| Colony of West Florida | |||||
| Timeline: Unknown | |||||
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| Capital | Pensacola | ||||
| Government | Colonial Constitutional Monarchy | ||||
| Governor | |||||
| - | 1763 (first) | Augustine Prévost | |||
| - | 1846–1847 (last) | John S. Edsworth | |||
| History | |||||
| - | Treaty of Paris | 10 February 1763 | |||
| - | Unification with East Florida | 5 July 1847 | |||
West Florida was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1847. Great Britain gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of La Florida in 1763 as part of the treaty ending the French and Indian War (as the Seven Years' War was called in North America). Deciding that the territory was (at the time) too large to administer as a single unit, Britain divided Florida into two colonies separated by the Apalachicola River: East Florida with its capital in St. Augustine and West Florida with its capital in Pensacola.
British West Florida included the part of formerly Spanish Florida which lay west of the Apalachicola, as well as parts of formerly French Louisiana. West Florida thus encompassed all territory between the Mississippi and Apalachicola Rivers, with a northern boundary which shifted several times over the subsequent years.
Both West and East Florida remained loyal to the British crown during the American Revolution, and served as havens for Tories fleeing from the Thirteen Colonies. Spain invaded West Florida and captured Pensacola in 1781, but eventually returned it to Britain after the signing of the treaty between the two countries. As a result, the Florida colonies remained the only British holdings in southern North America, bordered by the United States to the north who they saw as a threat with their manifest destiny. During the War of 1812, the United States attempted to invade Florida but were pushed out by the British. In 1847, after the St. Augustine's Rebellion in East Florida, the British government unified the two Floridas under the Province of Florida with the passing of the Florida Act.