The main cause of the Seminole War was the instability of Florida after the War of 1812. The Spanish were unable to prevent black slaves from fleeing Georgia and join the Seminole tribe in Florida. . Slaves who escaped and joined the Seminoles became known as "Black Seminoles." The black Seminoles angered the Americans and feared they would encourage more slaves to run away and join their forces. Additionally, Creeks who had lost their land as a result of the War of 1812 also found refuge with the Seminole tribe. The main source of conflict was a fort built by the British during the war and located on the Apalachicola River. The fort was recaptured by a force of 350 black Seminoles and became known as "Fort Negro." The United States viewed the fort as a threat and warned Spain that they would attack it unless they removed it. In response, the United States built Fort Scott just north of the Florida border. The Americans moved a convoy of two gunboats carrying 270 men and besieged Fort Negro, killing the majority of the black garrison. In retaliation, the Seminoles attacked a U.S. Army boat, killing 34 soldiers, six women, and smashing the brains of four children; this act marked the beginning of the Seminole Wars. The Monroe administration acted quickly and sent General Andrew Jackson to the region and gave him "full authority to conduct the war as he best saw fit," thereby giving him free reign. Jackson marched from Nashville to Fort Scott with 500 soldiers, 1,000 militia, and 1,800 Creek warriors with the intention of crushing the Seminoles and, if possible, taking Florida from Spain; From there, Jackson headed to Florida on a path of destruction. Jackson's forces first completely destroyed middle of paper... then turned to low-level incendiary bombing with devastating results. In a few months, 180 square miles of 67 different cities were destroyed; 2,510,000 Japanese homes were destroyed, leaving approximately 30% of the population homeless. With between 268,157 and 900,000 Japanese civilians killed, there were more Japanese civilians killed by American weapons than Japanese soldiers and the majority of these deaths were the direct result of the incendiary bombs. The United States then dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 200,000 people, and days later the Japanese surrendered. Although the morality of bombing Japan is highly questionable, its effectiveness is not. The bombing led directly to the surrender of the Japanese and saved the lives of many American troops who would have been lost had the United States engaged in the invasion of the continent..