History of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States an explorer and fur trader), but the more known Spanish emigration during this period happened between 1778 and 1783, when the Governor of Louisiana Bernardo de Galvez recruited groups from the Canary Islands and Malaga´s Spanish regions and sent them to Louisiana in order to populate regions of New Orleans. So, more than 2,700 Canaries and 500 Malaga´s natives emigrated to Louisiana in these period. In 1800, Spain returned Louisiana to France, although it sell it to the U.S. in 1803. The descendants of Spanish settlers still living there. The first European explorers, flying the flags of Spain, sailed along
Convention of 1800 This led to the Quasi-War of 1798–1800; largely dismantled after independence, the US Navy was quickly re-established and gained the upper hand, with limited support from the British Royal Navy. Despite this, President John Adams continued to seek a diplomatic solution; in addition to the cost of the Quasi-War, the US was increasingly concerned by French ambitions in North America. France ceded Louisiana-New Spain to Spain by the 1763 Treaty of Paris; combined with Spanish Florida, Spain controlled the Mississippi River basin (see Map), effectively blocking US expansion to the South and West. Efforts to manage this through diplomacy, including