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disputed frontiers of Louisiana and crowned
their achievement by capturing Pensacola.
As a result of these operations Florida was
retroceded to Spain in 1783, although that
area was not placed under the administra-
tion at New Orleans. Instead both Florida
and Louisiana were made subject to the
Captaincy General of C
UBA
.
The last decade of Spanish rule in Louisi-
ana was troubled by new boundary dis-
putes, in which the United States now
joined, having claims to the so-called West
Florida district (now coastal Alabama and
Mississippi). Just when stability and pros-
perity seemed to be emerging for Louisiana
the impulsive decision of Napoléon
Bonaparte to revive French domination in
the Caribbean led him to exert pressure on
the weak-willed C
HARLES
IV and his corrupt
chief minister, M
ANUEL
DE
G
ODOY
. The
result of this was an agreement in 1800 to
restore the territory to France. The rapid
changes in international affairs that
occurred during the next few years delayed
the effective transfer until 1803 by which
time Bonaparte had changed his plans and
sold the entire territory, including New
Orleans, to the United States.
During the period of nearly 40 years
when Spain finally exercised control over a
domain that it had been the first to explore
and had always claimed as rightfully its
own, it had maintained a rule that was usu-
ally benevolent and had encouraged the
continuing development of the region's
economy. New Orleans had become a city of
some 50,000 inhabitants with a flourishing
commerce that would play a vital role in the
ongoing development of the young Ameri-
can republic. The story of Spanish Louisiana
constitutes more than a mere parenthesis in
the history of French Louisiana.
Luís I
Luis I
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