|
| |
| |
|
HISTORY |
| |
The first European sighting of Florida, just six years after
Christopher Columbus reached the New World, is believed to have been
made by John and Sebastian Cabot in 1498, when they spotted what is now
Cape Florida, on Key Biscayne in Miami. At the time, the area's 100,000
inhabitants formed several distinct tribes : the Timucua across northern
Florida, the Calusa around the southwest and Lake Okeechobee, the
Apalachee in the Panhandle and the Tequesta along the southeast coast.
In 1513, a Spaniard, Juan Ponce de León , sighted land during Pascua
Florida , the Festival of the Flowers, and named what he saw La Florida
- or "Land of Flowers." Eight years later he returned with a mandate
from the Spanish king to conquer and colonize the territory, the first
of several Spanish incursions prompted by rumors of gold hidden in the
north of the region. When it became clear that Florida did not harbor
stunning riches, interest waned; but the arrival of French Huguenots in
1562 forced the Spanish into a more determined effort at settlement.
Three years later, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St Augustine - the
longest continuous site of European habitation on the continent. In 1586
St Augustine was razed by a British naval bombardment led by Francis
Drake. The ensuing bloody confrontation for control of North America was
eventually settled when the British captured the crucial Spanish
possession of Havana, and Spain willingly parted with Florida to get it
back. By this time, indigenous Floridians had been largely wiped out by
disease. Florida's Native American population now largely comprised
disparate tribes arriving from the west, collectively known as the
Seminoles , who were generally left undisturbed in the inland areas.
Following American independence, when Florida was returned to Spain, the
US began to think in terms of controlling the state. In 1814 a US
general, Andrew Jackson, marched south, killing hundreds of Indians and
triggering the First Seminole War - on the pretext of subduing the
Seminole but with the actual intention of taking the region. Spain
formally ceded Florida to the US in 1819, with Jackson sworn in as
Florida's first American governor and Tallahassee selected as the new
administrative center. Eleven years later, the Act of Indian Removal
decreed that all Native Americans in the eastern US should be
transferred to reservations in the Midwest. Most Seminole were
determined to stay and the Second Seminole War broke out, with the
Indians steadily driven south, away from the fertile lands of central
Florida and into the Everglades, where they eventually agreed to remain.
Florida became a state on March 3, 1845, coinciding with the prosperity
brought by the railroads. As a member of the Confederacy during the
Civil War , Florida's primary contribution was the provision of food - a
foretaste of its postwar economic role after being readmitted to the
Union. As northern speculators began to invest in Florida, the country's
newspapers extolled the curative virtues of its climate. These early
efforts to promote Florida as a tourist destination brought in the
wintering rich: Henry Flagler opened luxury resorts on the northeast
coast and extended his Florida East Coast Railroad south, giving birth
to communities such as Palm Beach. Henry Plant connected his own
railroad to Tampa, turning it into a thriving port city. Florida's
climate enabled citrus fruits to be grown during the winter and sold to
the cooler north, and the state became a major beef producer. After
World War I, it seemed that everyone in America wanted a piece of
Florida, and chartered trains brought in thousands of eager buyers. But
most deals were on paper only, and in 1926 the banks began to default.
The Wall Street Crash then made paupers of the millionaires whose
investments had helped shape the state.
What saved Florida was World War II . Thousands of troops arrived to
guard the coastline, empty tourist hotels provided ready-made barracks,
and - most importantly - the soldiers got a taste of Florida that would
entice many of them to return. In the mid-Sixties, the state government
bent over backward to help the Disney Corporation turn a sizable slice
of central Florida into Walt Disney World , the biggest theme park ever
known. Its enormous commercial success helped solidify Florida's place
in the international tourist market: directly or indirectly, tourism
makes up 20 percent of the total state economy.
Behind the optimistic facade, however, lie many problems . There's a
broadening gap between the relative liberalism of the big cities and the
arch-conservatism of the rural Bible Belt: while Miami promotes its
multicultural makeup, the Ku Klux Klan holds picnics in the Panhandle.
Gun laws remain notoriously lax, and the multimillion-dollar drug trade
shows few signs of abating - at least a quarter of the cocaine entering
the US is said to arrive via Florida. Racial issues continue, too, with
tension on several fronts: between Anglo-Americans and nouveau riche
Cubans, blacks and whites, blacks and Hispanics, police and the
inner-city poor. However, increased protection of the state's natural
resources has been a more positive feature of the last decade and
impressive amounts of land are under state control - overall, wildlife
is less threatened now than at any time since white settlers first
arrived.
The 2000 presidential election fiasco brought unwelcome attention to the
state. Both Gov. George Bush of Texas (Republican) and Vice President Al
Gore (Democrat) needed Florida's 25 electoral votes to win. Bush led by
a few hundred votes on the morning after the election in unofficial
returns. For five weeks top lawyers on both slides slugged it out in the
courts. Disputes raged over such issues as whether ballots with "hanging
chads" (partially punched out holes) should be counted. Ultimately, the
US Supreme Court issued a ruling that effectively halted the recounts,
and Bush won the state by 537 votes out of some six million cast
|
|
