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The eastern half was ceded to Britain, and the western half and New Orleans were nominally retained by France. Spain did not contest Britain's control of eastern Louisiana, as it already knew that it would rule in western Louisiana. Also, under the Treaty of Paris, Spain had ceded Florida to Britain for which western Louisiana was its compensation.
De Soto claiming the Mississippi, as depicted in the United States Capitol rotunda. Louisiana (Spanish: La Luisiana, [la lwiˈsjana]), [1] or the Province of Louisiana (Provincia de La Luisiana), was a province of New Spain from 1762 to 1801 primarily located in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of the Mississippi River plus New Orleans.
According to Monroe, France never dismembered Louisiana while it was in her possession (as he regarded November 3, 1762, as the termination date of French possession). After 1783 Spain reunited West Florida to Louisiana, thus completing the province as France possessed it, with the exception of those portions controlled by the United States.
Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. Also, Spain's refusal to cede Florida to France meant that Louisiana would be indefensible. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana.
1800: France regains Louisiana in 1803 in the secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. 1801: The Treaty of Aranjuez stipulated the cession of Louisiana from Spain to France to be a "restoration", not a retrocession. [25]: 50–52 As France had never given any part of Florida to Spain, Spain could not give it back.
With the current war lost, France as compensation to Spain ceded the rest of Louisiana to Spain at the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau. At the Treaty of Paris the following year Charles III was able to regain Havana and Manila, but ceded all of strategically located Florida to the British.
The Spanish assault on French Florida began as part of imperial Spain's geopolitical strategy of developing colonies in the New World to protect its claimed territories against incursions by other European powers. From the early 16th century, the French had historic claims to some of the lands in the New World that the Spanish called La Florida.
France also ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to Britain; that is, the area from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. [8] France had already secretly given Louisiana to Spain three months earlier in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, but Spain did not take possession until 1769. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. [6]