Name/Title
Spanish Colonial Militia Officer [Coat Button]Description
1700 - 1740 Spanish colonial militia officer medium coat-size button. An example of the San Augustin type, but it is an unlisted variant. Recovered from a site near St. Augustine, Florida.Context
From the 16th through 18th centuries, Florida was a remote colonial outpost on the northern frontier of Spain's expansive New World empire. In stark contrast to many of its Spanish colonial neighbors to the south and west, Spanish Florida survived only with an annual monetary stipend from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and never resulted in a net profit for the Spanish crown. Florida was ultimately maintained primarily for its strategic value in protecting the New World fleets during their annual return from Havana to Spain, and as such, Florida's Spanish residents (mostly garrisoned soldiers and their families) came to be substantially reliant upon labor and food from the indigenous chiefdoms that were eventually assimilated within this evolving colonial society. The success or failure of Spanish Florida was tied intimately to the fate of its predominantly Native American inhabitants, and the sociopolitical and economic system that developed over the course of the colony's two and a half century history represents a remarkable example of a new, multi-ethnic colonial society within an increasingly global world system on the edge of the modern era.