In the years following the destruction of the Guale Indian missions, the necessities of imperial policy forced an uneasy peace on the citizens of St Augustine and Charleston. During the hostilities of the 1680s, both the English and the Spanish suffered losses. Following the attacks on their Indian allies, for the first time Spanish influence retreated southward due to those losses and in the face of English hostility. The English, too, suffered losses as the fledgling settlement of Stuartstown in the Port Royal area was completely destroyed and the plantations directly south of Charlestown were pillaged in Spanish reprisals.

Local concerns and desires on both sides to continue the hostilities, however, gave way to the demands of European politics. While colonists in Charleston and St Augustine demanded new attacks on their rivals, their leaders overrode their wishes as Spain and England entered into an alliance against France in 1689. At the instigation of their respective imperial governments during the next decade, the leaders of Carolina and Spanish Florida sought to maintain peace in the regions between the two colonies, though oftentimes quite reluctantly. Each side sent delegations to the other at various times in an effort to overcome different points of contention. Within both colonies, ruling elites sought to address issues that gave their rivals reasons for hostility.