The U.S. had three reasons for fighting the Seminoles for Florida. First was simple greed for land and the second was the Seminoles’ valuable cattle. Thirdly, the U.S. needed to stop the flow of runaway slaves to freedom in Florida.

The official U.S. records refer to battles with the Florida Seminoles as the First, Second, and Third Seminoles Wars (or Florida Wars) with periods of peace between each war. To the Seminoles, it is viewed as one long, protracted war that extended well beyond the official end date of 1858.
Several things fueled this view of one long war.
In 1822, after the First Seminole War, the Seminoles signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek – giving them the right to 4 million acres of land in Central Florida. This is the last treaty willingly signed by the Seminoles.

Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the government tried to force the Treaty of Payne’s Creek on the Seminoles – which would push the Seminoles out west. This was unacceptable by Seminole leadership, touching off years of conflict. The majority of the battles took place between 1835 – 1842 (Second Seminole War) and 1855 – 1858 (Third Seminole War). However, there were no treaties signed by the Seminoles. Instead, Colonel Worth in 1842 and Colonel Loomis in 1858 arbitrarily decided an end to the war because cost and their inability to capture all the Seminoles.