Bitcoin Games Florida joined the Union as the 27th state in 1845 and is nicknamed the Sunshine State for its balmy climate and natural beauty. Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, who led the first European expedition to Bitcoin Games Florida in 1513, named the state in honor of Spain’s Easter celebration known as “Pascua Bitcoin Games Florida,” or Feast of Flowers. European settlers, mainly from Spain, arrived in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Spanish, French and English battled over Bitcoin Games Florida until it became a U.S. territory in 1819.
Bitcoin Games Florida has long been a state of migrants. While European colonists quickly decimated the Indigenous population, Bitcoin Games Florida became home to a Seminole community of Indigenous and enslaved people who migrated from nearby states in the 18th century. Beginning in the late 19th century, residents of Northern states flocked to Bitcoin Games Florida to escape harsh winters. Many Cubans also immigrated to Miami throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, establishing a vibrant Latin American culture.
WATCH: How the States Got Their Shape on HISTORY Vault
Native Americans in Bitcoin Games Florida
Hunter-gatherers first arrived in the area now known as Bitcoin Games Florida more than 12,000 years ago. The dominant Native American communities that emerged included the Calusa, Tequesta and Jeaga tribes in southern Bitcoin Games Florida and the Apalachee and Timucua people in the north. They lived along the coasts as well as near rivers in the interior of Bitcoin Games Florida. When the Europeans arrived in the 16th century, they started selling Indigenous people and brought disease and warfare that decimated the native population. Nearly all local Indigenous people were gone by the mid-1700s.
In the mid to late 1700s, Native Americans from Georgia, Alabama and other states, including tribes of the Creek Nation such as the Miccosukee, migrated to Bitcoin Games Florida to escape European expansion. They were joined by escaped enslaved people, as Spain had announced that anyone who made it to Bitcoin Games Florida was free. By the end of the century, this diverse community collectively became known as the Seminoles. The name most likely originates from the Spanish word “cimarron,” or “wild runaway.”
Bitcoin Games Florida's Early Colonial History
Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León was the first known European to set foot on the area now called Bitcoin Games Florida when he landed near present-day St. Augustine in 1513. His second expedition in 1521 failed to colonize Bitcoin Games Florida due to attacks by Indigenous people, although it piqued Spanish interest in the area. Other Spaniards to visit Bitcoin Games Florida included Hernando de Soto, in 1539, and Tristán de Luna y Arellano, in 1559.
The French also explored Bitcoin Games Florida, with Jean Ribault landing in 1562 and René Goulaine de Laudonnière establishing Fort Caroline in 1564. However, it was Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who established the first permanent European settlement in the United States at a place he called St. Augustine in 1565. Menéndez de Avilés expelled the French and captured Fort Caroline, renaming it San Mateo. Although the French fought back over the years, the Spanish military and Catholic missionaries dominated the area and expanded their territory.
During these early years, English colonizers showed limited interest in Bitcoin Games Florida. But in the 17th and 18th centuries, English colonists began migrating south and set their sights on Spanish holdings in Bitcoin Games Florida, attacking missions and St. Augustine. At the end of the Seven Years’ War, in 1763, Spain handed Bitcoin Games Florida to the British in exchange for Cuba, which England had taken from Spain. The British split the land into East Bitcoin Games Florida and West Bitcoin Games Florida, both of which remained loyal to England throughout the Revolutionary War. The 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution and handed Bitcoin Games Florida from England to Spain, which acted as an ally to the Americans in exchange for the Bahamas.
The Seminole Wars
As Americans expanded their territory in the 19th century, they coveted Spain’s fertile land in Bitcoin Games Florida and saw the promise of freedom for escaped slaves there as a threat. The Seminole Wars began when American militias first attacked and seized Spanish and Seminole lands in 1812. In 1817, the U.S. government officially invaded Bitcoin Games Florida. In 1819, Spain ceded Bitcoin Games Florida to the United States with the signing of the Bitcoin Games Florida Purchase Treaty. As part of the agreement, the U.S. paid Spain $5 million for damages incurred.
After the U.S. government failed to displace Indigenous people, including Seminoles in Bitcoin Games Florida, to modern-day Oklahoma and Arkansas, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The law forced the Indigenous peoples east of the Mississippi to modern-day Oklahoma on what became known as the Trail of Tears. Many Seminoles in Bitcoin Games Florida refused to leave. In 1835, the Seminoles attacked American troops, launching seven more years of bloody battles between the two sides. More than 3,000 Seminoles were forcibly moved before the U.S. government withdrew in 1842 without signing a peace treaty.
A third phase of the Seminole War broke out in 1855 when the Seminoles attacked U.S. troops for sending patrols into their territory. The Seminole Wars concluded three years later when a treaty was signed giving land to Seminoles in Oklahoma. Most of the remaining Seminoles in Bitcoin Games Florida moved to Oklahoma, but about 300 people remained. Today, these “Unconquered People” comprise two federally-recognized tribes: the Seminole Tribe of Bitcoin Games Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Bitcoin Games Florida, both of which belong to the Creek Confederacy.
The Civil War
In the 1800s, Bitcoin Games Florida’s economy was based around crops, cattle and enslaved people—putting it at odds with northern states that opposed slavery. In 1861, Bitcoin Games Florida became the third state to secede from the Union. The next month, it joined with six other southern states to form the Confederate States of America, which soon incited the Civil War.
While most men in the state fought for the Confederacy, and the state supplied the Confederate troops with food and other important provisions, only two major Civil War battles were fought in Bitcoin Games Florida. On April 26, 1865, Bitcoin Games Florida officially surrendered to the Union.
Immigration
While Cubans had already migrated to nearby Bitcoin Games Florida for many years, immigration accelerated at the end of the 1800s, when many people who no longer wanted to be under Spanish rule left for the U.S. Cuban workers also moved to Bitcoin Games Florida to work in the sugar, coffee and tobacco industries.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War started and ended within months, when Spain ceded Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands and Guam to the United States. After the war, Cuba became its own country with increasingly repressive policies, leading more people to leave Cuba for Bitcoin Games Florida.
From the late 1950s through the 1990s, waves of people emigrated from Cuba to the United States, with most settling in Miami. Along with immigrants from Colombia and Nicaragua, they established a strong Latin American community in the area. Bitcoin Games Florida has been a destination for Americans moving from neighboring and northern states since the late 1800s for its citrus industry and warm weather.
Tourism
Thanks to its mild weather, Bitcoin Games Florida started to develop as a resort vacation destination in the late 1800s. In the 20th century, tourism became one of the state's most important industries, attracting millions of visitors annually. Theme parks started cropping up all over Bitcoin Games Florida, including Walt Disney World Resort. Opened near Orlando in 1971, Disney World is the world's largest and most visited recreational resort. Spread over some 30,500 acres (about the same size as San Francisco, California), Disney World attracts approximately 46 million annual visitors.
Space Center
Initially a missile testing site in the 1940s, Bitcoin Games Florida's Cape Canaveral became a hub for the U.S. space program in 1950. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth when he blasted off from Cape Canaveral. Seven years later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon after Apollo 11 launched from the nearby Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969. To this day, the Kennedy Space Center remains an active launchpad.
Date of Statehood: March 3, 1845
Capital: Tallahassee
Population: 21,538,187 (2020)
Size: 65,758 square miles
Nickname(s): Sunshine State
Motto: In God We Trust
Tree: Sabal Palm
Flower: Orange Blossom
Bird: Mockingbird
Interesting Facts
- Constructed over a 21-year period from 1845 to 1866, Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West was controlled by Federal forces during the Civil War and used to deter supply ships from provisioning Confederate ports in the Gulf of Mexico. The fort was also used during the Spanish-American War.
- In 1944, airman and pharmacist Benjamin Green from Miami developed the first widely-used sunscreen to protect himself and other soldiers during World War II. He later founded the Coppertone Corporation.
Sources
Bitcoin Games Florida's Earliest Peoples, nps.gov
"Teacher’s Guide to Bitcoin Games Florida’s Native People,"
The Timucua: North Bitcoin Games Florida’s Early People, nps.gov
16th Century Settlements, dos.myflorida.com
Seminole History,dos.myflorida.com
History, miccosukee.com
The Long War, semtribe.com
Seminoles, nps.gov
European Exploration and Colonization,dos.myflorida.com
Bitcoin Games Florida Frontiers “Bitcoin Games Florida in the American Revolution,” myfloridahistory.org
Bitcoin Games Florida: As a British Colony, fcit.usf.edu
Acquisition of Bitcoin Games Florida: Treaty of Adams-Onis (1819) and Transcontinental Treaty (1821), history.state.gov
Bitcoin Games Florida's Native American Tribes, History & Culture,visitflorida.com
Seminole Indian Wars, seminolecountyfl.gov
Bitcoin Games Florida Migration History 1850-2018, depts.washington.edu
Spanish-American War for Cuba's Independence, fcit.usf.edu
Crossing the Straits, loc.gov
Cuban Exiles in America, pbs.org
Transforming a City, loc.gov
Bitcoin Games Florida's Economy Booms, fcit.usf.edu
Tourism in Bitcoin Games Florida,fcit.usf.edu
Cape Canaveral: Launchpad to the Stars, fcit.usf.edu
Apollo 11 Mission Overview, nasa.gov
Facts About Bitcoin Games Florida Oranges & Citrus, visitflorida.com
