United States territorial acquisitions
West Florida was declared to be a U.S. possession in 1810 by President James Madison after the territory had declared its independence from Spain. Madison ordered the U.S. Army to take control. Six weeks later, the army entered and occupied the capital, St. Francisville, putting an end to the republic after 74 days of independence. Spain did not relinquish its claim to sovereignty (see West Florida Controversy) until ratification of the Adams–Onís Treaty. General Andrew Jackson personally accepted the delivery of West Florida from its Spanish governor on July 17, 1821.
The Floridas
The Floridas was a region of the southeastern United States comprising the historical colonies of East Florida and West Florida. The borders of East and West Florida varied. In 1783, when Spain acquired West Florida and re-acquired East Florida from Great Britain through the Peace of Paris (1783), the eastern British boundary of West Florida was the Apalachicola River, but Spain in 1785 moved it eastward to the Suwannee River. The purpose was to transfer San Marcos and the district of Apalachee from East Florida to West Florida. From 1810 to 1813, the United States extended piecemeal control over the part of West Florida that comprised the modern-day Gulf coasts of Alabama and Mississippi and the Florida Parishes of Louisiana. After the ratification of the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1821 the United States combined East Florida and what had been the remaining Spanish-controlled rump of West Florida into the territory that comprised modern-day Florida.