West Florida (Alternative 2014)

West Florida (WF) is a state located in the Eastern United States. Admitted to the Union as a US state on December 10, 1810, West Florida shares borders with Mississipi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida.

The United States claimed West Florida as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, a claim disputed by Spain. Spain claimed that West Florida was not part of Louisiana but a part of its Florida colony, and, like the other disputed territory, it had been conquered from England and not received from France. However, before 1762 France had owned the land west of the Perdido River in West Florida. The Louisiana territory had been ceded from France to Spain in 1762, and re-ceded to France in 1800. The United States and Spain held long, inconclusive negotiations on the status of West Florida.

In the meantime, American settlers established a foothold in the area and resisted Spanish control, and the British settlers who had remained after Spanish takeover also resented Spanish rule, leading to a rebellion in 1810 and the establishment of the independent Republic of West Florida, with its capital at St. Francisville, in present-day Louisiana, on a bluff along the Mississippi River.

