Reconquest of Florida by Spain
Bernardo de Gálvez.
The second period under Spanish sovereignty occurred during the War of Independence of the United States when the Spaniards recovered West Florida in 1779 after the battles of Baton Rouge, Fort Charlotte, San Fernando de Omoa and Mobila; and East Florida after the famous victory at the Battle of Pensacola (March-May 1781), in which Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish governor of La Luisiana (Spanish since 1763) and to meet the English, gathered troops from different points of the Empire and additional supplies of Cuba and Louisiana, increasing its army to about 7,000 men, which, for the time, was considerable. This army defeated the English troops of John Campbell, achieving a decisive victory.
Shortly thereafter, Galvez seized the New Providence Island in the Bahamas, aborting the last British plan of resistance, thereby maintaining Spanish rule over the Caribbean Sea and accelerating the triumph of American weapons over the English.
Jamaica being the last English stronghold of importance in the Caribbean, Galvez set out to organize a landing on the island and add it to the territories under Spanish sovereignty, but in the middle of the preparations, he was surprised by the end of the war.
At the end of the war, Florida (eastern and western Florida) was officially returned to Spain by the Treaty of Versailles of 1783. It also conserved the recovered territories of Menorca and recovered the coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras (Mosquito Coast) and Campeche . Spanish sovereignty over the Providencia colony was recognized.
The Spaniards took the limits of the British colony, parallel 32 ° 28'N, for good, but the Americans, who were on the other side of it in the former colony of Georgia, insisted on returning them to their original point in the 31st parallel . The dispute lasted some years and, in 1795, under the Treaty of San Lorenzo the Spaniards ended up recognizing the border in that parallel.