. On the eve of Mexico's independence, a large part of what is now the United States was still recognized as Spanish territory. But for Spain, it was the last chapter of a story that had begun 300 years earlier.

The Borders Agreed to in the Adams-Onís Treaty (1819).

Text extracted from The Hispanic Roots of the United States by courtesy of Asociación Cultural Héroes de Cavite.