The history of Florida can be traced back to when the first Native Americans began to inhabit the peninsula as early as 14,000 years ago. They left behind artifacts and archeological evidence. Written history begins with the arrival of Europeans to Florida, beginning with the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in 1513. From that time of contact Florida has had a long immigration, including French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century, as well as entry of new Native American groups migrating from elsewhere in the South. Florida was under colonial rule by Spain and Great Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries before becoming a territory of the United States in 1822. Two decades later, in 1845, Florida was admitted to the union as the 27th US state.
Florida is nicknamed the "Sunshine State" due to its warmer climate that attracted northern migrants since the 1920s. A diverse population and urbanized economy have developed. By 2011 Florida, with over 19 million people, passed New York and became the third largest state in population.
The economy has developed over time, starting with the use of natural resources in logging, mining, fishing, and sponge diving; as well as cattle ranching, farming and citrus growing. The tourism, real estate, trade, banking, and retirement destination businesses followed.
Read more about History Of Florida: Early History, Since 1900, Tourism
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“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“In Florida consider the flamingo,
Its color passion but its neck a question.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)