History of St. Augustine

Paris, Britain also signed separate agreements with France and Spain. In the treaty with Spain, the colonies of West Florida, captured by the Spanish, and East Florida were given to Spain, as was the island of Minorca, while the Bahama Islands, Grenada and Montserrat, captured by the French and Spanish, were returned to Britain.

Florida was under Spanish control again from 1784 to 1821. There was no new settlement, only small detachments of soldiers, as the fortifications decayed. Spain itself was the scene of war between 1808 and 1814 and had little control over Florida. In 1821 the Adams–Onís Treaty peaceably turned the Spanish provinces in Florida and, with them, St. Augustine, over to the United States. There were only three Spanish soldiers stationed there in 1821.

A relic of this second period of Spanish rule is the Constitution Obelisk monument honoring the Spanish Constitution of 1812, one of the most liberal of its time. In 1814 King Ferdinand VII of Spain abolished that constitution and had monuments to it torn down; the one in Saint Augustine was the only one to survive.

American period

Florida was ceded to the United States by Spain in the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty, ratification of the treaty took place in 1821, and it officially became a U.S. possession as the Florida Territory in 1822. Andrew Jackson, a future president, was appointed as the military governor, succeeded by William Pope Duval as territorial governor in April 1822. Florida gained statehood in 1845.

After 1821, the United States renamed the Castillo de San Marcos (British, Fort St. Marks) as Fort Marion for Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the American Revolution.

During the Second Seminole