Page 288 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

286  FL ORID A

Their primary concern was Florida’s strategic Florida and came to be known as the
position. The Gulf Stream carried Spanish Seminoles. Conflicts and attempts
galleons laden with gold and treasure to subdue them lasted for more
from the New World colonies past Florida’s than six decades. When the Third
coast on their journey back across the Seminole War ended in 1858, the
Atlantic, and it was thus vital that “ tribes retreated to the Everglades,
La Florida” not fall into enemy hands. where they still live. Soon after came
Initially it was the French who the Civil War, by the end of which, in
troubled the Spanish, but the real 1865, Florida was in ruins. But the
threat to their control came in 1742 Henry Flagler, state recovered rapidly. Railroad
when English colonists from Georgia 1830–1913 barons, such as Henry Flagler and
defeated them and finally acquired Henry Plant, built a network of
Florida about 20 years later. Though railroads and opulent hotels, which
Florida was returned to Spain in 1783, attracted wealthy visitors from the north.
numerous boundary disputes followed. Tourism flourished in the early 20th century,
It was only after Andrew Jackson, the and by 1950 it had become Florida’s top
ambitious US general, captured Pensacola industry. The launch of the NASA space
that the official US occupation took place program at Cape Canaveral in the 1950s
in 1821. Just before Florida became part also helped boost the state’s prosperity.
of the United States, Jackson declared
war on the Creek nation, and forcibly Society & Culture
took millions of acres from the Native The state “where everyone is from
Americans. Many of them fled south to somewhere else,” Florida has always been
a cultural hodgepodge. The earliest
KEY DATES IN HISTORY inhabitants were indigenous people, who
1513 Ponce de León discovers “La Florida” were members of many tribes. Spanish,
1565 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine French, and British rule brought a diversity
after defeating the French to the state that continues to this day.
1763 Britain acquires Florida Americans have poured into this land
1783 Britain returns Florida to the Spanish of opportunity since World War II; the
1785–1821 Spanish-American border disputes twentieth most populous state in
1821 Florida becomes part of the US; Andrew Jackson the US in 1950, Florida is now ranked third.
becomes the first American governor The largest single group to move south
1845 Florida becomes the 27th state has been the retirees, for whom Florida’s
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes the anti-slavery climate, lifestyle of leisure, and low tax
epic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
rates hold great appeal after a life of hard
1886 Henry Flagler starts construction of the Florida work. While super-rich communities like
East Coast Railway
Palm Beach fit the conservative and staid
1958 Explorer I is launched after NASA chooses Cape
Canaveral as the site of its space program image that some people still have of
1959 Over 300,000 Cubans flee to Florida
®
1971 Walt Disney World opens
1992 Hurricane Andrew devastates south Florida
2000 George W. Bush appointed president after the
Florida election debacle
2003 Space Shuttle Columbia explodes on re entry and
Spirit, a rover, heads for Mars
2011 Atlantis’ last launch ends manned shuttle program
2015 SpaceX launches first commercial rockets from
Cape Canaveral
Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Visitor Center,
Cape Canaveral

284-287_EW_USA.indd 286 11/3/16 10:59 AM