The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819,^[1] also known as the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819, settled a border dispute in North America North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean; South America lies to the southeast between the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language and Spain Spain (pronounced /ˈspeɪn/ spayn; Spanish: España, pronounced [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.[note 6] Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for. The treaty was the result of increasing tensions between the U.S. and Spain regarding territorial rights at a time of weakened Spanish power The Latin American Wars of Independence were the various revolutions that took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in the Latin American region. These revolutions followed the American and French Revolutions, which had profound effects on the Spanish, Portuguese and in the New World The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans[note], who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa . The term "New World" should not be confused with "modern. In addition to ceding Florida With an area of 65,758 square miles , it is ranked 22nd in size among the 50 U.S. states. Florida has the most coastline in the Contiguous United States encompassing approximately 1,200 miles. The state has four large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns to the United States, the treaty settled a boundary dispute along the Sabine River The Sabine River is a river, 555 miles (893 km) long, in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana. In its lower course, it forms part of the boundary between the two states and empties into Sabine Lake, an estuary of the Gulf of Mexico. The river formed part of the United States-Mexican international boundary during the early 19th century. The upper in Texas Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and sixth largest United States metropolitan areas, respectively. Other major cities include El Paso and Austin—the and firmly established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The North American Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles (4,830 km) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet (4,401 and west to the Pacific Ocean in exchange for the U.S. paying residents' claims against the Spanish government up to a total of $5,000,000 and relinquishing its own claims on parts of Texas Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and sixth largest United States metropolitan areas, respectively. Other major cities include El Paso and Austin—the west of the Sabine River The Sabine River is a river, 555 miles (893 km) long, in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana. In its lower course, it forms part of the boundary between the two states and empties into Sabine Lake, an estuary of the Gulf of Mexico. The river formed part of the United States-Mexican international boundary during the early 19th century. The upper and other Spanish areas under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles (2,147,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total cost of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory.

History

The treaty was negotiated by John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States from March 4, 1825, to March 4, 1829. He was also an American diplomat and served in both the Senate and House of Representatives. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of President John, the Secretary of State The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence. The current Secretary of State is Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 67th person, and third woman under U.S. President James Monroe James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States, serving two terms from 1817 to 1825. Monroe was the last Founding Father of the United States, the last one from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation to become the U.S. President. His presidency was marked both by an "Era of Good Feelings" – a period of relatively, and the Spanish foreign minister Luis de Onís.

Spain's Colonies

Spain had long rejected repeated American efforts to purchase Florida. But by 1818, Spain was facing a troubling colonial situation where the cession of Florida made sense. Spain had been exhausted by the Peninsular War The Peninsular War was a contest between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French armies invaded Portugal in 1807 and Spain in 1808 and lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814 and needed to rebuild its credibility and presence in its colonies. Revolutionaries in Central Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is considered to be part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, excluding the southern portions of Panama and South America South America is the southern continent of America, situated in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest were beginning to demand independence. Spain was also unwilling to make any further investment in Florida and it worried about the border between its colony of Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico and the United States. Spain had almost no military or government presence in Florida and was unable to stop Seminole Seminoles are a Native American tribe originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation began in the 18th century in a process of ethnogenesis but was not recognized as a separate tribe by the United States government until 1957. It was composed of Native Americans from Georgia, Mississippi, and warriors who routinely crossed the border and raided U.S. villages and farms.

By 1819 Spain was forced to negotiate because it was losing its hold on its American empire Territories of the Portuguese empire during the Iberian Union . Territories lost before or due to the Treaties of Utrecht-Baden (1713–1714). Territories lost before or during the Spanish American wars of independence (1811–1828). Territories lost following the Spanish-American War (1898–1899). Territories granted independence during the, with its western colonies primed to revolt. While fighting escaped African-American slaves, outlaws and Native Americans in U.S.-controlled Georgia Georgia is bordered on the south by Florida; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina; on the west by Alabama and by Florida in the south; and on the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The northern part of the state is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mountain range in the vast Appalachian Mountains system. The central piedmont during the First Seminole War, Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). He was military governor of Florida (1821), commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans (1815), and eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy. A polarizing figure who dominated American politics in the 1820s and 1830s, his political ambition combined had pursued them into Spanish Florida, but at the same time, he attacked and captured Spanish forts in Florida that he felt were assisting the raids into American territory. Spain requested British intervention, but Britain declined to assist Spain in the negotiations. Some of President James Monroe James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States, serving two terms from 1817 to 1825. Monroe was the last Founding Father of the United States, the last one from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation to become the U.S. President. His presidency was marked both by an "Era of Good Feelings" – a period of relatively's cabinet demanded Jackson's immediate dismissal, but Adams realized that it put the U.S. in a favorable diplomatic position. Although Spanish power in the New World had long been in decline, Jackson's attacks had exposed how weak Spain was in the New World to the U.S., Latin American revolutionaries, and the other European powers. Taking an aggressive stance, Adams was able to negotiate very favorable terms.

The Spanish had a very restrictive view of the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles (2,147,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total cost of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory of 1803, considering it to comprise the west bank of the Mississippi The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. About 2,320 miles long, the river originates at Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows slowly southwards in sweeping meanders, terminating 95 river miles below New Orleans, Louisiana where it begins to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Along with its major tributary, the Missouri River, the and the city of New Orleans New Orleans (pronounced /njuː ˈɔrliənz/ or /ˈnjuː ɔrˈliːnz/, locally [nuː ˈɔrlənz] or [ˈnɔrlənz]; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃] ) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area, (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner) has a. The United States on the other hand claimed that the land they bought extended all the way to the Summit of the Rocky Mountains.^[2] Eventually the U.S. conceded in their claim to only go as far west as the Sabine River but Spain insisted upon the Arroyo Hondo The Calcasieu River is a river on the Gulf Coast of southwestern Louisiana, U.S.A.. Approximately 200 miles (320 km) long, it drains a largely rural area of forests and bayou country, meandering southward to the Gulf of Mexico. The name "Calcasieu" comes from the Native American Atakapa language katkosh, for Eagle, and yok, to cry. Its boundary.

Details of the treaty

Following the Treaty, the U.S. received the territorial rights to Spanish Florida Spanish Florida refers to the Spanish colony of Florida, a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Originally extending over what is now the southeastern United States, but with no defined boundaries, la Florida was a minor component of the Spanish Empire. Wide-ranging expeditions were mounted into the hinterland during the 16th century, but (British East East Florida was originally a part of Spanish Florida. Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris , which ended the Seven Years' War, Spain ceded all of its territory east and southeast of the Mississippi River to the Kingdom of Great Britain and West Florida West Florida was a region on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, which underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Parts of the territory were held at various times by France, Spain, Britain, and the United States . Eventually, the United States assumed control over the entire region, which now forms parts of the 1763-1783) in exchange for payments by the United States of residents' claims against the Spanish government up to a total of $5,000,000 and relinquishing its own claims on parts of Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas. The treaty was concluded on February 22, 1819, in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the City and the, ratifications were exchanged, and the treaty was proclaimed on February 22, 1821. The U.S. commission established to adjudicate claims considered some 1800 claims and agreed that they were worth $5,454,545.13. Since the treaty limited the payment of claims to $5 million, the commission reduced the amount paid out proportionately by 8⅓ percent.

The Adams-Onís Treaty settled the dispute by attempting to draw clearer borders, roughly granting Florida and Louisiana to the U.S. while giving to Spain everything west of Louisiana from Texas to California. The new boundary was to be the Sabine River north from the Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico is the eleventh largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and to the 32nd parallel north The 32nd parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 32 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean, then due north to the Red River The Red River, or sometimes The Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers located in the United States of America. The river gains its name from the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name. The Red River is the second largest river basin in the southern Great Plains, west along the Red River to the 100th meridian west The meridian 100° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, North America, the Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole, due north to the Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, west to its headwaters, north to the 42nd parallel north The 42nd parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 42 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, and finally west along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean. Informally this has been called the "Step Boundary."

The claims of Spain on the Oregon Country The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from the Columbia River frequented by ships from all nations engaged in the dated to the papal bull Inter caetera was a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI on 4 May 1493, which granted to Spain (the Crowns of Castile and Aragon) all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde Islands of 1493 which had granted to Spain the rights to colonize the western coast of North America and to the actions of Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513, when he claimed all the "South Sea" (the Pacific Ocean) and the lands adjoining the Pacific Ocean for the Spanish Crown. To solidify these 250-year old claims, in the late 1700s Spain established a military and trading outpost in today's British Columbia The Nootka Conventions were a series of three agreements between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Great Britain, signed in the 1790s which averted a war between the two empires over overlapping claims to portions of the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. The claims of Spain dated back nearly three hundred years to the papal bull of 14 and performed "acts of sovereignty" in today's Alaska The history of Alaska dates back to the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period , when Asiatic groups crossed the Bering Land Bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups. The name "Alaska" derives from the Aleut word alaxsxaq, (an Archaic. As a result of the Adams-Onís Treaty, the United States acquired the claims of Spain to the Oregon Country north of the 42nd parallel.

Perceived impact on territories

For the United States, this treaty meant that its claimed territory now extended far west from the Mississippi, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. For Spain, it meant that it kept its colonies in Texas and also kept a buffer zone between its colonies in California California's geography ranges from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, to Mojave desert areas in the southeast and the Redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. California is the most and New Mexico and the US territories. Adams considered this to be his greater achievement, as he foresaw that Oregon would allow trade with the Orient and economic powers in the Pacific.

Implementation

Washington set up a commission, 1821 to 1824, that handled American claims against Spain. Many notable lawyers, including Daniel Webster Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman during the nation's Antebellum Period. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests. His increasingly nationalistic views and the effectiveness with which he articulated them led Webster to become one of the most famous orators and influential Whig and William Wirt William Wirt was an American author and statesman who is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney General into one of influence, represented claimants before the commission. During its term, the commission examined 1,859 claims arising from over 720 spoliation incidents, and distributed the $5 million in a basically fair manner.^[3] The treaty reduced tensions with Spain (and after 1821 Mexico), and allowed budget cutters in Congress to reduce the army budget and reject the plans to modernize and expand the army proposed by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun was the seventh Vice President of the United States and a leading Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun, a brilliant orator and writer, began his political career as a nationalist and proponent of protective tariffs; later, he was a proponent of free trade, states' rights,.

The treaty was honored by both sides until it was replaced by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States (U.S.) to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). The treaty provided for the Mexican Cession of 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles) to the United States in exchange for US$15 in 1848, after the U.S. defeated Mexico. Inaccurate maps from the treaty meant that the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma remained unclear for most of the 19th century.

Later problems with the treaty

The treaty was ratified by Spain in 1820, and by the United States in 1821 (during the time that Spain and Mexico were engaged in the prolonged Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The Mexican War of Independence movement was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought independence from Spain. It started as an idealistic peasants' rebellion against). The Adams-Onís treaty was concluded with Spain, and war with Spain The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States. Revolts had been endemic for decades in Cuba and were closely watched by Americans; there had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. By 1897–98 American public opinion grew more angry at reports of Spanish atrocities, and, after the was delayed for 77 years. Spain finally recognized the independence of Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico with the Treaty of Córdoba signed on August 24, 1821. While Mexico was not initially a party to the treaty, in 1831 Mexico had ratified the treaty, including setting the 42nd parallel as the northern boundary of California. However, by the mid-1830s, a controversy developed regarding the border with Texas, during which the United States demonstrated that the Sabine and Neches rivers had been switched on maps, moving the frontier in favor of Mexico. As a consequence, the eastern boundary of Texas was not firmly established until the independence of the Republic of Texas in 1836, and not agreed upon until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 which concluded the Mexican-American War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo also formalized the cession by Mexico of Alta California and today's American Southwest except for the territory of the Gadsden Purchase.

Another dispute occurred after Texas joined the Union. The treaty stated that the boundary between the French claims on the north and the Spanish claims on the south was Rio Roxo de Natchitoches (Red River) until it reached the 100th meridian as noted on John Melish's map published in 1818. The problem was that the 100th meridian on the Melish map was some 90 miles east of the true 100th meridian and the Red River forked about 50 miles east of the 100th meridian. Texas claimed the land south of the North Fork and the United States claimed the land north of the South Fork (later called the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River). In 1860 the area was organized as Greer County, Texas. The matter was not settled until a United States Supreme Court ruling in 1896 upheld federal claims to the territory, after which it was added to Oklahoma.

See also

• List of treaties
• Spanish-American relations
• Spanish Cession

References

1. ^ formally titled the Treaty of Amity, Settlement, and Limits Between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty, sometimes the Florida Purchase Treaty,
2. ^ Hämäläinen, Pekka (2008), The Comanche Empire, New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 156, ISBN 9780300126549 .
3. ^ Cash (1998).

Further reading

• Bailey, Hugh C. (1956), "Alabama's Political Leaders and the Acquisition of Florida", Florida Historical Quarterly 35 (1): 17–29, ISSN 0015-4113, http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0035_001/35no1.pdf .
• Bemis, Samuel Flagg (1949), John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy, New York: A. A. Knopf , the standard history.
• Cash, Peter Arnold (1999), "The Adams-Onís Treaty Claims Commission: Spoliation and Diplomacy, 1795-1824", DAI (PhD dissertation U. of Memphis 1998) 59 (9): pp. 3611-A. DA9905078 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
• Weeks, William E. (1992), John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 0813190584 .

Sources

• Avalon Project – Treaty Text
• Text of the Adams-Onís Treaty

External links

• PBS' The Border: Adams-Onís Treaty
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Adams-Onis Treaty

Categories: 16th United States Congress | Treaties of the United States | History of United States expansionism | History of the United States (1789–1849) | Boundary treaties | Mexico – United States border | 1819 treaties | Treaties of the Spanish Empire

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