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SHORT NORMAL LONG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First [149], Lines: —— * 23.56 ——— Norma * PgEnd [149], chapter seven Breaking the Bonds The End of Spanish Rule in West Florida Internal events in the Baton Rouge district, including crime, a restriction in land distribution policies, and fluctuating land prices, contributed to growing instability from 1805 to 1810. At the same time, political, social, and economic ties kept West Florida bound to the United States (from which many migrants had come), to the various colonies in the circum-Caribbean (to which much of its trade went), and to Europe and Spain (from which its government flowed). Residents, therefore, could not help but feel the influence of events outside West Florida that would play a large role in changing the course of its history. Three incidents, initially separate but bound to connect, stirred up the residents of the Baton Rouge district. The alliance and later war between France and Spain, the American embargo against Great Britain, and the recall to Havana and ultimate death of Carlos de Grand-Pré formed a tangle of affairs that would explode from the center to the peripheries of the Spanish Empire and profoundly affect West Florida. The demise of Grand-Pré was a severe blow for West Floridians and came, indirectly , as a result of other incidents. Barring the embargo and the war, GrandPr é might have remained in West Florida, governing the Baton Rouge district with little change in the foreseeable future. Grand-Pré’s recall in turn initiated a chain reaction of incidents that thoroughly disrupted the social and political fabric of the area, bringing to West Florida its second American revolution in three decades. All these events relate to the residents’ complaints, cataloged in their 1810 convention, of French families migrating to West Florida and becoming a potential threat to the stability of the area. However, just as West Florida did not exist in isolation from the Caribbean, Latin America, or the United States and its frontiers, neither did it exist in isolation from its mother country. While district residents wrestled with issues of land and crime, Spain experienced a series of political trials that threatened the future of both the mother country and its colonies. 149 150 • chapter seven SHORT NORMAL LONG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [150], Lines: —— 0.0pt ——— Short PgEnd [150], International Problems After having been at war with Great Britain from 1779 through 1783, Spain experienced an economic rebound after the resumption of trade with Great Britain, Spain’s colonies in the Caribbean, and the new United States. Yet Spain continued to suffer from fiscal mismanagement, a smallpox epidemic, and food shortages that swept the country in the mid-1780s—King Charles III himself died of a fever in December 1788. An alliance with Great Britain from 1793 through 1795 preceded an alliance with France in 1796. However, this opened up Spanish shipping to English privateering, resulting in the near annihilation of Spanish commerce in the Atlantic. It also severed ties with its colonies and necessitated permitting neutral shipping of goods from Spanish to foreign ports—something never before allowed under Spanish law. The chief beneficiary of this policy was the United States and its citizens, who rushed to take advantage of the economic opportunities presented by Spain’s misfortunes.1 After Great Britain, France, and Spain signed a peace treaty in March 1802, Spain set about trying to modernize its military forces. Yet within a year after Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in France in 1801, France and Britain resumed hostilities, placing Spain in a position that required it to side with France and endure a six-million-livres-per-year tribute to Napoleon as the price of neutrality.2 This, in turn, led to renewed war with Great Britain. The possibility of war between France and Portugal brought French troops to Spanish soil and furnished Napoleon an opportunity to change Spain from a client state subject to his commands to a conquered territory. He then used the 1807 Treaty of Fontainebleau as a springboard to occupy northern...

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