Spanish Florida: Evolution of a
Colonial Society, 1513-1763
From the 16th through 18th centuries, Florida was a
remote colonial outpost on the northern frontier of Spain's expansive New
World empire. In stark contrast to many of its Spanish colonial neighbors to
the south and west, Spanish Florida survived only with an annual monetary
stipend from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and never resulted in a net
profit for the Spanish crown. Florida was ultimately maintained primarily
for its strategic value in protecting the New World fleets during their
annual return from Havana to Spain, and as such, Florida's Spanish residents
(mostly garrisoned soldiers and their families) came to be substantially
reliant upon labor and food from the indigenous chiefdoms that were
eventually assimilated within this evolving colonial society. The success or
failure of Spanish Florida was tied intimately to the fate of its
predominantly Native American inhabitants, and the sociopolitical and
economic system that developed over the course of the colony's two and a
half century history represents a remarkable example of a new, multi-ethnic
colonial society within an increasingly global world system on the edge of
the modern era.
With respect to Native American relations, Spain's
colonial strategy in the New World focused more on assimilation and labor
than exclusion and commerce, and hence Spanish Florida formed a marked
contrast to concurrent British colonial endeavors farther to the north,
particularly as regards the direct and explicit incorporation of functioning
Native American societies into the political, economic, social, and even
religious fabric of the new colonial society. At its zenith in the
mid-17th century, Florida's colonial system was fundamentally based on the
multi-regional integration of large Native American populations extending
from the lower Atlantic coastline to the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, all
under the administration of a single colonial port city at St. Augustine.
The multi-ethnic population of greater Spanish Florida was at that time no
more than 5% Spanish, with the remaining population almost wholly dominated
by Native Americans distributed in a multiplicity of local and regional
provinces, still governed by hereditary native leaders who filled the role
of mid-level administrators within a broader Spanish paramountcy. Corn
production and exchange played a primary role in the economic infrastructure
of Spanish Florida, with literally hundreds of thousands of pounds being
grown annually both in the mission provinces and in fields surrounding St.
Augustine. An extensive web of land and and water transportation
routes linked human and natural resources into a functioning colonial
society, the scale and complexity of which had never before been witnessed
in the same region. Despite the fact that this system grew and
collapsed within the space of less than two centuries, when viewed in
anthropological perspective, Spanish Florida can nonetheless serve as an
instructive case-study of the evolution and decline of colonial systems in
general.
These pages provide an introduction to Spanish Florida,
and will be expanded over time with additional information and resources.
For now, the links to the left lead to chronological information, a series
of synthetic maps, a complete list of the governors of Spanish Florida
during the First Spanish Period, a comprehensive list of Franciscan friars
sent from Spain to Florida throughout the colonial era, a list of books for
additional reading, and information on present day sites and events.
Between 2009 and 2015, the state of Florida is observing
its Spanish heritage through
Viva Florida,
an awareness campaign designed to highlight the various anniversaries that
will be celebrated during this period: the 450th anniversaries of the
founding of Spanish colonies at Pensacola (1559) and St. Augustine (1565),
as well as the 500th anniversary of the 1513 discovery of Florida by Juan
Ponce de León. The website is presented in
English
and Spanish,
and there is also an online version of the new
Florida
Spanish Colonial Heritage Trail brochure. A number of
these events and commemorations are sponsored in part by the
Spain-Florida
Foundation, the goal of which is "to highlight the
contributions of Spain to Florida and the U.S., through the organization of
commemorative events and programs."
From 1998 to 2003 I constructed and maintained a
web site entitled
Georgia Before Oglethorpe, focusing on the Spanish
period in the modern-day state of Georgia, and including much
information of relevance to my current "Spanish Florida" page.
The content of this website has been republished independently
(follow link above), though its overall design has been somewhat
reworked at the new host site.
