Timucua Indians killing alligators in northeast Florida, around the mid-16th century
Beyond its sunny beaches and theme parks, Florida has a rich history to share – from prehistoric times and Native American settlements to Spanish arrival and an eventful couple of hundred years when the area constantly changed hands, before relaxing into a Golden Age. The grand buildings of yesteryear that sit alongside modern architecture are just one example of the fascinating remnants of Florida’s past waiting to be discovered.
Florida’s history began with the Paleo-Indians – big-game hunters who probably crossed the Bering Strait from Asia (Eurasia) into North America over a land and ice bridge as long as 12,000 years ago. They settled where fresh water was available, sharing the land with massive animals such as mastodons, giant sloths, and mammoths.
Over the centuries, tribes settled down into villages, grew crops, and began customs such as creating burial mounds, which can still be seen today. By the time Europeans arrived in this part of the New World, Florida was inhabited by an estimated 350,000 people from a number of tribes. The Spanish and British recorded the names of nearly 100 groups they came across; the largest among these were the Apalachee and the Timucua.
Florida’s written history began when the Spanish explorer Ponce de León “discovered“ the region in 1513, probably landing near St. Augustine. He named his discovery “La Florida” after the Spanish Easter feast known as Pascua Florida. More explorations followed, some led by the conquistador Hernando de Soto (around 1497–1542). The Spanish introduced Christianity, horses, and cattle to Florida, but they also brought new diseases such as smallpox and typhoid fever, and massacred many of the local people in their quest to find gold and treasure. In the 1770s, Florida’s Native American tribes became known collectively as Seminoles, a name meaning “wild people” or “untamed.”
Hot on the heels of the Spanish came the British, who wanted another kind of treasure – valuable hides and furs. They took control of Florida in 1763 by swapping Cuba for it. After the British lost the Revolutionary War to the US, the Spanish regained Florida with the Second Treaty of Paris of 1783. They remained in charge until 1819, when the region was handed over to the US to settle Spain’s debts and became a US territory. Spain’s lasting influence can be seen in the state’s churches, architecture, and food.
In the period before the Civil War, known as the antebellum, runaway slaves taking refuge in Florida found sympathy from the Indian tribes, creating growing conflicts with the US. By 1817, antagonism had escalated into the first of three Seminole wars. Future US president Andrew Jackson invaded the then-Spanish Florida and defeated the Seminoles. Under the US flag, a plantation economy based on slavery, as in other Southern states, began to develop here. Land was at a premium and pressure grew on the US government to remove the Indians from their lands. In 1832, the US signed the Treaty of Payne’s Landing with some of the Seminole chiefs, promising them lands west of the Mississippi River if the tribes would leave Florida peacefully. Many agreed, but those who remained were prepared to defend their land. From 1835 to 1842, and again from 1855 to 1858, Seminole warriors defied the far more powerful US Army. In the end, though, it was a lost cause and almost all the Seminoles were forcibly exiled. But a band of some 300 stubbornly remained, hiding in the Everglades wilderness. Their descendants are the Seminole tribes of today.
Seminole Indians preparing to ambush American troops in the First Seminole War
Florida became the 27th US state in 1845. Most of the state’s population was in the northern area, where the plantation culture flourished. By 1850, the population had grown to 87,445; almost half were African- American slaves. In 1861, to preserve its plantation way of life, the state broke away from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. Located well south of the fighting, Florida was spared the destruction experienced in other Southern states during the Civil War (1861–5). Its main role was to provide an estimated 15,000 troops, plus cotton, and food supplies, including salt, beef, and pork, to the Confederacy. When the Confederates lost the war and slavery was outlawed, the plantation economy waned. But soon canny developers had their eyes on a new source of wealth – tourism.
While most of Florida’s early development had been in the northern part of the state, the agreeable climate of the land farther south made it attractive for development. Railroad barons such as Henry Flagler on the east coast and Henry Plant on the west expanded their railroads in the late 1880s and 1890s, and began building the first grand hotels to attract passengers. Tourism boomed, fortunes were made, and fine mansions were built.
The railroads also meant that the Sunshine State’s juicy crops of oranges and lemons could reach eager buyers all over the country, and soon Florida was the nation’s biggest citrus fruit producer. Immigrants from the nearby Caribbean island of Cuba brought with them the skill of making highly prized cigars. Tampa’s warm, humid climate suited the rolling of tobacco leaves perfectly, and Ybor City was founded there in 1885 by Cuban manufacturer Vicente Martinez Ybor as a home for his factory and workers.
Portrait of Henry Flagler, founder of the Florida East Coast Railway
Henry Ford’s Model T began rolling off the assembly lines in 1908, making automobiles affordable for the first time, and nowhere was the effect felt more strongly than in Florida, where “tin can tourists” came streaming in. In 1914, entrepreneur Carl Fisher came up with the idea of building the north–south Dixie Highway, which eventually ran all the way from the Canadian border to southern Florida. At the southern end of the highway, Fisher dreamed up a new resort city, Miami Beach. During the 1920s, investors of all kinds raced to buy and sell land in South Florida communities such as Miami and Palm Beach. Prices soared, and con men entered the picture. Some foolish buyers purchased land sight unseen, only to find themselves the owners of worthless swampland. By 1925, prices were astronomical, buyers became scarce, and the real estate boom turned to bust. A devastating hurricane in Miami in 1926 depressed the market even farther. By the time the Great Depression began in the rest of the nation in 1929, residents of Florida had already experienced economic hardship.
Children riding on a flivver car in Coral Gables, a "tin can tourist" tent city
Government work programs and the flourishing citrus industry helped Florida ride out the Depression, and many unemployed people arrived from all over the US, looking for work and helping the state’s economy grow. World War II brought another boom as Florida’s year-round mild climate made it ideal as a major training center for the US army and navy. Highway and airport construction followed, and by the war’s end an up-to-date transportation system was ready and waiting for visitors.
Newcomers arrived from other countries too, especially in Miami. Fidel Castro’s rise to power in Cuba in 1959 brought an influx of Cubans, and unrest in Haiti in the 1970s led to the founding of the community known as Little Haiti.
The first Daytona 500 roared into action in 1959, making the Daytona International Speedway a mecca for auto-racing fans the world over. Space exploration and the arrival of NASA and the Kennedy Space Center in 1962 also brought jobs and more visitors. The theme park era began in 1959 when Busch Gardens opened in Tampa, and 10,000 people were waiting impatiently at the gates when Walt Disney World® made its debut in 1971.
Modern-day Florida is the fourth most populous state in the US, and one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world. Twenty percent of this flourishing state’s diverse population consists of retirees aged over 65, who are drawn by its mild climate. Well over 300,000 of the Cubans who fled to South Florida from the 1960s onwards have settled here, raised families, and become influential in business and state politics. Walt Disney World® grows bigger every year and has been joined by Universal Studios Florida®, SeaWorld® and LEGOLAND® Florida Resort to make Orlando the theme park capital of the world.
Miami Beach's 1930s Art Deco architecture has been rediscovered by the young and hip, who flock to the hotels and nightclubs in town. The state has also become the major US center for the growing cruise industry, with ports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and Port Canaveral, near Orlando, serving thousands of cruisers each year. All of this means jobs, and with the citrus industry and tourism joined by more recent industries including electronics, plastics, construction, and international banking, younger job aspirants have added to the rush to Florida. Like most of the world, Florida has felt the cloud of the global economic slowdown that began in 2008, but whatever lies ahead, the sun will continue to shine in Florida.
The Art Deco facade of the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts, Miami
Admire the fine example of Spanish architecture that has influenced many of Florida's buildings.
Gaze at the prehistoric giant sloth here, which stands 12 ft (4 m) high (see Museum of Arts and Sciences (MOAS)).
Discover the huge collection of ceramic artifacts at this museum adjacent to one of Florida's largest Indian ceremonial mounds.
Witness a rare example of racial harmony, as costumed interpreters bring to life the site shared by the Spanish and Apalachee Indians.
Visit the oldest plantation house in Florida and explore its restored main house, kitchen, and barn, plus the ruins of 25 original slave cabins.
Trace the story of the city’s cigar industry and look at a restored cigar worker’s home.
Many of the names in today’s Florida – Hialeah (pretty meadow) in Miami, Appalachee (people on the other side) Parkway in Tallahassee, and the town of Apalachicola (land of friendly people) – come from the original Native American settlers. The Spanish also left a legacy of names, such as Fernandina (a popular name for girls in Spain).
Florida aviator Tony Jannus flew the first airplane from which a parachute jump was made in 1912, and on January 1, 1914, piloted the world's first scheduled passenger service flight – from St. Petersburg to Tampa (about 20 miles/32 km).
In 1944, Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green invented the first suntan cream, by cooking cocoa butter in a coffee pot on his wife’s stove.
The sports drink Gatorade® was developed in 1965 at the University of Florida to help its sports teams withstand the heat, and was named for the "Gators," the team's nickname.
Florida’s state bird is the mockingbird and the state flower is the orange blossom. The seal on Florida’s flag represents the state with a brilliant sun, a cabbage palmetto tree, a steamboat, and a Seminole woman scattering flowers.