Editing Seminole Wars (section)

===First Seminole War (overview)===
The increasing border tensions came to a head on 26 December 1817, as the U.S. War Department wrote an order directing General [[Andrew Jackson]] to take command in person and bring the Seminoles under control, precipitating the First Seminole War.<ref>Mahon p. 25</ref>  The war preceded with the destruction of the [[Negro Fort]] in July 1816, and subsequently Jackson's forces destroyed several Seminole/Creek and Miccosukee settlements including [[Battle of Fowltown|Fowltown]] pursuing them and Black Seminoles and allied Maroons across northern Florida in 1818. Jackson's expedition culminated in April 1818 with the [[Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident]].  The Spanish government expressed outrage over Jackson's "punitive expeditions"<ref name="Mahon p. 24">Mahon p. 24</ref> into their territory and his brief occupation of Pensacola the capital of their colony of West Florida. But as was made clear by several local uprisings and other forms of "border anarchy",<ref name="Mahon p. 24"/> Spain was no longer able to defend nor control Florida and eventually agreed to cede it to the United States per the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]] of 1819, with the transfer taking place in 1821.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Landers |first1=Jane |title=Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions |date=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=London |page=193 }}</ref> According to the terms of the [[Treaty of Moultrie Creek]] (1823) between the United States and Seminole Nation, the Seminoles were removed from Northern Florida to a [[Indian reservation|reservation]] in the center of the Florida peninsula, and the United States constructed a series of forts and trading posts along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts to enforce the treaty.<ref name="FLMEM"/>