Early History of Florida

In the very beginning… According to anthropologists and historians, the first people to inhibit the land now known as Florida were descendants of the EURASIANS who had crossed the ice bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska. These indigenous people lived off the land in harmony with one another. THEN THE BIG EUROPEAN SHIPS CAME…

Ponce de Leon 500 years ago… Spanish explorer and Governor of Puerto Rico Ponce de Leon sailed into Florida somewhere south of Cape Canaveral near Melbourne Beach *Although many historians argue about exactly where he landed still to this day!

Legend says he had been searching for the Fountain of Youth.

Why did he name it “La Florida”? Ponce de Leon named the land La Florida after Pascua Florida, or Flowery Easter, which is a holiday in Spain.

St. Augustine founded in 1565 Founded by a Spanish Admiral named Pedro Menendez de Aviles. It is the oldest permanent settlement in the continental US.

In the meantime, the French had arrived… The King of Spain ordered Aviles to destroy Ft. Caroline, (which is near present day Jacksonville) because he wanted to get the French out of Florida! Aviles attacked the fort and killed all of the French living there.

Then the British came… Sir Francis Drake, a British privateer, or legal pirate, would frequently raid St. Augustine. Because of these raids, the Spanish built a fort to protect the citizens of St. Augustine from attack…

Castillo de San Marcos

Who wanted the land of Florida? There were the NATIVE AMERICANS, or the indigenous people, of the land of Florida. There were the BRITISH, that wanted control. The SPANISH currently had control and wanted to maintain it. Then the US decided they wanted to have it as well.

The French and Indian War Britain and France were at war with each other. Spain sided with France. During this war, Britain captured Havana, Cuba, which was a major Spanish port. At the end of the war, the Spanish traded the whole of Florida territory to Britain to get Havana back.

Under British Rule The British split Florida into W. Florida and E. Florida, the 14 th and 15 th colonies. The capital of W. Florida was Pensacola The capital of E. Florida was St. Augustine Often times, dignitaries met in Tallahassee, which was located in the middle of both capitals. The British ruled Florida from this time until the end of the Revolutionary War, when Britain agreed to give it back to Spain.

The Second Spanish Period Because the British were too busy fighting the Patriots in the American Revolution, Spain was able to capture Pensacola from the British in In 1783, The Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War and returned all of Florida to Spanish control. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams signed a treaty with Spain to assume $5 million in debt in exchange for Florida.

US Territorial Period General Andrew Jackson was sent to Florida to prepare Florida for statehood. There was a lot of antagonism between the white settlers and the native people of Florida. The Seminole Indians were an Indian tribe that was a mixture of other tribes and escaped slaves.

The Seminole Wars (Three Wars with the Seminole Indians) Chief OsceolaGeneral Andrew Jackson

As a result of the Seminole Wars… Many of the Seminole Indians were forced to move to Oklahoma, but some survived and moved to the Everglades.

Florida Statehood in 1845 On March 3 rd, 1845, Florida became the 27 th state of the United States. More than half the population of the state at that time were black slaves working on plantations. It was this reason that Florida joined the rest of the Southern slave states and seceded the Union when Abraham Lincoln was elected. *To secede means to leave a government and become an independent state.

Did you know…? The Florida coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico was very different 12,000 years ago… How and Why? The sea level was much lower than it is today. As a result, the Florida peninsula was more than twice as large as it is now!

Did you know? St. Augustine was founded BEFORE the Jamestown, Virginia settlement OR the Plymouth, Massachusetts settlement. St. Augustine was founded in 1513 Jamestown, Virginia was founded in 1607 Plymouth, Massachusetts was founded in 1620

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