Florida: Difference between revisions

From 1720 to 1750 the Spanish fought a series of wars to rid of Florida of these pirates (who now fashioned themselves as 'The 2nd Pirate Republic'). Due to the pirates mastery of navigation along with the harsh and defensible terrain of southern Florida, the Spanish had trouble effectively dealing with the pirates and in 1750 they negotiated with the four of the premier 'pirate lords' of the region ( Jim "King Andrew" Briggs, Catherine Kelly, One-eye Ned Jacobszoon, "El Lobo" Bortholomew Jones) to come under the employ of the Spanish crown as privateers and be given clemency and land grants in southern Florida. This strategy worked and the Spanish employed their new privateers to much effectiveness in the great Silesian War (1750-1755). After the war most of these privateers settled in the land granted to them by the Spanish Crown (besides Bortholomew Jones who left for the East Indies and Ned Jacobszoon who got hit in the head with a cannonball during the war). These pirate settlers contributed to settlement and growth of Spanish Florida with cities like Port Andrews and Santa Cruz growing into important ports of call in the mid and late 18th century.

{{Nations of the World}}