AHC: A Spanish-American War in the 1780s

[raharris1973]

AHC: A Spanish-American war between the Treaty of Paris, 1783, and the French revolutionaries declaration of war on Spain in 1792.

 

[History Learner]

Almost happened in 1784-1785 because of disputes related to the Mississippi River.

 

[raharris1973]

Almost happened in 1784-1785 because of disputes related to the Mississippi River.

Who was more likely to start it at that time. My estimate would be Spain would clobber the youthful US, especially in actual areas of territorial dispute, so far from the US demographic core. Spain didn't have any other wars going on at the time.

 

[raharris1973]

Almost happened in 1784-1785 because of disputes related to the Mississippi River.

Well I know that John Jay's treaty with Gardoqui was never approved because it conceded US rights to use the Mississippi. So there was tension because the US wasn't getting what it wanted. 10 years later, Spain was more willing to talk reasonably on the issue and signed the treaty of San Lorenzo recognizing a right of deposit in New Orleans and use of the Mississippi and a favorable Florida boundary.

How would a war in the mid-1780s have gone?

 

[raharris1973]

Maybe this could have been made much more likely if somehow the Eugenio Poure expedition to the Chicago-Lake Michigan area had been stronger, with more of a follow-up construction/settlement crew, and the Spanish had somehow won the borders sought by the Count of Aranda, at the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War?