<P> During the First Seminole War, General Andrew Jackson fought two separate skirmishes in and around Tallahassee, which was then Spanish territory . The first battle took place on November 12, 1817 . Chief Neamathla, of the village of Fowltown just west of present - day Tallahassee, had refused Jackson's orders to relocate . Jackson responded by entering the village, burning it to the ground, and driving off its occupants . The Indians later retaliated, killing 50 soldiers and civilians . Jackson reentered Florida in March 1818 . According to Jackson's adjutant, Colonel Robert Butler, they "advanced on the Indian village called Tallahasse (sic) (where) two of the enemy were made prisoner ." </P> <P> Florida became an American territory in September of 1821, in accordance with the Adams - Onís Treaty of 1819 . </P> <P> The first session of Florida's Legislative Council--as a territory of the United States--met on July 22, 1822 at Pensacola, the former capital of West Florida . Members from St. Augustine, the former capital of East Florida, traveled fifty - nine days by water to attend . The second session was in St. Augustine, and western delegates needed 28 days to travel perilously around the peninsula to reach Pensacola . During this session, delegates decided to hold future meetings at a halfway point . Two appointed commissioners selected Tallahassee, at that point an Apalachee settlement (Anhaica) virtually abandoned after Andrew Jackson burned it in 1818, as a halfway point . In 1824 the third legislative session met there in a crude log building serving as the capitol . </P> <P> From 1821 through 1845, during Florida's territorial period, the rough - hewn frontier capital gradually developed as a town . The Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution, returned to the United States in 1824 for a tour . The U.S. Congress voted to give him $200,000 (the same amount he had given the colonies in 1778), US citizenship, and the Lafayette Land Grant, 36 square miles (93 km) of land that today includes large portions of Tallahassee . In 1845 a Greek revival masonry structure was erected as the Capitol building in time for statehood . Now known as the "old Capitol", it stands in front of the high - rise Capitol building that was built in the 1970s . </P>

Why was tallahassee chosen to be the capital of florida
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