Talk:West Florida

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On my map the Perdido River seems to be exactly the border between modern Florida and modern Alabama. Assuming this, it seems that the Free and Independent Republic of West Florida, as defined in the article, contained none of modern Florida (a small exception might be a piece of the barrier island Perdio Key?). I am not a historian.

Yes and no. As the boundaries are described in the article, you are correct that the Perdido river is the boundary between present day AL and FL. Unfortunately, the boundaries were somewhat fluid as the territory changed hands from the Spanish to the British and back to the Spanish again (and the French may have at least had nominal control for a time). I have seen some accounts of West Florida that included what is now Pensacola. This article is on my list of things I'd like to improve on when I get time to do more research. As a lifelong midwesterner, the history of this area is somewhat foreign to me, so I've been putting it off while I hack away at things that are more familiar to me. older ≠ wiser 00:34, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)
It was definitely under French control for a time. The towns of Mobile, Alabama and Biloxi, Mississippi, located in the region, were established by the French in the early 1700s. Funnyhat 07:14, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] The West Florida Controversy

The West Florida Controversy page was created to link several elements of the historic United States together, and especially to tie that specific name (which is used in several places, including the title of a book) to the West Florida page. However, some information might be pulled from that page and (where not already present) placed here.

The secondary reason for creating that page was to fill out the Wikipedia Missing Encyclopedic Articles list.

If that page were turned into a redirect, it would not be a great crime. However, if that is done, then this page should be closely examined to make sure that no connections or information are lost. -Harmil 14:46, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Republic

I'm thinking of splitting off Republic of West Florida into a separate article (the link currently redirects back to this page). This will match with other self-declared nations that have separate articles (e.g., California Republic, Vermont Republic) I think there is enough information here for a separate article, and more can be added later. --JW1805 22:12, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Borders

I'm trying to make a map, and the borders of W. Florida have perplexed me. This is what I've come up with:

  1. When Spain owned it, it was simply Florida.
  2. When Britain gained it, they split it into West Florida and East Florida; West Florida's borders were the the Mississippi to the Apalachicola, the Gulf, and 32'28 North.
  3. When the Spanish gained it, question: Did they keep the British division of West and East?
  4. With the Treaty of San Lorenzo, West Florida's northern boundary shank to 31 North.
  5. The Republic of West Florida, and the subsequent US annexation of West Florida, only mention a region west of the Perdido.

Likewise, the maps we have in the article both cite the Perdido and the Apalachicola. So, question: Is this simply a confusion in borders, or did the border between W and E Florida shift westward at some point? I'd really like to know this. Further confusing things - when Florida Territory was organized in 1822, the wikipedia article says that it combined East Florida and part of West Florida, meaning that West Florida still extended to the Apalachicola. (the Perdido is the modern western boundary of Florida).

Please help make sense of this. --Golbez 03:31, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

If you look at primary source maps, they seem to universally show the border as that Apalachicola River.

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/us_states/florida/index.html Baldwin and Gibson maps have the borders. Mind, this was under the British government.

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/southeast/1800-1850.html

Two good examples between Louisiana and Adams-Onis. here here

And so far as I know, the Spanish kept the distinctions. It's not in my historic atlas of Mexico, and I don't trust historic atlases of world history (actually I'm suspicious of my localized atlases too though, but the Mexico one seems to be pretty good in general), so I can't say for sure. The maps show it, but that could be a British-American thing rather than an administrative history.

Any rate, the border was certainly the Apalachicola in name at the time, and the borders in fact were so fluid, porous, poorly charted, and imprecise that that matters more than whatever the actual control was, in terms of the map.

I don't know why so many American history texts show the pre-Onis border at the Perido, maybe because that's what Florida territory's was, or maybe we didn't hold Pensacola and did hold Mobile. Or maybe it's just more Lies My Teacher Told Me.

--71.192.116.43 03:38, 1 January 2007 (UTC) (used to be Quintucket)

[edit] Constitution

According to this, WF had a constitution with seperation of powers, etc, but, does anyone still have a copy of this? If not, where are these facts coming from? 68.39.174.238 01:39, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

  • Read the article. There is a copy in the LA state archives. The Bice book has a reproduction. --JW1805 (Talk) 23:10, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Days

The article says the republic existed exactly 90 days but the Baton Rouge and Bonnie Blue articles say it existed 74. Which is correct?

[edit] DBWF

What ever happened to the article for the Dominion of British West Florida —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.134.123.62 (talk • contribs) 22:08, November 17, 200.