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{{History of Florida}}
The '''history of Florida''' can be traced to when the first [[Paleo-Indians]] began to inhabit the peninsula as early as 14,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dunbar |first=James S. |title=The pre-Clovis occupation of Florida: The Page-Ladson and Wakulla Springs Lodge Data |url=http://www.clovisinthesoutheast.net/dunbar.html |access-date=June 23, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012043208/http://www.clovisinthesoutheast.net/dunbar.html |archive-date=October 12, 2014 }}</ref> They left behind artifacts and archeological remains. Florida's [[Recorded history|written history]] begins with the arrival of Europeans; the Spanish explorer [[Juan Ponce de León]] in 1513 made the first textual records. The state received its name from that ''[[conquistador]]'', who called the peninsula ''La Pascua Florida'' in recognition of the verdant landscape and because it was the Easter season, which the Spaniards called ''[[Pascua Florida]]'' (Festival of Flowers).<ref name="Chang-Rodríguez2006">{{cite book|first=Raquel|last=Chang-Rodríguez|title=Beyond Books and Borders: Garcilaso de la Vega and La Florida Del Inca|url={{Google books|d3UGjXiSAJ0C|page=47|plainurl=yes}}|year=2006|publisher=Bucknell University Press|isbn=978-0-8387-5651-5|page=47}}</ref><ref name="Vega2010">{{cite book|author=Garcilaso de la Vega|title=The Florida of the Inca|url={{Google books|o11AZeV4pwEC|page=5|plainurl=yes}}|date=June 28, 2010|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-78905-0|page=5}}</ref><ref name="Steigman2005">{{cite book|first=Jonathan D.|last=Steigman|title=La Florida Del Inca and the Struggle for Social Equality in Colonial Spanish America|url={{Google books|QTjoOz7WMiIC|page=33|plainurl=yes}}|date=September 25, 2005|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=978-0-8173-5257-8|page=33}}</ref>

This area was the first mainland realm of the United States to be settled by Europeans, starting in 1513. Since then Florida has had many waves of colonization and immigration, including French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century, as well as entry of new Native American groups migrating from elsewhere in the South, and free black people and fugitive slaves, who in the 19th century became allied with the Native Americans as [[Black Seminoles]]. Florida was under colonial rule by [[Spanish Empire|Spain]] from the 16th century to the 19th century, and briefly by [[British Empire|Great Britain]] during the 18th century (1763–1783). Neither Spain nor Britain maintained a large military or civilian population.  It became  a [[Florida Territory|territory]] of the United States in 1821. Two decades later, on March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union as the 27th U.S. state.

Florida is nicknamed the "Sunshine State" due to its warm climate and days of sunshine. Florida's sunny climate, many beaches, and growth of industries have attracted northern migrants within the United States, international migrants, and vacationers since the [[Florida land boom of the 1920s]]. A diverse population, urbanization, and a diverse economy would develop in Florida throughout the 20th century. In 2014, Florida with over 19 million people, surpassed New York and became the third most [[List of U.S. states and territories by population|populous state in the U.S.]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://proximityone.com/st0030.htm|title=Demographic Composition and Trends|date=n.d.|access-date=April 18, 2012|publisher=Proximity}}</ref>

The economy of Florida has changed over its history, starting with [[Exploitation of natural resources|natural resource exploitation]] in logging, mining, fishing, and [[sponge diving]]; as well as [[Ranch|cattle ranching]], farming, and [[Citrus|citrus growing]]. The tourism, real estate, trade, banking, and [[Retirement community|retirement destination]] businesses would develop as economic sectors later on.

==Early history==

===Geology===
{{main|Geology of Florida}}
[[File:Shell Midden, Enterprise, FL.jpg|thumb|250px|A shell [[midden]] at [[Enterprise, Florida]] in 1875.]]
The foundation of Florida was located in the continent of [[Gondwana]] at the South Pole 650 million years ago (Mya). When Gondwana collided with the continent of [[Laurentia]] 300 Mya, it had moved further north. 200 Mya, the merged continents containing what would be Florida, had moved north of the equator. By then, Florida was surrounded by desert, in the middle of a new continent, [[Pangaea]]. When Pangaea broke up 115 mya, Florida assumed a shape as a peninsula.<ref name="Hine2013">{{cite book|first=Albert C.|last=Hine|title=Geologic History of Florida: Major Events that Formed the Sunshine State|url={{Google books|XZm-MgEACAAJ|page=30-31|plainurl=yes}}|year=2013|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-4421-7|pages=30–31}}</ref>
The emergent [[landmass]] of Florida was [[Orange Island (Florida)|Orange Island]], a low-relief island sitting atop the carbonate [[Florida Platform]] which emerged about 34 to 28 million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hughes|first1=Joseph D.|last2=Vacher|first2=H.L.|last3=Sanford|first3=Ward E.|date=2007|title=Three-dimensional flow in the Florida platform: Theoretical analysis of Kohout convection at its type locality|url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/35/7/663/129931/Three-dimensional-flow-in-the-Florida-platform|journal=Geology|volume=35|issue=7|pages=663–666|doi=10.1130/G23374A.1|bibcode=2007Geo....35..663H |access-date=2022-08-11|url-access=subscription}}</ref> When [[Quaternary glaciation|glaciation]] locked up the world's water, starting 2.58&nbsp;million years ago, the sea level dropped precipitously. It was approximately {{convert|100|m|sp=us}} lower than present levels. As a result, the Florida peninsula not only emerged, but had a land area about twice what it is today. Florida also had a drier and cooler climate than in more recent times. There were few flowing rivers or [[wetland]]s.

===First Floridians===
{{See also|Indigenous peoples of Florida|Indigenous people of the Everglades region}}
[[Paleo-Indians]] entered what is now Florida at least 14,000 years ago, during the [[last glacial period]].<ref name=purdy>{{Cite book|title=Florida's People During the Last Ice Age|last=Purdy|first=Barbara A.|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8130-3204-7|publisher=University Press of Florida|quote=Purdy: 2, states that the evidence for the presence of humans in Florida by 14,000 years ago is "indisputable".}}</ref>{{rp|2}} With lower sea levels, the Florida peninsula was much wider, and the climate was cooler and much drier than in the present day.<ref name="AucillaRiverPrehistoryProject2020">{{cite web |author1=Florida Museum Staff |title=Aucilla River Prehistory Project {{!}} When the first Floridians met the last mastodons |url=https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/vertpaleo/aucilla-river-prehistory-project/ |website=Floridamuseum.ufl.edu |publisher=Florida Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303101416/https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/vertpaleo/aucilla-river-prehistory-project/ |archive-date=March 3, 2020 |location=Gainesville, Florida |access-date=May 12, 2024 |url-status=live }}</ref> Fresh water was available only in [[sinkhole]]s and [[limestone]] catchment basins, and paleo-Indian activity centered around these relatively scarce watering holes. Sinkholes and basins in the beds of modern rivers (such as the [[Page-Ladson]] site in the [[Aucilla River]]) have yielded a rich trove of paleo-Indian [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]], including [[Clovis point]]s.<ref name=milanich98/>{{rp|3–12}}

Excavations at an ancient stone [[quarry]] (the Container Corporation of America site in [[Marion County, Florida|Marion County]]) yielded "crude stone implements" showing signs of extensive wear from deposits below those holding Paleo-Indian artifacts. [[Thermoluminescence dating]] and [[weathering]] analysis independently gave dates of 26,000 to 28,000 years ago for the creation of the artifacts. The findings are controversial, and funding has not been available for follow-up studies.<ref name=purdy/>{{rp|106–115}}

As the glaciers began retreating about 8000 [[Common Era|BCE]], the climate of Florida became warmer and wetter. As the glaciers melted, the sea level rose, reducing the land mass. Many prehistoric habitation sites along the old coastline were slowly submerged, making artifacts from early coastal cultures difficult to find. There were islands throughout Florida as far south as what is now Orlando.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dos.fl.gov/historical/archaeology/underwater/sites/drowned-prehistoric-sites/|title=Drowned Prehistoric Sites|date=n.d.|publisher=Florida Dept of State}}</ref> The paleo-Indian culture was replaced by, or evolved into, the [[Archaic period in the Americas|Early Archaic culture]]. With an increase in population and more water available, the people occupied many more locations, as evidenced by numerous artifacts. [[Archeology|Archaeologists]] have learned much about the Early Archaic people of Florida from the discoveries made at [[Windover Archeological Site|Windover Pond]]. The Early Archaic period evolved into the Middle Archaic period around 5000 BC. People started living in villages near wetlands and along the coast at favored sites that were likely occupied for multiple generations.

The Late Archaic period started about 3000 BC, when Florida's climate had reached current conditions and the sea had risen close to its present level. People commonly occupied both fresh and saltwater wetlands. Large shell [[middens]] accumulated during this period. Many people lived in large villages with purpose-built [[Earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] [[mound]]s, such as at [[Horr's Island]], which had the largest permanently occupied community in the Archaic period in the southeastern United States. It also has the oldest [[burial mound]] in the East, dating to about 1450 BC. People began making fired pottery in Florida by 2000 BC. By about 500 BC, the Archaic culture, which had been fairly uniform across Florida, began to fragment into regional cultures.<ref name=milanich98/>{{rp|12–37}}

The post-Archaic cultures of eastern and southern Florida developed in relative isolation. It is likely that the peoples living in those areas at the time of first European contact were direct descendants of the inhabitants of the areas in late Archaic and [[Woodland period|Woodland]] times. The cultures of the Florida panhandle and the north and central [[Gulf of Mexico|Gulf]] coast of the Florida peninsula were strongly influenced by the [[Mississippian culture]], producing two local variants known as the [[Pensacola culture]] and the [[Fort Walton culture]].<ref name=MARRINAN2007>{{cite journal|first1=Rochelle A.|last1=Marrinan|author2=Nancy Marie White|url=http://www.trailoffloridasindianheritage.org/pdf/fw1.pdf|title=Modeling Fort Walton Culture in Northwest Florida|journal=Southeastern Archaeology|volume=26|number=2–Winter|year=2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403084151/http://www.trailoffloridasindianheritage.org/pdf/fw1.pdf|archive-date=April 3, 2013}}</ref><ref name=WEINSTEIN2008>{{cite journal|journal=Southeastern Archaeology |title=The spread of shell-tempered ceramics along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico |volume=27 |issue=2 |year=2008 |author1=Weinstein, Richard A. |author2=Dumas, Ashley A. |url=http://www.coastalenv.com/sarc-27-02-202-221-e.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425141409/http://www.coastalenv.com/sarc-27-02-202-221-e.pdf |archive-date=April 25, 2012  }}</ref>

Continuity in cultural history suggests that the peoples of those areas were also descended from the inhabitants of the Archaic period. In the panhandle and the northern part of the peninsula, people adopted cultivation of maize. Its cultivation was restricted or absent among the tribes who lived south of the [[Timucua language|Timucuan]]-speaking people (i.e., south of a line approximately from present-day [[Daytona Beach, Florida]] to a point on or north of Tampa Bay.)<ref name=milanich98>{{cite book|first=Jerald T.|last=Milanich|title=Florida's Indians From Ancient Time to the Present|date=1998|publisher=University Press of Florida|pages=38–132|isbn=978-0813015996}}</ref> Peoples in southern Florida depended on the rich estuarine environment and developed a highly complex society without agriculture.

===European contact and aftermath===

[[File:Flindians1723.JPG|thumb|250px|[[Bernard Picart]] Copper Plate Engraving of Florida Indians, circa 1721<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Bernard|editor-first=Chez J.F.|last1=Bernard|first1=Jean-Frédéric|last2=Picart|first2=Bernard|title=Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde|publisher=The Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/50032372/}}<!--Private collection of L.S. Morgan in St. Augustine, FL--></ref>]]

At the time of first European contact in the early 16th century, Florida was inhabited by an estimated 350,000 people belonging to a number of tribes. (Anthropologist [[Henry F. Dobyns]] has estimated that as many as 700,000 people lived in Florida in 1492).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lord|first=Lewis|date=August 1997|title=How Many People Were Here Before Columbus?|pages=68–70|work=U.S. News & World Report|url=https://www.bxscience.edu/ourpages/auto/2009/4/5/34767803/Pre-Columbian%20population.pdf|access-date=February 16, 2021}}</ref> The [[Spanish Empire]] sent Spanish explorers recording nearly one hundred names of groups they encountered, ranging from organized political entities such as the [[Apalachee]], with a population of around 50,000, to villages with no known political affiliation. There were an estimated 150,000 speakers of dialects of the [[Timucua language]], but the [[Timucua]] were organized as groups of villages and did not share a common culture.<ref name=milanich95>{{cite book|first=Jerald T.|last=Milanich|title=Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe|date=1995|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=0-8130-1360-7}}</ref>{{rp|1–2, 82}} Other tribes in Florida at the time of first contact included the [[Ais (tribe)|Ais]], [[Calusa]], [[Jaega]], [[Mayaimi]], [[Tequesta]], and [[Tocobaga]].

The populations of all of these tribes decreased markedly during the period of Spanish control of Florida, mostly due to epidemics of newly introduced [[infectious diseases]], to which the Native Americans had no natural [[Immunity (medical)|immunity]]. Beginning late in the 17th century, when most of the [[indigenous peoples]] were already much reduced in population, [[Apalachicola Province#Attacks on Spanish missions|peoples]] from areas to the north of Florida, supplied with arms and occasionally accompanied by [[white (people)|white]] colonists from the [[Province of Carolina]], raided throughout Florida. They burned villages, wounded many of the inhabitants and carried captives back to [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charles Towne]] to be sold into [[slavery]]. Most of the villages in Florida were abandoned, and the survivors sought refuge at [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] or in isolated spots around the state. Many tribes became extinct during this period and by the end of the 18th century.<ref name=milanich95/>{{rp|213–228}}

Some of the Apalachee eventually reached Louisiana, where they survived as a distinct group for at least another century. The Spanish evacuated the few surviving members of the Florida tribes to [[Cuba]] in 1763 when Spain transferred the territory of Florida to the [[British Empire]] following the latter's victory against France in the [[Seven Years' War]].<ref name=milanich95/>{{rp|227–231}} In the aftermath, the [[Seminole]], originally an offshoot of the [[Creek people]] who absorbed other groups, developed as a distinct tribe in Florida during the 18th century through the process of [[ethnogenesis]]. They have three federally recognized tribes: the largest is the [[Seminole Nation of Oklahoma]], formed of descendants since removal in the 1830s; others are the smaller [[Seminole Tribe of Florida]] and the [[Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida]].

==Colonial battleground==

===First Spanish rule (1513–1763)===
{{Main|Spanish Florida}}
[[File:RUIDIAZ(1893) 1.083 JUAN PONCE DE LEÓN.jpg|thumb|left|[[Juan Ponce de León]] was one of the first Europeans to set foot in the current United States; he led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named.]]
[[File:Cantino Map - 1502 - Florida.jpg|thumb|A depiction of what might be Florida from the 1502 [[Cantino planisphere|Cantino map]] ]]
[[File:Florida worship french column 1591.jpeg|thumb|Timucua Indians at a column erected by the French in 1562]]
[[File:1527-TeraFlorida.jpg|thumb|A 1527 map by [[Vesconte Maggiolo]] showing the east coast of North America with "Tera Florida" at the top and "Lavoradore" at the bottom.]]
[[File:Florida Moyne 1591.jpeg|thumb|A 1591 map of Florida by [[Jacques le Moyne|Jacques le Moyne de Morgues]].]]

Spanish conqueror and explorer [[Juan Ponce de León]] is usually given credit for being the first European to sight Florida in 1513, but he may have had predecessors. Florida and much of the nearby coast is depicted in the [[Cantino planisphere]], an early world map which was surreptitiously copied in 1502 from the most current [[Portuguese discoveries|Portuguese sailing charts]] and smuggled into Italy a decade before Ponce sailed north from [[Puerto Rico]] on his voyage of exploration. Ponce de León may not have even been the first Spaniard to go ashore in Florida; slave traders may have secretly raided native villages before Ponce arrived, as he encountered at least one indigenous tribesman who spoke Spanish.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Hale G.|last2=Gottlob|first2=Marc|date=1978 |editor-last1=Milanich|editor-first1=Jerald|editor-last2=Proctor |editor-first2=Samuel |title=Tacachale: Essays on the Indians of Florida and Southeastern Georgia during the Historic Period'|publisher=University Presses of Florida|chapter=Spanish-Indian Relationships: Synoptic History and Archaeological Evidence, 1500–1763|isbn=978-0-8130-0535-5}}</ref> However, Ponce's 1513 expedition to Florida was the first open and official one. He also gave Florida its name, which means "full of flowers".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/juan-ponce-de-leon|title=Juan Ponce de Léon|website=History|date=November 9, 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks|access-date=March 2, 2016}}</ref> A dubious legend states that Ponce de León was searching for the [[Fountain of Youth]] on the island of Bimini, based on information from natives.<ref name="Peck">{{cite web|last=Peck |first=Douglas T. |title=Misconceptions and Myths Related to the Fountain of Youth and Juan Ponce de Leon's 1513 Exploration Voyage |url=http://www.newworldexplorersinc.org/FountainofYouth.pdf |publisher=New World Explorers, Inc |access-date=2008-04-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409062720/http://www.newworldexplorersinc.org/FountainofYouth.pdf |archive-date=April 9, 2008  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ponce-de-leon-never-searched-for-the-fountain-of-youth-72629888/?no-ist | title=Ponce de Leon Never Searched for the Fountain of Youth|date=2013|author=Matthew Shaer|publisher=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

On March 3, 1513, Juan Ponce de León organized and equipped three ships for an expedition departing from "[[Aguada, Puerto Rico|Punta Aguada]]", Puerto Rico. The expedition included 200 people, including women and free black people.

Although it is often stated that he sighted the peninsula for the first time on March 27, 1513, and thought it was an island, he probably saw one of the Bahamas at that time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians/conquis.htm|title=Florida of the Conquistador|date=n.d.|publisher=FloridaHistory.org|access-date=June 17, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615120550/http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians/conquis.htm |archive-date=June 15, 2006 }}</ref> He went ashore on Florida's east coast during the Spanish Easter feast, [[Pascua Florida]], on April 7 and named the land ''La Pascua de la Florida.'' After briefly exploring the land south of present-day [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], the expedition sailed south to the bottom of the Florida peninsula, through the [[Florida Keys]], and up the west coast as far north as [[Charlotte Harbor, Florida|Charlotte Harbor]], where they briefly skirmished with the [[Calusa]] before heading back to Puerto Rico.

From 1513 onward, the land became known as ''La Florida''. After 1630, and throughout the 18th century, Tegesta (after the [[Tequesta]] tribe) was an alternate name of choice for the Florida peninsula following publication of a map by the Dutch cartographer [[Hessel Gerritsz]] in [[Joannes de Laet]]'s ''History of the New World''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scholar.library.miami.edu/floridamaps/view_image.php?image_name=dlp00020000020001001&group=sp|title=Florida et Regiones Vicinae|date=n.d.|publisher=University of Miami|access-date=2013-06-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.broward.org/library/bienes/lii14003.htm|title='Marvellous countries and lands' Notable Maps of Florida, 1507–1846|date=n.d.|publisher=Broward|last=Ehrenberg|first=Ralph E.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803204621/http://www.broward.org/library/bienes/lii14003.htm|archive-date=August 3, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="De Bow's Review, Vol. XXII Third Series Vol. II">{{Cite book|title=De Bow's Review|volume=XXII|series=Third Series Vol. II|last= De Bow|first=J. D. B. |author-link=James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow |year=1857 |location=Washington, D.C. and New Orleans |pages= 303–305|quote=The name Florida, sometimes expanded to cover more of the present-day southeastern U.S., remained the most commonly used Spanish term, however, throughout the entire period.}}</ref>

Further Spanish attempts to explore and colonize Florida were disastrous. Ponce de León returned to the Charlotte Harbor area in 1521 with equipment and settlers to start a colony, but was soon driven off by hostile Calusa, and de León died in Cuba from wounds received in the fighting. [[Pánfilo de Narváez]]'s expedition explored Florida's west coast in 1528, but his violent demands for gold and food led to hostile relations with the [[Tocobaga]] and other native groups. Facing starvation and unable to find his support ships, Narváez attempted return to Mexico via rafts, but all were lost at sea and only four members of the expedition survived. [[Hernando de Soto (explorer)|Hernando de Soto]] landed in Florida in 1539 and began a multi-year trek through what is now the southeastern United States in which he found no gold and lost his life. In 1559 [[Tristán de Luna y Arellano]] established the first settlement in [[Pensacola, Florida|Pensacola]] but, after a violent hurricane destroyed the area, it was abandoned in 1561.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Archaeology of colonial Pensacola|last=Bense|first=Judith Ann|year=1999|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn= 978-0-8130-1661-0|page=6}}</ref> Spanish attempts to claim Florida's east coast grew steadily despite this due to Spain's increasing influence on the land. By the end of the 16th century, Spain started sending fleets of ships annually for valuables and resources.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ste.Claire |first=D |title=A History of Florida Through New World Maps: Borders of Paradise |date=2017 |publisher=University Press of Florida |isbn=978-1-947372-41-2 |pages=15}}</ref>

The horse, which the natives had hunted to extinction 10,000 years ago,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historical-museum.org/archaeology/first_arrivals/first_arrivals.htm |title=First Arrivals: The Archaeology of Southern Florida |publisher=Historical-museum.org |access-date=September 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130326120957/http://www.historical-museum.org/archaeology/first_arrivals/first_arrivals.htm |archive-date=March 26, 2013 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> was reintroduced into North America by the European explorers, and into Florida in 1538.<ref name = IberianOrigins>{{cite journal|last=Luís|first= Cristina|year=2006|title=Iberian Origins of New World Horse Breeds|journal=[[Journal of Heredity]]|volume=97|issue=2|pages=107–113|doi=10.1093/jhered/esj020|pmid=16489143|display-authors=etal|doi-access=free}}</ref> As the animals were lost or stolen, they began to become feral.

In [[Timeline of Florida history|1564]], [[René Goulaine de Laudonnière]] founded [[Fort Caroline]] in what is now [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], as a haven for [[Huguenot]] Protestant refugees from religious persecution in France.<ref name=RowlandMooreRogers>{{cite book|last1=Rowland|first1=Lawrence S.|last2=Moore|first2=Alexander|last3=Rogers|first3=George C.|title = The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina: 1514–1861|edition= 1996| publisher=University of South Carolina Press| isbn= 978-1-57003-090-1|year=1996}}</ref>{{rp|26}} Further down the coast, in 1565 [[Pedro Menéndez de Avilés]] founded San Agustín ([[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]])<ref name=RowlandMooreRogers/>{{rp|27}} which is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in any U.S. state. It is second oldest only to [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]], in the United States' current territory. From this base of operations, the Spanish began building [[Spanish missions in Florida|Catholic missions]].

All colonial cities were founded near the mouths of rivers. St. Augustine was founded where the [[Matanzas Inlet]] permitted access to the [[Matanzas River]]. Other cities were founded on the sea with similar inlets: Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Pensacola, Tampa, Fort Myers, and others.<ref name=ft150628>{{Cite news | first=Hank | last=Fishkind | title=Transportation routes transform landscape, economy | newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| page= 28A | date=June 28, 2015 }}</ref><!---softcopy not yet available on author's site, not paper-->

On September 20, 1565, Menéndez de Avilés attacked Fort Caroline, killing most of the French Huguenot defenders.<ref name=RowlandMooreRogers/>{{rp|28}} Two years later, [[Dominique de Gourgue]] recaptured the settlement for France, this time slaughtering the Spanish defenders.

St. Augustine became the most important settlement in Florida. Little more than a fort, it was constantly in some form of danger and did face the dangers many other early European colonies had. It was notably devastated in 1586, when English sea captain and sometime pirate Sir [[Francis Drake]] plundered and burned the city. Later sometime in 1599 a fire would burn down the Franciscan monastery that was present and the southern part of St. Augustine and a few months later on September 22, 1599, a hurricane would hit destroying much of the town. Although St. Augustine faced many hardships the Spanish decided to maintain the town and the colony as a way to counteract English expansion in the Americas and to help protect Spanish ships.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Parker |first=Susan Richbourg |date=2013 |title=St. Augustine in the Seventeenth-Century: Capital of La Florida |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4680&context=fhq |format=PDF |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=92 |issue=3 |via=STARS}}</ref>

Catholic missionaries used St. Augustine as a base of operations to establish over 100 far-flung missions throughout Florida.<ref name="Han1990">{{cite book|first=John H.|last=Hann|title=Summary Guide to Spanish Florida Missions and Visitas|url={{Google books|8DYLAAAAYAAJ|page=97|plainurl=yes}}|year=1990|publisher=Academy of American Franciscan History|isbn=978-0883822852|page=97}}</ref> They converted 26,000 natives by 1655,{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} but a revolt in 1656 and an epidemic in 1659 proved devastating.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} Construction on [[Castillo de San Marcos]] in St. Augustine would begin in 1672 and finish in 1695.<ref name=":4" /> Another fort, named [[Fort Matanzas National Monument|Fort Matanzas]] would be built in 1742 to defend St. Augustine's entrance from the [[Matanzas Inlet]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Matanzas National Monument Florida |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/fort_matanzas_national_monument.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808031537/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/American_Latino_Heritage/Fort_Matanzas_National_Monument.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 8, 2014 |access-date=August 25, 2023 |website=nps.gov}}</ref> The total population of St. Augustine during the Spanish period has some degree of uncertainty but several census were taken. A 1675 census found it had a population of 300 while a 1689 census found there was 1,444 people that lived there. Another done in 1736 found 1,409 residents. By 1763 the population of St. Augustine was larger than [[Williamsburg, Virginia]] or any other town in the southern British colonies with the exception of [[Charleston, South Carolina]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Corbett |first=Theodore G. |date=1975 |title=Population Structure in Hispanic St. Augustine, 1629–1763 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3390&context=fhq |format=PDF |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=3 |via=STARS}}</ref>

African slaves used primarily for labor were first introduced to Spanish Florida as early as 1580, when officials asked for permission to import slaves to bolster the workforce in and around St. Augustine. However, due to restrictions by the Spanish crown, the population of African slaves in Florida remained relatively low until around the period of British control in 1763.<ref name="Smith2017">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Julia F. |title=Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antelbellum Florida, 1821–1860 |date=2017 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville, FL |isbn=978-1947372627 |page=9}}</ref>

Throughout the 17th century, English settlers in [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]] and [[Province of Carolina|Carolina]] gradually pushed the boundaries of Spanish territory south, while the French settlements along the [[Mississippi River]] encroached on the western borders of the Spanish claim. In 1702, Governor of Carolina [[James Moore Sr.|James Moore]] and allied [[Yamasee]] and [[Creek people|Creek Indians]] attacked and razed the town of St. Augustine, but they could not gain control of the fort. In 1704, Moore and his soldiers began burning Spanish missions in north Florida and executing Indians friendly with the Spanish. The collapse of the Spanish mission system and the defeat of the Spanish-allied [[Apalachee]] Indians (the [[Apalachee massacre]]) opened Florida up to [[Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas|slave raids]], which reached to the Florida Keys and decimated the native population. The [[Yamasee War]] of 1715–1717 in the Carolinas resulted in numerous Indian refugees, such as the Yamasee, moving south to Florida. In 1719, the French captured the Spanish settlement at Pensacola.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670–1717|last=Gallay|first=Alan|year=2002|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-10193-7|pages=144–147}}</ref>

====Fugitive slaves and conflicts====
The border between the British colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida was never clearly defined, and was the subject of constant harassment in both directions, until it was ceded by Spain to the U.S. in 1821. The [[Monarchy of Spain|Spanish Crown]], beginning with [[Charles II of Spain|King Charles II]] in 1693, encouraged [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|fugitive slaves]] from the [[Thirteen Colonies|British North American colonies]] to escape and offered them freedom and refuge if they converted to Catholicism. This was well known through word of mouth in the colonies of Georgia and South Carolina, and hundreds of [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|enslaved Africans]] escaped to their freedom, which infuriated colonists in the British North American colonies. They settled in a buffer community north of St. Augustine, called [[Fort Mose Historic State Park|Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose]], the first settlement made of [[Free people of color|free black people]] in North America.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Landers|first=Jane|date=January 1984|title=Spanish Sanctuary: Fugitives in Florida, 1687–1790|url=https://ucf.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A25466/datastream/OBJ/view|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|volume=62|issue=3|pages=296–313|via=University of Central Florida Digital Library}}</ref>

During this period, the British (including their North American colonies) repeatedly attacked Spanish Florida, especially in 1702 and again in 1740, when a large force under [[James Oglethorpe]] sailed south from Georgia and [[Siege of St. Augustine (1740)|besieged St. Augustine]], but was unable to capture the [[Castillo de San Marcos]]. The [[1755 Lisbon earthquake]] triggered a [[tsunami]] that would have struck Central Florida with an estimated {{convert|1.5|m|sp=us|adj=on}} wave.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110321/NEWS01/110321001/Large-margins-safety-Florida-s-nuclear-plants |title=Large margins of safety in Florida's nuclear plants|access-date=November 26, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110326212607/http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110321/NEWS01/110321001/Large-margins-safety-Florida-s-nuclear-plants |archive-date=March 26, 2011 }}</ref>

Creek and Seminole Native Americans, who had established buffer settlements in Florida at the invitation of the Spanish government, also welcomed any fugitive slaves who reached their settlements. In 1771, Governor [[John Moultrie (politician)|John Moultrie]] wrote to the [[Board of Trade]] that "it has been a practice for a good while past, for negroes to run away from their Masters, and get into the Indian towns, from whence it proved very difficult to get them back". When British colonial officials in Florida pressed the Seminole to return runaway slaves, they replied that they had "merely given hungry people food, and invited the slaveholders to catch the runaways themselves".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=E|date=2001|title=St. Augustine's British Years|journal=The Journal of the St. Augustine Historical Society|pages=38}}</ref>

===British rule (1763–1783)<!--'British Florida' redirects here-->===
{{Main|East Florida|West Florida}}

[[File:West Florida Map 1767.svg|thumb|right|300px|The expanded West Florida territory in 1767.]]

In [[Timeline of Florida history|1763]], Spain traded Florida to the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] for control of [[Havana]], Cuba, which [[Battle of Havana (1762)|had been captured]] by the British during the [[Seven Years' War]]. It was part of a large expansion of British territory following the [[Great Britain in the Seven Years' War|country's victory in the Seven Years' War]]. Almost the entire Spanish population left, taking along most of the remaining indigenous population to Cuba. The British divided the territory into [[East Florida]] and [[West Florida]].<ref name="http://fcit.usf.edu/Florida/docs/f/florbrit.htm">{{cite web|author=Florida Center for Instructional Technology |url=http://fcit.usf.edu/Florida/docs/f/florbrit.htm |title=Floripedia: Florida: As a British Colony |publisher=Fcit.usf.edu |access-date=2009-10-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title = A History of Florida|first1= Caroline Mays|last1= Brevard|first2= Henry Eastman|last2 = Bennett|page=77|url = https://archive.org/details/historyofflorida00brevar|location = New York|publisher = American Book Company|date = 1904}}</ref> The British soon constructed the [[King's Road (Florida)|King's Road]] connecting St. Augustine to [[Province of Georgia|Georgia]]. The road crossed the [[St. Johns River]] at a narrow point, which the [[Seminole]] called ''Wacca Pilatka'' and the British named "Cow Ford", both names ostensibly reflecting the fact that cattle were brought across the river there.<ref>{{cite book |title= Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage |last= Wood |first= Wayne |year= 1992 |publisher= [[University Press of Florida]] |isbn= 978-0-8130-0953-7|page= 22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= The Indian Miscellany |last= Beach |first= William Wallace |year= 1877 |publisher= J. Munsel|page=125|url= https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_lqqAAAAAIAAJ|access-date= July 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Wells |first=Judy|title=City had humble beginnings on the banks of the St. Johns|url=http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/030200/ent_S0302FIR.html|access-date=July 2, 2011|newspaper=The Florida Times-Union|date=March 2, 2000|url-status=dead|archive-date=2000-10-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001026115121/http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/030200/ent_S0302FIR.html}}</ref>  The British government gave land grants to officers and soldiers who had fought in the [[French and Indian War]] in order to encourage settlement. In order to induce settlers to move to the two new colonies reports of the natural wealth of Florida were published in England. A large number of British colonists who were "energetic and of good character" moved to Florida, mostly coming from [[South Carolina]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and England, though there was also a group of settlers who came from the colony of [[Bermuda]]. This would be the first permanent English-speaking population in what is now [[Duval County, Florida|Duval County]], [[Baker County, Florida|Baker County]], [[St. Johns County, Florida|St. Johns County]], and [[Nassau County, Florida|Nassau County]]. The British built good public roads and introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, indigo, and fruits, as well the export of lumber. As a result of these initiatives northeastern Florida prospered economically in a way it never did under Spanish rule. Furthermore, the British governors were directed to call general assemblies as soon as possible to make laws for the Floridas and in the meantime they were, with the advice of councils, to establish courts. This would be the first introduction of much of the English-derived legal system which Florida still has today, including [[Jury Trial|trial by jury]], [[habeas corpus]], and county-based government.<ref>{{cite book|title = A History of Florida|first1= Caroline Mays|last1= Brevard |first2= Henry Eastman|last2 = Bennett|url = https://archive.org/details/historyofflorida00brevar |location = New York|publisher = American Book Company|date = 1904}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Mowat|first=Charles L.|date=1940|title=The Land Policy in British East Florida|journal=Agricultural History|volume=14|number=2|pages=75–77}}</ref>

A [[Scottish people|Scottish]] settler named [[Andrew Turnbull (colonist)|Andrew Turnbull]] transplanted around 1,500 [[indentured]] settlers, from [[Menorca]], [[Majorca]], [[Ibiza]], [[Smyrna]], [[Crete]], [[Mani Peninsula]], and [[Sicily]], to grow [[hemp]], [[sugarcane]], [[indigo]], and to produce [[rum]]. Settled at [[New Smyrna Beach, Florida|New Smyrna]], within months the colony suffered major losses primarily due to insect-borne diseases and Native American raids. Most crops did not do well in the sandy Florida soil. Those that survived rarely equaled the quality produced in other colonies. The colonists tired of their servitude and Turnbull's rule. On several occasions, he used African [[slaves]] to whip his unruly settlers. The settlement collapsed and the survivors fled to safety with the British authorities in St. Augustine. Their descendants survive to this day, as does the name New Smyrna.

In 1767, the British moved the northern boundary of West Florida to a line extending from the mouth of the [[Yazoo River]] east to the [[Chattahoochee River]] (32° 28′ north latitude), consisting of approximately the lower third of the present states of [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]]. During this time, Creek Indians migrated into Florida and formed the Seminole tribe.

In 2025, archaeologists in St. Augustine uncovered the remains of an eighteenth-century British redoubt built in 1781, providing the first direct archaeological evidence of British military fortifications in the city during Florida's brief period of British rule.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fischer |first=David |date=2025-03-28 |title=Archeologists unearth signs from 1700s of British control in Florida after centuries of Spanish rule |url=https://apnews.com/article/british-spanish-fort-florida-archeology-history-5dddbffbacd863c0a21c6de4f4efb02f |access-date=2025-10-23 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref>

====Florida in the American Revolutionary War====
{{Anchor|Florida in the American Revolutionary War|Florida in the American Revolution}}
When representatives from thirteen North American colonies [[United States Declaration of Independence|declared independence from Great Britain]] in 1776, many Floridians condemned the action. East and West Florida were backwater outposts whose populations included a large percentage of British military personnel and their families. There was little trade in or out of the colonies, so they were largely unaffected by the [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act Crisis of 1765]] and other taxes and policies which brought other British colonies together in common interest against a shared threat. Thus, a majority of Florida residents were [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]], and both East and West Florida declined to send representatives to any sessions of the [[Continental Congress]].

Governor [[Patrick Tonyn]] raised four black militia units to protect East Florida. Enslaved blacks who fought for the British Crown were promised freedom. However, due to the passing of stricter slave codes and the efforts of slave owners, few of those who fought were granted their freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rivers |first1=Larry E. |title=Slavery in Florida : territorial days to emancipation |date=2000 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville |isbn=978-0813018133 |page=6}}</ref>

During the [[American Revolutionary War]], Florida Loyalists fighting for the English Crown participated in raids against the Patriot forces in South Carolina and Georgia.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-06-04 |title=Decisions and destiny –Florida Humanities |url=https://floridahumanities.org/decisions-and-destiny/ |access-date=2023-01-22 |language=en-US}}</ref> Continental forces attempted to invade East Florida early in the conflict, but they were defeated on May 17, 1777, at the [[Battle of Thomas Creek]] in today's [[Nassau County, Florida|Nassau County]] when American Colonel John Baker surrendered to the British.<ref name="upperstjohn2004">{{cite web|url=http://www.upperstjohn.com/people/johnbaker.htm |title=John Baker |publisher=Upperstjohn.com |date=June 6, 2004 |access-date=2009-10-02}}</ref> Another American incursion into the same area was repelled at the [[Battle of Alligator Bridge]] on June 30, 1778.

The two Floridas remained loyal to Great Britain throughout the war. However, Spain, participating indirectly in the war as an ally of France, captured [[Battle of Pensacola (1781)|Pensacola]] from the British in 1781. The [[Peace of Paris (1783)]] ended the Revolutionary War and returned all of Florida to Spanish control, but without specifying the boundaries. The Spanish wanted the expanded northern boundary Britain had made to West Florida, while the new United States demanded the old boundary at the [[31st parallel north]]. This [[West Florida Controversy|border controversy]] was resolved in the 1795 [[Treaty of San Lorenzo]] when Spain recognized the 31st parallel as the boundary.

====Departure of the British====
Just as most residents of Spanish Florida had left when Britain gained possession of the territory in 1763, the impending return to Spanish control in 1783 saw a vast exodus of those who had settled in the area over the previous twenty years. This included many [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] who had fled there during the American War of Independence and had caused East Florida's population to swell considerably if temporarily.<ref name=Fhq>{{cite journal|last=May|first=Philip S.|year=1944|title=Zephaniah Kingsley, Nonconformist (1765–1843)|journal=[[Florida Historical Quarterly]]|volume=23|number=3|url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol23/iss3/3|pages=145–159, at p. 145}}</ref>

===Second Spanish rule (1783–1821)===
{{Main|Spanish Florida#Second Spanish period}}

Spain's reoccupation of Florida involved the arrival of some officials and soldiers at St. Augustine and Pensacola but very few new settlers. Most British residents had departed, leaving much of the territory depopulated and unguarded. North Florida continued to be the home of the newly amalgamated black–native American Seminole culture and a haven for people escaping slavery in the southern United States. Settlers in southern Georgia demanded that Spain control the Seminole population and capture runaway slaves, to which Spain replied that the slave owners were welcome to recapture the runaways themselves.

Americans began moving into northern Florida from the backwoods of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[South Carolina]]. Though technically not allowed by the Spanish authorities, the Spanish were never able to effectively police the border region, and a mix of American settlers, escaped slaves, and Native Americans would continue to migrate into Florida unchecked. The American migrants, mixing with the few remaining settlers from Florida's British period, would be the progenitors of the population known as [[Florida Cracker]]s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cracker: Cracker Culture in Florida History|last=Ste Claire|first=Dana M.|publisher=University Press of Florida|date=2006|isbn=978-0-8130-3028-9}}</ref>

====Republic of West Florida====
{{main|Republic of West Florida}}

Ignoring Spanish territorial claims, American settlers, along with some remaining British settlers, established a permanent foothold in the western end of West Florida during the first decade of the 1800s. In the summer of 1810, they began planning a rebellion against Spanish rule which became open revolt in September. The rebels overcame the Spanish garrison at [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]] and proclaimed the "Free and Independent Republic of West Florida" on September 23. (None of it was within what is today the state of Florida.) Their flag was the original "[[Bonnie Blue Flag]]", a single white star on a blue field. On October 27, 1810, most of the Republic of West Florida was annexed by proclamation of President [[James Madison]], who claimed that the region was included in the [[Louisiana Purchase]] and incorporated it into the newly formed [[Territory of Orleans]]. Some leaders of the newly declared republic objected to the takeover, but all had deferred to arriving American troops by mid-December 1810. The [[Florida Parishes]] of the modern state of [[Louisiana]] include most of the territory claimed by the short-lived Republic of West Florida.

Spain sided with Great Britain during the [[War of 1812]], and the U.S. annexed the [[Mobile District]] of West Florida to the [[Mississippi Territory]] in May 1812. The surrender of Spanish forces at [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] in April 1813 officially established American control over the area, which was eventually divided between the states of [[Alabama]] and [[Mississippi]].

====Republic of East Florida====
{{main|Republic of East Florida}}

In March 1812, a small independent band of Americans took control of [[Amelia Island]] on the Atlantic coast. They declared that they were now an independent republic free from Spanish rule in what would become known as the [[Patriot War (Florida)|Patriot War]]. The revolt was organized by [[George Mathews (Georgia)|General George Mathews]] of the U.S. Army, who had been authorized to secretly negotiate with the Spanish governor for American acquisition of East Florida. Instead, Mathews organized a group of frontiersmen in Georgia, who arrived at the Spanish town of [[Fernandina, Florida|Fernandina]] and demanded the surrender of all of Amelia Island. Upon declaring the island a republic, he led his volunteers along with a contingent of regular army troops south towards St. Augustine. Upon hearing of Mathews' actions, the government became alarmed that he would provoke war with Spain. Secretary of State [[James Monroe]] ordered Matthews to return all captured territory to Spanish authorities. After several months of negotiations on the withdrawal of the Americans and compensation for their foraging through the countryside, the countries came to an agreement, and Amelia Island was returned to the Spanish in May 1813.<ref>James G. Cusick, ''The Other War of 1812: The Patriot War and the American Invasion of Spanish East Florida'' (University of Georgia Press, 2007).</ref>

A similar filibuster action took place in September 1817, when the Scottish veteran and con-man [[Gregor MacGregor]] led a private force and captured Amelia Island and declared it part of the [[Republic of the Floridas]]. By December 1817, the United States seized the island.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doyle |first1=Patrick W. |title=Unmasked: The Author of 'Narrative of a Voyage to the Spanish Main in the Ship ''Two Friends'' ' |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=Fall 1999 |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=192–193 |url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A25534 |access-date=27 December 2022}}</ref>

====First Seminole War====
{{main|Seminole Wars|Black Seminoles}}

The unguarded Florida border was an increasing source of tension late in the second Spanish period. Seminoles based in [[East Florida]] had been accused of raiding Georgia settlements, and settlers were angered by the stream of slaves escaping into Florida, where they were welcomed. [[Negro Fort]], an abandoned British fortification in the far west of the territory, was manned by both indigenous and black people. The [[United States Army]] would lead increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory, including the 1817–1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians by [[Andrew Jackson]] that became known later as the [[First Seminole War]]. Jackson took temporary control of Pensacola in 1818, and though he withdrew due to Spanish objections, the United States continued to effectively control much of West Florida. According to Secretary of State [[John Quincy Adams]], this was necessary because Florida had become "a derelict open to the occupancy of every enemy, civilized or savage, of the United States, and serving no other earthly purpose than as a post of annoyance to them".<ref>{{cite book|first = Alexander |last =Deconde|title =A History of American Foreign Policy|date=1963|page= 127|publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons}}</ref>

====End of Spanish control====
{{main|Adams-Onis Treaty}}

After Jackson's incursions, Spain decided that Florida had become too much of a burden, as it could not afford to send settlers or garrisons to properly occupy the land and was receiving very little revenue from the territory. Madrid therefore decided to cede Florida to the United States. The transfer was negotiated as part of the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]], which also settled several boundary disputes between Spanish colonies and the U.S. in exchange for American payment of $5,000,000 in claims against the Spanish government.<ref name=tebeau>{{cite book|last=Tebeau|first=Charlton W.| title = A History of Florida|edition=3rd|year=1999|orig-year=1971|publisher=University of Miami Press|isbn=978-0870243387}}</ref>{{rp|156}} The treaty was signed in 1819 and took effect in 1821, and the United States formally took possession of Florida on July 17, 1821.

==Territory and statehood==
===Florida Territory (1822–1845)===
{{Main|Florida Territory}}
 {{See also|Seminole Wars}}
[[File:Andrew Jackson.jpg|thumb|150px|Andrew Jackson served as the first military [[Governor of Florida]].]]

[[Florida Territory]] became an [[organized territory]] of the United States on March 30, 1822. Due to disputes between the British and the Spanish, this new territory had two capitols, one in St. Augustine and one in Pensacola. It became necessary, however, to combine these capitols and resolve these disputes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Warner |first=Lee H. |date=1983 |title=Florida's Capitols |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30149123 |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=245–259 |jstor=30149123 |issn=0015-4113}}</ref> In 1841, the U.S. merged [[East Florida]] and [[West Florida]] (although the majority of West Florida was annexed to [[Territory of Orleans]] and [[Mississippi Territory]]), and established a new capital in [[Tallahassee, Florida|Tallahassee]], conveniently located halfway between the East Florida capital of St. Augustine and the West Florida capital of Pensacola. The boundaries of Florida's first two counties, [[Escambia County, Florida|Escambia]] and [[St. Johns County, Florida|St. Johns]], approximately coincided with the boundaries of West and East Florida respectively.

The free black and Indigenous slaves, Black Seminoles, living near St. Augustine, fled to Havana, Cuba to avoid coming under US control. Some Seminole also abandoned their settlements and moved further south.<ref>{{cite book|last=Simmons|first=William H.|title= Notices of East Florida : with an account of the Seminole nation of Indians|year=1822|publisher=University of Pittsburgh|page=42|oclc=1049959679|url=https://archive.org/details/noticesofeastflo00simm/page/n6/mode/2up}}</ref> Hundreds of [[Black Seminoles]] and fugitive slaves escaped in the early nineteenth century from [[Cape Florida]] to [[The Bahamas]], where they settled on [[Andros Island]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Mulroy|first=Kevin|title=The Seminole Freedmen: A History (Race and Culture in the American West)|year=2007|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|page=26|isbn=978-0806153476}}</ref>

[[File:Osceola.png|thumb|Seminole leader [[Osceola]].]]
As settlement increased, pressure grew on the United States government to remove the Indians from their lands in Florida. Many settlers in Florida developed plantation agriculture, similar to other areas of the Deep South. To the consternation of new landowners, the Seminoles harbored and integrated runaway black slaves, and clashes between whites and Indians grew with the influx of new settlers. Paul S. George's ''A Guide to the History of Florida'' emphasizes the diversity of historical influences that shaped the state, from Indigenous societies to Spanish, British, and American governance. The guide also traces the growth of Florida's major cities and the development of regional identities.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-guide-to-the-history-of-florida-paul-s-george/1000601064 |title=A Guide to the History of Florida |via=Barnes & Noble}}{{dead link|date=November 2025}}</ref>

In 1832, the United States government signed the [[Treaty of Payne's Landing]] with some of the Seminole chiefs, promising them lands west of the Mississippi River if they agreed to leave Florida voluntarily. Many Seminoles left then, while those who remained prepared to defend their claims to the land. White settlers pressured the government to remove all of the Indians, by force if necessary, and in 1835, the U.S. Army arrived to enforce the treaty.

The [[Second Seminole War]] began at the end of 1835 with the [[Dade Battle]], when Seminoles ambushed Army troops marching from [[Fort Brooke]] (Tampa) to reinforce [[Fort King]] (Ocala).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mitchellarchives.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/dade-report.jpg|title=From Florida|publisher=Daily National Intelligencer|date=January 27, 1836|url-status=live|archive-date=2011-07-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714102456/https://mitchellarchives.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/dade-report.jpg}}</ref> They killed or mortally wounded all but one of the 110 troops. Between 900 and 1,500 Seminole warriors effectively employed guerrilla tactics against United States Army troops for seven years. Osceola, a charismatic young war leader, came to symbolize the war and the Seminoles after he was arrested by Brigadier General [[Joseph Marion Hernandez]] while negotiating under a white truce flag in October 1837, by order of General [[Thomas Jesup]]. First imprisoned at [[Fort Marion]], he died of [[malaria]] at [[Fort Moultrie]] in [[South Carolina]] less than three months after his capture. The war ended in 1842. The U.S. government is estimated to have spent between $20&nbsp;million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|20000000|1842|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars) and $40&nbsp;million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|40000000|1842|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars) on the war; at the time, this was considered a large sum. Almost all of the Seminoles were forcibly exiled to Creek lands west of the Mississippi; several hundred remained in the [[Everglades]].<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|156}}

During the territorial period, the region of Middle Florida between the Apalachee and Suwanee Rivers grew in population.<ref name=":5" />

When Florida was a territory, there was much debate regarding its statehood. It was proposed several times that the territory be split with varying motivations ranging from: the regions of East and West Florida feeling a sense of disconnection from each other, adding another slave state and that Pensacola would be a good port for Alabama.<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=Walter |date=1941 |title=The Proposed Division of the Territory of Florida |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2066&context=fhq |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |type=PDF |volume=20 |issue=3 |access-date= |via=STARS @ UCF}}</ref> A statehood referendum was held in 1837 with a majority (63%) voting in favor of statehood.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Moussalli |first=Stephanie D. |date=1995 |title=Florida's Frontier Constitution: The Statehood, Banking & Slavery Controversies |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4117&context=fhq |format=PDF |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=74 |issue=4 |via=STARS}}</ref> In 1845 a bill was introduced in the US House to admit East and West Florida as separate states but this was later voted down and modified to all of Florida instead which ended up passing.<ref name=":22" />

===Statehood (1845)===
[[File:Florida Capitol 1845.jpg|thumb|250px|The brick [[Florida State Capitol|Capitol]] as built in 1845.]]
On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America. Its first governor was [[William Dunn Moseley]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gov. William Dunn Moseley |url=https://www.nga.org/governor/william-dunn-moseley/#:~:text=WILLIAM%20DUNN%20MOSELEY%2C%20Florida's%20first,practice%20in%20Wilmington%2C%20North%20Carolina. |access-date=December 22, 2024 |website=National Governors Association | date=January 6, 2015 }}</ref>

Almost half the state's population were enslaved African Americans working on large cotton and sugar [[Plantations in the American South|plantations]], between the [[Apalachicola River|Apalachicola]] and [[Suwannee River|Suwannee]] rivers in the north central part of the state.<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|158}} Like the people who owned them, many slaves had come from the coastal areas of Georgia and the Carolinas. They were part of the [[Gullah]]–[[Geechee]] culture of the [[Lowcountry]]. Others were enslaved African Americans from the upper South who had been sold to traders taking slaves to the deep South.{{sfn|Smith|2017|pp=9–11}} Historian Edward E. Baptist explains that early Florida planters actively shaped the region into a version of the "Old South," expanding plantation agriculture and slaveholding culture into new territories. This effort helped establish social and economic systems that would define Florida through the mid-19th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Creating an Old South |url=https://uncpress.org/9780807853535/creating-an-old-south/ |access-date=2025-11-20 |website=The University of North Carolina Press |language=en-US}}</ref>

In the 1850s, with the potential transfer of ownership of federal land to the state, including Seminole land, the federal government decided to convince the remaining Seminoles to emigrate. The Army reactivated Fort Harvie and renamed it to [[Fort Myers, Florida|Fort Myers]]. Increased Army patrols led to hostilities, and eventually a Seminole attack on Fort Myers which killed two United States soldiers.<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|155}} The [[Third Seminole War]] lasted from 1855 to 1858 which ended with most of the remaining Seminoles, mostly women and children moving to Indian Territory. In 1859, another 75 Seminoles surrendered and were sent to the West, but a small number continued to live in the Everglades.<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|156}}

On the eve of the Civil War, Florida had the smallest population of the Southern states. It was invested in plantation agriculture, which was dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans. By 1860, Florida had 140,424 people, of whom 44% were enslaved and fewer than 1,000 were [[free black|free people of color]].<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|157}} Florida also had one of the highest per capita murder rates prior to the Civil War, thanks to a weakened central government, the institution of slavery, and a troubled political history.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Denham|first1=James M.|last2=Roth|first2=Randolph|year=2007|title=Why Was Antebellum Florida Murderous? A Quantitative Analysis of Homicide in Florida, 1821–1861|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|volume=86|number=2|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25594611|pages=216–217|jstor=25594611 }}</ref> The University of Florida's archival materials describe how early Florida settlers depended heavily on local natural resources, using rivers and coastal waterways as primary transportation routes. These records also document political disputes among territorial leaders as Florida transitioned toward statehood.<ref>{{Cite book |url=a. The University of Florida's archival materials describe how early Florida settlers depended heavily on local natural resources, using rivers and coastal waterways as primary transportation routes. These records also document political disputes among territorial leaders as Florida transitioned toward statehood. |title=}}</ref>

==Civil War through late 19th century==
===American Civil War===
{{Main|Florida in the American Civil War}}

[[File:Battle of Olustee.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[Battle of Olustee]] was the only major Civil War battle fought in Florida.]]
Following [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[1860 United States presidential election in Florida|election in 1860]], Florida joined other Southern states in seceding from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. [[Secession]] took place January 10, 1861, and after less than a month as an independent republic, Florida became one of the founding seven states of the [[Confederate States of America]]. During the Civil War, Florida was an important supply route for the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]]. Therefore, Union forces operated a [[naval blockade]] around the entire state, and Union troops occupied major ports such as [[Cedar Key, Florida|Cedar Key]], [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], [[Key West, Florida|Key West]], and [[Pensacola]]. Though numerous skirmishes occurred in Florida, including the [[Battle of Natural Bridge]], the [[Battle of Marianna]] and the [[Battle of Gainesville]], the only major battle was the [[Battle of Olustee]] near [[Lake City, Florida|Lake City]].

In 1861, at the start of the war, the state had a population of roughly 140,000, with half of that being enslaved African Americans.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Weitz |editor1-first=Seth A. |editor2-last=Sheppard |editor2-first=Jonathan C. |title=A Forgotten Front: Florida during the Civil War Era |date=2018 |publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]] |location=Tuscaloosa|isbn=978-0817319823 |page=11}}</ref> In spite of the state's relatively small population, Florida did send several units to fight up north, most notably the [[1st Florida Infantry Regiment|1st Florida]], the [[8th Florida Infantry Regiment|8th Florida]] and the [[3rd Florida Infantry Regiment]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sheppard |first1=Jonathan C. |title=By the noble daring of her sons : the Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee |date=2012 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=978-0817317072 |page=28}}</ref>

Most of the population were not enthusiastic about the secession, and the Unionist movement that was a minority in Florida between 1861 and 1862 increased notably during the last three years of the war, especially in [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]], [[Sarasota, Florida|Sarasota]] and most of South and Northwest Florida, where [[List of Florida Union Civil War units|Unionist regiments]] were formed.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} Tensions within the state grew as this movement gained traction. Despite the state siding with Confederate values initially, this changed as the war continued.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Curl |first1=Donald W. |last2=Colburn |first2=David R. |last3=deHaven-Smith |first3=Lance |date=1999 |title=Government in the Sunshine State: Florida Since Statehood. |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/2588032 |journal=The Journal of Southern History |volume=66 |issue=4 |pages=8–9 |doi=10.2307/2588032 |jstor=2588032 |issn=0022-4642|url-access=subscription }}</ref> At the time of the end of the war, most Floridians deserted the Confederate Army and the government in Florida was under anarchy until the Union troops returned to Florida.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Florida's Role in the Civil War: 'Supplier of the Confederacy' |url=https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/cvl_war/cvl_war1.htm#:~:text=Florida%27s%20greatest%20contribution%20to%20the,supplies%20could%20get%20safely%20northward. |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=fcit.usf.edu}}</ref> Florida played a more significant role in the Civil War than is often recognized, serving as a key supplier of cattle and salt to the Confederacy. Paul Taylor's research highlights that Florida's long coastline created ongoing challenges for Union blockades seeking to restrict Confederate trade.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Discovering-the-Civil-War-in-Florida/Paul-Taylor/9781561645299 |title=Discovering the Civil War in Florida |date=2012-10-01 |isbn=978-1-56164-529-9 |language=en}}</ref>

===Reconstruction era===
{{Main|Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era}}

During the [[Reconstruction era]] that followed the Civil War, [[Republican Party (United States)|moderate Republicans]] took charge of the state, first led by [[Harrison Reed (politician)|Governor Harrison Reed]]. In order to combat the increasingly growing [[Ku Klux Klan]], Reed mobilized black and white militias and purchased two thousand rifles in New York with which to arm them. However, the train carrying the arms was attacked by members of the Klan and the weapons were lost.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burnett |first1=Gene M. |title=Florida's past : people and events that shaped the state. Volume 2 |date=1988 |publisher=Pineapple Press |location=Sarasota, FL |isbn=978-0910923590 |page=127}}</ref>

The moderate regime plunged into complicated maneuvering and infighting. It drafted a conservative constitution. The extended contest between liberals and radicals inside the Republican Party alienated so many voters that the Democrats took power. They rigged elections, [[disenfranchisement|disenfranchised]] black voters, and made the state a reliable part of the "[[Solid South]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Shofner|first=Jerrell|editor-last=Olsen|editor-first=Otto|date=1980|title=Reconstruction and Redemption in the South|chapter=Florida: A Failure of Moderate Republicanism|publisher=LSU Press|pages=13–46}}</ref>

A [[Florida Constitution#The 1868 Florida Constitution|state convention was held in 1868 to rewrite the constitution]].<ref name="DuBois">{{cite book |last=Du Bois|first=W.E.B.|date=1992|orig-date=1935|type=Reprint|title=Black Reconstruction in America: 1860–1880|publisher=The Free Press|pages=513, 515}}</ref> After meeting the requirements of Congress, including ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|13th]] and [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution]], Florida was readmitted to the Union on July 4, 1868.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cox |first1=Merlin G. |title=Military Reconstruction in Florida |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=January 1968 |volume=46 |issue=3 |page=232 |url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A22411 |access-date=8 January 2023}}</ref> This did not end the struggle for political power among groups in the state. Southern whites objected to freedmen's political participation and complained of illiterate representatives to the state legislature. But of the six members who could not read or write during the seven years of Republican rule, four were white.<ref name="DuBois"/>

Also in the late 1860s, another proposal came for Alabama to annex part of the Florida panhandle. This proposal entailed Alabama annexing Florida west of the Choctawhatchee River with a resolution passing the Alabama General Assembly authorizing the Alabama Governor [[William Hugh Smith]] to negotiate with Florida's governor about the annexation.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last=Needham |first=William L. |date=November 3, 2015 |orig-date=Spring 1984 (originally printed) |title=The Year We Almost Lost the Panhandle |url=https://www.tallahasseemagazine.com/the-year-we-almost-lost-the-panhandle/ |access-date=January 26, 2025 |work=Tallahassee Magazine}}</ref> Florida passed a resolution to hold a special election<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=June 25, 1869 |title=Proclamation Ordering a Special Election to Decide Whether Portions of West Florida Should Be Annexed by Alabama, 1869 |url=https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/333337 |access-date=January 26, 2025 |website=Florida Memory}}</ref> which was voted in favor of with 1,162 voting for it and 681 against it but this annexation proposal never went through and no transaction ever took place.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" />

After [[Compromise of 1877|Federal troops left the South in 1877]], conservative white Democrats engaged in [[voter suppression]] and intimidation, regaining control of the [[Florida state legislature|state legislature]]. This was accomplished partly through violent actions by white paramilitary groups targeting freedmen and their allies to discourage them from voting.

Thanks to government enticements, entrepreneurs like [[Henry Flagler]], [[Henry B. Plant]], and [[Hamilton Disston]], invested heavily in Florida, especially its infrastructure. The development of railroads and other transportation in the state led the population to almost double in the 1880s and 1890s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knetsch |first1=Joe |title=Florida in the Spanish-American War |date=2011 |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, SC |isbn=978-1609490881 |pages=18–19}}</ref>

===Disenfranchisement===
{{See also|List of Jim Crow law examples by State#Florida|Black Codes (United States)#Florida}}
From 1885 to 1889, after regaining power, the white-dominated state legislature passed statutes to impose [[poll tax]]es and other barriers to [[voter registration]] and voting, to eliminate voting by black people and poor whites. These two groups had threatened white Democratic power with a [[populism|populist]] coalition. As these groups were stripped from voter rolls, white Democrats established power in a one-party state, as happened across the South.

In this period, white violence rose against black people, particularly in the form of [[lynching]]s, which reached a peak around the turn of the century.<ref name="davis"/>

The [[Great Freeze]] of 1894–95 ruined citrus crops, which had a detrimental ripple effect on the economy of Central Florida in particular.<ref>{{cite book |last=McMurry|first=Charles Alexander|date=1908|title=Type Studies from the Geography of the United States|publisher=Macmillan & Company|page=81}}</ref> By 1900 the state's African Americans numbered more than 200,000, roughly 44 percent of the total population. This was the same proportion as before the Civil War, and they were effectively disenfranchised.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} Not being able to vote meant they could not sit on juries, and were not elected to local, state or federal offices. They also were not recruited for [[law enforcement]] or other government positions. After the end of Reconstruction, the Florida legislature passed [[Jim Crow laws]] establishing [[racial segregation]] in public facilities and transportation. Separate railroad cars or sections of cars for different races were required beginning in 1887.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stephenson|first=Gilbert Thomas|date=May 1909|title=The Separation of The Races in Public Conveyances|journal=The American Political Science Review|volume=3|issue=2|pages=180–204|jstor=1944727|doi=10.2307/1944727|s2cid=146984968 }}</ref> Separate waiting rooms at railroad stations were required beginning in 1909.<ref>{{cite book|author=State of Florida|title=The Revised General Statutes of Florida: Prepared Under Authority of Chapter 6930, Acts 1915, Chapter 7347, Acts 1917, and Chapter 7838, Acts 1919, Laws of Florida, Volume 2|url={{Google books|55RCAQAAMAAJ|page=2306|plainurl=yes}}|year=1920|publisher=E.O. Painter Print|page=2306}}</ref>

Without political representation, African Americans found that their facilities were underfunded and they were pushed into a second-class position.

===Spanish–American War===
After the start of the first liberation war in Cuba, known as the [[Ten Years' War]] (1868–1878), around 100,000 Cubans fled their homes to avoid the violence and upheaval. Generally speaking, the rich and middle class Cubans settled in Europe or northern cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Meanwhile, the more poor workers ended up settling in south Florida, first in Key West and then eventually in Tampa. However, there were also a number of Spanish living in Florida. Because of the heterogeneous nature of Florida's population, there were both pro and anti-war sentiments leading up to the start of the [[Spanish–American War]] in 1898.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Perez |first1=Louis A. Jr. |title=Cubans in Tampa: From Exiles to Immigrants |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=October 1978 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=7–8 |url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A25442 |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref>

Because of their proximity to Cuba, Floridians worried that their cities could come under direct attack with the outbreak of war.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shellings |first1=William J. |title=The Advent of the Spanish-American War in Florida |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=April 1961|volume=39|issue=4|page=1 |url=http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/SN00154113_0039_004 |access-date=August 2, 2022}}</ref> [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] would serve as an embarkation port for troops heading to Cuba. [[Nelson A. Miles|Major General Nelson A. Miles]] ordered a base built in Miami despite earlier rejections by a board of officers. Soldiers began arriving on June 24, 1898. They were volunteers, mostly from the southern states.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Donna |title='Camp Hell': Miami During the Spanish-American War |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=October 1978 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=20–22 |url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A25442 |access-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref>

==Since 1900==
In 1900, Florida was largely agricultural and frontier; most Floridians lived within 50 miles of the Georgia border. The population grew from 529,000 in 1900 to 18.3&nbsp;million in 2009. The population explosion began with the great land boom of the 1920s as Florida became a destination for vacationers and a southern land speculator's paradise. People from throughout the Southeast migrated to Florida during this time, creating a larger southern culture in the central part of the state, and expanding the existing one in the northern region.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

By 1920, Florida had the highest rate of lynchings per capita,<ref name="davis"/> although the overall total had declined. Violence of whites against black people continued into the post-World War II period, and there were lynchings and riots in several small towns in the early 1920s. Florida had the only recorded lynching in 1945, in October after the war's end, when a black man was killed after being falsely accused of assaulting a white girl.<ref name="davis">{{cite journal|last=Davis|first=Jack E.|title='Whitewash' in Florida: The Lynching of Jesse James Payne and Its Aftermath|date=1990|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|volume=68|number=3|pages=277–298|jstor=30146708 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30146708|access-date=August 2, 2022}}</ref>

In the 1920s, many developers invested in land in the southern part of the State in areas such as Miami, and Palm Beach attracting more people in the Southern States. When the Crash came in 1929, prices of houses plunged, but the sunshine remained. Hurt badly by the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] and the land bust, Florida, along with many other States, kept afloat with federal relief money under the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

After World War II, the state would grow dramatically going from having a population of 2.7&nbsp;million in 1950 to 16 million by 2000 along with going from being the 20th most populated state in 1950 to being the 4th most by 2000<ref name=":2" /> and 3rd by 2014.<ref name=fund>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/395312/florida-leaves-new-york-behind-its-rear-view-mirror-john-fund|last=Fund|first=John|title=Florida Leaves New York Behind in Its Rear-View Mirror|date=December 23, 2014|website=NationalReview.com|access-date=October 23, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/23/florida-surpasses-ny-as-3rd-most-populous-state.html|title=Move over, NY: This state now 3rd most populous|first=Jacob|last=Pramuk|date=December 23, 2014|website=Cnbc.com}}</ref> Florida's strong population growth followed other states in the southern and western United States along with following the same trend as many residents moving to the state were from the Midwest and Northeastern US. Many new residents in Florida were elderly and as a result the average age in Florida would increase from 28.8 in 1950 to 39.3 by 2000. Technological reasons behind Florida's growth included air conditioning and [[DDT]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Mormino |first=Gary |date=Summer 2002 |title=Sunbelt Dreams and Altered States: A Social and Cultural History of Florida, 1950–2000 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol81/iss1/4/ |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=81 |issue=1 |pages=3–21 |via=STARS}}</ref>

===Race relations===
{{See also|Rosewood massacre|Ocoee massacre|Perry race riot}}
<!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:Rosewood Florida rc12408.jpg|thumb|250px|alt=A black and white photograph of ashes from a burned building with several people standing nearby; trees in the distance|The remains of Sarah Carrier's house after the [[Rosewood massacre]].]] -->

After World War I, there was a rise in [[lynchings]] and other racial violence directed by whites against black people in the state, as well as across the South. It was due in part from strains of rapid social and economic changes, as well as competition for jobs, and lingering resentment resulting from the [[Reconstruction Era of the United States|Reconstruction]] after the Civil War, as well as tensions among both black and white populations created by the return of black veterans.<ref>{{cite book|last=Akers|first=Monte|title=Flames After Midnight: Murder, Vengeance, and the Desolation of a Texas Community|year=2011|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0292726338|url={{Google books|rQOs_jKyyZMC|page=151-152|plainurl=yes}}|pages=151–152}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Lois |title=Encyclopedia of the Harlem Literary Renaissance: The Essential Guide to the Lives and Works of the Harlem Renaissance Writers |year=2005 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0816049677 |url={{Google books|t910en1a7pkC|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref>

Whites continued to resort to lynchings to keep dominance, and tensions rose. Florida led the South and the nation in lynchings per capita from 1900 to 1930.<ref>{{cite book|first = Glenda Alice |last =Rabby|title =The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida|location= Athens, GA|publisher= University of Georgia Press|date= 1999|isbn = 978-0820320519| page= 3|url={{Google books|zKw0ltL5VaQC|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Julianne|last=Hare|title=Historic Frenchtown. Heart and Heritage in Tallahassee, Columbia, S.C.|publisher=History Press|date=2006|isbn=1596291494|page=68}}</ref>

White mobs committed massacres, accompanied by wholesale destruction of black houses, churches, and schools, in the small communities of [[Ocoee, Florida|Ocoee]], November 1920; [[Perry, Florida|Perry]] in December 1922; and [[Rosewood, Florida|Rosewood]] in January 1923. The governor appointed a special grand jury and special prosecuting attorney to investigate Rosewood and [[Levy County]], but the jury did not find sufficient evidence to prosecute. Rosewood was never resettled.

The [[Ku Klux Klan]] had several active Klaverns in Florida in the 1920s, starting in Jacksonville in late 1922. Like elsewhere in the south, Klan members terrorized African Americans, Catholics, immigrants and anyone else proclaiming racial equality. They also intimidated voters at polling locations and were direct participants in politics. For example, in the June primaries of 1922, the Klan had winning candidates for several offices throughout [[Volusia County, Florida|Volusia County]]. The three largest Klaverns in the state were in Jacksonville, Miami, and St. Petersburg.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chalmers |first1=David |title=The Ku Klux Klan in the Sunshine State: The 1920's |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=January 1964 |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=209–211 |url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A22396 |access-date=14 February 2023}}</ref>

About 40,000 African Americans migrated from Florida to northern cities in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] from 1910 to 1940. That was one-fifth of their population in 1900. They sought better lives, including decent-paying jobs, better education for their children, and the chance to vote and participate in political life — escaping segregation, lynchings, and civil rights suppression. Many were recruited for jobs with the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]].<ref name=rosewood>{{cite web|url=http://mailer.fsu.edu/~mjones/rosewood/rosewood.html|title=Documented History of the Incident Which Occurred at Rosewood, Florida, in January 1923|date=December 22, 1993|publisher=Florida State University|page=5|access-date=March 28, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515152951/http://mailer.fsu.edu/~mjones/rosewood/rosewood.html |archive-date=May 15, 2008}}</ref> African Americans have played a central role in Florida's development since the colonial era, contributing to military defense, agriculture, and community building. The Florida Department of State notes that Black communities established some of the earliest schools, churches, and civic organizations in the region.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Florida's Black History – Division of Library and Information Services – Florida Department of State |url=https://dos.fl.gov/library-archives/research/explore-our-resources/florida-history-culture-and-heritage/african-american-history/ |access-date=2025-11-20 |website=dos.fl.gov}}</ref>

===Boom of 1920s===
{{Main|Florida land boom of the 1920s}}

The 1920s were a prosperous time for much of the nation, including Florida. The state's new railroads opened up large areas to development, spurring the [[Florida land boom of the 1920s]]. Investors of all kinds, many from outside Florida, raced to buy and sell rapidly appreciating land in newly [[plat]]ted communities such as Miami and Palm Beach. Led by entrepreneurs [[Carl Fisher]] and [[George E. Merrick|George Merrick]], Miami was transformed by [[land speculation]] and ambitious building projects into an emerging metropolis. A growing awareness in the areas surrounding Florida, along with the Northeast about the attractive south Florida winter climate, along with local promotion of speculative investing, spurred the boom.<ref>{{cite journal | first=James M. |last=Ricci| title=Boasters, Boosters and Boom: Some popular Images of Florida in the 1920s| journal= Tampa Bay History|year= 1984| volume=6 |issue =2|pages=31–57 | url = https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/tampabayhistory/vol6/iss2/5/}}</ref>

A majority of the people who bought land in Florida hired intermediaries to accomplish the transactions. By 1924, the main issues in state elections were how to attract more industry and the need to build and maintain good roads for tourists.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Victoria H. |last=McDonnell|title=Rise of the 'Businessman's Politician': The 1924 Florida Gubernatorial Race|journal=Florida Historical Quarterly|date=July 1973|volume= 52 |issue= 1|pages= 39–50 |jstor=30150977}}</ref> During the time frame, the population grew from less than one million in 1920, to 1,263,540 in 1925.<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|361}}

By 1925, the market ran out of buyers to pay the high prices, and soon the boom became a bust. The [[1926 Miami Hurricane]], which nearly destroyed the city further depressed the real estate market.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Paul S. |last=George|title= Brokers, Binders, and Builders: Greater Miami's Boom of the Mid-1920s|journal= Florida Historical Quarterly|date=July 1986|volume= 65 |issue=1|pages=27–51|jstor=30146317}}</ref> In 1928 another hurricane struck Southern Florida. The [[1928 Okeechobee hurricane]] made landfall near [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]], severely damaging the local infrastructure. In townships near Lake Okeechobee, the storm breached a dike separating the water from land, creating a [[storm surge]] that killed over 2,000 people and destroying the towns of [[Belle Glade, Florida|Belle Glade]] and [[Pahokee, Florida|Pahokee]].<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|378}}

Tourists continued to arrive in Florida by train. The introduction of the automobile resulted in an increased number traveling on sometimes macadamized, sometimes dirt roads. The destination was usually Miami or Miami Beach. Roadside attractions included orange shops and alligator wrestling.<ref>{{Cite news | first=Michael | last=Stephens | title=In memory of our state's roadside attractions | url=https://www.gainesville.com/story/opinion/2020/12/14/michael-stephens-memory-floridas-roadside-attractions/3885773001/| newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| pages= 11A | date=December 22, 2020 | accessdate=February 19, 2021}}</ref> Tourism was confined to the winter months. Summers were uncomfortably hot for visitors.

===Prohibition===
[[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] had been popular in north Florida, but was opposed in the rest of the south, which became a haven for speakeasies and rum-runners in the 1920s. During 1928–32 a broad coalition of judges, lawyers, politicians, journalists, brewers, hoteliers, retailers, and ordinary Floridians organized to try to repeal the ban on alcohol. When the federal government legalized near beer and light wine in 1933, the wet coalition launched a successful campaign to legalize these beverages at the state level.<ref name="Guthrie 1995 23–39">{{cite journal | first=John J. Jr. |last=Guthrie|title=Rekindling The Spirits: From National Prohibition to Local Option in Florida: 1928–1935 | journal=Florida Historical Quarterly|year= 1995 |volume=74|issue=1|pages= 23–39 | jstor=30148787}}</ref>

Florida stood out as the only state to elect a governor affiliated with the prohibition party. During this time, it contributed to an increase bootlegging, defiance of alcohol restriction, and the Florida's moonshining culture.<ref>Jaye, R. (2024). Florida prohibition : corruption, defiance & tragedy. The History Press.</ref>

Floridians subsequently joined in the national campaign to repeal the 18th Amendment, which succeeded in December 1933. The following November, state voters repealed Florida's constitutional ban on liquor and gave local governments the power to legalize or outlaw alcoholic beverages.<ref name="Guthrie 1995 23–39" />

=== Early 20th century (1900–1920) ===
Towards the beginning of the 20th century Florida experienced a rise in population growth ignited by post WWI prosperity and increased domestic migration. Multiple cities like Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa expanded quickly since new residents aimed to take advantage of economic opportunities and warmer climates. This expansion laid the groundwork for the real estate optimism that would shape the states opportunity for growth in the following decade. (Jarvis, 2010).

=== Florida land boom (1920–1930) ===
The 1920s Florida land boom was one of the most meaningful real estate surges in U.S. history. Promoters, developers, and investors fueled intrerest by framing South Florida as a tropical paradise with endless potential. A lot of the early enthusiasm was based on the aggressive marketing tactics that sold the dream nationwide, bringing in potential buyers from across the country. (George, 1986).

==== Land boom ====
Speculation increased as more out of state buyers made purchases without even seeing the land in person through mail-order sales and installment plans. Developers pushed their land advertisements through newspaper spreads, catalogs, and promotional events. The constant influx of advertisement created an atomosphere of rapid and experiemntal real estate expansion. These methods helped to push prices to unprecedented levels and encouraged mass participation in the boom. (George, 1986).

===Great Depression===
The [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] began with the Stock Market crash of 1929. By that time, the economy had already declined in much of Florida from the collapse three years earlier of the land boom.<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|376}} During the late 1920s and early 1930s Florida would face a variety of problems with some of them stemming from the collapse of the Florida Land Boom and the Great Depression. Two hurricanes with one occurring in [[1926 Miami hurricane|1926]] and another in [[1928 Okeechobee hurricane|1928]] would hurt the state further economically.<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis |last=Evans|first=Jon|date=2011|title=Weathering the Storm: Florida Politics during the Administration of Spessard L. Holland in World War II|type=PhD dissertation|publisher=Florida State University|url=http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-0438|access-date=January 8, 2022}}</ref> The state government would be in debt which was then a violation of Florida's Constitution and over 150 municipalities would also be in debt as they had defaulted on their municipal bonds<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Cox|first=Merlin|date=1964|title=David Sholtz: New Deal Governor of Florida|url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2931&context=fhq|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|volume=43}}</ref> which had mainly been issued as a way to pay for infrastructure during the Florida land boom.<ref name=":1" /> Many property owners often owed taxes to local governments which further worsened the situation. A separate issue would be with Florida's virgin timber crop being virtually cut down by the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shofner|first=Jerrell|date=April 1987|title=Roosevelt's 'Tree Army': The Civilian Conservation Corps in Florida|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30147841|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|volume=65|issue=4|pages=433–456|jstor=30147841}}</ref>

During the [[New Deal]] (1933–40) a variety of projects would be built by the [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA). There would be work camps for the young men of the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] (CCC).<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|386}} Apart from the New Deal being implemented, Florida would see [[David Sholtz]] become elected as Governor in 1932. As governor, he would manage to implement social welfare programs while simultaneously expanding the amount of tax revenue received by the state government and getting it out of debt. He would also be strongly aligned with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was a personal friend of his.<ref name=":0"/> Toward the end of Sholtz's tenure his reputation among Floridians which was previously positive would decline as his ethics became questioned. As a result, [[Fred P. Cone]] would become elected as governor in 1936. While being governor he would be incredibly hands-off and had a fiscally conservative approach.<ref name=":1" />

From 1930 to 1935, college students selected Fort Lauderdale, Daytona Beach, and Panama City Beach as great places to take a [[spring break]] and party. The 1960s film ''[[Where the Boys Are]]'' increased attendance in Fort Lauderdale to 50,000 annually. When this figure increased to 250,000 in 1985, the city began to pass laws restricting student activities. As a result, students moved to Daytona Beach from 1980 to 1990s. The figure for Fort Lauderdale dropped to 20,000; 350,000 visited Daytona Beach. Daytona Beach passed laws constraining underage drinking. Students then began patronizing Panama City, where 500,000 visited in 2013.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ben |last=Brotemarkle |title=Spring break fun in sun born in 1930s |url=http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/04/01/florida-frontiers-spring-break-fun-sun-born-s/7146479/ |newspaper=Florida Today |location=Melbourne, Florida |pages=11A |date=April 1, 2014 |access-date=April 1, 2014}}</ref>

Florida legalized gambling in 1931 allowing a [[parimutuel betting]] establishment. By 2014, there were 30 such establishments, generating $200&nbsp;million in state taxes and fees.<ref name="ft140311">{{Cite news | first=Mike | last=Haridopolos | title=Legislature aims to rewrite gaming rules. 'Complex' issue affects billions of dollars in state revenue | url=http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20140311/COLUMNISTS0205/303110004/Legislature-aims-rewrite-state-gaming-rules| newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| pages= 1A | date=March 11, 2014 | access-date=March 11, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312072136/http://www.floridatoday.com/proart/20140311/columnists0205/303110004/legislature-aims-rewrite-state-gaming-rules?pagerestricted=1}}</ref>

Anticipating war, the Army and Navy decided to use the state as a primary training area. The Navy chose the coastal areas, the Army, the inland areas.<ref name="i1108">{{Cite journal|first=Klyne |last=Nowlin |date=August 2011 |title=Historians Share Stories About FLorida in WWII |journal=The Intercom |volume=34 |issue=8 |page=9 |url=http://www.moaacc.org/Intercomaug11.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111226065206/http://www.moaacc.org/Intercomaug11.pdf |archive-date=December 26, 2011 }}</ref>

In 1940, the population was about 1.5&nbsp;million. Average annual income was $308 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|308|1940|r=2}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars).
<ref name="i1108"/>
<!---
material needs to be grouped for WW II and then beyond. Loses its way at this point and jumps way ahead
--->
==== Decline and collapse of the boom ====
By the mid-1920's the boom started to slow because of transportaiton issues and shortages of building materials started to accumulate. The market was further weakened after a series of strong hurricanes destroyed major costal cities, sheding light on a major weakenss of Florida's expanding real estate market that was not found in the advertisements. The combined stress started the beginning of the economic collapse that ended the boom. (Calomiris & Jaremski, 2023; George, 1986).

==== Long-term impact of the boom ====
The crash of the boom left Florida with unifinshed infrastructure, thousands of incomplete developments, and significant municipal debt. However the craze also shaped long-term paterns of land use and suburban development in the state. The rise and fall of the land boom acted as an early warning to the risks of speculative real estate markets and something being too good to be true. This event continues to effect modern planning and environmental decision making. (Volk et al., n.d.).

===World War II and the development of the space industry===
[[File:Flaglerstreet Miami 1945.jpg|thumb|Soldiers and crowds in [[Greater Downtown Miami|Downtown Miami]] 20&nbsp;minutes after Japan's surrender ending World War II (1945).]]
[[File:Aerial View of Launch Complex 39.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Kennedy Space Center]].]]

Prior to the United States entering World War II, Florida was found in polling by [[Gallup, Inc.|Gallup]] to be among the most supportive states for interventionism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rogers |first=Ben |date=1960 |title=Florida in World War II: Tourists and Citrus |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2739&context=fhq |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=39 |issue=1 |access-date=October 18, 2022 |via=STARS}}</ref> In the years leading up to World War II, 100 ships were sunk off the coast of Florida.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100818/LIFE/8180314/New%20book%20highlights%20Florida%20s%20role%20during%20World%20War%20II?GID=TCY2fY/MRMEAyPMROOyxMqf8zGETKpCYE1wGrTNd+mI%3D |title=New book highlights Florida's role during World War II |first=Chris |last=Kridler |date=August 18, 2010 |work=Florida Today|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125015423/http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100818/LIFE/8180314/New%20book%20highlights%20Florida%20s%20role%20during%20World%20War%20II?GID=TCY2fY/MRMEAyPMROOyxMqf8zGETKpCYE1wGrTNd+mI%3D}}</ref> More ships sank after the country entered the war.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} About 248,000 Floridians served in the war. Around 50,000 of these were African Americans.<ref name="Brotemarkle 5A">{{Cite news | first=Ben | last=Brotemarkle | title=World War II's impact on Florida | url=http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/26/florida-frontiers-remembering-wwiis-impact-florida/705262001/| newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| page= 5A | date=September 27, 2017 | access-date=October 6, 2017}}</ref>

During the war, shipbuilding would make up two-thirds of all industrial growth seen in the state. Thousands of people would be hired by shipbuilding companies during the war to work in Pensacola, Panama City, Jacksonville and Tampa. There would be labor shortages during the war as many of those who worked at industrial jobs were now serving in the military. Local and migrant laborers who worked in the orchards and field would end up leaving for higher paying jobs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Florida in World War II {{!}} Homefront |url=https://www.floridamemory.com/learn/exhibits/wwii/homefront/ |access-date=October 18, 2022 |website=Florida Memory}}</ref>

The state became a major hub for the [[United States Armed Forces]]. [[Naval Air Station Pensacola]] was originally established as a naval station in 1826 and became the first American naval aviation facility in 1917. The entire nation mobilized for World War II and many bases, especially air bases, were established in Florida, to include:
* [[Naval Air Station Whiting Field]]
* [[Naval Air Station Ellyson Field]]
* [[Tyndall AFB|Tyndall Field]]
* [[Dale Mabry Army Airfield]]
* [[Naval Air Station Jacksonville]]
* [[Naval Station Mayport]]
* [[Naval Air Station Cecil Field]]
* [[Camp Blanding]]
* [[Daytona Beach International Airport|Naval Air Station Daytona Beach]]
* [[Naval Air Station DeLand]]
* [[Naval Air Station Sanford]]
* [[Orlando Executive Airport|Orlando Army Air Base]]
* [[McCoy AFB|Pinecastle Army Airfield]]
* [[Kissimmee Army Airfield]]
* [[Patrick Space Force Base|Naval Air Station Banana River]]
* [[Naval Air Station Melbourne]]
* [[Lakeland Army Airfield]]
* [[Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale]]
* [[Coast Guard Air Station Miami|Naval Air Station Miami]]
* [[Naval Air Station Richmond]]
* [[Page Field Army Airfield]]
* [[Naval Air Station Key West]]
* [[Truman Annex|Naval Station Key West]]
* [[Homestead Air Reserve Base|Homestead Army Air Field]]

Numerous others were also established that exist today as military installations/facilities, civilian airports, or other facilities under different names.

Present day [[Eglin Air Force Base]], [[Hurlburt Field]], and [[MacDill Air Force Base]] (now the home of [[U.S. Central Command]] and [[U.S. Special Operations Command]]) were also developed as [[U.S. Army Air Forces]] installations during this time. During the [[Cold War]], Florida's coastal access and proximity to Cuba encouraged the development of these and other military facilities. Since the end of the Cold War, the military has closed some facilities, including major bases such as [[NAS Sanford]], [[McCoy AFB]], [[NAS Cecil Field]], and NTC Orlando, and realigned others such as Homestead AFB being transferred to the [[Air Force Reserve Command]] and realigned as [[Homestead Air Reserve Base]], or [[Saufley Field|NAS Saufley Field]] realigned as [[Saufley Field|NETPDC Saufley Field]], but their presence is still significant in the state and local economies.

Apart from military bases, Florida would also be home to 22 prisoner of war camps. Starting in May 1943, the Allied powers would send captured Nazi soldiers to the United States with about of 10,000 of them going to 22 camps in Florida. Many of these camps would be located in or near military bases.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kleinberg|first=Eliot|date=January 2, 2022|title=Florida history: German prisoners of war – the enemy in our midst|work=Yahoo! news|agency=Palm Beach Daily News|url=https://news.yahoo.com/florida-history-german-prisoners-war-130017076.html|access-date=January 2, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=War's Impact on Florida: German POWs Held in Camps in Florida|url=https://museumoffloridahistory.com/exhibits/permanent-exhibits/world-war-ii/florida-remembers-world-war-ii/wars-impact-on-florida-german-pows-held-in-camps-in-florida/|access-date=January 2, 2021|website=Museum of Florida History}}</ref>

The population increased by 46% during the 1940s.<ref name="Brotemarkle 5A" />

Because of Cape Canaveral's relative closeness to the equator, compared to other potential locations, it was chosen in 1949 as a test site for the country's nascent missile program. [[Patrick Space Force Base]] and the [[Cape Canaveral Space Force Station]] launch site began to take shape as the 1950s progressed. By the early 1960s, the [[Space Race]] was in full swing. As programs were expanded and employees joined, the space program generated a huge boom in the communities around Cape Canaveral. This area is now collectively known as the [[Space Coast]] and features the [[Kennedy Space Center]]. It is also a major center of the [[Aerospace engineering|aerospace industry]]. To date, all crewed orbital spaceflights launched by the United States, including those that carried the only persons to visit the [[Moon]], have been launched from Kennedy Space Center.

===Post-World War II growth, changes and the Civil Rights Movement===
[[File:Five flags of Florida.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Five flags of Florida, not including the current [[Florida State Flag|State Flag.]]]]

Florida's population mix has changed. After World War II, Florida was transformed as the development of [[air conditioning]] and the [[Interstate highway]] system encouraged migration by residents of the North and Midwest.<ref name=":2" />

In 1950, Florida was ranked twentieth among the states in population; 50 years later it was ranked fourth,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab01.pdf|title=US Census 2000 Table 1. States Ranked by Population|date=April 2, 2001|publisher=Census.gov|url-status=dead|archive-date=2003-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031008124943/https://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab01.pdf}}</ref> and 14 years later was number three.<ref name=fund/><ref>{{cite web |last=Pramuk |first=Jacob |date=December 23, 2014 |title=Move over, NY: This state now 3rd most populous |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/23/florida-surpasses-ny-as-3rd-most-populous-state.html |website=[[CNBC]]}}</ref> Due to low tax rates and warm climate, Florida became the destination for many retirees from the Northeast, Midwest and Canada.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

Prior to development, Florida salt marshes were capable of producing large numbers of mosquitoes. The [[Aedes sollicitans|salt marsh mosquito]] does not lay its eggs in standing water, preferring moist sand or mud instead. Biologists learned to control them by "source reduction", the process of removing the moist sand needed by the mosquitoes to breed. To achieve this goal, large sections of coastal marshes were either ditched or diked to remove the moist sand that the mosquitoes required to lay eggs on. Together with chemical controls, it yielded a qualified success.<ref>{{cite book|last=Patterson|first=Gordon|title=The Mosquito Wars: A History of Mosquito Control in Florida|year=2004|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville|isbn=978-0813027203}}</ref>

Dramatic changes would also be seen economically in Florida. Agricultural grew during the postwar years and even outpaced the growth of tourism in the state until 1965 when Walt Disney announced the creation of Walt Disney World. Citrus growers doubled their output, cattle ranching expanded in the Kissimmee Valley and farmers began to cultivate the [[Everglades Agricultural Area]] with sugar being the most prominent crop. Sugarcane cultivation would begin to grow significantly in that area after the United States placed an embargo on Cuban sugar in 1959<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Grunwald |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=olHjhlx0Em8C |title=The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2007 |isbn=978-0743251075 |pages=229–231 |via=Google Books}}</ref> (Cuba was the main supplier of sugar to the United States)<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Outman |first=Catherine Joan |year=2020 |title=Florida's Red Tide: The Hidden Costs of Land Development in the Everglades |journal=Student Theses 2015–Present |type=BA thesis |publisher=Fordham University |page=23 |format=PDF |url=https://research.library.fordham.edu/environ_2015/94/ |via=Fordham Research Commons}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2023}} and repealed the Sugar Act's limits on domestic production. Tourism grew in Florida from 3 million visitors to over 15 million by 1965.<ref name=":3" />

==== Changes in demographics ====
In the early postwar period, the state's population had changed markedly by migration of new groups, as well as emigration of African Americans, 40,000 of whom moved north in earlier decades of the 20th century during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]].<ref name=rosewood/> By 1960 the number of African Americans in Florida had increased to 880,186, but declined proportionally to 18% of the state's population.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} This was a much smaller proportion than in 1900, when the census showed they comprised 44% of the state's population, while numbering 230,730 persons.<ref name="USCensusOffice1901">{{cite book |title=Bulletins of the Twelfth Census of the United States: No. 61-106; April 5 – Nov. 1, 1901 |date=1901 |publisher=United States Census Office |page=2 |url={{Google books|zqdCAQAAMAAJ|page=2|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref> The median age would also end up increasing as the state became a popular destination for retirees; going from 28.8 in 1950 to 39.3 by 2000.<ref name=":2" />

The [[Cuban Revolution]] of 1959 resulted in a large wave of Cuban immigration into South Florida, which transformed Miami into a major center of commerce, finance and transportation for all of Latin America. Emigration from [[Haiti]], other Caribbean states, and Central and South America continues to the present day.<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|476–477}}

The population of Asian-Americans increased in Florida during the postwar years, growing from 1,142 counted by the US Census Bureau in 1950 to 154,302 by 1990. During the 1970s and 1980s Asian-Americans would end up becoming the largest foreign-born group of people in Florida.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mohl |first=Raymond A. |date=Winter 1996 |title=Asian Immigration to Florida |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol74/iss3/3/ |journal=[[The Florida Historical Quarterly]] |publisher=[[Florida Historical Society]] |volume=74 |issue=3 |pages=261–286 |via=Showcase of Text, Archive, Research & Scholarship (STARS) from the University of Central Florida}}</ref>

==== Civil Rights movement ====
Like other states in the South, Florida had many African-American leaders who were active in the [[civil rights movement]]. In the 1940s and '50s, a new generation started working on issues, emboldened by veterans who had fought during World War II and wanted to gain more civil rights. [[Harry T. Moore]] built the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] ([[NAACP]]) in Florida, rapidly increasing its membership to 10,000. Because Florida's voter laws were not as restrictive as those of Georgia and Alabama, he had some success in registering black voters. In the 1940s he increased voter registration among black people from 5 to 31% of those age-eligible.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis51.htm#1951moore|title=Murder of Harry & Harriette Moore|date=1951|publisher=Civil Rights Movement History|access-date=2008-03-30}}</ref>

But the state had white groups who resisted change, to the point of attacking and killing black people. In December 1951 whites [[Murder of Harry and Harriette Moore|bombed the house]] of activists Harry Moore and his wife Harriette, who both died of injuries from the blast. Although their murders were not solved then, a state investigation in 2006 reported they had been killed by an independent unit of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Numerous bombings were directed against African Americans in 1951–1952 in Florida.<ref>{{cite book |title=Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South|date=1994|publisher= Alfred A. Knopf|pages=562–563|last=Egerton|first=John}}</ref>

===2000 presidential election controversy===
[[File:Butterfly Ballot, Florida 2000 (large).jpg|thumb|195px|"[[Butterfly ballot]]"]]
{{Main|2000 United States presidential election in Florida}}

Florida became the battleground of the controversial [[2000 US presidential election]] which took place on November 7, 2000. The count of the popular votes was extremely close, triggering automatic recounts. These recounts triggered accusations of fraud and manipulation, and brought to light voting irregularities in the state.

Subsequent recount efforts degenerated into arguments over mispunched ballots, "[[hanging chad]]s", and controversial decisions by [[Florida Secretary of State]] [[Katherine Harris]] and the [[Florida Supreme Court]]. Ultimately, the [[United States Supreme Court]] ruled in ''[[Bush v. Gore]]'' to end all recounts, allowing Harris to certify the election results. The final official Florida count gave the victory to [[George W. Bush]] over [[Al Gore]] by 537 votes, a 0.009% margin of difference. The process was extremely divisive, and led to calls for [[electoral reform in Florida]]. Florida has the strictest laws penalizing and disenfranchising felons and other criminals, even if they have served their sentences. Together with other penalties, it excluded many minorities who may have voted for the Democratic candidate.

===Everglades, hurricanes, drilling and the environment===
<!---this subtitle needs to be changed to eliminate incoherence. Suggest separate sections on Everglades; separate on Hurricanes. Omit drilling as a subtitle - put it under "Environment."--->
Long-term scientific attention has focused on the fragility of the [[Everglades]]. In 2000 Congress authorized the [[Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan]] (CERP) at $8&nbsp;billion. The goals are to restore the health of the Everglades ecosystem and maximize the value to people of its land, water, and soil.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Everglades: An Environmental History|date=2000|url={{Google books|cuwlngEACAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|last=McCally|first=David|isbn=978-0813018270|publisher=University Press of Florida}}</ref> [[File:Destruction following hurricane andrew.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Destruction in [[Lakes by the Bay, Florida|Lakes by the Bay]] near Miami following Hurricane Andrew]]

[[Hurricane Andrew]] in August 1992 struck [[Homestead, Florida|Homestead]], just south of Miami, as a Category 5 hurricane, leaving forty people dead, 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed, more than a million people left without electricity, and damages of $20–30&nbsp;billion. Much of South Florida's sensitive vegetation was severely damaged. The region had not seen a storm of such power in decades. Besides heavy property damage, the hurricane nearly destroyed the region's insurance industry.<ref>{{cite book |title=In the Eye of Hurricane Andrew|date=2002|last1=Provenzo|first1=Eugene F. Jr.|last2=Provenzo|first2=Asterine Baker|isbn=978-0813025667|publisher=University Press of Florida}}</ref>

The western panhandle was damaged heavily in [[1995 Atlantic hurricane season|1995]], with hurricanes [[Hurricane Allison (1995)|Allison]], [[Hurricane Erin (1995)|Erin]], and [[Hurricane Opal|Opal]] hitting the area within the span of a few months. The storms increased in strength during the season, culminating with Opal's landfall as a Category 3 in October.

Florida also suffered heavily during the [[2004 Atlantic hurricane season]], when four major storms struck the state. [[Hurricane Charley]] made landfall in Charlotte County area and cut northward through the peninsula, [[Hurricane Frances]] struck the Atlantic coast and drenched most of central Florida with heavy rains, [[Hurricane Ivan]] caused heavy damage in the western Panhandle, and [[Hurricane Jeanne]] caused damage to the same area as Frances, including compounded [[Coastal erosion|beach erosion]]. Damage from all four storms was estimated to be at least $22&nbsp;billion, with some estimates going as high as $40&nbsp;billion. In 2005, South Florida was struck by Hurricanes [[Hurricane Katrina|Katrina]] and [[Hurricane Wilma|Wilma]]. The panhandle was struck by [[Hurricane Dennis]].

In 2016, [[Hurricane Matthew]] paralleled the east coast and caused an estimated $10 billion in damage. In 2017, [[Hurricane Irma]] made a catastrophic category 4 landfall in the [[Florida Keys]], followed by a category 3 landfall in [[Collier County]]. Irma caused over $50 billion in damage in Florida, making it the costliest in Floridian history, until being surpassed by [[Hurricane Ian]] in 2022. In 2018, [[Hurricane Michael]] hit the [[Florida Panhandle]] as a Category 5, the first landfall at that intensity in the [[United States]] since [[Hurricane Andrew]] in 1992. It caused over $20 billion in damage in Florida. In 2022, [[Hurricane Ian]] made landfall in [[Lee County, Florida|Lee County]], killing 146 people and causing over $113 billion in damage, making it the [[List of costliest Atlantic hurricanes|costliest hurricane]] to ever hit Florida and the deadliest since the [[1935 Labor Day Hurricane]]. The most recent hurricane to hit Florida was [[Hurricane Milton]], which made landfall just south of Tampa Bay at [[Siesta Key, Florida|Siesta Key]] on October 9, 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Florida Hurricane History: From 1896 through 2024 |url=https://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-hurricane-history.html |access-date=2025-10-26 |website=Florida Back Roads Travel}}</ref>

Florida has historically been at risk from hurricanes and tropical storms. These have resulted in higher risks and property damage as the concentration of population and development has increased along Florida's coastal areas. Not only are more people and property at risk, but development has overtaken the natural system of wetlands and waterways, which used to absorb some of the storms' energy and excess waters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/FLAwetlands/|title=Florida Wetlands|publisher=US Geological Survey|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120810134311/http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/FLAwetlands/|archive-date=August 10, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pielke|first1=Roger|last2=Gratz|first2=Joel|last3=Landsea|first3=Christopher W.|last4=Collins|first4=Douglas|last5=Saunders|first5=Mark A.|last6=Musulin|first6=Rade|date=2008|title=Normalized Hurricane Damage in the United States: 1900–2005|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251194283|journal=Natural Hazards Review|volume=9|issue=1|pages=29–42|doi=10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2008)9:1(29)|bibcode=2008NHRev...9...29P |access-date=2022-08-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/socasp/weather1/pielke.html|title=Trends in Hurricane Impacts in the United States|date=n.d.|publisher=University of Colorado|last=Pielke|first=Roger A. Jr.|access-date=2022-08-11}}</ref>

Environmental issues include preservation and restoration of the Everglades, which has moved slowly. There has been pressure by industry groups to drill for [[Crude oil|oil]] in the eastern [[Gulf of Mexico]] but so far, large-scale drilling off the coasts of Florida has been prevented. The federal government declared the state an agricultural disaster area because of 13 straight days of freezing weather during the growing season in January 2010.<ref>{{Cite news| title=Crist wants ag disaster declared in Florida| url=http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/story/Crist-wants-ag-disaster-declared-in-Florida/LKG_5mjyM0KQcqpawqnCUg.cspx| work=Florida Today| agency=[[Associated Press]]| location=Melbourne, Florida| pages=6B| date=January 16, 2010| access-date=March 10, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116174612/http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/story/Crist-wants-ag-disaster-declared-in-Florida/LKG_5mjyM0KQcqpawqnCUg.cspx| archive-date=January 16, 2010| url-status=dead| df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In the early 20th century engineers from the Everglades Drainage District that was created in 1913 commissioned a large scale drainage of the Florida Everglades that was economically feasible. The commission would reclaim land for agriculture by building extensive canal system and its outcome significantly altered the natural flow of water.<ref>Florida Everglades Engineering Commission., Randolph, I., Florida. Trustees of Internal Improvement Fund., & Florida. Board of Commissioners of Everglades Drainage District. (1914). Florida everglades /. Govt. Print. Off.,.</ref>

Oranges have been grown and sold in Florida since 1872.<ref name=morton>{{cite web|author=Morton, J|url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/orange.html|title=Orange, ''Citrus sinensis''|date=1987|publisher=NewCROP, New Crop Resource Online Program, Center for New Crops & Plant Products, Purdue University|pages=134–142}}</ref> Production dropped 59% from the 2008–09 season to the 2016–17 season. The decline was mostly due to [[canker]], [[citrus greening disease]], and hurricane damage.<ref>{{Cite news | first1=Dave | last1=Berman | first2=Wayne T.|last2=Price|title=Citrus growers feel the squeeze | url=http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2017/11/10/brevard-county-florida-citrus-growers-feel-the-squeeze-oranges-grapefruits/840813001/| newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| pages= 1A, 10A | date=November 12, 2017 | access-date=November 12, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-11-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111235735/http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2017/11/10/brevard-county-florida-citrus-growers-feel-the-squeeze-oranges-grapefruits/840813001/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=}}</ref>

===Fishing===
The end of World War 2 gave rise to an influx of the ideal version of Florida and provided a new means of enrichment and eventual revenue: fishing. Florida's new popularity as a tourist destination paved the way for many of the fishing attractions to gain favor with the public, becoming a common recreation for the late 19th century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gannon |first=Michael V. |date=2013 |title=A History of Florida. By Charlton W. Tebeau. (Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami Press, 1971. Pp. 466. Illustrated. Bibliography. $12.50.) |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/980544 |journal=The Americas |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=507, 509 |doi=10.2307/980544 |jstor=980544 |issn=0003-1615|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The extent of this newfound pastime, however, led to concerns about the fish population, although it has since regained traction in recent years. The federal government believes this is due to federal restraints on fishing.<ref>{{Cite news | first=Ledyard | last=King | title=Scientist:Fish counts suffer from 'perception issue' | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/22/noaa-scientist-says-federal-fish-counts-suffer-perception-issue/79172444/| newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| pages= 1A | date=January 23, 2016 | access-date=January 23, 2016}}</ref>

A major red tide occurred along Florida's coast from 1946 to 1947, during which scientist was able to identify the cause, which was a microscopic plankton Gymnodinium brevis that is now called karenia brevis that caused a widespread of fish deaths. The red tide has caused more than one million fish deaths and revealed the concentration of the organism in the coastal waters.<ref>University of Miami. Marine Laboratory, & Florida. State Board of Conservation. (1954). Emergency report on the Florida red tide. Marine Laboratory, University of Miami,.</ref><!---somewhat informal narrative of fishing off Florida, reported in a USA Today article, so soft copy won't match hard copy source, but is the same article--><!---article should probably be used in higher level article on fishing in the US-->

===Infrastructure===
Consistent with usage throughout the country, more than 51% of homes in Florida in 2015 use mobile phones or wireless only.<ref>{{Cite news | first=Jim | last=Saunders | title=Floridians continue pulling plug on landlines | url=https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/08/03/floridians-continue-pulling-plug-on-landlines| newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| page= 3A | date=August 6, 2017 | access-date=August 7, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808034042/https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/08/03/floridians-continue-pulling-plug-on-landlines|archive-date=2017-08-08}}</ref>

The American Society of Civil Engineers gave Florida a C grade for its overall infrastructure in 2021 and with them noting a strong transportation system but needing help in other areas. Florida infrastructure continues it face challenges in maintain roads, bridges, and other essential infrastructure.<ref>Strupp, J. (2021). Florida's infrastructure gets "C" grade. Construction Dive.</ref>

==Tourism==
<!----this looks funny as a stand-alone subtitle. should be merged or moved or something--->
[[File:Winter in Florida.jpg|thumb|175px|Tourists hunting in 1893]]
The tourism industry in the state of Florida has been around before and since the state's inception. Reconstruction efforts and the eye of industrialists in the area, however, were among what helped the state gain popularity in tourism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blackford |first=Mansel G. |date=2012 |title=Sunshine Paradise: A History of Florida Tourism. ''By''Tracy J. Revels. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011. x + 192 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. Cloth, $26.95. ISBN 978-0-8130-3542-0. |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007680512001080 |journal=Business History Review |volume=86 |issue=3 |pages=11–12 |doi=10.1017/s0007680512001080 |issn=0007-6805|url-access=subscription }}</ref> During the late 19th century, Florida became a popular tourist destination as [[Henry Flagler]]'s railroads expanded into the area.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://stars.library.ucf.edu/ahistoryofcentralfloridapodcast/18/|title = Episode 17 Travel Dining|date = June 5, 2014|access-date = January 24, 2016|journal = A History of Central Florida Podcast|last = Dickens|first = Bethany}}</ref> In 1891, railroad magnate [[Henry Plant]] built the luxurious [[Tampa Bay Hotel]] in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]]; the hotel was later adapted for use as the campus for the [[University of Tampa]].<ref name=tebeau/>{{rp|269}}

Flagler built the [[Florida East Coast Railway]] from [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]] to [[Key West]]. Along the route he provided grand accommodations for passengers, including the [[Ponce de Leon Hotel]] in St. Augustine, the [[Ormond Hotel]] in [[Ormond Beach, Florida|Ormond Beach]], the [[Royal Poinciana Hotel]] and the [[Breakers Hotel]] in [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]], and the [[Royal Palm Hotel (Miami)|Royal Palm Hotel]] in Miami.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://stars.library.ucf.edu/ahistoryofcentralfloridapodcast/21/|title = Episode 20 Railroad Bells|date = June 5, 2014|access-date = January 24, 2016|journal = A History of Central Florida Podcast|last = Kelley|first = Katie}}</ref>

In February 1888, Florida had a special tourist: President [[Grover Cleveland]], the first lady, and his party visited Florida for a couple of days. He visited the Subtropical Exposition in Jacksonville, where he made a speech supporting tourism to the state; he took a train to St. Augustine, meeting Henry Flagler; and a train to [[Titusville, Florida|Titusville]], where he boarded a steamboat and visited Rockledge. On his return trip, he visited [[Sanford, Florida|Sanford]] and [[Winter Park, Florida|Winter Park]].

Flagler's railroad connected cities on the east coast of Florida. This created more urbanization along that corridor. Development also followed the construction of Turnpikes I-95 in east Florida, and I-75 in west Florida. These routes aided tourism and urbanization. Northerners from the East Coast used I-95 and tended to settle along that route. People from the MidWest tended to use I-75, and settled along the west coast of Florida.<ref name=ft150628/>

'''Snowbirds'''

“[[Snowbird (person)|Snowbirds]]”, often elderly, are people who migrate from colder northern areas to the warmth of [[Florida]] in peak travel seasons such as winter or fall.<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=S. K. |last2=House |first2=M. |date=2006-09-01 |title=Snowbirds, Sunbirds, and Stayers: Seasonal Migration of Elderly Adults in Florida |url=https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/geronb/61.5.S232 |journal=The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences |language=en |volume=61 |issue=5 |pages=S232–S239 |doi=10.1093/geronb/61.5.S232 |pmid=16960236 |issn=1079-5014|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 2005, Florida is estimated to have seen more than 800,000 elderly temporary snowbirds and more than 300,000 out-migrant elderly.<ref name=":9" /><!---softcopy not yet filed online by author. probably by July 15, 2015-->

'''Florida universities'''

[[University of Florida|The University of Florida]] was started in 1853, with its official creation in 1905, its campus location in [[Gainesville, Florida]] decided 1906, and then classes began September 26, 1906.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About UF – Faculty Handbook – University of Florida |url=https://handbook.aa.ufl.edu/about-uf/ |access-date=2025-11-24 |website=handbook.aa.ufl.edu |language=en}}</ref>

[[University of South Florida|The University of South Florida]] was founded in 1956 with the first day of classes being September 26, 1960.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History {{!}} University of South Florida |url=https://www.usf.edu/about-usf/history.aspx |access-date=2025-11-24 |website=www.usf.edu}}</ref>

In 1897, [[Florida State University]] was formed as the first liberal arts college in the state and in 1901 it became “[[Florida State College|Florida State College”]]. [[Florida State University|FSU]] has been through many name changes in its creation, in 1909 it became “[[Florida State College for Women]]” and In 1947 it was formally changed to “[[Florida State University]].’’<ref>{{Cite web |last=University |first=Florida State |title=Florida State University |url=https://www.fsu.edu/about/history.html |access-date=2025-11-24 |website=www.fsu.edu |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[University of Central Florida]] was founded in 1963 under the name “[[Florida Technological University]]" and it’s first day of classes was October 7, 1968.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Florida Technological University created {{!}} Florida Historical Society |url=https://myfloridahistory.org/date-in-history/june-10-1963/florida-technological-university-created |access-date=2025-11-24 |website=myfloridahistory.org}}</ref>

Other notable Florida universities include:

[[Florida International University]]

[[University of Miami]]

[[Florida Atlantic University]]

[[Southeastern University]]

[[Florida Southern College]]

===Theme parks===
[[File:Cinderella Castle @ Magic Kingdom.jpg|thumb|175px|[[Magic Kingdom]] at [[Walt Disney World Resort]]]]
Florida's first theme parks were developed in the 1930s and included [[Cypress Gardens]] (1936) near [[Winter Haven, Florida|Winter Haven]], and [[Marineland (Florida)|Marineland]] (1938) near St. Augustine. In 2004, Cypress Gardens was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic places.<ref>https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/2ca62c5f-d560-4e8e-bd30-693fd802d60a</ref> The original Cypress Gardens closed in 2009, but in 2011 it was incorporated into the new [[Legoland Florida]] Resort.<ref>{{cite web | title=Cypress Gardens Botanical Garden &#124; LEGOLAND® Florida Resort | url=https://www.legoland.com/florida/things-to-do/theme-park/rides-attractions/botanical-gardens/#:~:text=Although%20the%20original%20Cypress%20Gardens,iconic%20garden%20was%20carefully%20preserved }}</ref>

====Walt Disney World====
[[Walt Disney]] selected Orlando over several other sites for an updated and expanded version of his [[Disneyland]] Park in California. In 1971, five years after Disney's death, the [[Magic Kingdom]], the first component of the [[Walt Disney World]] complex, opened and became Florida's best-known attraction, attracting tens of millions of visitors a year. It stimulated the development of other attractions, as well as large tracts of housing and related businesses.<ref>{{cite book |title=Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando|date=2001|publisher=Yale University Press|last=Fogleson|first=Richard|isbn=978-0300098280}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida|last=Mormino|first=Gary|date= 2008 |publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0813033082}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12147|title=Wow, What a Ride?|last=Bartley|first=Abel A.|date=2006|publisher=H Net}}</ref>

Disney and his executives had researched the area under aliases and a borrowed jet.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |title=The tourist city |date=1999 |publisher=Yale Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-300-07846-6 |editor-last=Judd |editor-first=Dennis R. |location=New Haven, Conn.}}</ref> As the project advanced, they received some backlash from local residents, who saw dwindling opportunities for natural attractions such as the [[Florida Springs]] and beaches to flourish.<ref name=":8" />

Disney World has four theme parks, the Magic Kingdom, [[Epcot]], [[Disney's Hollywood Studios]], and [[Disney's Animal Kingdom]] with more than two dozen hotels on-property.  Some of its most notable attractions include [[Space Mountain]], [[Tower of Terror (Disney)|Tower of Terror]], [[Expedition Everest]], and [[Pandora – The World of Avatar]].

In 2024, Walt Disney World saw over 49 million combined visitors with 17.8 million at the Magic Kingdom alone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Disney World Statistics – The Truly Fascinating Numbers Behind Disney |url=https://magicguides.com/disney-world-statistics/ |access-date=2025-11-24 |website=Magic Guides |language=en-US}}</ref> The crowds come for not only attractions, but also the "magical vibe" [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] has so famously marketed.{{Tone inline|date=November 2025}} From its beginnings, Disney World has gained market share through their advertising, joyful decorations and attractions, food, and resorts.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

After Walt Disney World opened, the [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]] area became an international resort and convention destination, featuring a wide variety of themed parks. Other area theme parks include [[Universal Orlando Resort]] and [[SeaWorld]].

===Boating===
<!---needs enhancement. Boating needs to be somewhere. We don't seem to have an Irma subsection yet, which is okay. This fact needs to be somewhere--->
In 2017, 50,000 vessels were damaged by [[Hurricane Irma]]. This resulted in about $500&nbsp;million worth of damage, predominately in the [[Florida Keys]].<ref>{{Cite news | first=Bill | last=Sargent | title=Florida boater bore brunt of hurricanes | url=http://www.floridatoday.com/story/sports/outdoors/bill-sargent/2017/11/10/sargent-florida-boaters-bore-brunt-hurricanes/853564001/| newspaper=Florida Today | location=Melbourne, Florida| page= 1A | date=November 12, 2017 | access-date=November 12, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112204722/http://www.floridatoday.com/story/sports/outdoors/bill-sargent/2017/11/10/sargent-florida-boaters-bore-brunt-hurricanes/853564001/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=}}</ref>

Recreational boating in the Everglades National Park has increased by about 2 to 2.5 times between 1970 and 2007 and this would lead to a substantial ecological pressure. This is because boat propellers physically uproot and scar the seagrass bed and with recovery often taking several years after the seagrass is damaged.<ref>Hallac, D. E., Sadle, J., Pearlstine, L., Herling, F., & Shinde, D. (2012). Boating impacts to seagrass in Florida Bay, Everglades National Park, Florida, USA: links with physical and visitor-use factors and implications for management. Marine and Freshwater Research, 63(11), 1117–1128. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1071/MF12025</nowiki>

Jarvis, E. (2010). "Secrecy Has No Excuse": The Florida land boom, tourism, and the 1926 smallpox epidemic in Tampa and Miami. ''Florida Historical Quarterly, 89''(3), Article 4. Retrieved from <nowiki>https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol89/iss3/4/</nowiki>

Calomiris, C. W., & Jaremski, M. S. (2023). ''Florida (Un)Chained: The land boom of the mid‑1920s and the origins of a housing bubble'' (NBER Working Paper No. 30914). National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from <nowiki>https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30914/w30914.pdf</nowiki>

George, P. S. (1986). ''Greater Miami's Boom of the Mid-1920s.'' Florida Historical Quarterly, 64*(3). Retrieved from <nowiki>https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3777&context=fhq</nowiki>

"Florida's Land Boom" (n.d.). Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida. Retrieved from <nowiki>https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/ld_boom/ld_boom1.htm</nowiki>

Volk, M. I., et al. (Unknown Publication Year). Land use and land-cover change in Florida in the past 100 years. In ''Chapter 2''. Florida Climate Institute. Retrieved from <nowiki>https://floridaclimateinstitute.org/docs/climatebook/Ch02-Volk.pdf</nowiki></ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|History|North America|United States|Florida|British Empire}}
{{main|Historical outline of Florida|Timeline of Florida history}}
* [[Florida Historical Society]]
* [[History of the Southern United States]]
* [[Indigenous people of the Everglades region]]
* [[List of historical societies in Florida]]
* [[Maritime History of Florida]]
* [[Museum of Florida History]]
* [[Pensacola Museum of History]]
* [[State Library and Archives of Florida]]
* [[Women's suffrage in Florida]]

'''History of places in Florida'''
* [[History of Brevard County, Florida]]
* [[History of Fort Lauderdale, Florida]]
* [[History of Jacksonville, Florida]]
* [[History of Key West]]
* [[History of Miami]]
* [[Timeline of Orlando, Florida]]
* [[History of Pensacola, Florida]]
* [[History of Sarasota, Florida]]
* [[History of St. Petersburg, Florida]]
* [[History of Tampa, Florida]]
* [[History of Tallahassee, Florida]]
* [[History of West Palm Beach, Florida]]
* [[History of Ybor City]]

==References==
{{Reflist|40em}}

==Further reading==
{{Politics of Florida}}

===Surveys===
* Colburn, David R. and deHaven-Smith, Lance. ''Government in the Sunshine State: Florida since Statehood.'' (1999). 168 pp.
* Colburn, David R. and Landers, Jane L., eds. ''The African American Heritage of Florida.'' (1995). 392 pp.
* Derr, Mark. ''Some Kind of Paradise: A Chronicle of Man and the Land in Florida'' (1998) popular social and environmental history
* Fernald, Edward A. and Purdum, Elizabeth, eds. ''Atlas of Florida.'' (1992). 280 pp.
* Gannon, Michael, ed. ''The New History of Florida''. [[University Press of Florida]]: 1996. {{ISBN|0-8130-1415-8}}. 480pp
* Gannon, Michael. ''Florida: A Short History'' (2003) 192 pages
* George, Paul S., ed. ''A Guide to the History of Florida.'' (1989). 300 pp.
* Manley, Walter W., II and Brown, Canter Jr., eds. ''The Supreme Court of Florida, 1917–1972'' (2007)
* Mormino, Gary. ''Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida''' (University Press of Florida, 2008) ISBN 978-0813033082.

===Indians and colonial===
* Brown, Robin C. ''Florida's First People: 12,000 Years of Human History''. [[Pineapple Press]]: 1994. {{ISBN|1-56164-032-8}}.
* Henderson, Ann L., and Gary R. Mormino. ''Spanish Pathways in Florida: 1492–1992''. Pineapple Press: 1991. {{ISBN|1-56164-004-2}}.
* Landers, Jane. ''Black Society in Spanish Florida''. [[University of Illinois Press]]: 1999. {{ISBN|0-252-06753-3}}
* Milanich, Jerald T. ''Florida's Indians from Ancient Times to the Present.'' (1998). 224 pp.
* Murphree, Daniel S. ''Constructing Floridians: Natives and Europeans in the Colonial Floridas, 1513–1783'' (2007)

===To 1900===
* Baptist, Edward E. ''Creating an Old South: Middle Florida's Plantation Frontier before the Civil War.'' (2002) 408 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=9052 online review]
* Brown, Canter Jr. ''Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida's Loyalist Reconstruction Governor.'' (1997). 320 pp. on reconstruction
* Brown, Canter Jr. and Larry Eugene Rivers. ''For a Great and Grand Purpose: The Beginnings of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864–1905.''(2004) 268ppl the other large black church [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=10833 online review]
* Hoffman, Paul E. ''Florida's Frontiers.'' (History of the Trans-Appalachian Frontier series.) (2002). 470 pp.
* Klingman, Peter D. "Race and Faction in the Public Career of Florida's Josiah T. Walls." in Howard N. Rabinowitz, ed. ''Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era'' (1982).  59–78.
* Klingman, Peter D. ''Josiah Walls: Florida's Black Congressman of Reconstruction'' (1976).
* {{cite book |last1=Knetsch |first1=Joe |title=Florida in the Spanish-American War |date=2011 |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, SC |isbn=978-1609490881}}
* Kokomoor, Kevin. "A Re-assessment of Seminoles, Africans, and Slavery on the Florida Frontier", ''Florida Historical Quarterly'', Fall 2009, Vol. 88 Issue 2, pp 209–236
* Nulty, William H. ''Confederate Florida: The Road to Olustee.'' (1990).
* Revels, Tracy J. ''Grander in Her Daughters: Florida's Women during the Civil War.'' (2004) 221 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=10988 online review]
* Richardson, Joe M. "Jonathan C. Gibbs: Florida's Only Negro Cabinet Member." ''Florida Historical Quarterly'' 42.4 (1964): 363–368. {{JSTOR|0140048}}
* Rivers, Larry Eugene. ''Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation.'' (2000). 369 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=6308 online review]
* Rivers, Larry Eugene, and Brown, Canter Jr. ''Laborers in the Vineyard of the Lord: The Beginnings of the AME Church in Florida, 1865–1895.'' (2001). 244 pp. history of the leading black denomination; [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=6811 online review]
* Sprague, John T. ''The Florida War.'' (1964), on Seminole war 597 pp.
* Taylor, Robert A. ''Rebel Storehouse: Florida in the Confederate Economy.'' (1995). 218 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=170 online review]
* Warren, Harris G. "Textbook Writers and the Florida" Purchase" Myth." ''Florida Historical Quarterly'' 41.4 (1963): 325–331 {{JSTOR|30139962}}

===20th century===
* Akin, Edward N. ''Flagler: Rockefeller Partner and Florida Baron.'' (1988). 305 pp.
* Colburn, David R. and deHaven-Smith, Lance. ''Florida's Megatrends: Critical Issues in Florida.'' (2002). 161 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=6760 online review]
* Colburn, David R. ''From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and Its Politics since 1940.'' (2007) 272pp [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=14680 online review]
* Colburn, David R. and Scher, Richard K. ''Florida's Gubernatorial Politics in the Twentieth Century.'' (1980). 342 pp.
* Kleinberg, Eliot. ''War in Paradise: Stories of World War II in Florida.'' (1999). 96pp.
* Klingman, Peter D. ''Neither Dies nor Surrenders: A History of the Republican Party in Florida, 1867–1970.'' (1984). 233 pp.
* Manley, Walter W., II and Canter Brown. ''The Supreme Court of Florida, 1917–1972.'' (2006). 428 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=22804 online review]
* Newton, Michael. ''The Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Florida.'' (2001). 260 pp.
* Peirce, Neal R. ''The Deep South States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Seven Deep South States''. 1974
* Rowe, Anne E. ''The Idea of Florida in the American Literary Imagination.'' (1986). 159 pp.
* Stuart, John A., and [[John F. Stack]], eds. ''The New Deal in South Florida: Design, Policy, and Community Building, 1933–1940.'' 263 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=23065 online review]
* Vickers, Raymond B. ''Panic in Paradise: Florida's Banking Crash of 1926.'' (1994). 336 pp.
* Wagy, Tom R. ''Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida: Spokesman of the New South.'' (1985). 264 pp. Democratic governor 1955–61

===Regions, social and economic history===
* Carlson, Amanda B., and Robin Poynor, eds. ''Africa in Florida: Five Hundred Years of African Presence in the Sunshine State'' (University Press of Florida, 2014) 462 pp. heavily illustrated.
* Drobney, Jeffrey. ''Lumbermen and Log Sawyers: Life, Labor, and Culture in the North Florida Timber Industry, 1830–1930.'' (1997). 241 pp.
* Dunn, Marvin. ''A History of Florida: Through Black Eyes'' (2016)
* Faherty, William Barnaby ''Florida's Space Coast: The Impact of NASA on the Sunshine State.'' (2002) 224pp [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=8438 online review]
* Grant, Roger H. ''Rails through the Wiregrass: A History of the Georgia & Florida Railroad'' (2007)
* Hann, John H. ''Apalachee: The Land between the Rivers.'' (1988). 450 pp.
* Hollander, Gail M. ''Raising Cane in the 'Glades: The Global Sugar Trade and the Transformation of Florida'' (2007)
* McNally, Michael J. ''Catholic Parish Life on Florida's West Coast, 1860–1968.'' (1996). 503 pp.
* Middleton, Sallie. "Space Rush: Local Impact of Federal Aerospace Programs on Brevard and Surrounding Counties", ''Florida Historical Quarterly'', Fall 2008, Vol. 87 Issue 2, pp 258–289
* Otis, Katherine Ann. "Everything Old Is New Again: A Social and Cultural History of Life on the Retirement Frontier, 1950–2000" PhD dissertation; ''Dissertation Abstracts International'', 2008, Vol. 69 Issue 4, pp 1513–1513
* Stronge, William B. ''The Sunshine Economy: An Economic History of Florida since the Civil War'' (2008)
* Turner, Gregg M. ''A Journey into Florida Railroad History'' (2008)

===Environment===
* Arsenault, Raymond, and Jack E. Davis, eds. ''Paradise lost? The environmental history of Florida'' (University Press of Florida, 2005).
* Barnes, Jay. ''Florida's Hurricane History.'' (1998). 330 pp.
* Barnett, Cynthia. ''Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.'' (2007). 240 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=23145 online review]
* Derr, Mark. ''Some kind of paradise: A chronicle of man and the land in Florida'' (1989) popular
* Grunwald, Michael, "Swamped: Harry Truman, South Florida, and the Changing Political Geography of American Conservation", in ''The Environmental Legacy of Harry S. Truman'', ed. Karl Boyd Brooks, pp 75–88. (Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2009) . xxxvi, 145 pp.&nbsp;{{ISBN|978-1-931112-93-2}}
* Kendrick, Baynard. ''A History of Florida Forests'' (2 vol 2007)
* McCally, David. ''The Everglades: An Environmental History.'' (1999). 215 pp.
* Miller, James J. ''An Environmental History of Northeast Florida.'' (1998). 223 pp.
* Ogden, Laura. "The Everglades Ecosystem and the Politics of Nature", ''American Anthropologist'', March 2008, Vol. 110 Issue 1, pp 21–32
* Poole, Leslie Kemp. ''Saving Florida: Women's Fight for the Environment in the Twentieth Century'' (University Press of Florida, 2015). x, 274 pp.
* Smith, Laura, and Laura Smith. "'The Superb Monotony of Saw Grass Under the World of Air': Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the Everglades, and Friends of the Everglades." in ''Ecological Restoration and the US Nature and Environmental Writing Tradition: A Rewilding of American Letters'' (2022) pp: 213–262.
* Williams, John M. and Duedall, Iver W. ''Florida Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, 1871–2001.'' (2002). 176 pp. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=6853 online review]
* Wilson, Mary Ellen. "An Environmental History of Northeast Florida/Some Kind of Man and Land in Florida." ''Environmental History'' 4.3 (1999): 443+.

===Primary sources===
* Phillips, Ulrich Bonnell, and James David Glunt, eds. ''Florida Plantation Records: From the Papers of George Noble Jones.'' (University Press of Florida, 2006). 596 pp.&nbsp;{{ISBN|0-8130-2976-7}}; Originally published in 1927.
* Romans, Bernard. ''A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida.'' ed. by Kathryn E. Holland Braund, (1999). 442 pp. online review travel in 1770s

==External links==
* [http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/ Florida Bureau of Archeological Research] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224000728/http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/ |date=February 24, 2011 }}
* [http://www.floridamemory.com/ Florida Memory] over 500,000 photographs and documents from the State Archives of Florida.
* Boston Public Library, Map Center. [http://maps.bpl.org/explore/location/florida-6 Maps of Florida] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313030057/http://maps.bpl.org/explore/location/florida-6 |date=March 13, 2013 }}, various dates.
* [http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10086 "Map of the Peninsula of Florida"] from ca. 1639 via the [[World Digital Library]]
* [http://stars.library.ucf.edu/ahistoryofcentralfloridapodcast/ A History of Central Florida Podcast]
* [https://www.ufdc.ufl.edu/newspapers Florida Digital Newspaper Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617150553/https://www.ufdc.ufl.edu/newspapers |date=June 17, 2019 }} hosted at the [[George A. Smathers Libraries]] at the [[University of Florida]]
* [http://www.library.ufl.edu/spec/pkyonge/index.html P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History]

== Florida’s historical and cultural development ==

=== Indigenous trade networks ===
Before European contact, Florida's Indigenous peoples were part of extensive trade networks. They exchanged shells, pottery, and food resources with neighboring regions, making Florida a cultural crossroads. These interactions connected local communities to the broader [[Mississippian culture]] world.<ref>{{cite web |title=South Florida Archaeology & Ethnography |publisher=Florida Museum of Natural History |url=https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/archaeology/ |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Native Floridians and Mississippian Culture |publisher=Florida Historical Society |url=https://myfloridahistory.org/ |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref>

=== Spanish cattle ranching ===
Spanish settlers introduced [[cattle ranching]] to Florida in the 16th century, creating one of the state's longest-lasting industries. By the late 17th century, ranches were established along the [[St. Johns River]] and in the Apalachee Province, despite conflicts with Native peoples and raids from English colonists.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cattle Ranching in Spanish Florida |website=Wikipedia |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_ranching_in_Spanish_Florida |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Yariett |first=L. L. |year=1985 |title=History of the Florida Cattle Industry |journal=Rangelands |volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=205–208}}</ref>

=== The Seminole Wars ===
The [[Seminole Wars]] were more than military conflicts—they were cultural struggles. Seminole leaders fought to preserve their autonomy and traditions against U.S. expansion. Lasting nearly forty years, these wars were among the longest and costliest conflicts between the United States and Native peoples, influencing both military strategy and Native resistance.<ref>{{cite web |title=Seminole Wars |website=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Seminole-Wars |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Seminole Wars: A Forgotten Conflict |website=USA History Timeline |url=https://www.ushistorytimeline.org/seminole-wars |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref>

=== Civil War supply routes ===
During the [[American Civil War]], Florida played a key role in supporting the Confederate economy. The state supplied beef, pork, corn, and salt to Southern armies, while salt production along the Gulf Coast was vital for food preservation. Union blockades of Florida's coastline disrupted these efforts, highlighting the state's strategic importance.<ref>{{cite web |title=Florida in the Confederate Economy |publisher=Museum of Florida History |url=https://museumoffloridahistory.com/ |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Florida in the Civil War |publisher=American Battlefield Trust |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/florida-civil-war |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref>

=== Air conditioning and population growth ===
The introduction of [[air conditioning]] in the mid-20th century transformed Florida's population and economy. Once considered too hot and humid for large-scale settlement, Florida became a popular destination for retirees and tourists. Between 1946 and 2022, the state's population grew ninefold, driving rapid urbanization and economic change.<ref>{{cite news |last=Marzo |first=J. |year=2025 |title=How AC Transformed Florida |work=Florida Files |url=https://floridafiles.org/ac-florida |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Florida fastest-growing state for first time since 1957 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/12/florida-fastest-growing-state.html |access-date=23 November 2025}}</ref>== References ==
<references />

== See also ==
* [[Seminole Wars]]
* [[Spanish Florida]]
* [[Air conditioning]]
* [[Mississippian culture]]
* [[History of the Southern United States]]

== External links ==
* [https://museumoffloridahistory.com/ Museum of Florida History]
* [https://myfloridahistory.org/ Florida Historical Society]
* [https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/ Florida Museum of Natural History]
* [https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/florida-civil-war American Battlefield Trust – Florida in the Civil War]
* [https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/12/florida-fastest-growing-state.html U.S. Census Bureau – Florida population growth]
{{U.S. political divisions histories}}
{{Florida}}
{{Spanish Empire}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:History of Florida| ]]
[[Category:History of the Southern United States by state|Florida]]
[[Category:History of the United States by state or territory|Florida]]