The Seminole Wars in Florida

The Seminole wars in Florida occurred because of salve and land conflict in Florida. The first Seminole war of 1817-18 started after the U.S authorities tried to recapture fugitive black slaves living with Seminoles in Florida. The 1812 war between the United States and Britain led many slaves to flee to Florida and were trading weapons with the British and even supported the British during the 1817 war (Exploring Florida 1). Under General Andrew Jackson, the U.S army invaded Spanish regions of Florida and fought against the Seminoles and their African-American counterparts (Exploring Florida 1). This battle was regarded as the first Seminole war, and it was ended by the Transcontinental Treaty, where Spain was forced to cede its terror in Florida. Florida finally became the territory of the United States.

The refusal of Seminoles to get out of a land reserve that had been issued to them in North of Okeechobee led to an outbreak of another Seminole war. The Seminoles were being forced to relocate to the West of the Mississippi River. This is because the Whites admired the land and instituted the Indian Removal Act to have the Seminoles wiped out of the region. The war, which lasted for seven years (between 1835-42), resulted in the death of over 2000 U.S soldiers and cost the government approximately $60,000,000 (Exploring Florida 1). Many Seminoles finally agreed to migrate at their own wish after a long tussle with the U.S authorities. Efforts to track down Seminole remnants in Florida in 1855 resulted in another war between the U.S authorities and the Seminole, and it was termed as the third Seminole war (Exploring Florida 1). The war did not cause much bloodshed, but its outcome was the U.S paying for the Seminoles to migrate to the West.