Adams-Onís Treaty

(1819)

   Known officially as the Treaty of Amity, Settlement and Limits, Between Spain and the United States, the Adams-Onís Treaty arranged for U.S. acquisition of Florida from Spain and settled much of the border between the United States and Spanish holdings. The treaty is also referred to as the Transcontinental Treaty and the Florida Purchase Treaty. Negotiations by Don Luis de Onís, Spanish minister to Washington, and John Quincy Adams, U.S. Secretary of State, concluded on February 22, 1819, and the treaty was proclaimed on February 22, 1821.

   Spanish-American relations had frayed because of conflicts regarding Spanish Florida and an imprecise boundary between the Louisiana territory and Spanish holdings. Through the treaty, Spain ceded Florida and the United States ceded claims to Texas and agreed to assume up to $5 million in claims by American citizens against Spain. The boundary between Spanish lands and the United States was set, and Spain effectively ceded claims to territory north and west of the boundary, especially Oregon north of California.

   As a result, Spain, a declining imperial power, established a temporary buffer, Texas, between her territories and the United States; and the United States, a rising continental power, achieved a boundary line extending to the Pacific. John Quincy Adams’s continental vision had scored a significant diplomatic triumph, bringing an American continental empire closer to reality.

   See also <>.

   FURTHER READING:

    Miller, Hunter, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America. Vol. III. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1933, pp. 3–18 (text of treaty); 18–64 (related documents and notes);

    Weeks, William Earl. John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992.

   KENNETH J. BLUME