Spanish Florida was a colonial territory of Spain on the 16th through to the 18th century. However, in this whole period the Spanish government did not have full control over this territory [ CITATION Cha14 l 1033 ]. Economic, social, and military aspects of the colony were not in good shape over the period that the Spanish government was in power. In 1763, Spanish government gave up the territory to the British in exchange for the Havana. After two decades, she came back. However, she was unable to do away all the misfortunes that had befallen her in the first period. The United States eventually took possession of the region after a half a century of reign (Mathers, Mitchem, & Haecker, 2013.). This series of nonperformance by the Spanish government in the region, therefore, defines the failure referred to by the author of this article. .
According to the author, one of the major troubles that led to the inadequacy of the Spanish government was the human problem. The Spaniards inability to have the different cultural groups to work in harmony and thereby reap much was the main issue. The natives included the Indians and the Negros that had come as slaves. The fusion of these two groups with the Spaniard brought about the Latin American civilization (Arnade, 1960). The Spanish government with an aim of amalgamating the different civilizations instituted institutions such as encomiend (Mathers, Mitchem, & Haecker, 2013.). However, this was a failure because of the different cultural practices. The natives in different regions had very different civilizations. Therefore, the institutions were not effective. In addition, there was no need of putting the Negros present in the region into the system since they were not the majority. Therefore, this amalgamation system did not bear fruits as pertains to smooth governing of the expanse.
The Franciscan Missions were religious affiliations that were to play a double role, that is, political and religious.