The Second Seminole War was a conflict lasting from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups of people collectively known as Seminoles, consisting of Creek and Black Seminoles as well as other allied tribes. The war's origins lay in the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832, which called for the Seminoles' removal from Florida. Following this treaty, tensions escalated until fierce hostilities erupted at Dade's Massacre in 1835, which officially commenced the war, though a series of incidents had preceded this battle.
The Seminoles and U.S. forces engaged in mostly small engagements over more than six years of conflict. The war was characterized by prolonged and distributed military operations rather than large-scale pitched battles. After years of sustained conflict, the situation had significantly altered the Native American population in Florida.
By 1842, only a few hundred native peoples remained in Florida. Although no peace treaty was ever signed, the war was declared over on August 14, 1842, by Colonel William Jenkins Worth. The Second Seminole War is regarded as 'the longest and most costly of the Indian conflicts of the United States,' making it a significant chapter in American military and Native American history.
The early republic period saw the United States move from the weak Articles of Confederation to the federal Constitution ratified in 1788, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791. George Washington served two terms as president (1789–1797), establishing precedents for executive authority, and the federal capital moved permanently to Washington D.C. in 1800. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled the nation's territory for roughly $15 million, opening vast trans-Mississippi lands to American expansion. The War of 1812 against Britain ended inconclusively but produced a surge of American national identity and eliminated most British support for Indigenous resistance east of the Mississippi. The Northwest Indian Wars (1785–1795) and the Creek War (1813–1814) broke Indigenous confederacies that had resisted US expansion. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily balanced slave and free states as the nation expanded westward, but embedded the contradiction of slavery in every subsequent territorial debate.
~40–50 US soldiers and civilians killed; Seminole losses unknown
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