Historical Facts About Florida That You Probably Didn't Know

Florida is situated in the south-easternmost part of America with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.

Nicknamed the 'Sunshine State', the Palm Beach of Florida sees millions of visitors annually. Florida is the flattest state in America with an average elevation of around 98 ft (30 m) above sea level.

Florida offers some of the best tourist attraction sites of the United States - Miami beach, Mississippi River, the Florida Keys (in the southern tip of the state extending until Key West), Fort Myers, Disney World, Cape Canaveral among many others.

The Florida Gulf Coast University is one of the top-ranked public universities in South Florida that offers quality education.

Additionally, did you know that Florida is the only state with an embassy in the capital of the country?

Read more Florida facts below!

The Timeline Of Florida's History

Even though Florida has a rich history that predates back thousands of years, the written history commences with the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century.

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León arrived in Florida in search of gold and the fountain of youth in 1513.

Spanish conquistador and soldier, Pánfilo de Narváez landed near the Tampa Bay area and Tallahassee in 1528.

In 1559, Spanish conquistador Tristan de Luna built a Spanish colony on the shores of Pensacola Bay.

French explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière built Fort Caroline near the mouth of St. Johns river where the first recorded birth of a white child in North America took place in 1564.

Florida saw the plantation of the first citrus crops in St. Augustine in 1570.

The British arrived in 1702 and invaded Spanish settlements.

The Seminole Indians from Alabama and Georgia entered Florida during the 1700s.

During 1776-81, amidst the American Revolution, the Florida colonies continued to be loyal to the British.

Britain seized Pensacola in 1810 but was defeated by Andrew Jackson in 1813.

The First Seminole War happened between the Seminole Indians and the American government between 1816 and 1819. The Second Seminole War occurred between 1835 and 1842 and the Third Seminole War happened between 1855 and 1858. The reason for these wars was the efforts of the government to get hold of African American runaway slaves.

In 1821, America acquired East Florida from Spain by signing the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819.

The first United States stockade called Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838.

From the 1880s, the development of new industries, transport, farming and the tourism industry took place in Florida.

The '20s witnessed the early 20th century Florida land boom.

In 1966, the National Historic Preservation Act passed and the Florida Department of State assumed responsibilities for historic preservation the next year.

How did Florida get its name?

A lot of debate and theories exist regarding how the state of Florida got its name. When the 16th century Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first reached Florida in search of gold and the fountain of youth, he found neither and sailed away after naming the place Florida.

Even after five centuries, historians are still deliberating on why the Spaniard chose that name.

One popular hypothesis states that Ponce de León and his crew set foot on Florida, near St. Augustine, on Easter Sunday which is one of the most auspicious days for devout Christians. Easter Sunday is usually referred to as 'La Pascua de las Flores' in Spanish, which translates to 'the festival of flowers' in English.

So the pre-eminent early theory states that the Spanish explorer named the new land he had discovered 'La Pascua Florida' in honor of Easter Sunday.

But there is a major conflict among historians regarding whether the Spanish explorer and his crew really set foot on the north-east coast, near St. Augustine, on Easter Sunday, 1513. For example, one paper noted that León's crew might have sighted the coast of Northern Florida on Mar 27, 1513 (Easter Sunday fell on that day that year).

But they could not have reached Florida until several days later, in early April.

A more accepted theory states that Florida earned its name because of its lush, green vegetation and attractive blossoms.

Peter Parley, a professor who wrote a textbook on the 19th century history and geography of Florida, noted that Florida acquired its name from the flourishing bounty of wildflowers upon its soil.

León had arrived in Florida in the midst of spring and was amazed at seeing the botanical beauty of Florida in full bloom. Florida boasts more than 3300 native plant species, with more than a thousand plant species that were acclimated there.

Wonderstruck by the excess of blooming flowers, the abundance of colors, and the beauty of nature, León might have called the land 'La Florida' - which translates to 'the place of flowers' in English.

When was Florida discovered?

It's believed that Florida's history begins with the first people in Florida about 12,000 BCE. These people were not navigators, settlers, colonizers, or explorers. They were indigenous people, Native Americans, who entered the land following and chasing big game animals on which their survival depended. 

However, Florida's written history began with the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century. Millions of Native American and Indian tribes were present when the first of the Spanish colonizers arrived at this land mass.

The European settlers brought diseases with them, along with the slave trade and ensuing wars that quickly wiped out almost all the indigenous population.

The indigenous people of the land that is present day Florida belonged to different tribes, such as the Apalachee, Tekesta, Calusa, Ais, and Timucua. They were cultivating the land, hunting, and fishing in Southern Florida for their survival.

However, exposure to European diseases, such as influenza, measles, smallpox, or even the common cold, brought by the colonizers proved deadly for the indigenous tribes. These diseases decimated a major part of the native population.

How old is Florida?

Though the written history of Florida can be traced to the arrival of the Spaniards, this landmass is much much older than that.

The first people, referred to today as Paleoindians arrived in Florida in about 12,000 BCE, chasing game animals for food and survival. The abundant diversity of the environment in prehistoric Florida sustained numerous plants and animals.

But with the increase in hunting activities and forests replacing grasslands due to a wetter climate resulted in the gradual extinction of big game animals, such as the mastodon, and the giant armadillo.

Gradually, they began to depend on smaller game animals and fish for food and as the population increased, these indigenous groups started to penetrate the inland to search for more appropriate land areas for agricultural purposes. They started to cultivate crops such as sugar cane, beans, corns, squash, among others.

By the turn of the first millennium, the Mississippian civilization, which had originated in the further northern states, eventually began to spread south-east, and gradually reached Florida.