Florida

Before Walt Disney World Resort opened its Epcot Center in 1982, before it built even its Magic Kingdom in 1971, yes… there was a Florida. Before Miami and Palm Beach became famous for their overtanned, underclothed glitterati, and before Tampa was ranked the 8^th cleanest city in America (2008), Florida was home to Native Americans, Europeans, and early American colonists. They wore a lot of clothing, and they’d have killed Mickey Mouse if they saw him scampering around their villages and cabins.

At the time the Spanish arrived in what is now Florida, Apalachee Indians and other Timucuan-speaking tribes cultivated maize and lived throughout fresh and seawater wetlands. Four mounds on Horr’s Island in southwestern Florida were excavated in the 1980s and radiocarbon dating indicated that the various bones and tools found at the site were 4000 years old; people have lived in Florida for a very long time.

Florida is so called because Juan Ponce de León named it “La Pascua Florida”, or “Flowery Easter” when he landed there in 1513, searching for the Fountain of Youth and finding instead an abundance of angry indigenous people. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca found the place as well, followed by further Spanish and further French explorers. Threatened by French interests, the Spanish began building Catholic missions to claim their territory in the new world. Somehow religious intervention didn’t work out for them, and the British colonists put up a good fight for the land. The United States – already an autonomous country – took possession of the land in 1819.

American settlers in Florida developed an economy around plantation agriculture using slave labor, but for a couple hundred years runaway slaves had been heading to Florida and integrating with native populations. This put pressure on the government to deal with Seminole Indian chiefs – a group that emerged in the 19^th century – to leave Florida voluntarily. While some did leave, others stayed and fought bravely for almost ten years to keep their land. The U.S. government spent tens of millions of dollars fighting the tribe before the Seminoles were successfully exiled west of the Mississippi River. 

Florida seceded from the Union, joining other Southern states in the Confederacy during the Civil War. When the South lost the war, Florida, like other Southern states, proceeded to pass Jim Crow laws that enabled conservative white people to maintain racial segregation despite the abolition of slavery. The economy of the state was poor, and racial tension was high. It was time for change.

40,000 African American Floridians left Florida for the north during the Great Migration of 1910-1940, seeking better opportunity. As 1/5 of Florida’s population had left, rich investors from outside of Florida moved in on real estate in Miami and Palm Beach. The Armed Forces moved in as well, establishing a whole slew of bases on the underdeveloped land, including Cape Canaveral and Patrick Air Force Base. 

After World War II, Florida became a destination for retirees, Cubans, and college students on Spring Break. As the population has increased and diversified, more and more people are at risk of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.  Florida’s tropical climate, national forests, and hundreds of miles of beaches and resorts bring in tourists, while its agricultural output of citrus fruit and sugarcane keeps the region stable as well.