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Florida is a
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
located in the Southeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
region of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
, to the northwest by Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
, to the north by Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, to the east by the Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
and Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
, and to the south by the Straits of Florida
The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait ( es, Estrecho de Florida) is a strait located south-southeast of the North American mainland, generally accepted to be between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and between th ...
and Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
; it is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Spanning , Florida ranks 22nd in area among the 50 states, and with a population of over 21 million, it is the third-most populous. The state capital is Tallahassee
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
, and the most populous city is Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
. The Miami metropolitan area
The Miami metropolitan area (also known as Greater Miami, the Tri-County Area, South Florida, or the Gold Coast) is the ninth largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world with a ...
, with a population of almost 6.2 million, is the most populous urban area in Florida and the ninth-most populous in the United States; other urban conurbation
An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, ...
s with over one million people are Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...
, Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
, and Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
.
Various Native American groups have inhabited Florida for at least 14,000 years. In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León (, , , ; 1474 – July 1521) was a Spanish explorer and '' conquistador'' known for leading the first official European expedition to Florida and for serving as the first governor of Puerto Rico. He was born in Santervá ...
became the first known European to make landfall, calling the region ''La Florida'' ( a floˈɾiðafor its lush greenery and the Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
season (''Pascua Florida'' in Spanish). Florida subsequently became the first area in the continental U.S. to be permanently settled by Europeans, with the Spanish colony of St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
, founded in 1565, being the oldest continuously inhabited city. Florida was repeatedly contested by Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
and Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
before being ceded to the U.S. in 1819; it was admitted as the 27th state on March 3, 1845. Florida was the principal location of the Seminole Wars
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Geography of Florida, Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native Americans in the United States, Native American nation whi ...
(1816–1858), the longest and most extensive of the Indian Wars
The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...
in U.S. history. The state seceded from the Union on January 10, 1861, becoming one of the seven original Confederate States
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
, though rejoined the union after the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
on June 25, 1868.
Since the mid-20th century, Florida has experienced rapid demographic and economic growth. Its economy, with a gross state product
Gross regional domestic product (GRDP), gross domestic product of region (GDPR), or gross state product (GSP) is a statistic that measures the size of a region's economy. It is the aggregate of gross value added (GVA) of all resident producer unit ...
(GSP) of $1.0 trillion, is the fourth-largest of any U.S. state and the 16th-largest in the world; the main sectors are tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
, hospitality
Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de J ...
, agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, real estate, and transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
. Florida is world-renowned for its beach resort
A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the German ' ...
s, amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
s, warm and sunny climate, and nautical recreation; attractions such as Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...
, the Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
, and Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
draw tens of millions of visitors annually. Florida is a popular destination for retirees
A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...
, seasonal vacationers, and both domestic and international migrants; it hosts nine out of the ten fastest-growing communities in the U.S. The state's close proximity to the ocean has shaped its culture, identity, and daily life; its colonial history and successive waves of migration are reflected in African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
, European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
, Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
, Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
, and Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
influences. Florida has attracted or inspired writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (August 8, 1896 – December 14, 1953)
accessed December 8, 2014. was an ,
Florida was the first region of what is now the
Defense of Florida's northern border with the United States was minor during the second Spanish period. The region became a haven for escaped slaves and a base for Indian attacks against U.S. territories, and the U.S. pressed Spain for reform.
Americans of
American settlers began to establish cotton
Historically, Florida's economy has been based primarily upon agricultural products such as citrus fruits, strawberries, nuts, sugarcane and cattle. The boll weevil devastated cotton crops during the early 20th century.
Until the mid-20th century, Florida was the least-populous state in the southern United States. In 1900, its population was only 528,542, of whom nearly 44% were African American, the same proportion as before the Civil War. Forty thousand blacks, roughly one-fifth of their 1900 population levels in Florida, left the state in the Great Migration (African American), Great Migration. They left due to lynchings and racial violence and for better opportunities in the North and the West. Disfranchisement for most African Americans in the state persisted until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s gained federal legislation in 1965 to enforce protection of their constitutional suffrage.
In response to racial segregation in Florida, a number of protests occurred in Florida during the 1950s and 1960s as part of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1956–1957, students at Florida A&M University organized a bus boycott in Tallahassee to mimic the Montgomery bus boycott and succeeded in integrating the city's buses. Students also held sit-ins in 1960 in protest of segregated seating at local lunch counters, and in 1964 an incident at a
Much of Florida is on a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and the
The climate of Florida is tempered somewhat by the fact that no part of the state is distant from the ocean. North of
Florida is host to many types of wildlife including:
* Marine mammals:
The Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. It is also the third-largest coral barrier reef system in the world, after the
Florida is a low per capita energy user. , it is estimated that approximately 4% of energy in the state is generated through renewable resources. Florida's energy production is 6% of the nation's total energy output, while total production of pollutants is lower, with figures of 6% for nitrogen oxide, 5% for carbon dioxide, and 4% for sulfur dioxide. Wildfires in Florida occur at all times of the year.
All potable water resources have been controlled by the state government through five regional water authorities since 1972.
Red tide has been an issue on the southwest coast of Florida, as well as other areas. While there has been a great deal of conjecture over the cause of the toxic algae bloom, there is no evidence that it is being caused by pollution or that there has been an increase in the duration or frequency of red tides. Red tide is now killing off wildlife or Tropical fish and coral reefs putting all in danger.
The
The Florida peninsula is a porous plateau of karst limestone sitting atop bedrock known as the Florida Platform.
The largest deposits of potash in the United States are found in Florida. The largest deposits of Phosphorite, rock phosphate in the country are found in Florida. Most of this is in Bone Valley.
Extended systems of underwater caves, sinkholes and spring (hydrosphere), springs are found throughout the state and supply most of the water used by residents. The limestone is topped with sandy soils deposited as ancient beaches over millions of years as global sea levels rose and fell. During the last glacial period, lower sea levels and a drier climate revealed a much wider peninsula, largely Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, savanna. While there are sinkholes in much of the state, modern sinkholes have tended to be in West-Central Florida. Everglades National Park covers , throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida, Dade, Monroe County, Florida, Monroe, and Collier County, Florida, Collier counties in Florida. The
The National Map
, accessed April 21, 2011 north-flowing blackwater river, blackwater tributary of the
"Econlockhatchee River"
. Saint Johns River Water Management District. Retrieved on August 4, 2014. Earthquakes are rare because Florida is not located near any plate tectonics, tectonic plate boundaries.
*
The United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the population of Florida was 21,477,737 on July 1, 2019, a 14.24% increase since the 2010 United States Census, 2010 United States census. The population of Florida in the 2010 census was 18,801,310. Florida was the seventh fastest-growing state in the U.S. in the 12-month period ending July 1, 2012. In 2010, the center of population of Florida was located between Fort Meade, Florida, Fort Meade and Frostproof, Florida, Frostproof. The center of population has moved less than to the east and approximately to the north between 1980 and 2010 and has been located in Polk County, Florida, Polk County since the 1960 United States Census, 1960 census. The population exceeded 19.7million by December 2014, surpassing the population of the state of New York (state), New York for the first time, making Florida the third most populous state. The Florida population was 21,477,737 residents or people according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 Population Estimates Program. By the 2020 census, its population increased to 21,538,187.
In 2010, Illegal immigration, undocumented immigrants constituted an estimated 5.7% of the population. This was the sixth highest percentage of any U.S. state. There were an estimated 675,000 illegal immigrants in the state in 2010. Florida has banned Sanctuary city, sanctuary cities.
In 2010, 6.9% of the population (1,269,765) considered themselves to be of only American people, American ancestry (regardless of race or ethnicity). Many of these were of English or Scots-Irish American, Scotch-Irish descent; however, their families have lived in the state for so long they choose to identify as having "American" ancestry or do not know their ancestry. In the 1980 United States census, the largest ancestry group reported in Florida was English with 2,232,514 Floridians claiming they were of English or mostly English American ancestry. Some of their ancestry dated to the original thirteen colonies.
, those of (non-Hispanic white) European ancestry accounted for 57.9% of Florida's population. Out of the 57.9%, the largest groups were 12.0% Germans, German (2,212,391), 10.7% Irish people, Irish (1,979,058), 8.8% English (1,629,832), 6.6% Italians, Italian (1,215,242), 2.8% Polish people, Polish (511,229), and 2.7% French people, French (504,641). White Americans of all European backgrounds are present in all areas of the state. In 1970, non-Hispanic whites constituted nearly 80% of Florida's population. Those of English American, English and Irish American, Irish ancestry are present in large numbers in all the urban/suburban areas across the state. Some native white Floridians, especially those who have descended from long-time Florida families, may refer to themselves as "Florida crackers"; others see the term as a derogatory one. Like whites in most other states of the southern U.S., they descend mainly from English and Scots-Irish American, Scots-Irish settlers, as well as some other British American settlers.
As of 2010, those of Hispanic or Latino ancestry accounted for 22.5% (4,223,806) of Florida's population. Out of the 22.5%, the largest groups were 6.5% (1,213,438) Cuban Americans, Cuban, and 4.5% (847,550) Stateside Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican. Florida's Hispanics in the United States, Hispanic population includes large communities of Cuban Americans in Miami and Tampa, Puerto Ricans in the United States, Puerto Ricans in Orlando and Tampa, and Mexican/Central American migrant workers. The Hispanic community continues to grow more affluent and mobile. Florida has a large and diverse Hispanic population, with Cubans and Puerto Ricans being the largest groups in the state. Nearly 80% of Cuban Americans live in Florida, especially South Florida where there is a long-standing and affluent Cuban community. Florida has the second-largest Puerto Rican population after New York, as well as the fastest-growing in the nation. Puerto Ricans are more widespread throughout the state, though the heaviest concentrations are in the Orlando area of Central Florida. Florida has one of the largest and most diverse Hispanic/Latino populations in the country, especially in South Florida around Miami, and to a lesser degree Central Florida. Aside from the dominant Cuban and Puerto Rican populations, there are also large populations of Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans and Dominicans, among numerous other groups, as most Latino groups have sizable numbers in the state.
, those of African ancestry accounted for 16.0% of Florida's population, which includes African Americans. Out of the 16.0%, 4.0% (741,879) were West Indian or Afro-Caribbean American. During the early 1900s, black people made up nearly half of the state's population. In response to segregation, disfranchisement and agricultural depression, many African Americans migrated from Florida to northern cities in the Great Migration (African American), Great Migration, in waves from 1910 to 1940, and again starting in the later 1940s. They moved for jobs, better education for their children and the chance to vote and participate in society. By 1960, the proportion of African Americans in the state had declined to 18%. Conversely, large numbers of northern White people, whites moved to the state. Today, large concentrations of black residents can be found in northern and central Florida. Aside from blacks descended from African slaves brought to the southern U.S., there are also large numbers of blacks of West Indian American, West Indian, African immigration to the United States, recent African, and Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, Afro-Latino immigrant origins, especially in the Miami/South Florida area. Florida has the largest West Indian population of any state, originating from many Caribbean countries, with Haitian Americans being the most numerous.
In 2016, Florida had the highest percentage of West Indians in the United States at 4.5%, with 2.3% (483,874) from Haitians, Haitian ancestry, 1.5% (303,527) Jamaicans, Jamaican, and 0.2% (31,966) Bahamians, Bahamian, with the other West Indian groups making up the rest.
, those of Asian ancestry accounted for 2.4% of Florida's population.
As of 2011, Florida contains the highest percentage of people over 65 (17.3%) in the U.S. There were 186,102 military retirees living in the state in 2008. About two-thirds of the population was born in another state, the second-highest in the U.S.
In 2020, Hispanic and Latinos of any race(s) made up 26.5% of the population, while Native Hawaiians Pacific Islander, and Pacific Islanders made up 0.1% of all Broward County residents.
Florida is mostly Christians, Christian (70%), although there is a large irreligious and relatively significant Jewish community. Protestantism, Protestants account for almost half of the population, but the Catholic Church is the largest single denomination in the state mainly due to its large Hispanic population and other groups like Haitians. Protestants are very diverse, although Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals and nondenominational Protestants are the largest groups. Smaller Christian groups include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Florida, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses. There is also a sizable American Jews, Jewish community in South Florida. This is the largest Jewish population in the Southern United States, southern U.S. and the third-largest in the U.S. behind those of New York (state), New York and California.
In 2010, the three largest denominations in Florida were the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the United Methodist Church.
The Pew Research Center survey in 2014 gave the following religious makeup of Florida:
"Florida gains two U.S. House seats in Census"
, ''St. Petersburg Times'', December 21, 2010 The legislature's redistricting, announced in 2012, was quickly challenged in court, on the grounds that it had unfairly benefited Republican interests. In 2015, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on appeal that the congressional districts had to be redrawn because of the legislature's violation of the Fair District Amendments to the state constitution passed in 2010; it accepted a new map in early December 2015. The political make-up of congressional and legislative districts has enabled Republicans to control the governorship and most statewide elective offices, and 17 of the state's 27 seats in the 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, 2012, House of Representatives. Florida has been listed as a swing state in presidential elections since 1952, voting for the losing candidate only twice in that period of time.
In the closely contested 2000 United States presidential election in Florida, 2000 election, the state played a pivotal role. Out of more than 5.8million votes for the two main contenders Bush and Al Gore, around 500 votes separated the two candidates for the all-decisive Florida electoral votes that landed Bush the election win. Florida's felony disenfranchisement law is more severe than most European nations or other American states. A 2002 study in the ''American Sociological Review'' concluded that "if the state's 827,000 disenfranchised felons had voted at the same rate as other Floridians, Democratic candidate Al Gore would have won Florida—and the presidency—by more than 80,000 votes."Matt Ford, "Restoring Voting Rights for Felons in Maryland"
, ''The Atlantic'', February 9, 2016, accessed March 23, 2016 In 2008, delegates of both the Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008#GOP February 5 rule, Republican Florida primary election and Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008#Nullified primaries, Democratic Florida primary election were stripped of half of their votes when the conventions met in August due to violation of both parties' national rules. In the 2010 elections, Republicans solidified their dominance statewide, by winning the governor's mansion, and maintaining firm majorities in both houses of the state legislature. They won four previously Democratic-held seats to create a 19–6 Republican majority delegation representing Florida in the federal House of Representatives. In 2010, more than 63% of state voters approved the initiated Amendments5 and6 to the state constitution, to ensure more fairness in districting. These have become known as the Fair District Amendments. As a result of the 2010 United States Census, Florida gained two House of Representative seats in 2012. The legislature issued revised congressional districts in 2012, which were immediately challenged in court by supporters of the above amendments. The court ruled in 2014, after lengthy testimony, that at least two districts had to be redrawn because of gerrymandering. After this was appealed, in July 2015 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers had followed an illegal and unconstitutional process overly influenced by party operatives, and ruled that at least eight districts had to be redrawn. On December 2, 2015, a 5–2 majority of the Court accepted a new map of congressional districts, some of which was drawn by challengers. Their ruling affirmed the map previously approved by Leon County, Florida, Leon County Judge Terry Lewis, who had overseen the original trial. It particularly makes changes in South Florida. There are likely to be additional challenges to the map and districts. According to The Sentencing Project, the effect of Florida's felony disenfranchisement law is such that in 2014, "[m]ore than one in ten Floridians—and nearly one in four African-American Floridians—are [were] shut out of the polls because of felony convictions", although they had completed sentences and parole/probation requirements. The state switched back to the GOP in the 2016 United States presidential election in Florida, 2016 presidential election, and again in 2020 United States presidential election in Florida, 2020, when Donald Trump headed the party's ticket both times. 2020 marked the first time Florida sided with the eventual loser of the national election since 1992 United States presidential election in Florida, 1992. In the 2018 United States elections, 2018 elections, the ratio of Republican to Democratic representation fell from 16:11 to 14:13. The U.S. Senate election between Democratic incumbent senator Bill Nelson and then governor Rick Scott was close, with 49.93% voting for the incumbent and 50.06% voting for the former governor. Republicans also held onto the governorship in a close race between Republican candidate Ron DeSantis and Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum, with 49.6% voting for DeSantis and 49.3% voting for Gillum. In 2022 United States elections, 2022, incumbent Governor DeSantis 2022 Florida gubernatorial election, won reelection by a Landslide victory, landslide against Democrat Charlie Crist. The unexpectedly large margin of victory led many pundits to question Florida's perennial status as a swing state, and instead identify it as a red state. In November 2021, for the first time in Florida's history, the total number of registered Republican voters exceeded the number of registered Democrats."The Collapse of the Florida Democratic Party"
, ''Florida Political Review'', January 4, 2022, accessed January 12, 2022
In 1972, the state made personal injury protection auto insurance mandatory for drivers, becoming the second in the nation to enact a no-fault insurance law. The ease of receiving payments under this law is seen as precipitating a major increase in insurance fraud. Auto insurance fraud was the highest in the nation in 2011, estimated at close to $1billion. Fraud is particularly centered in the Miami-Dade and Tampa areas.
Capital punishment is applied in Florida. If a person committing a predicate felony directly contributed to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the first degree. The only two sentences available for that statute are life imprisonment and the death penalty.''The Florida Statutes.'' If a person commits a predicate felony, but was not the direct contributor to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the second degree. The maximum prison term is life. In 1995, the legislature modified Chapter 921 to provide that felons should serve at least 85% of their sentence.
Florida approved its Florida Lottery, lottery by amending the constitution in 1984. It approved slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade County in 2004. It has disapproved casinos (outside of sovereign
There were 2.7million Medicaid patients in Florida in 2009. The governor has proposed adding $2.6billion to care for the expected 300,000 additional patients in 2011. The cost of caring for 2.3million clients in 2010 was $18.8billion. This is nearly 30% of Florida's budget. Medicaid paid for 60% of all births in Florida in 2009. The state has a Florida Medicaid waiver, program for those not covered by Medicaid.
In 2013, Florida refused to participate in providing coverage for the uninsured under the Affordable Care Act, colloquially called Obamacare. The Florida legislature also refused to accept additional Federal funding for Medicaid, although this would have helped its constituents at no cost to the state. As a result, Florida is second only to Texas in the percentage of its citizens without health insurance.
Florida has the largest collection of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings, both in the United States and in the entire world, most of which are located in the
In 2020, Florida was ranked the third best state in America for K–12, K-12 education, outperforming the nation in 15 out of 18 metrics in ''Education Week''Education Week,
Florida has 131 public airports. Florida's seven large hub and medium hub airports, as classified by the FAA, are the following:
* Brightline is a Diesel-electric train, diesel–electric higher-speed rail system. Currently service is only from West Palm Beach station (Brightline), West Palm Beach to MiamiCentral station, Miami through express intercity service, with a stop at Fort Lauderdale station (Brightline), Fort Lauderdale. The complete project is intended to connect Miami and South Florida to Orlando, Florida, Orlando, which requires a new line westward from the coast. It partially opened for passenger service between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach on January 13, 2018, as the only privately owned and operated passenger railroad in the United States. With a top speed of , Brightline will eventually be tied with Amtrak's ''Northeast Regional'' and the MARC Train, MARC's Penn Line commuter rail as the second fastest passenger train in North America, after Amtrak's ''Acela''.
* Florida is also served by Amtrak, operating numerous lines throughout, connecting the state's largest cities to points north in the United States and Canada. The busiest Amtrak train stations in Florida in 2011 were: Sanford station (Amtrak), Sanford (259,944), Orlando Health/Amtrak station, Orlando (179,142), Tampa Union Station (140,785), Miami station (Amtrak), Miami (94,556), and Jacksonville station, Jacksonville (74,733). Sanford, Florida, Sanford, in Greater Orlando, is the southern terminus of the ''Auto Train'', which originates at Lorton, Virginia, south of Washington, D.C. Until 2005, Orlando was also the eastern terminus of the ''Sunset Limited'', which travels across the southern United States via New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio to its western terminus of Los Angeles. Florida is served by two additional Amtrak trains (the ''Silver Star (Amtrak train), Silver Star'' and the ''Silver Meteor''), which operate between New York City and Miami. MiamiCentral station, MiamiCentral in Greater Downtown Miami and the Miami Intermodal Center near Miami International Airport are major hubs for rapid transit, commuter rail, intercity rail, and buses.
* Miami: Miami's public transportation is served by Miami-Dade Transit that runs Miami Metrorail, Metrorail, a heavy rail rapid transit system, Miami-Dade Metromover, Metromover, a people mover train system in Downtown Miami, and Miami-Dade Transit#Metrobus, Metrobus, Miami's bus system. Metrorail runs throughout Miami-Dade County and has two lines and 23 stations connecting to Downtown Miami's Metromover and Tri-Rail. Metromover has three lines and 21 stations throughout Downtown Miami. Outside of Miami-Dade County, public transit in the
Florida has three National Football League, NFL teams, two Major League Baseball, MLB teams, two National Basketball Association, NBA teams, two National Hockey League, NHL teams, and two Major League Soccer, MLS teams. Florida gained its first permanent major-league professional sports team in 1966 when the American Football League added the Miami Dolphins. Florida has given professional sports franchises some subsidies in the form of tax breaks since 1991.
About half of all Major League Baseball teams conduct spring training in the state, with teams informally organized into the "Grapefruit League". Throughout MLB history, other teams have held spring training in Florida.
NASCAR (headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona Beach) begins all three of its major auto racing series in Florida at Daytona International Speedway in February, featuring the Daytona 500. Daytona also has the Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR race weekend in August. NASCAR also has a race weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, Homestead in October. The 24 Hours of Daytona is one of the world's most prestigious endurance auto races. The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and Grand Prix of Miami (Indycar), Grand Prix of Miami have held IndyCar races as well.
Florida is a major golf hub. The Professional Golfers' Association of America, PGA of America is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Palm Beach Gardens, the PGA Tour is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Ponte Vedra Beach, and the LPGA is headquartered in Daytona Beach. The Players Championship, WGC-Cadillac Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Honda Classic and Valspar Championship are PGA Tour rounds.
Florida has teams in all five American major league sports. Florida's most recent major-league team, Inter Miami CF, Inter Miami, began play in MLS in 2020.
The Miami Masters is an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and WTA Premier tournaments, WTA Premier tennis event, whereas the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships is an ATP World Tour 250 event.
There are minor league baseball, American football, football, basketball, ice hockey, soccer and indoor American football, indoor football teams based in Florida. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is the largest football stadium in Florida, the List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums, 12th largest stadium in American college football, and the List of stadiums by capacity, 18th largest stadium in the world, as measured by its official seating capacity of 88,548—though, it has often held over 90,000 for Florida's home football games.
Florida's universities have a number of National Collegiate Athletic Association, collegiate sport programs. Major college football programs include the Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Florida Gators of the Southeastern Conference. Since 1996, Florida has added four additional teams to the ranks of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Division I FBS: UCF Knights, South Florida Bulls, Florida Atlantic Owls and FIU Panthers.
The majority of the symbols were chosen after 1950; only the two oldest symbols—the state flower (chosen in 1909), and the List of U.S. state birds, state bird (chosen in 1927), and the state nickname (chosen in 1970)—are not listed in the 2010 Florida Statutes.
* List of U.S. state amphibians, Amphibian: Hyla gratiosa, Barking tree frog
* List of U.S. state mammals, Animal:
State website
*
Florida Memory Project
Over 300,000 photographs and documents from the State Library & Archives of Florida
Online collection of the Spanish Land Grants
USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Florida
Florida Rivers and Watersheds—Florida DEP
Economic and farm demographics fact sheet from the USDA
Energy & Environmental Data For Florida
Florida state butterfly, on the University of Florida, UF / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
TerraFly Property Value and Aerial Imagery Spatio-temporal animation Real Estate Trends in Florida
List of searchable databases produced by Florida state agencies
hosted by th
American Library Association Government Documents Roundtable
{{coord, 28, -82, dim:300000_region:US-FL_type:adm1st, name=State of Florida, display=title Florida, 1845 establishments in the United States Former Spanish colonies Peninsulas of Florida Southern United States States and territories established in 1845 States of the Confederate States of America States of the East Coast of the United States States of the Gulf Coast of the United States States of the United States U.S. states with multiple time zones Contiguous United States
accessed December 8, 2014. was an ,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
, and Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes, particularly in golf, tennis, auto racing, and water sports
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...
. Florida was also heavily noted for being a battleground state in American presidential elections
The election of the president and the vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not direc ...
, particularly those in 2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
, 2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
, and 2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
.
About two-thirds of Florida occupies a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
and the Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. It has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
, spanning approximately 1,350 miles (2,170 km), not including its many barrier island
Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...
s. Florida has 4,510 islands that are ten acres (4 ha) or larger in area, the second highest number after Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
. Much of the state is at or near sea level, and is characterized by sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...
ary soil. Florida is the flattest state in the country, with the lowest high point of any U.S. state, at just 345 feet (105 meters). Florida's largest freshwater lake, Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee (), also known as Florida's Inland Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the tenth largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest natural freshwat ...
, is the second-largest located entirely within the contiguous 48 states
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
and often referred to as an inland sea. Several beaches in Florida have turquoise and emerald-colored coastal waters.
Florida's climate varies from subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
in the north to tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
in the south. It is the only state besides Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
to have a tropical climate
Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...
, and is the only continental state with both a tropical climate (at the lower tip of the peninsula) and a coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
Co ...
. Consequently, Florida has several unique ecosystems, most notably Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east ...
, the largest tropical wilderness in the U.S. and among the largest in the Americas. Unique wildlife include the American alligator
The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the g ...
, American crocodile
The American crocodile (''Crocodylus acutus'') is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics. It is the most widespread of the four extant species of crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida and the coasts ...
, American flamingo
The American flamingo (''Phoenicopterus ruber'') is a large species of flamingo closely related to the greater flamingo and Chilean flamingo native to the Neotropics. It was formerly considered conspecific with the greater flamingo, but that trea ...
, Roseate spoonbill
The roseate spoonbill (''Platalea ajaja'') is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in both South and North America.
Taxonomy
The roseate spoonbill is sometimes placed in its own ...
, Florida panther
The Florida panther is a North American cougar (''P. c. couguar'') population in South Florida. It lives in pinelands, tropical hardwood hammocks, and mixed freshwater swamp forests. It is known under a number of common names including Costa R ...
, bottlenose dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common ...
, and manatee
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species ...
. The Florida Reef
The Florida Reef (also known as the Great Florida Reef, Florida reefs, Florida Reef Tract and Florida Keys Reef Tract) is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. It is the third largest coral barrier reef system in ...
is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, and the third-largest coral barrier reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
and Belize Barrier Reef
The Belize Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize, roughly offshore in the north and in the south within the country limits. The Belize Barrier Reef is a long section of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, ...
.
History
People, known as Paleo-Indians, entered Florida at least 14,000 years ago. By the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, majorgroups of people
In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties ...
living in Florida included the Apalachee
The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River,Bobby ...
of the Florida Panhandle
The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...
, the Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...
of northern and central Florida, the Ais AIS may refer to:
Medicine
* Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries
* Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke
* Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...
of the central Atlantic coast, and the Calusa
The Calusa ( ) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years.
At the time of ...
of southwest Florida.
European arrival
Florida was the first region of what is now the contiguous United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
to be visited and settled by Europeans. The earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León (, , , ; 1474 – July 1521) was a Spanish explorer and '' conquistador'' known for leading the first official European expedition to Florida and for serving as the first governor of Puerto Rico. He was born in Santervá ...
. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2, 1513. He named it '' La Florida'' in recognition of the verdant landscape and because it was the Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
season, which the Spaniards
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance peoples, Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of National and regional identity in Spain, national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex Hist ...
called ''Pascua Florida
Pascua Florida (pronounced ) is a Spanish term that means "flowery festival" or "feast of flowers" and is an annual celebration of Juan Ponce de León's arrival in what is now the state of Florida. While the holiday is normally celebrated on Apri ...
'' (Festival of Flowers). The following day they came ashore to seek information and take possession of this new land. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth
The Fountain of Youth is a mythical spring which allegedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks or bathes in its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted around the world for thousands of years, appearing in the writings of Herod ...
is mythical and appeared only long after his death.
In May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (; ; 1500 – 21 May, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and '' conquistador'' who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire ...
skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described a thick wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as , with intertwined and elevated roots making landing difficult. The Spanish introduced Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, cattle, horses, sheep, the Castilian language, and more to Florida. Spain established several settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success. In 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano
Tristán de Luna y Arellano (1510 – September 16, 1573) was a Spanish explorer and Conquistador of the 16th century.Herbert Ingram Priestley, Tristan de Luna: Conquistador of the Old South: A Study of Spanish Imperial Strategy (1936). http://palm ...
established a settlement at present-day Pensacola
Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...
, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was mostly abandoned by 1561.
In 1564–65 there was a French settlement at Fort Caroline
Fort Caroline was an attempted French colonial settlement in Florida, located on the banks of the St. Johns River in present-day Duval County. It was established under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière on 22 June, 1564, followin ...
, in present Duval County, which was destroyed by the Spanish.
In 1565, the settlement of St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
(San Agustín) was established under the leadership of admiral and governor Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (; ast, Pedro (Menéndez) d'Avilés; 15 February 1519 – 17 September 1574) was a Spanish admiral, explorer and conquistador from Avilés, in Asturias, Spain. He is notable for planning the first regular trans-oceani ...
, creating what would become one of the oldest, continuously occupied European settlements in the continental U.S. and establishing the first generation of Floridanos and the Government of Florida
The government of Florida is established and operated according to the Constitution of Florida and is composed of three separation of powers, branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the governor of Florida and the other electe ...
. Spain maintained strategic control over the region by converting the local tribes to Christianity. The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free black domestic servant from Seville, and Miguel Rodríguez, a white Segovian, occurred in 1565 in St. Augustine. It is the first recorded Christian marriage in the continental United States.
Some Spanish married or had unions with Pensacola, Creek or African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
women, both slave and free, and their descendants created a mixed-race population of mestizo
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...
s and mulatto
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
s. The Spanish encouraged slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
from the Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
to come to Florida as a refuge, promising freedom in exchange for conversion to Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. King Charles II of Spain
Charles II of Spain (''Spanish: Carlos II,'' 6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700), known as the Bewitched (''Spanish: El Hechizado''), was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire. Best remembered for his physical disabilities and the War of ...
issued a royal proclamation freeing all slaves who fled to Spanish Florida and accepted conversion and baptism. Most went to the area around St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
, but escaped slaves also reached Pensacola. St. Augustine had mustered an all-black militia unit defending Spanish Florida as early as 1683.
The geographical area of Spanish claims in ''La Florida'' diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north and French claims to the west. English colonists and buccaneer
Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from Stuart Restoration, the Restoration in 16 ...
s launched several attacks on St. Augustine in the 17th and 18th centuries, razing the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Spain built the Castillo de San Marcos
The Castillo de San Marcos (Spanish for "St. Mark's Castle") is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida.
It was designed by the Spanish ...
in 1672 and Fort Matanzas
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
in 1742 to defend Florida's capital city from attacks, and to maintain its strategic position in the defense of the Captaincy General of Cuba and the Spanish West Indies
The Spanish West Indies or the Spanish Antilles (also known as "Las Antillas Occidentales" or simply "Las Antillas Españolas" in Spanish language, Spanish) were Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. In terms of governance of the Spanish Empire, The ...
.
In 1738, the Spanish governor of Florida Manuel de Montiano
Manuel Joaquín de Montiano y Sopelana (January 6, 1685 – January 7, 1762) was a Spanish General and colonial administrator who served as Royal Governor of La Florida during Florida's First Spanish Period and as Royal Governor of Panama. He d ...
established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St. Augustine, a fortified town for escaped slaves to whom Montiano granted citizenship and freedom in return for their service in the Florida militia, and which became the first free black settlement legally sanctioned in North America.
In 1763
Events
January–March
* January 27 – The seat of colonial administration in the Viceroyalty of Brazil is moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.
* February 1 – The Royal Colony of North Carolina officially creates Meck ...
, Spain traded Florida to the Kingdom of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...
for control of Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
, Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, which had been captured by the British during the Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
. The trade was done as part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years' War. Spain was granted Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
from France due to their loss of Florida. A large portion of the Florida population left, taking along large portions of the remaining indigenous population with them to Cuba. The British soon constructed the King's Road
King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...
connecting St. Augustine to Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. The road crossed the St. Johns River
The St. Johns River ( es, Río San Juan) is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in eleva ...
at a narrow point called ''Wacca Pilatka,'' or the British name "Cow Ford", reflecting the fact that cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
were brought across the river there.
The British divided and consolidated the Florida provinces (''Las Floridas'') into East Florida
East Florida ( es, Florida Oriental) was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of Spanish Florida from 1783 to 1821. Great Britain gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of ''La Florida'' in 1763 as part of ...
and West Florida
West Florida ( es, Florida Occidental) was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former S ...
, a division the Spanish government kept after the brief British period. The British government gave land grants to officers and soldiers who had fought in the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
in order to encourage settlement. In order to induce settlers to move to Florida, reports of its natural wealth were published in England. A number of British settlers who were described as being "energetic and of good character" moved to Florida, mostly coming from South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and England. There was also a group of settlers who came from the colony of Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, e ...
. This was the first permanent English-speaking population in what is now Duval County, Baker County, St. Johns County and Nassau County. The British constructed good public roads and introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, indigo and fruits, as well as the export of lumber.''A History of Florida''. Caroline Mays Brevard, Henry Eastman Bennett''The Land Policy in British East Florida''. Charles L. Mowat
Charles Loch Mowat (4 October 1911 – 23 June 1970) was a British-born American historian.
Biography
Mowat was educated at Marlborough College and St John's College, Oxford. John Ramsden (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century ...
, 1940
The British governors were directed to call general assemblies as soon as possible in order to make laws for the Floridas, and in the meantime they were, with the advice of councils, to establish courts. This was the first introduction of the English-derived legal system which Florida still has today, including trial by jury
A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions.
Jury trials are used in a significant ...
, habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
and county-based government. Neither East Florida nor West Florida sent any representatives to Philadelphia to draft the Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...
. Florida remained a Loyalist stronghold for the duration of the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
.
Spain regained both East and West Florida after Britain's defeat in the Revolutionary War and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
in 1783, and continued the provincial divisions until 1821.
Statehood and Indian removal
Defense of Florida's northern border with the United States was minor during the second Spanish period. The region became a haven for escaped slaves and a base for Indian attacks against U.S. territories, and the U.S. pressed Spain for reform.
Americans of English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and Scots-Irish descent began moving into northern Florida from the backwoods of Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. Though technically not allowed by the Spanish authorities and the Floridan government, they were never able to effectively police the border region and the backwoods settlers from the United States would continue to immigrate into Florida unchecked. These migrants, mixing with the already present British settlers who had remained in Florida since the British period, would be the progenitors of the population known as Florida Cracker
Florida crackers were colonial-era British and American pioneer settlers in what is now the U.S. state of Florida; the term is also applied to their descendants, to the present day, and their subculture among white Southerners. The first cracker ...
s.
These American settlers established a permanent foothold in the area and ignored Spanish authorities. The British settlers who had remained also resented Spanish rule, leading to a rebellion in 1810 and the establishment for ninety days of the so-called Free and Independent Republic of West Florida
West Florida ( es, Florida Occidental) was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former S ...
on September 23. After meetings beginning in June, rebels overcame the garrison at Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...
(now in Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
), and unfurled the flag of the new republic: a single white star on a blue field. This flag would later become known as the " Bonnie Blue Flag".
In 1810, parts of West Florida were annexed by the proclamation of President James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
, who claimed the region as part of the Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...
. These parts were incorporated into the newly formed Territory of Orleans
The Territory of Orleans or Orleans Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from October 1, 1804, until April 30, 1812, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Louisiana.
History
In 1804, ...
. The U.S. annexed the Mobile District of West Florida to the Mississippi Territory
The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. T ...
in 1812. Spain continued to dispute the area, though the United States gradually increased the area it occupied. In 1812, a group of settlers from Georgia, with de facto support from the U.S. federal government, attempted to overthrow the Floridan government in the province of East Florida. The settlers hoped to convince Floridians to join their cause and proclaim independence from Spain, but the settlers lost their tenuous support from the federal government and abandoned their cause by 1813.
Traditionally, historians argued that Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...
s based in East Florida
East Florida ( es, Florida Oriental) was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of Spanish Florida from 1783 to 1821. Great Britain gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of ''La Florida'' in 1763 as part of ...
began raiding Georgia settlements, and offering havens for runaway slaves. The United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
led increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory, including the 1817–1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians by Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
that became known as the First Seminole War
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...
. The United States now effectively controlled East Florida. Control was necessary according to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
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."
More recent historians describe that after U.S. independence, settlers in Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
increased pressure on Seminole lands, and skirmishes near the border led to the First Seminole War
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...
(1816–19). The United States purchased Florida from Spain by the Adams-Onis Treaty (1819) and took possession in 1821. The Seminole were moved out of their rich farmland in northern Florida and confined to a large reservation in the interior of the Florida peninsula by the Treaty of Moultrie Creek
The Treaty of Moultrie Creek was an agreement signed in 1823 between the government of the United States and the chiefs of several groups and bands of Indians living in the present-day state of Florida. The treaty established a reservation in t ...
(1823). Passage of the Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...
(1830) led to the Treaty of Payne's Landing
The Treaty of Payne's Landing (Treaty with the Seminole, 1832) was an agreement signed on 9 May 1832 between the government of the United States and several chiefs of the Seminole Indians in the Territory of Florida, before it acquired statehood.
...
(1832), which called for the relocation of all Seminole to Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
(now Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
).Mahon, pp. 190–191. Some resisted, leading to the Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups collectively known as Seminoles, consisting of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans and ...
, the bloodiest war against Native Americans in United States history. By 1842, however, most Seminoles and Black Seminoles, facing starvation, were removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
. Perhaps fewer than 200 Seminoles remained in Florida after the Third Seminole War
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...
(1855–1858), having taken refuge in the Everglades, from where they never surrendered to the US. They fostered a resurgence in traditional customs and a culture of staunch independence.Mahon, pp. 201–202
Florida had become a burden to Spain, which could not afford to send settlers or troops due to the devastation caused by the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
. Madrid, therefore, decided to cede the territory to the United States through the Adams–Onís Treaty
The Adams–Onís Treaty () of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty,Weeks, p.168. was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined t ...
, which took effect in 1821. President James Monroe
James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
was authorized on March 3, 1821, to take possession of East Florida
East Florida ( es, Florida Oriental) was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of Spanish Florida from 1783 to 1821. Great Britain gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of ''La Florida'' in 1763 as part of ...
and West Florida
West Florida ( es, Florida Occidental) was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former S ...
for the United States and provide for initial governance. Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
, on behalf of the U.S. federal government, served as a military commissioner with the powers of governor of the newly acquired territory for a brief period. On March 30, 1822, the U.S. Congress merged East Florida
East Florida ( es, Florida Oriental) was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of Spanish Florida from 1783 to 1821. Great Britain gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of ''La Florida'' in 1763 as part of ...
and part of West Florida
West Florida ( es, Florida Occidental) was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former S ...
into the Florida Territory
The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the state of Florida. Originally the major portion of the Spanish te ...
.
By the early 1800s, Indian removal
Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a de ...
was a significant issue throughout the southeastern U.S. and also in Florida. In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...
and as settlement increased, pressure grew on the U.S. government to remove the Indians from Florida. Seminoles offered sanctuary to blacks, and these became known as the Black Seminoles
The Black Seminoles, or Afro-Seminoles are Native American-Africans associated with the Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma. They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people, free Africans, and escaped slaves, who allied with Seminol ...
, and clashes between whites and Indians grew with the influx of new settlers. In 1832, the Treaty of Payne's Landing
The Treaty of Payne's Landing (Treaty with the Seminole, 1832) was an agreement signed on 9 May 1832 between the government of the United States and several chiefs of the Seminole Indians in the Territory of Florida, before it acquired statehood.
...
promised to the Seminoles lands west of the Mississippi River if they agreed to leave Florida. Many Seminole left at this time.
Some Seminoles remained, and the U.S. Army arrived in Florida, leading to the Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups collectively known as Seminoles, consisting of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans and ...
(1835–1842). Following the war, approximately 3,000 Seminole and 800 Black Seminole were removed to Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
. A few hundred Seminole remained in Florida in the Everglades
The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orland ...
.
On March 3, 1845, only one day before the end of President John Tyler
John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president dire ...
's term in office, Florida became the 27th state, admitted as a slave state
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
and no longer a sanctuary for runaway slaves. Initially its population grew slowly.
As European settlers continued to encroach on Seminole lands, the United States intervened to move the remaining Seminoles to the West. The Third Seminole War
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...
(1855–58) resulted in the forced removal of most of the remaining Seminoles, although hundreds of Seminole Indians remained in the Everglades.
The first settlements and towns in South Florida were founded much later than those in the northern part of the state. The first permanent European settlers arrived in the early 19th century. People came from the Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
to South Florida and the Keys
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
to hunt for treasure from the ships that ran aground on the treacherous Great Florida Reef
The Florida Reef (also known as the Great Florida Reef, Florida reefs, Florida Reef Tract and Florida Keys Reef Tract) is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. It is the third largest coral barrier reef system in ...
. Some accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River. At about the same time, the Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...
Indians arrived, along with a group of runaway slaves. The area was affected by the Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups collectively known as Seminoles, consisting of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans and ...
, during which Major William S. Harney
William Selby Harney (August 22, 1800 – May 9, 1889) was a Tennessee-born cavalry officer in the US Army, who became known during the Indian Wars and the Mexican–American War for his brutality and ruthlessness. One of four general officers ...
led several raids against the Indians. Most non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas
Fort Dallas was a military base during the Seminole Wars on the banks of the Miami River in what is now Downtown Miami, Florida, United States.
History
Old Fort Dallas was established on the plantation of Richard Fitzpatrick and William English ...
. It was the most devastating Indian war in American history, causing almost a total loss of population in Miami.
After the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, William English re-established a plantation started by his uncle on the Miami River. He charted the "Village of Miami" on the south bank of the Miami River and sold several plots of land. In 1844, Miami became the county seat, and six years later a census reported there were ninety-six residents in the area. The Third Seminole War
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...
was not as destructive as the second, but it slowed the settlement of southeast Florida. At the end of the war, a few of the soldiers stayed.
Civil War and Reconstruction
American settlers began to establish cotton plantations
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
in north Florida, which required numerous laborers, which they supplied by buying slaves in the domestic market. By 1860, Florida had only 140,424 people, of whom 44% were enslaved. There were fewer than 1,000 free African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
before the American Civil War.
On January 10, 1861, nearly all delegates in the Florida Legislature approved an ordinance of secession, declaring Florida to be "a sovereign and independent nation"—an apparent reassertion to the preamble in Florida's Constitution of 1838, in which Florida agreed with Congress to be a "Free and Independent State." The ordinance declared Florida's secession from the Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
, allowing it to become one of the founding members of the Confederate States
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
.
The Confederacy received little military help from Florida; the 15,000 troops it offered were generally sent elsewhere. Instead of troops and manufactured goods, Florida did provide salt and, more importantly, beef to feed the Confederate armies. This was particularly important after 1864, when the Confederacy lost control of the Mississippi River, thereby losing access to Texas beef. The largest engagements in the state were the Battle of Olustee
The Battle of Olustee or Battle of Ocean Pond was fought in Baker County, Florida on February 20, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
Union General Truman Seymour had landed troops a ...
, on February 20, 1864, and the Battle of Natural Bridge
The Battle of Natural Bridge was fought during the American Civil War in what is now Woodville, Florida near Tallahassee on March 6, 1865. A small group of Confederate troops and volunteers, which included teenagers from the nearby Florida Mil ...
, on March 6, 1865. Both were Confederate victories. The war ended in 1865.
Following the American Civil War, Florida's congressional
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
representation was restored on June 25, 1868, albeit forcefully after Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...
and the installation of unelected government officials under the final authority of federal military commanders. After the Reconstruction period ended in 1876, white Democrats regained power in the state legislature. In 1885, they created a new constitution, followed by statutes through 1889 that disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites.
In the pre-automobile era, railroads played a key role in the state's development, particularly in coastal areas. In 1883, the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad
The Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad (P&A) was a company incorporated by an act of the Florida Legislature on March 4, 1881, to run from Pensacola to the Apalachicola River near Chattahoochee, a distance of about . No railroad had ever been built ...
connected Pensacola and the rest of the Panhandle
A salient (also known as a panhandle or bootheel) is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state.
While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on ...
to the rest of the state. In 1884 the South Florida Railroad
The South Florida Railroad was a railroad from Sanford, Florida, to Tampa, Florida, becoming part of the Plant System in 1893 and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. It served as the southernmost segment of the Atlantic Coast Line's ma ...
(later absorbed by Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...
) opened full service to Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
. In 1894 the Florida East Coast Railway
The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México.
Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pr ...
reached West Palm Beach
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
; in 1896 it reached Biscayne Bay
Biscayne Bay () is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is la ...
near Miami. Numerous other railroads were built all over the interior of the state.
20th and 21st century
Historically, Florida's economy has been based primarily upon agricultural products such as citrus fruits, strawberries, nuts, sugarcane and cattle. The boll weevil devastated cotton crops during the early 20th century.
Until the mid-20th century, Florida was the least-populous state in the southern United States. In 1900, its population was only 528,542, of whom nearly 44% were African American, the same proportion as before the Civil War. Forty thousand blacks, roughly one-fifth of their 1900 population levels in Florida, left the state in the Great Migration (African American), Great Migration. They left due to lynchings and racial violence and for better opportunities in the North and the West. Disfranchisement for most African Americans in the state persisted until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s gained federal legislation in 1965 to enforce protection of their constitutional suffrage.
In response to racial segregation in Florida, a number of protests occurred in Florida during the 1950s and 1960s as part of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1956–1957, students at Florida A&M University organized a bus boycott in Tallahassee to mimic the Montgomery bus boycott and succeeded in integrating the city's buses. Students also held sit-ins in 1960 in protest of segregated seating at local lunch counters, and in 1964 an incident at a St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
motel pool, in which the owner poured acid into the water during a demonstration, influenced the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Economic prosperity in the 1920s stimulated tourism to Florida and related development of hotels and resort communities. Combined with its sudden elevation in profile was the Florida land boom of the 1920s, which brought a brief period of intense land development. In 1925, the Seaboard Air Line broke the FEC's southeast Florida monopoly and extended its freight and passenger service to West Palm Beach; two years later it extended passenger service to Miami. Devastating hurricanes in 1926 Miami hurricane, 1926 and 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, 1928, followed by the Great Depression, brought that period to a halt. Florida's economy did not fully recover until the military buildup for World War II.
In 1939, Florida was described as "still very largely an empty State." Subsequently, the growing availability of air conditioning, the climate, and a low cost of living made the state a haven. Migration from the Rust Belt and the Northeast sharply increased Florida's population after 1945. In the 1960s, many refugees from Cuba fleeing Fidel Castro's communist regime arrived in Miami at the Freedom Tower (Miami), Freedom Tower, where the federal government used the facility to process, document and provide medical and dental services for the newcomers. As a result, the Freedom Tower was also called the "Ellis Island of the South." In recent decades, more migrants have come for the jobs in a developing economy.
With a population of more than 18million, according to the 2010 census, Florida is the most populous state in the southeastern United States and the third-most populous in the United States. The population of Florida has boomed in recent years with the state being the recipient of the largest number of out-of-state movers in the country as of 2019. Florida's growth has been widespread, as cities throughout the state have continued to see population growth.
In 2012, the killing of Trayvon Martin, a young black man, by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, Sanford drew national attention to Florida's stand-your-ground laws, and sparked African-American activism nationally, including the Black Lives Matter movement.
After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, a large population of Puerto Ricans began moving to Florida to escape the widespread destruction. Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans arrived in Florida after Maria dissipated, with nearly half of them arriving in Orlando and large populations also moving to Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach.
A handful of high-profile mass shootings have occurred in Florida in the 21st century. In June 2016, a gunman killed 49 people at a Orlando nightclub shooting, gay nightclub in Orlando. It is the deadliest incident in the history of violence against LGBT people in the United States, as well as the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks in 2001, and it was the deadliest mass shootings in the United States, mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history until the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. In February 2018, 17 people were killed in a Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, leading to new gun control regulations at both the state and federal level.
On June 24, 2021, a condominium in Surfside, Florida, near Miami Surfside condominium building collapse, collapsed, killing at least 97 people. The Surfside collapse is tied with the Knickerbocker Theatre (Washington, D.C.), Knickerbocker Theatre collapse as the List of accidents and disasters by death toll#Structural collapses, third-deadliest List of structural failures and collapses, structural engineering failure in United States history, behind the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse and the Pemberton Mill, collapse of the Pemberton Mill.
Geography
Much of Florida is on a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and the Straits of Florida
The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait ( es, Estrecho de Florida) is a strait located south-southeast of the North American mainland, generally accepted to be between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and between th ...
. Spanning two time zones, it extends to the northwest into a Salient (geography), panhandle, extending along the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is bordered on the north by Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
, and on the west, at the end of the panhandle, by Alabama. It is the only state that borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Florida also is the southernmost of the 48 contiguous states, Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
being the only one of the fifty states reaching farther south. Florida is west of The Bahamas and north of Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. Florida is one of the largest states east of the Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
, and only Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
and Michigan are larger in water area. The water boundary is offshore in the Atlantic Ocean and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
At above mean sea level, Britton Hill is the List of U.S. states and territories by elevation, highest point in Florida and the lowest highpoint of any U.S. state. Much of the state south of Orlando, Florida, Orlando lies at a lower elevation than northern Florida, and is fairly level. Much of the state is at or near sea level. However, some places such as Clearwater, Florida, Clearwater have Promontory, promontories that rise above the water. Much of Central and North Florida, typically or more away from the coastline, have rolling hills with elevations ranging from . The highest point in peninsular Florida (east and south of the Suwannee River), Sugarloaf Mountain (Florida), Sugarloaf Mountain, is a peak in Lake County, Florida, Lake County. On average, Florida is the flattest state in the United States.
Climate
The climate of Florida is tempered somewhat by the fact that no part of the state is distant from the ocean. North of Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee (), also known as Florida's Inland Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the tenth largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest natural freshwat ...
, the prevalent climate is humid subtropical climate, humid subtropical (Köppen climate classification, Köppen: ''Cfa''), while areas south of the lake (including the Florida Keys) have a true tropical climate
Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...
(Köppen: ''Aw'', ''Am'', and ''Af''). Mean high temperatures for late July are primarily in the low 90s Fahrenheit (32–34°C). Mean low temperatures for early to mid January range from the low 40s Fahrenheit (4–7°C) in north Florida to above from Miami on southward. With an average daily temperature of , it is the warmest state in the U.S.
In the summer, high temperatures in the state rarely exceed . Several record cold maxima have been in the 30s °F (−1 to 4°C) and record lows have been in the 10s (−12 to −7°C). These temperatures normally extend at most a few days at a time in the northern and central parts of Florida. South Florida, however, rarely encounters below freezing temperatures. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Florida was , which was set on June 29, 1931, in Monticello, Florida, Monticello. The coldest temperature was , on February 13, 1899, just away, in Tallahassee.
Due to its subtropical and tropical climate, Florida rarely receives measurable Snow in Florida, snowfall. However, on rare occasions, a combination of cold moisture and freezing temperatures can result in snowfall in the farthest northern regions like Jacksonville, Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville or Pensacola. Frost, which is more common than snow, sometimes occurs in the panhandle. The USDA Plant hardiness zones for the state range from zone 8a (no colder than ) in the inland western Florida panhandle, panhandle to zone 11b (no colder than ) in the lower Florida Keys. Fog also occurs all over the state or climate of Florida.
Florida's nickname is the "Sunshine State", but severe weather is a common occurrence in the state. Central Florida is known as the lightning capital of the United States, as it experiences more lightning strikes than anywhere else in the country. Florida has one of the highest average precipitation levels of any state, in large part because afternoon thunderstorms are common in much of the state from late spring until early autumn. A narrow eastern part of the state including Orlando and Jacksonville receives between 2,400 and 2,800 hours of sunshine annually. The rest of the state, including Miami, receives between 2,800 and 3,200 hours annually.
Florida leads the United States in tornadoes per area (when including waterspouts), but they do not typically reach the intensity of those in the Midwest and Great Plains. Hail often accompanies the most severe thunderstorms.
Tropical cyclone, Hurricanes pose a severe threat each year from June1 to November 30, particularly from August to October. Florida is the most hurricane-prone state, with subtropical or tropical water on a lengthy coastline. Of the Category 4 typhoon, category4 or higher storms that have struck the United States, 83% have either hit Florida or Texas.
From 1851 to 2006, Florida was struck by 114 hurricanes, 37 of them major—Saffir–Simpson scale, category3 and above. It is rare for a hurricane season to pass without any impact in the state by at least a tropical storm.
In 1992, Florida was the site of what was then the costliest weather disaster in U.S. history, Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than $25billion in damages when it struck during August; it held that distinction until 2005, when Hurricane Katrina surpassed it, and it has since been surpassed by six other hurricanes. Andrew is currently the second-costliest hurricane in Florida's history.
Fauna
Florida is host to many types of wildlife including:
* Marine mammals: bottlenose dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common ...
, short-finned pilot whale, North Atlantic right whale, West Indian manatee
* Mammals: Florida panther
The Florida panther is a North American cougar (''P. c. couguar'') population in South Florida. It lives in pinelands, tropical hardwood hammocks, and mixed freshwater swamp forests. It is known under a number of common names including Costa R ...
, northern river otter, mink, eastern cottontail rabbit, marsh rabbit, raccoon, striped skunk, squirrel, white-tailed deer, Key deer, bobcats, red fox, gray fox, coyote, wild boar, Florida black bear, nine-banded armadillos, Virginia opossum
* Reptiles: Crotalus adamanteus, eastern diamondback and Sistrurus miliarius barbouri, pygmy rattlesnakes, Gopherus polyphemus, gopher tortoise, Green turtle, green and leatherback sea turtles, brown anoles, and Drymarchon, eastern indigo snake. In 2012, there were about one million American alligator
The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the g ...
s and 1,500 American crocodile, crocodiles.
* Birds: peregrine falcon, bald eagle, American flamingo
The American flamingo (''Phoenicopterus ruber'') is a large species of flamingo closely related to the greater flamingo and Chilean flamingo native to the Neotropics. It was formerly considered conspecific with the greater flamingo, but that trea ...
, crested caracara, snail kite, osprey, American white pelican, white and brown pelicans, Larus, sea gulls, Whooping crane, whooping and sandhill cranes, roseate spoonbill, American white ibis, Florida scrub jay (state endemism, endemic), and others. One subspecies of wild turkey, ''Meleagris gallopavo'' ''osceola'', is found only in Florida. The state is a wintering location for many species of eastern North American birds.
:As a result of climate change, there have been small numbers of several new species normally native to cooler areas to the north: snowy owls, snow buntings, harlequin ducks, and razorbills. These have been seen in the northern part of the state.
* Invertebrates: carpenter ants, termites, American cockroach, Africanized bees, the Miami blue butterfly, and the gonatista grisea, grizzled mantis.
Florida also has more than 500 nonnative animal species and 1,000 nonnative insects found throughout the state. Some exotic species living in Florida include the Burmese python, green iguana, veiled chameleon, Argentine black and white tegu, peacock bass, mayan cichlid, lionfish, White-nosed coati, rhesus macaque, vervet monkey, Cuban tree frog, cane toad, Indian peafowl, monk parakeet, tui parakeet, and many more. Some of these nonnative species do not pose a threat to any native species, but some do threaten the native species of Florida by living in the state and eating them.
Flora
The state has more than of forests, covering about half of the state's land area. There are about 3,000 different types of wildflowers in Florida. This is the third-most diverse state in the union, behind California and Texas, both larger states. In Florida, wild populations of coconut palms extend up the East Coast from Key West to Jupiter Inlet, and up the West Coast from Marco Island to Sarasota. Many of the smallest coral islands in the Florida Keys are known to have abundant coconut palms sprouting from coconuts deposited by ocean currents. Coconut palms are cultivated north of south Florida to roughly Cocoa Beach on the East Coast and the Tampa Bay Area on the West Coast. On the east coast of the state, mangroves have normally dominated the coast from Cocoa Beach, Florida, Cocoa Beach southward; salt marshes fromSt. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
northward. From St. Augustine south to Cocoa Beach, the coast fluctuates between the two, depending on the annual weather conditions. All three mangrove species flower in the spring and early summer. Propagules fall from late summer through early autumn. Florida mangrove plant communities covered an estimated in Florida in 1981. Ninety percent of the Florida mangroves are in southern Florida, in Collier County, Florida, Collier, Lee County, Florida, Lee, Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade and Monroe County, Florida, Monroe Counties.
Florida Reef
The Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. It is also the third-largest coral barrier reef system in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
and the Belize Barrier Reef
The Belize Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize, roughly offshore in the north and in the south within the country limits. The Belize Barrier Reef is a long section of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, ...
. The reef lies a little bit off of the coast of the Florida Keys. A lot of the reef lies within John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which was the first underwater park in the United States. The park contains a lot of tropical vegetation, marine life, and seabirds. The Florida Reef extends into other parks and sanctuaries as well including Dry Tortugas National Park, Biscayne National Park, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Almost 1,400 species of marine plants and animals, including more than 40 species of stony corals and 500 species of fish, live on the Florida Reef. The Florida Reef, being a delicate ecosystem like other coral reefs, faces many threats including overfishing, plastics in the ocean, coral bleaching, rising sea levels, and changes in sea surface temperature.
Environmental issues
Florida is a low per capita energy user. , it is estimated that approximately 4% of energy in the state is generated through renewable resources. Florida's energy production is 6% of the nation's total energy output, while total production of pollutants is lower, with figures of 6% for nitrogen oxide, 5% for carbon dioxide, and 4% for sulfur dioxide. Wildfires in Florida occur at all times of the year.
All potable water resources have been controlled by the state government through five regional water authorities since 1972.
Red tide has been an issue on the southwest coast of Florida, as well as other areas. While there has been a great deal of conjecture over the cause of the toxic algae bloom, there is no evidence that it is being caused by pollution or that there has been an increase in the duration or frequency of red tides. Red tide is now killing off wildlife or Tropical fish and coral reefs putting all in danger.
The Florida panther
The Florida panther is a North American cougar (''P. c. couguar'') population in South Florida. It lives in pinelands, tropical hardwood hammocks, and mixed freshwater swamp forests. It is known under a number of common names including Costa R ...
is close to extinction. A record 23 were killed in 2009, mainly by automobile collisions, leaving about 100 individuals in the wild. The Center for Biological Diversity and others have therefore called for a special protected area for the panther to be established. West Indian manatee, Manatees are also dying at a rate higher than their reproduction. American flamingos are rare to see in Florida due to being hunted in the 1900s, where it was to a point considered completely extirpated. Now the flamingos are reproducing toward making a comeback to South Florida since it is adamantly considered native to the state and also are now being protected.
Much of Florida has an elevation of less than , including many populated areas. Therefore, it is susceptible to Current sea level rise, rising sea levels associated with global warming. The Atlantic beaches that are vital to the state's economy are being washed out to sea due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. The Miami beach area, close to the continental shelf, is running out of accessible offshore sand reserves. Elevated temperatures can damage coral reefs, causing coral bleaching. The first recorded bleaching incident on the Florida Reef was in 1973. Incidents of bleaching have become more frequent in recent decades, in correlation with a rise in sea surface temperatures. White band disease has also adversely affected corals on the Florida Reef.
Geology
The Florida peninsula is a porous plateau of karst limestone sitting atop bedrock known as the Florida Platform.
The largest deposits of potash in the United States are found in Florida. The largest deposits of Phosphorite, rock phosphate in the country are found in Florida. Most of this is in Bone Valley.
Extended systems of underwater caves, sinkholes and spring (hydrosphere), springs are found throughout the state and supply most of the water used by residents. The limestone is topped with sandy soils deposited as ancient beaches over millions of years as global sea levels rose and fell. During the last glacial period, lower sea levels and a drier climate revealed a much wider peninsula, largely Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, savanna. While there are sinkholes in much of the state, modern sinkholes have tended to be in West-Central Florida. Everglades National Park covers , throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida, Dade, Monroe County, Florida, Monroe, and Collier County, Florida, Collier counties in Florida. The Everglades
The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orland ...
, an enormously wide, slow-flowing river encompasses the southern tip of the peninsula. Sinkhole damage claims on property in the state exceeded a total of $2billion from 2006 through 2010. Winter Park, Florida#The Winter Park Sinkhole, Winter Park Sinkhole, in central Florida, appeared May 8, 1981. It was approximately 350 feet (107m) wide and 75 feet (23m) deep. It was notable as one of the largest recent sinkholes to form in the United States. It is now known as Lake Rose. The Econlockhatchee River (Econ River for short) is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map
, accessed April 21, 2011 north-flowing blackwater river, blackwater tributary of the
St. Johns River
The St. Johns River ( es, Río San Juan) is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in eleva ...
, the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida. The Econ River flows through Osceola County, Florida, Osceola, Orange County, Florida, Orange, and Seminole County, Florida, Seminole counties in Central Florida, just east of the Orlando Metropolitan Area (east of Florida State Road 417, State Road 417). It is a designated Outstanding Florida Waters.(2013-01-02)"Econlockhatchee River"
. Saint Johns River Water Management District. Retrieved on August 4, 2014. Earthquakes are rare because Florida is not located near any plate tectonics, tectonic plate boundaries.
Regions
* Florida Panhandle
The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...
** Emerald Coast
** Forgotten Coast
** North Florida
** Pensacola metropolitan area
** Tallahassee metropolitan area
* North Central Florida
** Big Bend (Florida), Big Bend
** Nature Coast
** North Florida
** Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesville metropolitan area
* Northeast Florida
** First Coast
** Jacksonville metropolitan area
** North Florida
* Central West Florida
** Nature Coast
** Tampa Bay Area
** Florida Suncoast
* Central Florida
** Greater Orlando
* Central East Florida
** Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropolitan area
** Halifax area, Surf Coast/Fun Coast/Halifax Area
** Space Coast
** Treasure Coast
* Southwest Florida
** Florida Heartland
** Florida Everglades
** Florida Suncoast
** Sarasota metropolitan area
** Ten Thousand Islands
* South Florida
** Glades (Florida), Everglades
** Gold Coast (Florida), Gold Coast
** Florida Keys
** Miami metropolitan area
The Miami metropolitan area (also known as Greater Miami, the Tri-County Area, South Florida, or the Gold Coast) is the ninth largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world with a ...
Cities and towns
The largest metropolitan area in the state as well as the entire southeastern United States is theMiami metropolitan area
The Miami metropolitan area (also known as Greater Miami, the Tri-County Area, South Florida, or the Gold Coast) is the ninth largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world with a ...
, with about 6.06million people. The Tampa Bay Area, with more than 3.02million, is the second largest; the Orlando metropolitan area, with more than 2.44million, is third; and the Jacksonville metropolitan area, with more than 1.47million, is fourth.
Florida has 22 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Forty-three of Florida's 67 counties are in an MSA.
The legal name in Florida for a city, town or village is "municipality". In Florida there is no legal difference between towns, villages and cities.
Florida is a highly urbanized state, with 89 percent of its population living in urban areas in
2000, compared to 79 percent nationally.
In 2012, 75% of the population lived within of the coastline.
Demographics
Population
The United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the population of Florida was 21,477,737 on July 1, 2019, a 14.24% increase since the 2010 United States Census, 2010 United States census. The population of Florida in the 2010 census was 18,801,310. Florida was the seventh fastest-growing state in the U.S. in the 12-month period ending July 1, 2012. In 2010, the center of population of Florida was located between Fort Meade, Florida, Fort Meade and Frostproof, Florida, Frostproof. The center of population has moved less than to the east and approximately to the north between 1980 and 2010 and has been located in Polk County, Florida, Polk County since the 1960 United States Census, 1960 census. The population exceeded 19.7million by December 2014, surpassing the population of the state of New York (state), New York for the first time, making Florida the third most populous state. The Florida population was 21,477,737 residents or people according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 Population Estimates Program. By the 2020 census, its population increased to 21,538,187.
In 2010, Illegal immigration, undocumented immigrants constituted an estimated 5.7% of the population. This was the sixth highest percentage of any U.S. state. There were an estimated 675,000 illegal immigrants in the state in 2010. Florida has banned Sanctuary city, sanctuary cities.
In 2010, 6.9% of the population (1,269,765) considered themselves to be of only American people, American ancestry (regardless of race or ethnicity). Many of these were of English or Scots-Irish American, Scotch-Irish descent; however, their families have lived in the state for so long they choose to identify as having "American" ancestry or do not know their ancestry. In the 1980 United States census, the largest ancestry group reported in Florida was English with 2,232,514 Floridians claiming they were of English or mostly English American ancestry. Some of their ancestry dated to the original thirteen colonies.
, those of (non-Hispanic white) European ancestry accounted for 57.9% of Florida's population. Out of the 57.9%, the largest groups were 12.0% Germans, German (2,212,391), 10.7% Irish people, Irish (1,979,058), 8.8% English (1,629,832), 6.6% Italians, Italian (1,215,242), 2.8% Polish people, Polish (511,229), and 2.7% French people, French (504,641). White Americans of all European backgrounds are present in all areas of the state. In 1970, non-Hispanic whites constituted nearly 80% of Florida's population. Those of English American, English and Irish American, Irish ancestry are present in large numbers in all the urban/suburban areas across the state. Some native white Floridians, especially those who have descended from long-time Florida families, may refer to themselves as "Florida crackers"; others see the term as a derogatory one. Like whites in most other states of the southern U.S., they descend mainly from English and Scots-Irish American, Scots-Irish settlers, as well as some other British American settlers.
As of 2010, those of Hispanic or Latino ancestry accounted for 22.5% (4,223,806) of Florida's population. Out of the 22.5%, the largest groups were 6.5% (1,213,438) Cuban Americans, Cuban, and 4.5% (847,550) Stateside Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican. Florida's Hispanics in the United States, Hispanic population includes large communities of Cuban Americans in Miami and Tampa, Puerto Ricans in the United States, Puerto Ricans in Orlando and Tampa, and Mexican/Central American migrant workers. The Hispanic community continues to grow more affluent and mobile. Florida has a large and diverse Hispanic population, with Cubans and Puerto Ricans being the largest groups in the state. Nearly 80% of Cuban Americans live in Florida, especially South Florida where there is a long-standing and affluent Cuban community. Florida has the second-largest Puerto Rican population after New York, as well as the fastest-growing in the nation. Puerto Ricans are more widespread throughout the state, though the heaviest concentrations are in the Orlando area of Central Florida. Florida has one of the largest and most diverse Hispanic/Latino populations in the country, especially in South Florida around Miami, and to a lesser degree Central Florida. Aside from the dominant Cuban and Puerto Rican populations, there are also large populations of Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans and Dominicans, among numerous other groups, as most Latino groups have sizable numbers in the state.
, those of African ancestry accounted for 16.0% of Florida's population, which includes African Americans. Out of the 16.0%, 4.0% (741,879) were West Indian or Afro-Caribbean American. During the early 1900s, black people made up nearly half of the state's population. In response to segregation, disfranchisement and agricultural depression, many African Americans migrated from Florida to northern cities in the Great Migration (African American), Great Migration, in waves from 1910 to 1940, and again starting in the later 1940s. They moved for jobs, better education for their children and the chance to vote and participate in society. By 1960, the proportion of African Americans in the state had declined to 18%. Conversely, large numbers of northern White people, whites moved to the state. Today, large concentrations of black residents can be found in northern and central Florida. Aside from blacks descended from African slaves brought to the southern U.S., there are also large numbers of blacks of West Indian American, West Indian, African immigration to the United States, recent African, and Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, Afro-Latino immigrant origins, especially in the Miami/South Florida area. Florida has the largest West Indian population of any state, originating from many Caribbean countries, with Haitian Americans being the most numerous.
In 2016, Florida had the highest percentage of West Indians in the United States at 4.5%, with 2.3% (483,874) from Haitians, Haitian ancestry, 1.5% (303,527) Jamaicans, Jamaican, and 0.2% (31,966) Bahamians, Bahamian, with the other West Indian groups making up the rest.
, those of Asian ancestry accounted for 2.4% of Florida's population.
As of 2011, Florida contains the highest percentage of people over 65 (17.3%) in the U.S. There were 186,102 military retirees living in the state in 2008. About two-thirds of the population was born in another state, the second-highest in the U.S.
In 2020, Hispanic and Latinos of any race(s) made up 26.5% of the population, while Native Hawaiians Pacific Islander, and Pacific Islanders made up 0.1% of all Broward County residents.
Languages
In 1988, English was affirmed as the state's official language in the Florida Constitution. Spanish language, Spanish is also widely spoken, especially as immigration has continued from Latin America. About twenty percent of the population speak Spanish language, Spanish as their first language. Twenty-seven percent of Florida's population reports speaking a mother language other than English, and more than 200 first languages other than English are spoken at home in the state. The most common languages spoken in Florida as a first language in 2010 are: * 73% English * 20% Spanish * 2% Haitian Creole * Other languages less than 1% eachReligion
Florida is mostly Christians, Christian (70%), although there is a large irreligious and relatively significant Jewish community. Protestantism, Protestants account for almost half of the population, but the Catholic Church is the largest single denomination in the state mainly due to its large Hispanic population and other groups like Haitians. Protestants are very diverse, although Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals and nondenominational Protestants are the largest groups. Smaller Christian groups include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Florida, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses. There is also a sizable American Jews, Jewish community in South Florida. This is the largest Jewish population in the Southern United States, southern U.S. and the third-largest in the U.S. behind those of New York (state), New York and California.
In 2010, the three largest denominations in Florida were the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the United Methodist Church.
The Pew Research Center survey in 2014 gave the following religious makeup of Florida:
Governance
The basic structure, duties, function, and operations of the government of the State of Florida are defined and established by the Florida Constitution, which establishes the basic law of the state and guarantees various rights and freedoms of the people. The state government consists of three separate branches: judicial, executive, and legislative. The legislature enacts bills, which, if signed by the Governor of Florida, governor, become Florida Statutes, law. The Florida Legislature comprises the Florida Senate, which has 40 members, and the Florida House of Representatives, which has 120 members. The current governor of Florida is Ron DeSantis. The Florida Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and six justices. Florida has 67 County (United States), counties. Some reference materials may show only 66 because Duval County is consolidated with the City of Jacksonville. There are 379 cities in Florida (out of 411) that report regularly to the Florida Department of Revenue, but there are other incorporated municipalities that do not. The state government's primary revenue source is sales tax. Florida does not impose a personal income tax. The primary revenue source for cities and counties is property tax; unpaid taxes are subject to tax sales, which are held (at the county level) in May and (due to the extensive use of online bidding sites) are highly popular. There were 800 Federal Corrupt Practices Act, federal corruption convictions from 1988 to 2007, more than any other state. In a 2020 study, Florida was ranked as the 11th hardest state for citizens to vote in. In April 2022, the state prohibited Ranked-choice voting in the United States, ranked-choice voting in all federal, state and municipal elections.Elections history
From 1952 to 1964, most voters were registered Democrats, but the state voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election except for 1964 United States presidential election, 1964. The following year, Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, providing for oversight of state practices and enforcement of constitutional voting rights for African Americans and other minorities in order to prevent the discrimination and disenfranchisement which had excluded most of them for decades from the political process. From the 1930s through much of the 1960s, Florida was essentially a one-party state dominated by white conservative Democrats, who together with other Democrats of the Solid South, exercised considerable control in Congress. They have gained slightly less federal money from national programs than they have paid in taxes. Since the 1970s, conservative white voters in the state have largely shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Though the majority of registered voters in Florida are Democrats, it continued to support Republican presidential candidates through 2004, except in 1976 United States presidential election, 1976 and 1996 United States presidential election, 1996, when the Democratic nominee was from Southern United States, the South. In the 2008 United States presidential election, 2008 and 2012 United States presidential election, 2012 presidential elections, Barack Obama carried the state as a northern Democrat, attracting high voter turnout, especially among the young, independents, and minority voters, of whom Hispanics comprise an increasingly large proportion. 2008 marked the first time since 1944, when Franklin D. Roosevelt carried the state for the fourth time, that Florida was carried by a Northern Democrat for president. The first post-Reconstruction era Republican elected to Congress from Florida was William C. Cramer in 1954 from Pinellas County on the Gulf Coast, where demographic changes were underway. In this period, African Americans were still Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era, disenfranchised by the state's constitution and discriminatory practices; in the 19th century, they had made up most of the Republican Party. Cramer built a different Republican Party in Florida, attracting local white conservatives and transplants from northern and midwestern states. In 1966, Claude R. Kirk, Jr. was elected as the first post-Reconstruction Republican governor, in an upset election. In 1968, Edward J. Gurney, also a white conservative, was elected as the state's first post-reconstruction Republican US senator. In 1970, Democrats took the governorship and the open US Senate seat and maintained dominance for years. Florida is sometimes considered a bellwether state in presidential elections because every candidate who won the state from 1996 until 2020 won the election. The 2020 election broke that streak when Donald Trump won Florida but lost the election. In 1998, Democratic voters dominated areas of the state with a high percentage of racial minorities and transplanted white liberals from the northeastern United States, known colloquially as "snowbirds". South Florida and theMiami metropolitan area
The Miami metropolitan area (also known as Greater Miami, the Tri-County Area, South Florida, or the Gold Coast) is the ninth largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world with a ...
are dominated by both racial minorities and white liberals. Because of this, the area has consistently voted as one of the most Democratic areas of the state. The Daytona Beach area is similar demographically and the city of Orlando has a large Hispanic population, which has often favored Democrats. Republicans, made up mostly of white conservatives, have dominated throughout much of the rest of Florida, particularly in the more rural and suburban areas. This is characteristic of its voter base throughout the Deep South.
The fast-growing I-4 corridor area, which runs through Central Florida and connects the cities of Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Florida, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg, has had a fairly even breakdown of Republican and Democratic voters. The area is often seen as a merging point of the conservative northern portion of the state and the liberal southern portion, making it the biggest swing area in the state. Since the late 20th century, the voting results in this area, containing 40% of Florida voters, has often determined who will win the state in federal presidential elections.
The Democratic Party maintained an edge in voter registration, both statewide and in 18 of the 67 counties, including Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade, Broward County, Florida, Broward, and Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach counties, the state's three most populous.
2000–present
In 2000, George W. Bush won the 2000 United States presidential election, U.S. presidential election by a margin of 271–266 in the Electoral College (United States), Electoral College. Of the 271 electoral votes for Bush, 25 were cast by electors from Florida. The Florida results were contested and a recount was ordered by the court, with the results settled in a Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court decision, ''Bush v. Gore''. Reapportionment following the 2010 United States census gave the state two more seats in the House of Representatives.Leary, Alex"Florida gains two U.S. House seats in Census"
, ''St. Petersburg Times'', December 21, 2010 The legislature's redistricting, announced in 2012, was quickly challenged in court, on the grounds that it had unfairly benefited Republican interests. In 2015, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on appeal that the congressional districts had to be redrawn because of the legislature's violation of the Fair District Amendments to the state constitution passed in 2010; it accepted a new map in early December 2015. The political make-up of congressional and legislative districts has enabled Republicans to control the governorship and most statewide elective offices, and 17 of the state's 27 seats in the 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, 2012, House of Representatives. Florida has been listed as a swing state in presidential elections since 1952, voting for the losing candidate only twice in that period of time.
In the closely contested 2000 United States presidential election in Florida, 2000 election, the state played a pivotal role. Out of more than 5.8million votes for the two main contenders Bush and Al Gore, around 500 votes separated the two candidates for the all-decisive Florida electoral votes that landed Bush the election win. Florida's felony disenfranchisement law is more severe than most European nations or other American states. A 2002 study in the ''American Sociological Review'' concluded that "if the state's 827,000 disenfranchised felons had voted at the same rate as other Floridians, Democratic candidate Al Gore would have won Florida—and the presidency—by more than 80,000 votes."Matt Ford, "Restoring Voting Rights for Felons in Maryland", ''The Atlantic'', February 9, 2016, accessed March 23, 2016 In 2008, delegates of both the Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008#GOP February 5 rule, Republican Florida primary election and Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008#Nullified primaries, Democratic Florida primary election were stripped of half of their votes when the conventions met in August due to violation of both parties' national rules. In the 2010 elections, Republicans solidified their dominance statewide, by winning the governor's mansion, and maintaining firm majorities in both houses of the state legislature. They won four previously Democratic-held seats to create a 19–6 Republican majority delegation representing Florida in the federal House of Representatives. In 2010, more than 63% of state voters approved the initiated Amendments5 and6 to the state constitution, to ensure more fairness in districting. These have become known as the Fair District Amendments. As a result of the 2010 United States Census, Florida gained two House of Representative seats in 2012. The legislature issued revised congressional districts in 2012, which were immediately challenged in court by supporters of the above amendments. The court ruled in 2014, after lengthy testimony, that at least two districts had to be redrawn because of gerrymandering. After this was appealed, in July 2015 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers had followed an illegal and unconstitutional process overly influenced by party operatives, and ruled that at least eight districts had to be redrawn. On December 2, 2015, a 5–2 majority of the Court accepted a new map of congressional districts, some of which was drawn by challengers. Their ruling affirmed the map previously approved by Leon County, Florida, Leon County Judge Terry Lewis, who had overseen the original trial. It particularly makes changes in South Florida. There are likely to be additional challenges to the map and districts. According to The Sentencing Project, the effect of Florida's felony disenfranchisement law is such that in 2014, "[m]ore than one in ten Floridians—and nearly one in four African-American Floridians—are [were] shut out of the polls because of felony convictions", although they had completed sentences and parole/probation requirements. The state switched back to the GOP in the 2016 United States presidential election in Florida, 2016 presidential election, and again in 2020 United States presidential election in Florida, 2020, when Donald Trump headed the party's ticket both times. 2020 marked the first time Florida sided with the eventual loser of the national election since 1992 United States presidential election in Florida, 1992. In the 2018 United States elections, 2018 elections, the ratio of Republican to Democratic representation fell from 16:11 to 14:13. The U.S. Senate election between Democratic incumbent senator Bill Nelson and then governor Rick Scott was close, with 49.93% voting for the incumbent and 50.06% voting for the former governor. Republicans also held onto the governorship in a close race between Republican candidate Ron DeSantis and Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum, with 49.6% voting for DeSantis and 49.3% voting for Gillum. In 2022 United States elections, 2022, incumbent Governor DeSantis 2022 Florida gubernatorial election, won reelection by a Landslide victory, landslide against Democrat Charlie Crist. The unexpectedly large margin of victory led many pundits to question Florida's perennial status as a swing state, and instead identify it as a red state. In November 2021, for the first time in Florida's history, the total number of registered Republican voters exceeded the number of registered Democrats."The Collapse of the Florida Democratic Party"
, ''Florida Political Review'', January 4, 2022, accessed January 12, 2022
Statutes
In 1972, the state made personal injury protection auto insurance mandatory for drivers, becoming the second in the nation to enact a no-fault insurance law. The ease of receiving payments under this law is seen as precipitating a major increase in insurance fraud. Auto insurance fraud was the highest in the nation in 2011, estimated at close to $1billion. Fraud is particularly centered in the Miami-Dade and Tampa areas.
Capital punishment is applied in Florida. If a person committing a predicate felony directly contributed to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the first degree. The only two sentences available for that statute are life imprisonment and the death penalty.''The Florida Statutes.'' If a person commits a predicate felony, but was not the direct contributor to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the second degree. The maximum prison term is life. In 1995, the legislature modified Chapter 921 to provide that felons should serve at least 85% of their sentence.
Florida approved its Florida Lottery, lottery by amending the constitution in 1984. It approved slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade County in 2004. It has disapproved casinos (outside of sovereign Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...
and Miccosukee tribal areas) three times: 1978, 1986, and 1994.
Taxation
Tax is collected by the Florida Department of Revenue.Economy
The economy of the state of Florida is the List of U.S. states and territories by GDP, fourth-largest in theUnited States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, with a $1.2trillion gross state product
Gross regional domestic product (GRDP), gross domestic product of region (GDPR), or gross state product (GSP) is a statistic that measures the size of a region's economy. It is the aggregate of gross value added (GVA) of all resident producer unit ...
(GSP) as of 2021. If Florida were a sovereign nation (2021), it would rank as the List of countries by GDP (nominal), world's 16th-largest economy according to the International Monetary Fund, ahead of Indonesia and behind Mexico.https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2021-06/qgdpstate0621.pdf Bureau of Economic Analysis - Full release and tables - Gross Domestic Product by State, 1st Quarter 2021. Retrieved July 4, 2021. In the 20th century, tourism, industry, construction, international banking, biomedical and life sciences, healthcare research, simulation training, aerospace and defense, and commercial space travel have contributed to the state's economic development.
Health
There were 2.7million Medicaid patients in Florida in 2009. The governor has proposed adding $2.6billion to care for the expected 300,000 additional patients in 2011. The cost of caring for 2.3million clients in 2010 was $18.8billion. This is nearly 30% of Florida's budget. Medicaid paid for 60% of all births in Florida in 2009. The state has a Florida Medicaid waiver, program for those not covered by Medicaid.
In 2013, Florida refused to participate in providing coverage for the uninsured under the Affordable Care Act, colloquially called Obamacare. The Florida legislature also refused to accept additional Federal funding for Medicaid, although this would have helped its constituents at no cost to the state. As a result, Florida is second only to Texas in the percentage of its citizens without health insurance.
Architecture
Florida has the largest collection of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings, both in the United States and in the entire world, most of which are located in the Miami metropolitan area
The Miami metropolitan area (also known as Greater Miami, the Tri-County Area, South Florida, or the Gold Coast) is the ninth largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world with a ...
, especially Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
's Miami Beach Architectural District, Art Deco District, constructed as the city was becoming a resort destination. A unique architectural design found only in Florida is the post-World WarII Miami Modern Architecture, Miami Modern, which can be seen in areas such as Miami's MiMo Historic District.
Being of early importance as a regional center of banking and finance, the architecture of Jacksonville displays a wide variety of styles and design principles. Many of the state's earliest skyscrapers were constructed in Jacksonville, dating as far back as 1902, and last holding a state height record from 1974 to 1981. The city is endowed with one of the largest collections of Prairie School buildings outside of the Midwest. Jacksonville is also noteworthy for its collection of Mid-Century modern architecture.
Some sections of the state feature architectural styles including Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture, Spanish revival, Florida cracker architecture, Florida vernacular, and Mediterranean Revival Style, Mediterranean Revival. A notable collection of these styles can be found in St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
, the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the United States.
Education
In 2020, Florida was ranked the third best state in America for K–12, K-12 education, outperforming the nation in 15 out of 18 metrics in ''Education Week''Education Week, Primary and secondary education
With an educational system made up of State school, public school districts and independent private school, private institutions, Florida had 2,833,115 students enrolled in 4,269 public primary, secondary, and vocational education, vocational schools in Florida's 67 regular or seven special school districts . Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami-Dade County is the largest of Florida's 67 regular districts with more than 350 thousand students and Jefferson County, Florida, Jefferson County is the smallest with less than one thousand students. Florida spent $8,920 for each student in 2016, and was 43rd in the nation in expenditures per student. Florida's primary and secondary school systems are administered by the Florida Department of Education. School districts are organized within county boundaries. Each school district has an elected Board of Education that sets policy, budget, goals, and approves expenditures. Management is the responsibility of a Superintendent (education), Superintendent of schools. The Florida Department of Education is required by law to train educators in teaching English language learning and teaching, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).Higher education
The State University System of Florida was founded in 1905, and is governed by the Florida Board of Governors. During the 2019 academic year, 346,604 students attended one of these twelve universities. In 2016, Florida charged the second lowest tuition in the nation for four-year programs, at $26,000 for in-state students and $86,000 for out-of-state students; this compares with an average of $34,800 nationally for in-state students. As of 2020, four Florida universities are among the top 10 List of United States university campuses by enrollment, largest universities by enrollment in the United States: The University of Central Florida (1st), Florida International University (4th), the University of Florida (5th), and the University of South Florida (8th). The Florida College System comprises 28 public community and state colleges with 68 campuses spread out throughout the state. In 2016, enrollment consisted of more than 813,838 students. The Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida is an association of 30 private, educational institutions in the state. This Association reported that their member institutions served more than 158,000 students in the fall of 2020. The University of Miami, located in Coral Gables, Florida, Coral Gables, is one of the top private research institutions in the United States. Florida's first private university, Stetson University, was founded in 1883.Transportation
Highways
Florida's highway system contains of interstate highway, and of non-interstate highway, such as state highways and U.S. Highways. Florida's Interstate Highway System, interstates, Florida State Highway System, state highways, and U.S. Highways are maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. In 2011, there were about 9,000 filling station, retail gas stations in the state. Floridians consumed 21million gallons of gasoline daily in 2011, ranking it third in national use behind California and Texas. Motorists have the 45th lowest rate of car insurance in the U.S. 24% are uninsured. Drivers between 15 and 19 years of age averaged 364 car crashes a year per ten thousand licensed Florida drivers in 2010. Drivers 70 and older averaged 95 per 10,000 during the same time frame. A spokesperson for the non-profit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Insurance Institute stated "Older drivers are more of a threat to themselves." Intercity bus travel, which utilizes Florida's highway system, is provided by Greyhound Lines, Greyhound, Megabus (North America), Megabus, and Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach. Before the construction of routes under the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, Florida began construction of a long cross-state toll road, Florida's Turnpike. The first section, from Fort Pierce, Florida, Fort Pierce south to the Golden Glades Interchange was completed in 1957. After a second section north through Orlando to Wildwood, Florida, Wildwood (near present-day The Villages, Florida, The Villages), and a Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike, southward extension around Miami to Homestead, Florida, Homestead, it was finished in 1974. Florida's primary interstate routes include: * , which spans 133 miles, bisects the state, connecting Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Lakeland, Florida, Lakeland, Orlando, Florida, Orlando, and Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona Beach, connecting with Interstate 75 in Florida, I-75 in Tampa and I-95 in Daytona Beach. * , which spans 362 miles in Florida, traverses the Florida Panhandle, panhandle, connectingPensacola
Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...
, Tallahassee
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
, Lake City, Florida, Lake City, and Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
, with interchanges with I-75 in Lake City and I-95 in Jacksonville. It is the southernmost east–west interstate in the United States terminating in Santa Monica with a total length of 2460 miles.
* , which spans 470 miles in Florida, enters the state near Lake City ( west of Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
) and continues southward through Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville, Ocala, Florida, Ocala, Tampa's eastern suburbs, Bradenton, Florida, Bradenton, Sarasota, Florida, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Naples, Florida, Naples, where it crosses the "Alligator Alley" as a toll road to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale before turning southward and terminating in Hialeah, Florida, Hialeah/Miami Lakes, Florida, Miami Lakes having interchanges with I-10 in Lake City and I-4 in Tampa. It is the second longest north–south interstate with a total length of 1786 miles and terminates at the Canadian border at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
* , which spans 382 miles in Florida, enters the state near Jacksonville and continues along the Atlantic Coast through Daytona Beach, the Space Coast, Melbourne/Titusville, Palm Bay, Florida, Palm Bay, Vero Beach, Florida, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Florida, Fort Pierce, Port Saint Lucie, Florida, Port Saint Lucie, Stuart, Florida, Stuart, West Palm Beach, Florida, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, before terminating in Downtown Miami. It has interchanges with I-10 in Jacksonville and I-4 in Daytona Beach, and there are four auxiliary routes associated with the interstate. It is the longest north–south interstate with a total length of 1924 miles and terminates at the Canadian border northeast of Houlton, Maine.
Airports
Florida has 131 public airports. Florida's seven large hub and medium hub airports, as classified by the FAA, are the following:
Intercity rail
* Brightline is a Diesel-electric train, diesel–electric higher-speed rail system. Currently service is only from West Palm Beach station (Brightline), West Palm Beach to MiamiCentral station, Miami through express intercity service, with a stop at Fort Lauderdale station (Brightline), Fort Lauderdale. The complete project is intended to connect Miami and South Florida to Orlando, Florida, Orlando, which requires a new line westward from the coast. It partially opened for passenger service between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach on January 13, 2018, as the only privately owned and operated passenger railroad in the United States. With a top speed of , Brightline will eventually be tied with Amtrak's ''Northeast Regional'' and the MARC Train, MARC's Penn Line commuter rail as the second fastest passenger train in North America, after Amtrak's ''Acela''.
* Florida is also served by Amtrak, operating numerous lines throughout, connecting the state's largest cities to points north in the United States and Canada. The busiest Amtrak train stations in Florida in 2011 were: Sanford station (Amtrak), Sanford (259,944), Orlando Health/Amtrak station, Orlando (179,142), Tampa Union Station (140,785), Miami station (Amtrak), Miami (94,556), and Jacksonville station, Jacksonville (74,733). Sanford, Florida, Sanford, in Greater Orlando, is the southern terminus of the ''Auto Train'', which originates at Lorton, Virginia, south of Washington, D.C. Until 2005, Orlando was also the eastern terminus of the ''Sunset Limited'', which travels across the southern United States via New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio to its western terminus of Los Angeles. Florida is served by two additional Amtrak trains (the ''Silver Star (Amtrak train), Silver Star'' and the ''Silver Meteor''), which operate between New York City and Miami. MiamiCentral station, MiamiCentral in Greater Downtown Miami and the Miami Intermodal Center near Miami International Airport are major hubs for rapid transit, commuter rail, intercity rail, and buses.
Public transit
* Miami: Miami's public transportation is served by Miami-Dade Transit that runs Miami Metrorail, Metrorail, a heavy rail rapid transit system, Miami-Dade Metromover, Metromover, a people mover train system in Downtown Miami, and Miami-Dade Transit#Metrobus, Metrobus, Miami's bus system. Metrorail runs throughout Miami-Dade County and has two lines and 23 stations connecting to Downtown Miami's Metromover and Tri-Rail. Metromover has three lines and 21 stations throughout Downtown Miami. Outside of Miami-Dade County, public transit in the Miami metropolitan area
The Miami metropolitan area (also known as Greater Miami, the Tri-County Area, South Florida, or the Gold Coast) is the ninth largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world with a ...
is served by Broward County Transit and Palm Tran; intercounty commuter rail service is provided by Tri-Rail, with 18 stations including the region's three international airports.
* Orlando: Orlando is served by the SunRail commuter train, which runs on a ( when complete) line including four stops in downtown. Lynx (Orlando), Lynx bus serves the greater Orlando area in Orange County, Florida, Orange, Seminole County, Florida, Seminole, and Osceola County, Florida, Osceola counties.
* Tampa: Tampa and its surrounding area use the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority system ("HART"). In addition, downtown Tampa has continuous trolley services in the form of a heritage trolley powered by Tampa Electric Company. Pinellas County and St. Petersburg provide similar services through the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority or "PSTA". The beaches of Pinellas County, Florida, Pinellas County also have a continuous trolley bus. Downtown St. Petersburg has a trolley system.
* Jacksonville: Jacksonville is served by the Jacksonville Skyway, an automated people mover monorail connecting the Florida State College at Jacksonville, Florida State College downtown campus, the Northbank central business district, Convention Center, and Southbank locations. The system includes eight stops connected by two lines. Jacksonville Transportation Authority, JTA bus has 180 vehicles with 56 lines.
Sports
Florida has three National Football League, NFL teams, two Major League Baseball, MLB teams, two National Basketball Association, NBA teams, two National Hockey League, NHL teams, and two Major League Soccer, MLS teams. Florida gained its first permanent major-league professional sports team in 1966 when the American Football League added the Miami Dolphins. Florida has given professional sports franchises some subsidies in the form of tax breaks since 1991.
About half of all Major League Baseball teams conduct spring training in the state, with teams informally organized into the "Grapefruit League". Throughout MLB history, other teams have held spring training in Florida.
NASCAR (headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona Beach) begins all three of its major auto racing series in Florida at Daytona International Speedway in February, featuring the Daytona 500. Daytona also has the Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR race weekend in August. NASCAR also has a race weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, Homestead in October. The 24 Hours of Daytona is one of the world's most prestigious endurance auto races. The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and Grand Prix of Miami (Indycar), Grand Prix of Miami have held IndyCar races as well.
Florida is a major golf hub. The Professional Golfers' Association of America, PGA of America is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Palm Beach Gardens, the PGA Tour is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Ponte Vedra Beach, and the LPGA is headquartered in Daytona Beach. The Players Championship, WGC-Cadillac Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Honda Classic and Valspar Championship are PGA Tour rounds.
Florida has teams in all five American major league sports. Florida's most recent major-league team, Inter Miami CF, Inter Miami, began play in MLS in 2020.
The Miami Masters is an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and WTA Premier tournaments, WTA Premier tennis event, whereas the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships is an ATP World Tour 250 event.
There are minor league baseball, American football, football, basketball, ice hockey, soccer and indoor American football, indoor football teams based in Florida. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is the largest football stadium in Florida, the List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums, 12th largest stadium in American college football, and the List of stadiums by capacity, 18th largest stadium in the world, as measured by its official seating capacity of 88,548—though, it has often held over 90,000 for Florida's home football games.
Florida's universities have a number of National Collegiate Athletic Association, collegiate sport programs. Major college football programs include the Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Florida Gators of the Southeastern Conference. Since 1996, Florida has added four additional teams to the ranks of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Division I FBS: UCF Knights, South Florida Bulls, Florida Atlantic Owls and FIU Panthers.
State symbols
The majority of the symbols were chosen after 1950; only the two oldest symbols—the state flower (chosen in 1909), and the List of U.S. state birds, state bird (chosen in 1927), and the state nickname (chosen in 1970)—are not listed in the 2010 Florida Statutes.
* List of U.S. state amphibians, Amphibian: Hyla gratiosa, Barking tree frog
* List of U.S. state mammals, Animal: Florida panther
The Florida panther is a North American cougar (''P. c. couguar'') population in South Florida. It lives in pinelands, tropical hardwood hammocks, and mixed freshwater swamp forests. It is known under a number of common names including Costa R ...
* List of U.S. state songs, Anthem: "Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)"
* List of U.S. state beverages, Beverage: Orange juice
* List of U.S. state birds, Bird: Northern mockingbird
* List of U.S. state birds, Bird: American flamingo
The American flamingo (''Phoenicopterus ruber'') is a large species of flamingo closely related to the greater flamingo and Chilean flamingo native to the Neotropics. It was formerly considered conspecific with the greater flamingo, but that trea ...
* Festival: "Little Havana#Calle Ocho Festival, Calle Ocho-Open House 8"
* State fish, Fish(fresh water): Florida largemouth bass
* State fish, Fish(salt water): Atlantic sailfish
* List of U.S. state flowers, Flower: Orange (fruit), Orange blossom
* List of U.S. state foods, Fruit: Orange (fruit), Orange
* List of U.S. state minerals, rocks, stones and gemstones, Gem: Moonstone (gemstone), Moonstone
* State horse, Horse: Florida Cracker Horse
* List of U.S. state insects, Insect: Heliconius charithonia, Zebra longwing
* List of U.S. state mammals, Mammal(salt water): Common bottlenose dolphin
* List of U.S. state mammals, Mammal(marine): Florida manatee
* State motto, Motto: "In God We Trust"
* List of U.S. state nicknames, Nickname: The Sunshine State
* Arecaceae, Palm Tree: Coconut palm
* List of U.S. state foods, Pie: Key lime pie
* Play (theatre), Play: ''Cross and Sword''
* List of U.S. state reptiles, Reptile: American alligator
The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the g ...
* State reptile, Reptile(salt water): Loggerhead sea turtle
* Rodeo: Silver Spurs Rodeo
* List of U.S. state shells, Shell: Triplofusus papillosus, Horse conch
* List of U.S. state soils, Soil: Myakka (soil), Myakka soil
* List of U.S. state songs, Song: "Old Folks at Home"
* National Day, State day/week: Pascua Florida
Pascua Florida (pronounced ) is a Spanish term that means "flowery festival" or "feast of flowers" and is an annual celebration of Juan Ponce de León's arrival in what is now the state of Florida. While the holiday is normally celebrated on Apri ...
* List of U.S. state minerals, rocks, stones and gemstones, Stone: Lace agate, Agatized coral
* Tortoise: Gopher tortoise
* List of U.S. state trees, Tree: Sabal palmetto
* Wildflower: Coreopsis, Tickseed
Sister states
See also
* Index of Florida-related articles * Outline of Florida * List of people from FloridaNotes
References
*Mahon, John K.; Brent R. Weisman (1996). "Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee Peoples". In Gannon, Michael (Ed.). ''The New History of Florida'', pp. 183–206. University Press of Florida. .Bibliography
* Viviana Díaz Balsera and Rachel A. May (eds.), ''La Florida: Five Hundred Years of Hispanic Presence.'' Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2014. * Michael Gannon (ed.), ''The History of Florida.'' Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2013.External links
State website
*
Florida Memory Project
Over 300,000 photographs and documents from the State Library & Archives of Florida
Online collection of the Spanish Land Grants
USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Florida
Florida Rivers and Watersheds—Florida DEP
Economic and farm demographics fact sheet from the USDA
Energy & Environmental Data For Florida
Florida state butterfly, on the University of Florida, UF / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
TerraFly Property Value and Aerial Imagery Spatio-temporal animation Real Estate Trends in Florida
List of searchable databases produced by Florida state agencies
hosted by th
American Library Association Government Documents Roundtable
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