Many Americans, especially those in the Deep South, had cast covetous eyes towards Florida since the Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the American Revolution and Spain regained the territory. Not surprisingly, when war was declared on Great Britain in 1812, one of the main goals of Southerners and President James Madison was to use the war as a pretext for obtaining possession of Florida from a decaying Spanish empire. The most contentious portion was the present-day panhandle of Florida, lower Alabama, lower Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, an area known as West Florida.

Because of Spain’s numerous possessions along the Gulf Coast and in Central America, France and Spain jointly decided to have Spain fight the British throughout the southern theater and in the Mediterranean, while France would send their soldiers and navy to help the thirteen American colonies. It is the reason why the French were at Newport, Savannah, and Yorktown while Spanish soldiers were not, leaving the mistaken impression in most American’s minds that France was our only ally in the American Revolution.