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→British acquisition
Great Britain came into possession of Pensacola, and the rest of Florida, as a result of the [[Wikipedia:Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]] (1763), which ended the [[Wikipedia:French and Indian War|French and Indian War]], the North American component of the wider [[Wikipedia:Seven Years' War|Seven Years' War]]. Britain organized its new holdings into two territories: '''East Florida''', which comprised modern Florida east of the [[Wikipedia:Apalachicola River|Apalachicola River]], with its capital at Saint Augustine; and '''West Florida''', which comprised the portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida that laid south of the [[Wikipedia:31st parallel north|31st parallel]] and between the Mississippi and Apalachicola Rivers. In [[1764]], the British moved the northern boundary up to 32° 22′ north, absorbing the southern thirds of modern-day Mississippi and Alabama.
Britain took official possession of Pensacola on [[August 7]], [[1763]], when a Captain Wills of the Third Battery of the Royal Artillery arrived from Havana to receive Pensacola from the Spanish commandant. On [[September 3]] Spain evacuated the last of its troopsand the town's citizens to Vera Cruz.<ref>Hamilton, Peter J. [http://books.google.com/books?id=_0wUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA399,M1 "British West Florida"]. ''Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society''. Oxford, Miss.: 1903.</ref><ref>Campbell, Richard L. [http://ia311206.us.archive.org/1/items/historicalsketch00camprich/historicalsketch00camprich.pdf "Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida"]. ''Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society''. The Williams Publishing Co., Cleveland: 1892.</ref>
===Revolutionary War===