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FL's policy of buying Indian friendship failed
Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122
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Collapse of the Spanish Indian Alliances, 1730-1739 The slow collapse of the Spanish Indian program was the result of three factors. First, the governor could not sustain the gift-giving policy inaugurated soon after Queen Anne’s War. Initially Corcoles, Olivera, Ayala, and Benavides showered presents on the Yamasees and Lower Creeks flooding into Saint Augustine, but in a few years this expensive activity began to fall off because of the lack of support from Spain and New Spain. A second reason for the failure of the Indian program was the lack of soldiers and missionaries to send among the savages to civilize and control them. To cement his alliances, the governor was almost completely dependent upon pledges made by the Indians in peace-pipe ceremonies. He had no permanent religious or military agents working among the Indians to see to it that they remained faithful to their promises. Still a third factor leading to decline in the Spanish Indian program was the increased activity of English and French traders among the natives. The English had reduced their Indian trade after the war ended in 1713, but as the Spaniards stepped up their activities among the Lower Creeks, the Carolinians and the French both began competing once again for the allegiance of the Indians. (Tepaske GSF)
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