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Florida Facts &
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Geography
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Florida was named for the day on which it was discovered (April 2, 1513)
by Spanish explorer Ponce de León, who called it La Florida in honor of
Pascua Florida, the Spanish Feast of the Flowers at Eastertime. Florida is located in the southeaster, a long peninsula bordered on the north by Georgia and Alabama, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Gulf of Mexico. At 58,681 square miles, Florida is the 21st largest state. The highest elevation is in Walton County at 345 feet while the lowest elevation is the Atlantic Ocean at sea level Florida was settled long before Europeans had discovered the peninsula. Some estimates suggest that Native Americans had arrived in Florida as early as 10,000 years before the first Europeans. European voyages of discovery began when Columbus discovered the islands of the "New World" in 1492. Written records about life in Florida began with the arrival of the Spanish explorer and adventurer Juan Ponce de León in 1513. Sometime between April 2 and April 8, Ponce de León waded ashore on the northeast coast of Florida, possibly near present-day St. Augustine. He called the area la Florida, in honor of Pascua Florida ("feast of the flowers"), Spain’s Easter time celebration. Other Europeans may have reached Florida earlier, but no firm evidence of such achievement has been found. French settlement of Florida began in 1562 as Huguenots, French Protestants, established themselves on the St. Johns River not far from the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine. This settlement was easily conquered by the Spanish, but Spain's early dominance of Florida was threatened over time by the expansion of English colonies from the north and French colonies from the west. By 1702, the English had sacked St. Augustine and, by 1719, the French had taken Pensacola. Britain gained control of Florida in 1763 in exchange for Havana, Cuba, which the British had captured from Spain during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). Spain evacuated Florida after the exchange, leaving the province virtually empty. At that time, St. Augustine was still a garrison community with fewer than five hundred houses, and Pensacola also was a small military town. The British had ambitious plans for Florida. First, it was split into two parts: East Florida, with its capital at St. Augustine; and West Florida, with its seat at Pensacola. The Apalachicola River became the boundary between them. The two Floridas remained loyal to Great Britain throughout the War for American Independence (1776-83). Spain entered the war on the patriot side and as an ally of France in June 1779. The seizure of Pensacola from the British in May 1781 came at the end of the largest battle ever fought in Florida. In 1783, Spain regained control of the rest of Florida as part of the peace treaty that ended the American Revolution. Americans joined the battles for Florida in 1803, following their purchase of Louisiana from the French. The history of Florida during this period is one of territorial gain and loss until 1821, when Spain ceded Florida to the United States of America. Florida became the 27th State to united under America on March 3, 1845. When the British evacuated Florida, Spanish colonists as well as settlers from the newly formed United States came pouring in. Many of the new residents were lured by favorable Spanish terms for acquiring property, called land grants. Others who came were escaped slaves, trying to reach a place where their U.S. masters had no authority and effectively could not reach them. Instead of becoming more Spanish, Florida increasingly became more "American." Finally, after several official and unofficial U.S. military expeditions into the territory, Spain formally ceded Florida to the United States in 1821, according to terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty. What the U.S. inherited was a wilderness sparsely dotted with settlements of native Indian people, African Americans, and Spaniards. As a territory of the United States, Florida was particularly attractive to people from the older Southern plantation areas of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who arrived in considerable numbers. After territorial status was granted, the two Floridas were merged into one entity with a new capital city in Tallahassee. Established in 1824, Tallahassee was chosen because it was halfway between the existing governmental centers of St. Augustine and Pensacola. As Florida’s population increased through immigration, so did pressure on the federal government to remove the Indian people from their lands. The Indian population was made up of several groups-primarily, the Creek and the Miccosukee people; and many African American refugees lived with the Indians.
the
U.S. government spent $20 million and the lives of many U.S. soldiers,
Indian people, and U.S. citizens to force the removal of the Seminoles. In
the end, the outcome was not as the federal government had planned. Some
Indians migrated "voluntarily." Some were captured and sent west under
military guard; and others escaped into the Everglades, where they made a
life for themselves away from contact with whites. |
