About Florida | Florida History | Florida Attractions

According to popular legend, Juan Ponce de León discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth on March 27, 1513. He named the land La Pascua Florida, or "Flowery Easter." St. Augustine was founded in 1565 and is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in any U.S. state. It was little more than a fortress for many years, and was frequently attacked and burned. Roman Catholic missionaries used St. Augustine as a base of operations, and established missions throughout the southeastern United States. The British and their colonies attacked repeatedly, especially in 1702, and captured St Augustine in 1740. In 1763, Spain traded Florida to Great Britain for control of Havana, Cuba. During this time, there was a migration of Creek Indians into Florida, who would form the Seminole tribe.

Seminole Indians based in East Florida began raiding Georgia settlements and the United States Army led increasingly frequent counterattacks, including the 1817 – 1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians that became known as the First Seminole War. Following the war, the United States effectively controlled East Florida. A Treaty was signed between the United States and Spain that took effect on July 10, 1821, where the United States acquired Florida and, in exchange, renounced all claims to Texas.

As settlement increased, pressure grew on the United States government to remove the Indians from their lands in Florida. The Seminoles harbored and absorbed runaway blacks, and clashes between whites and Indians grew with the influx of new settlers. 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. Many of the Seminoles left, while those who remained prepared to defend their 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. Between 900 and 1,500 Seminole Indian warriors effectively employed hit and run guerrilla tactics against United States Army troops for seven years. Osceola, a young war leader, came to symbolize the war and the Seminoles after he was arrested at truce negotiations in 1837 and died in prison less than a year later. Almost all of the Seminoles were exiled to Creek lands west of the Mississippi, with about 300 allowed to remain in the Everglades. On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America.

Florida started to become a popular destination during the late 19th century,  as railroads expanded into the area. Railroad Baron Henry Plant built a luxury hotel in Tampa, which today is the University of Tampa. Henry Flagler built the Florida East Coast Railway and numerous luxury hotels along the route, including in St. Augustine, Ormond Beach, and West Palm Beach. Florida's new railroads opened up large areas, spurring the Florida land boom of the 1920's. Investors of all kinds raced to buy and sell land in newly platted communities such as Miami and Palm Beach. A majority of the people who bought land in Florida never set foot in the state. By 1925, the market ran out of buyers to pay the high prices and the boom became a bust.

Florida's first theme parks were Cypress Gardens (1936) and Marineland (1938). Walt Disney chose Central Florida as the site of his planned Walt Disney World Resort in the 1960s and began purchasing land. In 1971, The Magic Kingdom opened and began the dramatic transformation of the Orlando area into a resort destination with a wide variety of themed parks. Besides Disney, the Orlando area today features theme parks including Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld, and Wet 'n Wild.