Introduction to History of Florida
The earliest known inhabitants were prehistoric Indians who entered what is now northern Florida some 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. These people were almost exclusively big-game hunters who followed wandering animal herds. Around 5000 B.C ., permanent settlements were being established as some Indians turned to fishing. Agriculture was begun about 1400 B.C . Nearly 1,500 years later, the Indian occupation had been extended across the entire peninsula. Historians estimate that on the eve of the European discovery of Florida in the 16th century A.D. the Indian population totaled about 25,000. The major groups were the Timucua, Calusa, Ais, Apalachee, and Tequesta. The Seminoles arrived about two centuries later.
Important dates in Florida1513 Juan Ponce de Leon landed on the Florida coast and claimed the region for Spain.1528 Panfilo de Narvaez led an expedition into Florida.1539 Hernando de Soto led an expedition through Florida.1564 French Huguenot settlers built Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River.1565 Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine.1763 Spain ceded Florida to Britain.1783 Spain regained control of Florida.1819 The United States obtained Florida from Spain.1821 Florida formally came under U.S. control.1822 Congress established the Territory of Florida.1835-1842 During the Second Seminole War, many of the Seminole who had refused to move out of the territory lost their land.1845 Florida became the 27th state on March 3.1861 Florida seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.1868 Florida was readmitted to the Union.1896 Henry M. Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad reached Miami.1920-1925 Land speculators poured into the state. The population increased at a tremendous rate.1947 Everglades National Park established.1961 The first U.S. space flights carrying astronauts were launched from Cape Canaveral.1969 Florida adopted a new constitution.1969 Apollo 11, the first spacecraft to land astronauts on the moon, was launched from Cape Canaveral.1971 The Walt Disney World entertainment complex opened near Orlando.1983-1985 Many of central Florida's citrus groves were destroyed by freezing weather and disease.1992 Hurricane Andrew killed 65 people and caused about $26 billion in property damage.1998 Wildfires caused extensive damage in the state.2000 Florida's electoral votes decided the U.S. presidential election, giving Texas Governor George W. Bush a victory over Vice President Al Gore.European Discovery and Colonization
Juan Ponce de León, Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, discovered Florida in 1513, during his search for the legendary Fountain of Youth. Landing near the St. Johns River, he claimed the region (and all of North America) for Spain. He named it Pascua Florida (“feast of flowers,” the Spanish name for Easter). In 1528 Pánfilo de Narváez, after he was named Spanish governor of the area, explored Florida while seeking gold. Hernando De Soto traveled across the region in 1539. In 1549 Spanish priests attempting to establish the first missions there were massacred by Indians in retaliation for earlier killings of Indians by Spaniards.
Juan Ponce de León. Juan Ponce de León of Spain landed on the Florida coast in 1513 and explored parts of the region. Ponce de León claimed the Florida region for Spain.French explorers, led by Jean Ribault, visited the eastern coast in 1562, while seeking to establish a colony in the New World for fugitive Huguenots (French Protestants). Frenchmen built Fort Caroline on the northeastern coast in 1564 but were killed by Spaniards the following year. The Spanish, led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, in 1565 had established St. Augustine, which became the first permanent European settlement in North America.
Spain retained control of Florida but was under great pressure from the English colonies to the north. In 1763 the Spanish were forced to cede the region to Great Britain. Two British colonies, East and West Florida, were created, and at the start of the American Revolution many Tories from the north fled there. During the war, Spain captured West Florida. After the war, Britain officially returned both Floridas to Spain.
Under the U.S. Flag
The second Spanish occupation of Florida was short-lived and constantly threatened by American expansion. West Florida included parts of present-day Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, along with what are now the 10 counties of western Florida. Most of this area was claimed by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. (Spain had secretly ceded most of its holdings in the area to France in 1800, but later held that it still owned both West and East Florida.)
American settlers declared the western section of West Florida (up to the Pearl River) independent in 1810; it was made a part of the new state of Louisiana in 1812. The United States seized the central part of West Florida (between the Pearl and Perdido rivers) and added it to Mississippi Territory in 1813. After several Spanish towns were captured by General Andrew Jackson in the First Seminole War (1817–18), Spain reluctantly relinquished control of East Florida to the United States. It also gave up its claims to all of West Florida in a treaty ratified in 1821. Jackson was named provisional governor, with headquarters at Pensacola.
In 1822 the Territory of Florida was organized, and a civil government set up. William P. Duval was chosen the first territorial governor. In 1824 Tallahassee was selected as the site for the capital.
In 1823 a number of tribal chiefs signed the treaty of Moultrie Creek, which relinquished most Indian lands in favor of a reservation area. Later, however, the government attempted to move the Seminoles out of Florida, and some Indians, led by Osceola, resisted. The long and bloody Second Seminole War (1835–42) resulted. The majority of the Indians were subdued and forced to move to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), but several hundred undefeated Seminoles remained in the Everglades region.
Progress As A State
Florida became the 27th state of the Union on March 3, 1845. Although a constitution had been drafted in 1838, statehood was delayed because some Floridians wanted two states to be created from the territory and also because of Northern objections to the entrance of another slave-holding state. Like most southeastern states, Florida was a predominantly agricultural area, whose economy was based on the plantation system. When war between the states threatened over the slavery issue, Florida seceded from the Union on January 10, 1861, and joined the Confederacy. During the Civil War, Florida was an important supplier of food for the South. After the war, in 1868, it was restored to the Union, but the Reconstruction period did not end until 1876.
Florida's development had been limited and intermittent up to 1880. Its population lived mainly on farms, in rural towns, and in a few small coastal cities. Southern Florida was largely uninhabited. After 1880, however, the state's growth was striking. The growth was sparked by discovery of phosphate, development of cigar making, reclamation of swamps, production of citrus fruit, and railway construction. The railroads brought tourists, attracted by the pleasant climate and the magnificent hotels built by railroad developers such as Henry M. Flagler and Henry B. Plant. New lands in southern Florida were opened to settlers, farmers, and businessmen by the drainage of the Everglades, begun in 1906.
Following World War I, a real-estate boom brought millions of land speculators to the state. Overselling and overbuilding, however, led to collapse of the boom in 1926. The establishment of many new industries during and after World War II, together with an influx of tourists and retired persons, brought new prosperity. Opening of the Cape Canaveral missile complex in 1949 made Florida a major center of American space efforts.
After 1959 a critical problem was created by refugees who flooded into Florida, particularly the Miami area, from Cuba. A program for relocating the Cubans to other states as well as absorbing them into the Florida economy was adopted. Racial clashes between the state's white and black residents also became a problem in the 1960's.
In 1970 Seminoles in Florida and Oklahoma were awarded more than 12 million dollars by the federal government for land they had given up after the Seminole Wars. During the 1970's Florida's population increased by more than 40 per cent, one of the nation's highest growth rates. In 1980 a large number of refugees again arrived from Cuba. During the 1980's there was rapid economic expansion and continued population growth.
In the 1990's, hurricanes, especially Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Opal in 1995, caused billions of dollars in property damage in Florida. In the summer of 1998, wildfires burned across many areas of Florida.
Florida, like many other Southern states, became increasingly conservative politically during the 1980's and 1990's. As a result of the 1996 elections, Florida became the first state in the history of the South to have a Republican-controlled legislature. In 1999 Florida launched the first statewide school voucher program in the nation.
In 2004, from mid-August through September, Florida was struck by four major hurricanes. An estimated one in five houses was damaged or destroyed, causing some $20 billion in damage, and approximately 100 persons lost their lives.
Powerful hurricanes struck Florida in 2005. In August of that year, Hurricane Katrina devastated southern Florida. Another hurricane, called Hurricane Wilma, caused more death and destruction in Florida after it hit Florida's southwest coast in October.