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Flor·i·da (flôr'ĭ-də, flŏr'-)  (Abbr. FL
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The state of Florida consists of a peninsula and a strip of mainland at the southeastern corner of the United States. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream runs only a few miles off the southeastern coast. Low-lying barrier islands and mangrove swamps fringe the long, flat coastline. Lake Okeechobee lies near the center of the peninsula. The Everglades, a grassy water-land, once extended over nearly all of southern Florida but is now restricted to the southwestern tip of the peninsula.
The first humans reached Florida at least twelve thousand years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. Because sea level was lower then, Florida was much larger, with the Gulf coast some 100 miles west of its current position. The first people found a drier, cooler climate than today, in which they hunted and gathered edible plants, collected shellfish, and used the fibers of palms and saw palmetto to make rope and mats. As the glaciers melted and the sea level rose, Florida shrank, and the climate grew wetter and hotter. The human population grew, with major centers at the present-day Saint Johns River, Tampa Bay, and Belle Glade. By 2000 B.C. people were living in villages and making pottery; by 750 A.D. they were growing corn.
European Exploration and Settlement
Juan Ponce de León sailed along the eastern coast of the peninsula in 1513 and named it La Florida because of its lush beauty and because it was the season of Pascua Florida, the Easter feast of flowers. In 1521 Ponce de León tried to establish a settlement in southern Florida but the local Indians quickly drove him off. In 1528 Pánfilo de Narváez landed at Tampa Bay with three hundred men and forty horses and disappeared into the wilderness. Eight years later the last four survivors of his expedition stumbled back to Mexico. Landing somewhere on Florida's Gulf coast in 1539, Hernando de Soto marched north on an unsuccessful trek that covered four thousand miles in four years.
The next European attempt to settle Florida came from French Huguenots, who built Fort Caroline on the Saint Johns River in 1564. Alarmed, Spain sent Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565 to wipe out Fort Caroline and establish a permanent Spanish presence. This settlement, Saint Augustine, remains the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in North America. As French and English interests grew in North America, Saint Augustine anchored the Spanish hold on the Caribbean. But during the Seven Years' War, Spain joined the French against the English, who seized Havana. To recover the Cuban city, the Spanish surrendered Florida in 1763. Diseases introduced by Europeans had already decimated the natives, and the last few indigenous Floridians joined the Spanish exodus to Cuba when the British took over.
British Rule
The British divided Florida at the Apalachicola River. West Florida extended as far as the Mississippi. With the Spanish gone, there were almost no whites in either territory. Peninsular Florida was still a wilderness of man-grove swamp, sawgrass, and everglades. The Seminoles, who had moved south into Florida beginning around 1700, maintained peaceful relations with the British.
The British crown offered settlers free land in Florida, often in tracts of thousands of acres. At first landholders used free labor and indentured servants, who balked at the brutal work. Therefore plantation owners began to import slaves. Since Indians could escape, and suffered terribly from European-borne diseases, the new owners brought in enslaved Africans. Under the Spanish, slavery had been relatively humane, and many free blacks thrived in Florida. The British brought the much harsher chattel slavery to Florida.
Coastal Florida was infertile, the cost of living high, the tropical fevers lethal. Nonetheless, the British began to squeeze profits from the new territories. Besides producing timber for the treeless West Indies, tar and pitch for ships, and furs and deerskins, West Florida maintained a vigorous clandestine trade with Spanish-controlled New Orleans. East Florida, where the plantations were larger, produced indigo and naval stores, and carried out an embryonic commerce in oranges, which the Spanish had introduced.
Florida remained loyalist throughout the American Revolution. American forces invaded Florida on several raids but the greatest danger came from Spain, eager to recover its old colony. A vigorous Spanish campaign took back West Florida, and when the British finally settled the issue with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, they ceded Florida back to Spain, which was in no position to enjoy the recovery. The infant United States of America wanted Florida, and European troubles allowed her to take the territories piecemeal. In 1810 local people west of the Perdido proclaimed a Republic of West Florida, which the United States absorbed in 1812. Over the next several years, the pro-British Seminoles raided Alabama and Georgia, culminating in the first Seminole War (1817–1818). Andrew Jackson invaded West Florida in 1818 and took Pensacola. Although he eventually withdrew, the Spanish grip on Florida was clearly failing. Spain entered into negotiations with the United States, ceded Florida to the United States through the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819, and on 17 July 1821 the American flag went up.
U.S. Territory and State
Florida was organized as a territory in 1822, and Jackson became its first governor. In 1824 Tallahassee became the capital, and the surrounding area rapidly became the dominant region. The cotton-growing counties surrounding Tallahassee produced 80 percent of the territory's crop. In 1830 Florida's census recorded a total population of more than 33,000, of whom 16,000 lived in the area around Tallahassee, so-called Middle Florida. In 1845 Florida was granted admission to the Union as a slave state.
Throughout this period, small farmers from Georgia and the Carolinas, often called crackers, were migrating to Florida. While the Tallahassee planters grew their cotton and the large landowners south of Saint Augustine turned to sugar cane, the crackers built small farms to raise cattle, corn, vegetables, tobacco, and citrus fruit. These newcomers quickly came into conflict with the Seminoles. Tensions between white settlers and the Indians grew, and white landowners pressed the government to wipe out or remove the Indians. The federal government's efforts to do so led to the second Seminole War (1835–1842), following which only a few hundred Seminoles remained in Florida. These isolated, outnumbered bands fought a third Seminole War (1855–1858), after which attempts to remove the few remaining Seminoles ceased.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the Union seized Saint Augustine, and the small Union garrison at Pensacola managed to hold on against a much larger Confederate force under Braxton Bragg. Conscription gangs roamed the countryside forcing men into the Confederate Army; more than 16,000 Florida men (from a total white population of about 77,746 in the 1860 Census) went north to fight for the Confederacy. Left behind to fend for themselves were women, old men, and children, and more than sixty thousand slaves, all trapped inside the Union blockade. Most lived in direst poverty. Florida's civic structure collapsed.
After the Civil War, Federal troops occupied the state to enforce Reconstruction. Radical Republicans, composed of Unionist Floridians (scalawags), newly arrived Northerners (carpetbaggers), and recently enfranchised blacks, dominated the constitutional convention of 1868; but a white conservative faction managed to lock the radicals out and ram through its own constitution. However odd its inception, this document allowed the army to give Florida back to civil government, and the battle for control heated up in earnest. White Democrats were devoted to restoring Florida to the same social order it had known before the war. Republican Harrison Reed of Massachusetts was elected the first postwar governor in 1868, but he spent his nearly five years in office fighting off impeachment efforts.
Meanwhile, white conservatives worked to under-mine the Republican base by intimidating black voters. Even during the war, occupying Federal authorities had broken up confiscated lands and distributed them to blacks, but after Lincoln's murder Federal policy reversed, the lands were returned to their original owners, and the blacks were kicked off. Discriminatory local laws, the Ku Klux Klan, and even cavalry charges into lines of voters terrorized former slaves. By 1881 the Democratic Party was in charge of the government, and a new constitution in 1885 imposed segregation and a poll tax. For the next eighty years all state elections were decided within the Democratic Party. Florida was still largely a frontier state, isolated and wretchedly poor. Sharecropping and tenant farming dominated agriculture. The state government was largely insolvent. With the lowest literacy rate in the south, the governor in 1876 nonetheless proposed eliminating public high schools.
Still, the seeds of modern Florida were germinating. The balmy climate had attracted tourists as early as the 1840s. By 1873, 50,000 people a year were boating up the Saint Johns River. New railroads, used at first to transport lumber, made other areas of the state accessible; economic troubles in the north encouraged people to move down into peninsular Florida. In 1880 the population was 269,493, of whom 126,690 were black. Beginning in 1883 Henry Flagler, an associate of John D. Rockefeller, developed resorts on Florida's Atlantic coast, starting at Saint Augustine. His East Coast Railroad reached West Palm Beach in 1894, bringing tourists and supplies to the extravagant resort hotels Flagler built there. The 1894–1895 freezes, which destroyed the citrus crop in the north, convinced Flagler to build on into Miami, where heiress Julia Tuttle had founded an ambitious but empty city. The Spanish-American War, with its bases in Tampa and Key West, further stimulated the economy. By 1912 Flagler's railroad had reached Key West, then a sleepy fishing and cigar-making community. The railroad linked Florida from its southernmost tip to the continental United States. The opening of the Panama Canal brought a steady increase in commerce to the area. Nonetheless, political power remained with North Florida.
Ongoing political dissension split the dominant Democratic Party, pitting "wool hats" (farmers and small businessmen) against "silk hats" (wealthy businessmen and landowners). Farmers black and white found common ground in the Florida Farmers Alliance, whose Ocala Demands formed the basis for the platform of the national Populist Party formed in 1891. The threat of empowerment of black Floridians led to a savage backlash among whites; new laws segregated blacks and locked them into poverty and powerlessness. Yet blacks kept striving for equality, and whites resorted to increasing force to keep them down, including lynchings and the burning of black towns.
The Rise of South Florida
The Panama Canal brought another boon to Florida: weapons against the dreaded yellow fever. Terrifying epidemics of the "black vomit" had swept the state for years; the techniques that cleared the steaming jungles of Panama soon tamed the disease in Florida as well. Nonetheless, the state remained too poor to attract investors. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, elected governor in 1904, was a wool hat liberal; he began the reclamation of the Everglades, building canals to drain off the water. In 1900 the census counted 528,542 people in Florida; 1910, there were 752,619.
The Progressive movement sweeping the nation influenced Florida as well. Progressives demanded socially responsible government; May Mann Jennings, the wife of Governor William Sherman Jennings, promoted conservation, Seminole reservations, education, and public libraries. In 1905 the Buckman Act established the University of Florida for white men, the Florida Female College for women, and the Colored Normal School for blacks.
World War I brought a new boom to Florida. Flying schools took advantage of the consistent good weather and Key West was the site of a major submarine base. Toward Prohibition Florida exhibited the same fractured sensibility as the rest of the nation. Much of the state had passed local dry laws even before the Volstead Act of 1919; yet the long coastline and steady high demand made Florida a major nexus of liquor smuggling.
During the 1920s Florida experienced a spectacular land boom, especially in Miami Beach, Dade County, up and down both coasts, and into central Florida. Speculators designed and sold whole communities, like Coral Gables and Boca Raton. Between 1922 and 1925, 300,000 people arrived in Florida. The 1930 census showed a population of 1,468,211 (29 percent black). Many people arrived in cars, feeding the motel industry. Land values soared.
In 1926, like a harbinger of bad times to come, a terrible hurricane killed four hundred people and left five thousand homeless. The great boom was fizzling out. Undermined by speculation, banks began to fail; Florida was in a depression before the rest of the nation followed in 1930. The railroads went bankrupt; there was no money and no work. The state had no funds for relief, and no inclination to deliver it anyway. Local agencies took over as best they could. By 1932, 36 percent of blacks and 22 percent of whites were on relief.
In the 1932 presidential election Franklin Delano Roosevelt won Florida with 74 percent of the vote. The index of industrial production continued to drop, Prohibition was repealed in 1933, and Roosevelt's New Deal steadied the banks and provided employment through public works. In 1931 Florida had legalized pari-mutuel gambling, and thoroughbreds, greyhounds, and jai alai become major revenue producers. By 1934 tourism was making a comeback.
The New Deal stabilized Florida's economy but World War II ended the Great Depression. After Pearl Harbor, military bases opened around the state and the shipbuilding industry boomed. This resulted in a labor shortage, which authorities in some areas dealt with by rounding up "vagrants," mostly black, and putting them into peonage. The sugar industry, booming after the fall of the Philippines, was especially bad, with labor conditions like prison camps.
In 1940 the population of Florida was 1,897,414, making it the least populated state in the Southeast. Between 1940 and 1990 an average of 1.8 million people entered Florida each decade. Air conditioning and mosquito controls made South Florida livable in the summer. Key West, nearly bankrupt in the 1930s, got a new water pipeline from the federal government in 1942, and its population tripled by the end of the war. Miami and the Gold Coast above it was transformed as new military recruits came there to train, many stationed in luxury hotels because of the severe housing shortage. These recruits included blacks, who fought with distinction in the war, and chafed angrily under Jim Crow laws at home.
After the war Florida was clearly divided into two camps: the north, which clung to Jim Crow, and the south, which, flooded with newcomers, felt no attachment to customary norms and practices. Still the north controlled the state government: less than 20 percent of the population elected more than half the legislature. The stage was set for a major confrontation between Jim Crow and the civil rights movement.
Modern Florida
In 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregated education in Brown v. Board of Education, white supremacists struggled to hold the color line, but blacks now had the federal government on their side. In 1949, five black students challenged the segregation of the University of Florida, and in 1959 the courts finally ordered the institution open to African Americans. Martin Luther King went to Saint Augustine in 1964 to preach and lead protest marches that drew national news attention. At the same time flourishing industries were realizing that race riots were bad for business. In 1968 another state constitution shifted legislative control to the south and modernized the government. Claude Kirk (1967–1971) became the first Republican governor since Reconstruction and in 1992 the first black Floridians in over a hundred years went to the House of Representatives. Leander Shaw in 1990 became the first black chief justice of the Florida supreme court.
Liberated from the long race war, which had sucked up the energies and suppressed the aspirations of so many, Florida transformed itself. No longer part of the Deep South, it now belonged to the Sunbelt, affluent and modern. Its business-friendly politics and balmy climate attracted growth industries. Starting in 1950, rockets from Cape Canaveral sent people into space and to the moon. Housing construction, high technology, and tourism pushed agriculture into the background of the economy. Disney World, opened in Orlando in 1965, drew millions of tourists a year, feeding the hotel and airline industries.
Florida's population was diversifying as it grew. In the thirty years after Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, more than 800,000 Cubans moved to the Miami area. Haitians and Nicaraguans also fled to Florida from oppressive regimes in their homelands. People from all over Latin America and beyond came seeking jobs and advancement. From the northern states, retirees flooded into the sunshine and warmth. By 1990, 25 percent of the population was elderly. In 1990 the census counted 12,937,926 people, only 30 percent of them native Floridians.
This human tidal wave devastated Florida's natural environment. Starting at the turn of the twentieth century, developers drained the Everglades, diked Lake Okeechobee, and built high-rise hotels and condominiums on beaches and barrier islands—communities built not to exploit a local resource or serve local needs but simply to provide people a place to go that was not home. Rapid development strained water and energy supplies. The danger of such development in a hurricane zone was amply illustrated in August 1992, when Hurricane Andrew leveled extreme south Florida, killing more than 20 people and causing $20 billion in damage.
In 2000 Florida decided a presidential election. With the presidency in the balance, Democrat Albert Gore contested election results in Florida (where the governor was the brother of the Republican candidate, George W. Bush), demanding a recount; the subsequent confusion finally ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which stopped the recount and awarded the election to Bush.
In fifty years Florida evolved from the poorest and most isolated part of the South to a cosmopolitan, multicultural society, a winter playground for millions from the icy north, and a tourist mecca for the entire world. In 2000 the population was 15,982,378, and still growing.
Bibliography
Gannon, Michael, ed. The New History of Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996.
Newton, Michael. The Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.
Storter, Rob. Crackers in the Glade: Life and Times in the Old Everglades. Edited and compiled by Betty Savidge Briggs. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000.
Williams, Joy. The Florida Keys: A History and Guide. 9th ed. New York: Random House, 2000.
—Cecelia Holland
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Florida |
Facts and Figures
Area, 58,560 sq mi (151,670 sq km). Pop. (2000) 15,982,378, a 23.5% increase since the 1990 census. Capital, Tallahassee. Largest city, Jacksonville. Statehood, Mar. 3, 1845 (27th state). Highest pt., 345 ft (105 m), Walton co.; lowest pt., sea level. Nickname, Sunshine State. Motto, In God We Trust. State bird, mockingbird. State flower, orange blossom. State tree, Sabal palmetto palm. Abbr., Fla.; FL
Geography
The Florida peninsula, warmed by surrounding subtropical and tropical waters and cooled by the trade winds, is famous for its pleasant climate, abundant sunshine, and scenery. The NW of Florida is a gently rolling panhandle area, cut into by deep swamps along the Gulf coast. The St. Marys River in the northeast and the Perdido River in the northwest form part of the boundary with Georgia and Alabama. Much of the east coast is shielded from the Atlantic Ocean by narrow sandbars and barrier islands that protect the shallow lagoons, rivers, and bays. Immediately inland, pine and palmetto flatlands stretch from the Georgia border almost to the southern tip of the state. Central Florida abounds in lakes, with Lake Okeechobee being the largest. The Everglades, which includes Big Cypress Swamp, is a unique wilderness region of subtropical plant growth and animal life and extends over the center of the southern part of the peninsula. Florida's SW coast, on the Gulf of Mexico, is dotted with tiny islands, and the Florida Keys, extending south and west from the southern tip of the state, are linked to the mainland by a causeway. Florida is separated from Cuba to the south by the Straits of Florida.
Tallahassee is the capital, and
Economy
Tourism plays a primary role in the state's economy; in 1996 visitors to Florida spent over $48 billion. Walt Disney World, a massive cluster of theme parks near Orlando that is one of the world's leading tourist attractions; Universal Studios, a combination theme park and film and television production facility, also near Orlando; and other attractions draw millions yearly. Famed beaches, such as those at Miami Beach, Daytona Beach, and Fort Lauderdale, attract hordes of vacationers. With more than 4,000 sq mi (10,360 sq km) of inland water and with the sea readily accessible from almost anywhere in the state, Florida is a fishing paradise. Other attractions include Everglades National Park, with its unusual plant and animal life; Palm Beach, with its palatial estates; and Sanibel Island's picturesque resorts.
Famous for its citrus fruits, Florida leads the nation in the production of oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, and market-ready corn and tomatoes. Other important crops include sugarcane and many varieties of winter vegetables. Cattle and dairy products are important, as is commercial fishing, with the catch including crabs, lobsters, and shrimp.
Cape Canaveral is the site of the John F. Kennedy Space Center, and many defense and scientific-research companies are in the area. Space flights, including those to the moon and the space shuttle missions, have been launched from Cape Canaveral. There are also major air and naval facilities, especially near Tampa and Pensacola. Construction is a major industry in fast-growing Florida, and Miami is a center of international (especially Latin American) trade.
Florida's leading manufactured items are food products, printed and published materials, electrical and electronic equipment, and transportation equipment. Lumber and wood products are also important. Most of the state's timber is yellow pine. Florida's mineral resources include phosphate rock, sand, and gravel.
Government, Politics, and Higher Education
In 1968, Florida adopted a new state constitution. The governor is elected for a term of four years, and the legislature has a senate of 40 members and a house of representatives of 120 members. The state also elects 25 representatives and 2 senators to the U.S. Congress and has 27 electoral votes.
The state has authorized the creation of special governing districts that give to commercial entities certain rights usually restricted to elected governments. A special district approved for Disney World in the 1960s allows it to oversee land drainage, and its powers have since been vastly expanded.
Florida is solidly Republican in presidential elections, supporting the Democratic candidate only once since 1968. Democrat Lawton Chiles, elected governor in 1990 and reelected in 1994, was succeeded by Republican John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, elected in 1998 and reelected in 2002. Charlie Crist, also a Republican, won the governorship in 2006.
Florida's institutions of higher education include the Univ. of Florida, at Gainesville; the Univ. of Miami, at Coral Gables; Florida State Univ. and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical Univ., at Tallahassee; Univ. of Central Florida, at Orlando; Rollins College, at Winter Park; the Univ. of Tampa and the Univ. of South Florida, at Tampa; Florida Southern College, at Lakeland; Stetson Univ., at De Land; Barry College, at Miami; and Bethune-Cookman College, at Daytona Beach.
History
Early Spanish and French Exploration
Although the Florida peninsula was probably sighted by earlier navigators, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León is credited as the first European to visit the area. Seeking the fabled Fountain of Youth, Ponce de León landed near the site of Saint Augustine in 1513. He claimed the area, which he thought was an island, for Spain and named it Florida, probably because it was then the Easter season (Pascua Florida). Other Spanish adventurers, notably Pánfilo de Narváez and Hernando De Soto, later explored the region and established the fact that Florida was not an island. The vast region that comprises most of the SE United States was claimed for Spain, the whole being known as Florida.
It was the activity of the French in the area, however, that led to actual Spanish settlement of the Florida peninsula. In May, 1562, Jean Ribaut had discovered the St. Johns River, and two years later René de Laudonnière built Fort Caroline at its mouth. Alarmed at this encroachment by the French, Philip II of Spain commissioned Pedro Menéndez de Aviles to drive the French out of the area; this he did ruthlessly. Spanish colonization began when Menéndez founded St. Augustine in 1565. Florida had no precious metals to spur conquest (as in Mexico and Peru), its soil seemed infertile (Spanish Florida was never self-sufficient agriculturally), and the Native Americans resented their encroachment. However, the Spanish were compelled to hold Florida because of its strategic location along the Straits of Florida, through which rich treasure ships from the south sailed for Spain.
English Colonization
In the 1600s the English, who were trying to expand their American colonial holdings after 1607, began to threaten Florida. St. Augustine was attacked several times by English corsairs and in 1702-3 was besieged by a force from the English colony in South Carolina. In 1742, English colonists from Georgia under James E. Oglethorpe, Georgia's founder, defeated the Spanish in the battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simons Island, making Florida's northern boundary the St. Marys River. Spain's last-minute entry (1762) into the Seven Years War cost her Florida, which the British acquired through the Treaty of Paris (1763).
Under the British (1763-83), Florida was divided into two provinces, and St. Augustine and Pensacola were respectively made the capitals of East Florida and West Florida. Under the Treaty of Paris (1783), Florida was returned to Spain. Many colonists in Florida abandoned the region and moved to British possessions in the West Indies. Spain's hold over Florida, however, was extremely tenuous. Boundary disputes developed with the United States (see West Florida Controversy). In the War of 1812, Pensacola served as a British base until captured (1814) by U.S. General Andrew Jackson.
U.S. Occupation
In 1819, after years of diplomatic wrangling, Spain reluctantly signed the Adams-Onis treaty ceding Florida to the United States in return for U.S. assumption of $5 million in damages claimed by U.S. citizens against Spain. Official U.S. occupation took place in 1821, and Andrew Jackson was appointed military governor. Florida, with its present boundaries, was organized as a territory in 1822, and William P. Duval became its first territorial governor.
Settlers poured in from neighboring states, settling especially in the area around the newly founded capital of Tallahassee. A plantation economy flourished there, with cotton and tobacco the chief crops. Settlement expanded southward and displaced the Seminoles, and wars with them seriously impeded Florida's development. A group of Seminole, under Osceola, resisted attempts to move them to the West, but eventually most of them were transported out of the region at the end of the Second Seminole War (1835-42). However, a small band fled to the wilderness of the Everglades and their descendants live on reservations in the Lake Okeechobee area.
Statehood, Civil War, and Reconstruction
Florida was admitted to the Union in 1845 as a slaveholding state. After Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860 proslavery sentiment in Florida led the state to secede from the Union in 1861 and join the Confederacy. Florida furnished vital supplies (particularly salt and cattle) to the Confederacy. The most important Civil War engagement fought in Florida was the battle of Olustee (Feb. 20, 1864), a Confederate victory.
After the war Florida was placed under military rule by Congress. A constitution was drafted providing for black suffrage, and the state was readmitted to the Union in 1868. The constitution had been drafted by moderate Republicans, some of whom were from the North, and these same Republicans held most political offices until 1876, when the Democrats were returned to power and African Americans were once again relegated to an inferior position. In 1885 a new constitution replaced the Reconstruction charter of 1868.
Land Booms
In 1881 Florida sold 4,000,000 acres (1,618,800 hectares) of land to real-estate promoters. Northern capitalists such as Henry M. Flagler built railroads and hotels, and Florida began to develop. The drainage of the Everglades, begun in 1906, precipitated one of the state's periodic land booms. Because of environmental degradation due to farming these drained lands, areas are now being restored to their natural state through reflooding. The most famous of Florida's land booms started after World War I and reached its peak in 1925 when land values achieved fantastic heights, only to collapse completely the following year.
From Depression to Postwar Growth
Florida weathered the depression of the 1930s with the help of the federal government, and during World War II prospered from army, navy, and air force installations. After the war the state enjoyed phenomenal growth. Virtually unlimited water resources, as well as the pleasant climate, were important factors in attracting new industries. Manufacturing, particularly industries related to aeronautics, developed at an extraordinary rate.
Relations with Latin America
Close to Cuba, Florida has often been involved in the affairs of that island. During the latter half of the 19th cent., Cubans rebelling against Spain received sanctuary and aid in Florida, and the state enthusiastically supported and profited economically from the Spanish-American War (1898), in which Tampa was the chief U.S. base. Florida's relationship with Cuba has become even closer in the 20th cent. Political refugees from the Cuban revolution of 1958-59 poured into Florida by the thousands, creating acute resettlement problems. In 1980 more than 100,000 Cuban refugees came to the United States, mostly through Florida, after Fidel Castro briefly opened the port of Mariel to a flotilla of privately chartered U.S. ships (see Cuba).
In the early 1990s, Florida was again the receiving ground for thousands of refugees, this time from Haiti, following the 1991 military coup in that country, as well as another wave from Cuba in 1994. Miami has been profoundly influenced by the massive influx of Cubans and other Caribbean people, both culturally and commercially. The city functions as the trade center of Latin America.
Florida has been one of the fastest growing states in the country for many decades. During the 1980s it surpassed Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania to become the fourth largest state, and has retained that position. Thousands of retired persons have settled in the state, particularly in St. Petersburg on the west coast and on the eastern coast from West Palm Beach to the vicinity of Miami, nicknamed the "Gold Coast." The central interior of the state is the fastest growing region, particularly the corridor along Interstate 4, which connects the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area through Orlando to Daytona Beach.
Florida is subject to hurricanes, and the extensive development during the late 20th cent. has led to an increase in the damage caused by such storms. Hurricane Andrew devastated much of S Florida in 1992, leaving over 200,000 people homeless and costing property insurers more than $15 billion. In 1995, Hurricane Opal raged along the Panhandle coast. Four hurricanes struck Florida in 2004, resulting in widespread damage, and Hurricane Wilma also caused extensive damage in S Florida the following year. In 1994 the state approved a $685 million program to restore the deteriorating Everglades ecosystem, and in 1996 the federal government substantially enlarged the Everglades plans.
In Nov., 2000, Florida became the focus of unlooked-for national attention when George W. Bush and Al Gore found themselves separated by a thin margin in the contest for the state's electoral votes, which both needed to win the presidency. With Bush holding a lead of a few hundred out of several million, the outcome was fought over in the state government, state and federal courts, and the media. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on Bush's side in December, but deficiencies that were exposed in voting systems, recount methods, and even ballot design guaranteed that victory would be tarnished no matter who won (and led to an overhaul of Florida's election system).
Bibliography
See R. B. Marcus and E. A. Fernald, Florida: A Geographical Approach (1975); C. W. Tebeau, A History of Florida (rev. ed. 1981); D. Marth, ed., Florida Almanac, 1988-89 (1989).
| Geography: Florida |
The southeasternmost state of the contiguous United States, bordered by Alabama and Georgia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, and the Gulf of Mexico and Alabama to the west. Its capital is Tallahassee, and its largest city is Jacksonville.
| Local Time: Florida |
| It is 2:14 PM, November 25, in Florida. |  |
| It is 1:14 PM, November 25, in Florida (far west). |  |
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Florida was the center of controversy during the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
| Wikipedia: Florida |
| State of Florida | |||||||||||||
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| Official language(s) | English [1] | ||||||||||||
| Demonym | Floridian | ||||||||||||
| Capital | Tallahassee | ||||||||||||
| Largest city | Jacksonville | ||||||||||||
| Largest metro area | Miami | ||||||||||||
| Area | Ranked 22nd in the US | ||||||||||||
| - Total | 65,795[2] sq mi (170,304[2] km2) |
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| - Width | 361 miles (582 km) | ||||||||||||
| - Length | 447 miles (721 km) | ||||||||||||
| - % water | 17.9 | ||||||||||||
| - Latitude | 24°27′ N to 31° N | ||||||||||||
| - Longitude | 80°02′ W to 87°38′ W | ||||||||||||
| Population | Ranked 4th in the US | ||||||||||||
| - Total | 18,328,340 (2008 est.)[3] 15,982,378 (2000) |
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| - Density | 338.4/sq mi (130.67/km2) Ranked 8th in the US |
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| - Median income | $41,171 (36th) | ||||||||||||
| Elevation | |||||||||||||
| - Highest point | Britton Hill[4] 345 ft (105 m) |
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| - Mean | 98 ft (30 m) | ||||||||||||
| - Lowest point | Atlantic Ocean[4] 0 ft (0 m) |
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| Admission to Union | March 3, 1845 (27th) | ||||||||||||
| Governor | Charlie Crist (R) | ||||||||||||
| Lieutenant Governor | Jeff Kottkamp (R) | ||||||||||||
| U.S. Senators | Bill Nelson (D) George LeMieux (R) |
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| U.S. House delegation | 15 Republicans, 10 Democrats (list) | ||||||||||||
| Time zones | |||||||||||||
| - Peninsula and "Big Bend" region | Eastern: UTC-5/DST-4 | ||||||||||||
| - Panhandle | Central: UTC-6/DST-5 | ||||||||||||
| Abbreviations | FL Fla. US-FL | ||||||||||||
| Website | http://www.myflorida.com | ||||||||||||
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| The flag of Florida. | |
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| Animate insignia | |
| Bird | Mockingbird |
| Butterfly | Zebra Longwing |
| Fish | Florida largemouth bass, Atlantic sailfish |
| Flower | Orange blossom |
| Insect | Zebra Longwing |
| Mammal | Florida panther, Manatee, Bottle-nosed dolphin |
| Reptile | American Alligator |
| Tree | Sabal Palmetto |
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| Inanimate insignia | |
| Beverage | Orange juice |
| Food | Key lime pie, Orange |
| Fossil | agatized Coral |
| Gemstone | Moonstone |
| Rock | agatized Coral |
| Shell | Horse conch |
| Slogan(s) | Visit Florida |
| Soil | Myakka |
| Song(s) | Old Folks at Home (Way Down Upon The Swanee River) |
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| State Quarter | |
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| Released in 2004 | |
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| Lists of United States state insignia | |
Florida (
/ˈflɒrɪdə/ (help·info)) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States. Much of the land mass of the state is a large peninsula with the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
It is nicknamed the "Sunshine State" because of its generally warm climate—subtropical in the northern and central regions of the state, with a true tropical climate in the southern portion.[5] The state has four large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the state population was 18,328,340 in 2008, ranking Florida as the fourth most populous state in the U.S.[6][7] Tallahassee is the state capital, Jacksonville is the largest city, and the Miami metropolitan area is the largest metro area.
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Archaeological research indicates that Florida had been inhabited for thousands of years before any European settlements. Of the many indigenous peoples, the largest known were the Ais, the Apalachee, the Calusa, the Timucua and the Tocobago tribes.
"Florida" is the oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish conquistador, named Florida in honor of his discovery of the land on the evening April 2, 1513, six days after Easter and still during Pascua Florida, a Spanish term for the "Flowery Easter" season, and for the land's appearance as a "flowered land." "It was named for these two reasons." [8] (Juan Ponce de León may not have been the first European to reach Florida; according to one report, at least one indigenous tribesman who he encountered in Florida in 1513 spoke Spanish.)[9] From that date forward, the land became known as "La Florida," although after 1630 Tegesta (after the Tequesta tribe) was throughout the 1700s an alternate name of choice for the Florida peninsula following publication of a map by the Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz in Joannes de Laet's History of the New World.[10][11]
Over the following century, both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success. In 1559, Spanish Pensacola was established by Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano as the first European settlement in the continental United States. It was abandoned by 1561, and was not re-inhabited until the 1690s. French Huguenots founded Fort Caroline in modern-day Jacksonville in 1564, but the fort was conquered by forces from the new Spanish colony of St. Augustine the following year. After Huguenot leader Jean Ribault had learned of the new Spanish threat, he launched an expedition to sack the Spanish settlement; en route, however, severe storms at sea waylaid the expedition, which consisted of most of the colony's men, allowing St. Augustine founder Pedro Menéndez de Avilés time to march his men over land and conquer Fort Caroline. Most of the Huguenots were slaughtered, and Menéndez de Avilés marched south and captured the survivors of the wrecked French fleet, ordering all but a few Catholics executed beside a river subsequently called Matanzas (Spanish for 'killings'). The Spanish never had a firm hold on Florida, and maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the local tribes, briefly with Jesuits and later with Franciscan friars. The local leaders (caciques) demonstrated their loyalty to the Spanish by converting to Roman Catholicism and welcoming the Franciscan priests into their villages.
The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English colonies to the north and French colonies to the west. The English weakened Spanish power in the area by supplying their Creek Indian allies with firearms and urging them to raid the Timucuan and Apalachee client-tribes of the Spanish. The English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times, while the citizens hid behind the walls of the Castillo de San Marcos.
The Spanish, meanwhile, encouraged slaves to flee the English-held Carolinas and come to Florida, where they were converted to Roman Catholicism and given freedom. They settled in a buffer community north of St. Augustine, called Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first completely black settlement in what became the United States.
Great Britain gained control of Florida diplomatically in 1763 through the Peace of Paris. The British divided the colony into East Florida, with its capital at St. Augustine, and West Florida, with its capital at Pensacola. Britain tried to develop the Floridas through the importation of immigrants for labor, including some from Minorca and Greece, but this project ultimately failed. Spain regained the Floridas after Britain's defeat by the American colonies and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles in 1783, continuing the division into East and West Florida. They offered land grants to anyone who settled in the colonies, and many Americans moved to them.
After settler attacks on Indian towns, Seminole Indians based in East Florida began raiding Georgia settlements, purportedly at the behest of the Spanish. The United States Army led increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory, including the 1817–1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians by Andrew Jackson that became known as the First Seminole War. Following the war, the United States effectively controlled East Florida. In 1819, by terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain ceded Florida to the United States in exchange for the American renunciation of any claims on Texas that they might have from the Louisiana Purchase and $5 million.
As settlement increased, pressure grew on the United States government to remove the Indians from their lands in Florida. To the chagrin of Georgia landowners, the Seminoles harbored and integrated runaway blacks, and clashes between whites and Indians grew with the influx of new settlers. In 1832, the United States government signed the Treaty of Payne's Landing with some of the Seminole chiefs, promising them lands west of the Mississippi River if they agreed to leave Florida voluntarily. Many of the Seminoles left at this time, while those who remained prepared to defend their claims to the land. White settlers pressured the government to remove all of the Indians, by force if necessary, and in 1835, the U.S. Army arrived to enforce the treaty.
The Second Seminole War began at the end of 1835 with the Dade Massacre, when Seminoles ambushed Army troops marching from Fort Brooke (Tampa) to reinforce Fort King (Ocala), killing or mortally wounding all but one of the 108 troops. Between 900 and 1,500 Seminole Indian warriors effectively employed hit and run guerrilla tactics against United States Army troops for seven years. Osceola, a charismatic young war leader, came to symbolize the war and the Seminoles after he was arrested at truce negotiations in 1837 and died in prison less than a year later. The war dragged on until 1842. The U.S. government is estimated to have spent between US$20 million and US$40 million on the war, at the time an astronomical sum. On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America. Its population grew slowly. White settlers continued to encroach on lands used by the Seminoles, and the United States government resolved to make another effort to move the remaining Seminoles to the West. The Third Seminole War lasted from 1855 to 1858, and resulted in the removal of most of the remaining Seminoles. Even after three bloody wars, the U.S. failed to force all of the Seminole Indians in Florida to the West.[12] Though most of the Seminoles were forcibly exiled to Creek lands west of the Mississippi, hundreds, including Seminole leader Aripeka (Sam Jones), remained in the Everglades and refused to leave the native homeland of their ancestors. Their descendants remain there to this day. White settlers began to establish cotton plantations in Florida, which required numerous laborers. By 1860 Florida had only 140,424 people, of whom 44% were enslaved. There were fewer than 1000 free people of color before the Civil War.[13]
On January 10, 1861, before the start of the American Civil War, Florida declared its secession from the Union; ten days later, the state became a founding member of the Confederate States of America. The war ended in 1865. On June 25, 1868, Florida's congressional representation was restored. After Reconstruction, white Democrats succeeded in regaining power in the state legislature. In 1885 they created a new constitution, followed by statutes through 1889 that effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites over the next several years. Provisions included poll taxes, literacy tests, and residency requirements. Disfranchisement for most African Americans in the state persisted until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s gained federal legislation to protect their suffrage.
Until the mid-twentieth century, Florida was the least populous Southern state. In 1900 its population was only 528,542, of whom nearly 44 percent were African American.[14] The boll weevil devastated cotton crops, and early 20th century lynchings and racial violence caused a record number of African Americans to leave the state in the Great Migration to northern and midwestern industrial cities. Forty thousand blacks, roughly one-fifth of their 1900 population, left for better opportunities.[15] National economic prosperity in the 1920s stimulated tourism to Florida. Combined with its sudden elevation in profile was the Florida land boom of the 1920s, which brought a brief period of intense land development. Devastating hurricanes in 1926 and 1928, followed by the stock market crash and Great Depression, brought that period to a halt.
Florida's economy did not fully recover until the buildup for World War II. The climate, tempered by the growing availability of air conditioning, and low cost of living made the state a haven. Migration from the Rust Belt and the Northeast sharply increased the population after the war. In recent decades, more migrants have come for the jobs in a developing economy. Today, with an estimated population of more than 18 million, Florida is the most populous state in the Southeastern United States, the second most populous state in the South behind Texas, and the fourth most populous in the United States. The Census Bureau estimated that "Florida, now the fourth most populous state, will edge past New York into third place in total population by 2011".[16]
Much of the state of Florida is situated on a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Straits of Florida. Spanning two time zones, It extends to the northwest into a panhandle, extending along the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is bordered on the north by the states of Georgia and Alabama, and on the west, at the end of the panhandle, by Alabama. It is near several Caribbean countries, particularly The Bahamas and Cuba. Florida's extensive coastline made it a perceived target during World War II, so the government built airstrips throughout the state; today, approximately 400 airports are still in service. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, Florida has 131 public airports, and more than 700 private airports, airstrips, heliports, and seaplane bases.[17] Florida is one of the largest states east of the Mississippi River, and only Alaska and Michigan are larger in water area.
The Florida peninsula is a porous plateau of karst limestone sitting atop bedrock known as the Florida Platform. The emergent portion of the platform was created during the Eocene to Oligocene as the Gulf Trough filled with silts, clays, and sands. Flora and fauna began appearing during the Miocene. No land animals were present in Florida prior to the Miocene.
Extended systems of underwater caves, sinkholes and springs are found throughout the state and supply most of the water used by residents. The limestone is topped with sandy soils deposited as ancient beaches over millions of years as global sea levels rose and fell. During the last glacial period, lower sea levels and a drier climate revealed a much wider peninsula, largely savanna.[18] The Everglades, an enormously wide, very slow-flowing river encompasses the southern tip of the peninsula.
Because Florida is not located near any tectonic plate boundaries, earthquakes are very rare, but not totally unknown. In January, 1879, a shock occurred near St. Augustine. There were reports of heavy shaking that knocked plaster from walls and articles from shelves. Similar effects were noted at Daytona Beach 50 miles (80 km) south. The tremor was felt as far south as Tampa and as far north as Savannah, Georgia. In January 1880, Cuba was the center of two strong earthquakes that sent severe shock waves through the city of Key West, Florida. Another earthquake centered outside Florida was the 1886 Charleston earthquake. The shock was felt throughout northern Florida, ringing church bells at St. Augustine and severely jolting other towns along that section of Florida's east coast. Jacksonville residents felt many of the strong aftershocks that occurred in September, October, and November 1886.[19] As recently as 2006, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake centered about 260 miles (420 km) southwest of Tampa in the Gulf of Mexico sent shock waves through southwest and central Florida. The earthquake was too small to trigger a tsunami and no damage was reported.[20]
At 345 feet (105 m) above mean sea level, Britton Hill is the highest point in Florida and the lowest highpoint of any U.S. state.[21] Much of the state south of Orlando is low-lying and fairly level; however, some places, such as Clearwater, feature vistas that rise 50 to 100 feet (15 – 30 m) above the water. Much of Central and North Florida, typically 25 miles (40 km) or more away from the coastline, features rolling hills with elevations ranging from 100 to 250 feet (30 – 76 m). The highest point in peninsular Florida, Sugarloaf Mountain, is a 312-foot (95 m) peak in Lake County.[22]
Areas under control of the National Park Service include:[23]
Areas under the control of the USDA United States Forest Service include:
The state line begins in the Atlantic Ocean, traveling west, south, and north up the thalweg of the Saint Mary's River. At the origin of that river, it then follows a straight line nearly due west and slightly north, to the point where the confluence of the Flint River (from Georgia) and the Chattahoochee River (down the Alabama/Georgia line) used to form Florida's Apalachicola River. (Since Woodruff Dam was built, this point has been under Lake Seminole.) The border with Georgia continues north through the lake for a short distance up the former thalweg of the Chattahoochee, then with Alabama runs due west along latitude 31°N to the Perdido River, then south along its thalweg to the Gulf via Perdido Bay. Much of the state is at or near sea level.
The climate of Florida is tempered somewhat by the fact that no part of the state is very distant from the ocean. North of lake Okeechobee, the prevalent climate is humid subtropical climate, while south of the lake has a true tropical climate.[24] High temperatures in the state seldom exceed 100 °F (38 °C), with much of Florida commonly seeing a high summer temperature of 90s °F (32+ °C).
During late autumn and winter months, Florida has experienced occasional cold fronts that can bring high winds and relatively cooler temperatures for the entire state, with high temperatures that could remain into the 40s and 50s (4–15 °C) and lows of 30s and 40s (0–10 °C) for few days.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in the Florida was 109 °F (43 °C), set on June 29, 1931 in Monticello. The coldest was–2 °F (−19 °C), on February 13, 1899, just 25 miles (40 km) away, in Tallahassee. Mean high temperatures for late July are primarily in the low 90s Fahrenheit (32–35 °C). Mean low temperatures for late January range from the low 40s Fahrenheit (4–7 °C) in northern Florida to the mid-50s (≈13 °C) in southern Florida.
The seasons in Florida are determined more by precipitation than by temperature, with the hot, wet springs and summers making up the wet season, and mild to cool, and the relatively dry winters and autumns, making the dry season. Fall foliage is a common sight in Central and North Florida starting around late November, and into Winter.
The Florida Keys, because they are completely surrounded by water, have a tropical climate with lesser variability in temperatures. At Key West, temperatures rarely exceed 90 °F (32 °C) in the summer or fall below 60 °F (16 °C) in the winter, and frost has never been reported in the Keys.
Florida's nickname is the "Sunshine State", but severe weather is a common occurrence in the state. Central Florida is known as the lightning capital of the United States, as it experiences more lightning strikes than anywhere else in the country.[25] Florida has the highest average precipitation of any state, in large part because afternoon thunderstorms are common in most of the state from late spring until early autumn. A fair day may be interrupted with a storm, only to return to sunshine an hour or so later. These thunderstorms, caused by overland collisions of moist masses of air from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean[citation needed], pop up in the early afternoon and can bring heavy downpours, high winds, and sometimes tornadoes. Florida leads the United States in tornadoes per square mile (when including waterspouts)[26] but they do not typically reach the intensity of those in the Midwest and Great Plains. Hail often accompanies the most severe thunderstorms.
Snow in Florida is a rare occurrence. During the Great Blizzard of 1899, Florida experienced blizzard conditions; the Tampa Bay area had "gulf-effect" snow, similar to lake-effect snow in the Great Lakes region.[27] During the 1899 blizzard was the only time the temperature in Florida is known to have fallen below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (−18 °C). The most widespread snowfall in Florida history occurred on January 19, 1977, when snow fell over much of the state, as far south as Homestead. Snow flurries fell on Miami Beach for the only time in recorded history. A hard freeze in 2003 brought "ocean-effect" snow flurries to the Atlantic coast as far south as Cape Canaveral.[28] The 1993 Superstorm brought blizzard conditions to the panhandle, while heavy rain and tornadoes beset the peninsula. The storm is believed to have been similar in composition to a hurricane, some Gulf coast regions even seeing storm surges of six feet or more.
Hurricanes pose a severe threat during hurricane season, which lasts from June 1 to November 30, although some storms have been known to form out of season. Florida is the most hurricane-prone US state, with subtropical or tropical water on a lengthy coastline. From 1851 to 2006, Florida has been struck by 114 hurricanes, 37 of them major—category 3 and above.[29] It is rare for a hurricane season to pass without any impact in the state by at least a tropical storm. For storms, category 4 or higher, 83% have either hit Florida or Texas.[29] August to October is the most likely period for a hurricane in Florida.
In 2004, Florida was hit by a record four hurricanes. Hurricanes Charley (August 13), Frances (September 4–5), Ivan (September 16), and Jeanne (September 25–26) cumulatively cost the state's economy US$42 billion. In 2005, Hurricane Dennis (July 10) became the fifth storm to strike Florida within eleven months. Later, Hurricane Katrina (August 25) passed through South Florida and Hurricane Rita (September 20) swept through the Florida Keys. Hurricane Wilma (October 24) made landfall near Cape Romano, just south of Marco Island, finishing another very active hurricane season.
Florida was the site of the second costliest weather disaster in U.S. history, Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than US$25 billion in damage when it struck on August 24, 1992. In a long list of other infamous hurricane strikes are the 1926 Miami hurricane, the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Donna in 1960, and Hurricane Opal in 1995. Recent research suggests the storms are part of a natural cycle and not a result of global warming.[30][31]
| Average High and Low temperatures for various Florida Cities | ||||||||||||
| City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville[32] | 65/43 | 68/45 | 74/50 | 80/56 | 86/64 | 90/70 | 92/73 | 91/73 | 87/70 | 80/61 | 73/51 | 66/44 |
| Key West[33] | 75/65 | 76/66 | 79/69 | 82/72 | 85/76 | 88/78 | 89/80 | 90/80 | 88/78 | 85/76 | 80/71 | 76/67 |
| Melbourne[34] | 72/51 | 73/53 | 77/57 | 81/61 | 85/67 | 88/71 | 90/73 | 90/73 | 88/72 | 83/67 | 78/60 | 73/53 |
| Miami[35] | 76/60 | 77/61 | 80/64 | 83/68 | 86/72 | 88/75 | 90/77 | 90/77 | 88/76 | 85/72 | 81/67 | 77/62 |
| Pensacola[36] | 61/43 | 64/46 | 70/51 | 76/58 | 84/66 | 89/72 | 90/74 | 90/74 | 87/70 | 80/60 | 70/50 | 63/45 |
| Tallahassee[37] | 64/40 | 67/42 | 73/48 | 80/53 | 87/62 | 91/69 | 91/72 | 91/72 | 88/68 | 81/57 | 72/47 | 66/41 |
| Tampa[38] | 71/51 | 72/52 | 77/57 | 82/62 | 88/68 | 90/73 | 90/75 | 90/75 | 89/73 | 84/66 | 77/58 | 72/52 |
Florida is host to many types of wildlife including:
Since their accidental importation from South America into North America in the 1930s, the Red imported fire ant population has increased its territorial range to include most of the Southern United States, including Florida. They are more aggressive than most native ant species and have a painful sting.[40]
Florida ranks forty-fifth in total energy consumption per capita, despite the heavy reliance on air conditioners and pool pumps. This includes coal, natural gas, petroleum, and retail electricity sales.[41] It is estimated that approximately 4% of energy in the state is generated through renewable resources.[42] Florida's energy production is 6 percent of the nation's total energy output, while total production of pollutants is lower, with figures of 5.6 percent for nitrogen oxide, 5.1 percent for carbon dioxide, and 3.5 percent for sulfur dioxide.[42]
It is believed that significant energy resources are located off of Florida's western coast in the Gulf of Mexico, but that region has been closed to exploration since 1981.[43] Governor Charlie Crist and both of Florida's U.S. Senators, Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, oppose offshore drilling and exploration. Former Governor Jeb Bush, who was originally opposed to all drilling,[44] changed his position in 2005 when he supported a bill introduced into the House of Representatives which allowed unrestricted drilling 125 miles (201 km) or more from the coast.[45] Crist, Martinez and Nelson opposed that bill, but Martinez and Nelson voted for a Senate alternative which prohibited drilling within 125 miles (201 km) of the Panhandle coast, and 235 miles (378 km) of the peninsular coast.[46]
In July 2007, Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced plans to sign executive orders that would impose strict new air-pollution standards in the state, with aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. Crist's orders would set new emissions targets for power companies, automobiles and trucks, and toughen conservation goals for state agencies and require state-owned vehicles to use alternative fuels.[47]
Red tide has also been an issue on the Southwest coast of Florida. While there has been a great deal of conjecture over the cause of the toxic algae bloom, there is no evidence that it is being caused by pollution or that there has been an increase in the duration or frequency of red tides.[48]
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1830 | 34,730 |
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| 1840 | 54,477 | 56.9% | |
| 1850 | 87,445 | 60.5% | |
| 1860 | 140,424 | 60.6% | |
| 1870 | 187,748 | 33.7% | |
| 1880 | 269,493 | 43.5% | |
| 1890 | 391,422 | 45.2% | |
| 1900 | 528,542 | 35.0% | |
| 1910 | 752,619 | 42.4% | |
| 1920 | 968,470 | 28.7% | |
| 1930 | 1,468,211 | 51.6% | |
| 1940 | 1,897,414 | 29.2% | |
| 1950 | 2,771,305 | 46.1% | |
| 1960 | 4,951,560 | 78.7% | |
| 1970 | 6,789,443 | 37.1% | |
| 1980 | 9,746,324 | 43.6% | |
| 1990 | 12,937,926 | 32.7% | |
| 2000 | 15,982,378 | 23.5% | |
| Est. 2008 | 18,328,340 | 14.7% | |
Florida has the 4th highest state population in the United States. The center of population of Florida is located in Polk County, in the town of Lake Wales.[49] As of 2008, Florida's population was estimated to be 18,328,340. The state grew 128,814, or 0.7% from 2007. Using the latest population estimates, Florida is the nation's thirtieth-fastest-growing state. During Florida's peak growth year of 2005, it was the nation's fifth fastest growing state and grew at an annual rate of 2.2%.[3]
There were 186,102 military retirees living in the state in 2008.[50]
| Demographics of Florida (csv) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By race | White | Black | AIAN* | Asian | NHPI* |
| 2000 (total population) | 82.45% | 15.66% | 0.75% | 2.11% | 0.16% |
| 2000 (Hispanic only) | 15.94% | 0.74% | 0.14% | 0.09% | 0.03% |
| 2005 (total population) | 81.47% | 16.31% | 0.84% | 2.52% | 0.18% |
| 2005 (Hispanic only) | 18.48% | 0.87% | 0.21% | 0.11% | 0.04% |
| Growth 2000–05 (total population) | 9.99% | 15.93% | 23.95% | 33.09% | 29.08% |
| Growth 2000–05 (non-Hispanic only) | 5.43% | 15.23% | 15.67% | 32.55% | 24.49% |
| Growth 2000–05 (Hispanic only) | 28.99% | 29.93% | 58.98% | 45.89% | 45.66% |
| * AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native; NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | |||||
The largest reported ancestries in the 2000 Census were German (11.8%), Irish (10.3%), English (9.2%), American (8%), Italian (6.3%), French (2.8%), Polish (2.7%) and Scottish (1.8%).[51]
Before the American Civil War, when slavery was legal, and during the Reconstruction era that followed, blacks made up nearly half of the state's population.[52] Their proportion declined over the next century, as many moved north in the Great Migration while large numbers of northern whites moved to the state. Recently, the state's proportion of black residents has begun to grow again. Today, large concentrations of black residents can be found in northern Florida (notably in Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tallahasssee, and Pensacola), the Tampa Bay area, the Orlando area, especially in Orlando and Sanford. Also, there has been a large increase of Black Americans of Hispanic decent in South Florida; where their numbers have been bolstered by significant immigration from Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica.
Florida's Hispanic population includes large communities of Cuban Americans in Miami and Tampa, Puerto Ricans in Orlando and Tampa, and Central American migrant workers in inland West-Central and South Florida. The Hispanic community continues to grow more affluent and mobile. Between the years of 2000 and 2004, Lee County in Southwest Florida, which is largely suburban in character, had the fastest Hispanic population growth rate of any county in the United States.
White Americans of all European backgrounds are present in all areas of the state. Those of British and Irish ancestry are present in large numbers in all the urban/suburban areas across the state. There is a large German population in Southwest Florida, a large Greek population in the Tarpon Springs area, a sizable and historic Italian community in the Miami area, and white Floridians of longer-present generations in the culturally southern areas of inland and northern Florida. Native white Floridians, especially those who have descended from long-time Florida families, affectionately refer to themselves as "Florida crackers." Like all the other southern states, they descend mainly from Scots-Irish as well as some other British settlers.[citation needed] In and around St. Augustine are also several descendants of the Minorcans who fled there from British physician Andrew Turnbull's New Smyrna colony in 1768.[53]
Florida has twenty Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Thirty-nine of Florida's sixty-seven counties are in an MSA. Reflecting the distribution of population in Florida, Metropolitan areas in the state are concentrated around the coast of the peninsula. They form a continuous band on the east coast of Florida, stretching from the Jacksonville MSA to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach MSA, including every county on the east coast, with the exceptions of Monroe County. There is also a continuous band of MSAs on the west coast of the peninsula from the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA to the Naples-Marco Island MSA, including all of the coastal counties from Hernando County to Collier County. The interior of the northern half of the peninsula also has several MSAs, connecting the east and west coast MSAs. A few MSAs are scattered across the Florida panhandle.
The largest metropolitan area in the state as well as the entire southeastern United States is the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, with over five million people. The Tampa Bay area, with over 2.7 million people, is the second largest metro area and Greater Orlando, with over 2.6 million people, is the third.
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City Population > 500,000
City Population > 200,000
City Population > 150,000
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City Population > 100,000
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As of 2000, 76.91 percent of Florida residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a first language, while 16.46 percent spoke Spanish, and French Creole (predominantly Haitian Creole) was spoken by 1.38 percent of the population. French was spoken by 0.83 percent, followed by German at 0.59 percent, and Italian at 0.44 percent of all residents. Also, Portuguese comprised 0.36 percent, while Tagalog made up 0.25 percent of speakers, Arabic was at 0.21 percent and Vietnamese at 0.20 percent. In all, 23.80 percent of Florida's population age 5 and older spoke a language other than English at home.[55]
As of 2005, 74.54 percent of Florida residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a first language, while 18.65 percent spoke Spanish, and French Creole (predominantly Haitian Creole) was spoken by 1.73 percent of the population. French was spoken by 0.63 percent, followed by German at 0.45 percent, and Portuguese at 0.44 percent of all residents. Also, Italian comprised 0.32 percent, while Tagalog made up 0.30 percent of speakers, Vietnamese was at 0.25 percent and Arabic at 0.23 percent. In all, 25.45 percent of Florida's population age 5 and older spoke a language other than English.[55]
This means English decreased by -2.37%, Spanish increased +2.21%, French Creole (including Haitian Creole) increased by +0.35%, French decreased by -0.20%, German decreased by -0.14%, Italian decreased by -0.12%, Portuguese increased by +0.08%, Tagalog increased by +0.05%, Arabic increased by +0.02%, and Vietnamese increased by +0.05% of languages spoken.[55]
Florida's climate makes it a popular state for immigrants. Florida's public education system identifies over 200 first languages other than English spoken in the homes of students. In 1990, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) won a class action lawsuit against the state Florida Department of Education that required educators to be trained in teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).
Article II, Section 9, of the Florida Constitution provides that "English is the official language of the State of Florida." This provision was adopted in 1988 by a vote following an Initiative Petition.
Florida is mostly Protestant, but Roman Catholicism is the single largest denomination in the state. There is also a sizable Jewish community, located mainly in South Florida; no other Southern state has such a large Jewish population. Florida's current religious affiliations are shown in the table below:[56]
| Year | Republican | Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 48.22% 4,045,624 | 50.96% 4,282,074 |
| 2004 | 52.10% 3,964,522 | 47.09% 3,583,544 |
| 2000 | 48.85% 2,912,790 | 48.84% 2,912,253 |
| 1996 | 42.32% 2,244,536 | 48.02% 2,546,870 |
| 1992 | 40.89% 2,173,310 | 39.00% 2,072,698 |
| 1988 | 60.87% 2,618,885 | 38.51% 1,656,701 |
| 1984 | 65.32% 2,730,350 | 34.66% 1,448,816 |
| 1980 | 55.52% 2,046,951 | 38.50% 1,419,475 |
| 1976 | 46.64% 1,469,531 | 51.93% 1,636,000 |
| 1972 | 71.91% 1,857,759 | 27.80% 718,117 |
| 1968 | 40.53% 886,804 | 30.93% 676,794 |
| 1964 | 48.85% 905,941 | 51.15% 948,540 |
| 1960 | 51.51% 795,476 | 48.49% 748,700 |
The basic structure, duties, function, and operations of the government of the State of Florida are defined and established by the Florida Constitution, which establishes the basic law of the state and guarantees various rights and freedoms of the people. The state government consists of three separate branches: judicial, executive, and legislative. The legislature enacts bills, which, if signed by the governor, become Florida Statutes.
The Florida Legislature comprises the Florida Senate, which has 40 members, and the Florida House of Representatives, which has 120 members. The current Governor of Florida is Republican Charlie Crist. The Florida Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Justices.
There are 67 Counties in Florida, but some reports show only 66 because of Duval County, which is consolidated with the City of Jacksonville. There are 379 cities in Florida (out of 411) that report regularly to the Florida Department of Revenue, but there are other incorporated municipalities that do not. The primary source of revenue for the State government is sales tax, but the primary revenue source for cities and counties is property tax.
After Reconstruction, white-elite Democrats wrestled for power until they regained it in 1877, partly through violent paramilitary tactics targeting freedmen and allies to reduce their voting. From 1885 to 1889, the state legislature passed statutes with provisions to reduce voting by blacks and poor whites, which had threatened white Democratic power with a populist coalition. As these groups were stripped from voter rolls, white Democrats established power in a one-party state, as happened across the South. In 1900 African Americans comprised 44% of the state's population,[57] the same proportion as before the Civil War, but they were effectively disfranchised. From 1877 to 1948, Florida voted for the Democratic candidate for president in every election except for the 1928 election.
In response to segregation, disfranchisement and agricultural depression, many African Americans migrated from Florida to northern cities in the Great Migration, in waves from 1910–1940, and again starting in the later 1940s. They moved for jobs, better education for their children and the chance to vote and participate in society. Given migration of other groups into Florida (as noted in other sections of this article), by 1960 the proportion of African Americans in the state had declined to 18%.[58]
From 1952 through 2008, despite having a majority of registered Democrats, the state voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election except for the 1964, 1976, 1996, and 2008 elections. The first post-reconstruction Republican congressional representative was elected in 1954.[59] The state's first post-reconstruction Republican senator was elected in 1968,[60] two years after the first post-reconstruction Republican governor.[61]
In 1998, Democrats were described as most dominant in areas of the state with high percentages of racial minorities, as well as transplanted white liberals coming primarily from the Northeastern United States.[62] The South Florida metropolitan area was a good example of this as it had a particularly high level of both racial minorities and white liberals. Because of this, the area has been one of the most Democratic areas of the state. The Daytona metropolitan area has been, to a lesser extent, somewhat similar to South Florida demographically and the city of Orlando had a large Hispanic population, which often favored Democrats. Republicans remain dominant through out much of the rest of Florida particularly in the more rural and suburban areas.[62]
The fast growing I-4 corridor area, which runs through Central Florida and connects the cities of Daytona Beach, Orlando, and Tampa/St. Petersburg, had a fairly similar number of both Republican and Democratic voters. The area is often seen as a merging point of the conservative northern portion of the state and the liberal southern portion making it the biggest swing area in the state. In recent times, whichever way the I-4 corridor area, containing 40% of Florida voters, votes has often determined who will win the state of Florida in presidential elections.[63]
The Democratic Party has maintained an edge in voter registration, both statewide and in 40 of the 67 counties, including Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County, the state's three most populous counties.[64] Despite the Democratic advantage in registration, as of 2008, Republicans controlled the governorship and most other statewide elective offices; both houses of the state legislature; and 15 of the state's 25 seats in the House of Representatives. Florida is consistently listed as a swing state in Presidential elections. In the closely contested 2000 election the state played a pivotal role.
In 2008, delegates of both the Republican Florida primary election and Democratic Florida primary election were stripped of half of their votes when the conventions meet in August due to violation of both parties' national rules.
All potable water resources have been controlled by the state government through five regional water authorities since 1972.[65]
Florida was ranked the fifth most dangerous state in 2009. Ranking was based on the record of serious felonies committed in 2008.[66]
While many houses and commercial buildings look similar to those elsewhere in the country, the state has appropriated some unique styles in some section of the state including Spanish revival, Florida vernacular, and Mediterranean Revival Style.[67][68]
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Florida in 2007 was $734.5 billion. Its GDP is the fourth largest economy in the United States.[69] Per Capita personal income was $38,417, ranking 20th in the nation.[70] The major contributors to the state's gross output in 2007 were general services, financial services, trade, transportation and public utilities, manufacturing and construction respectively.
Tourism makes up the largest sector of the state economy. Warm weather and hundreds of miles of beaches attract about 60 million visitors to the state every year. Amusement parks, especially in the Orlando area, make up a significant portion of tourism. The Walt Disney World Resort is the largest vacation resort in the world, consisting of four theme parks and more than 20 hotels in Lake Buena Vista, Florida; it, and Universal Orlando Resort, Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, and other major parks drive state tourism. Many beach towns are also popular tourist destinations, particularly in the winter months.
The second largest industry is agriculture. Citrus fruit, especially oranges, are a major part of the economy, and Florida produces the majority of citrus fruit grown in the U.S. – in 2006 67 percent of all citrus, 74 percent of oranges, 58 percent of tangerines, and 54 percent of grapefruit. About 95 percent of commercial orange production in the state is destined for processing (mostly as orange juice, the official state beverage).[71] Citrus canker continues to be an issue of concern. Other products include sugarcane, strawberries, tomatoes and celery.[72] The Everglades Agricultural Area is a major center for agriculture. The environmental impact of agriculture—especially water pollution—is a major issue in Florida today.
Phosphate mining, concentrated in the Bone Valley, is the state's third-largest industry. The state produces about 75 percent of the phosphate required by farmers in the United States and 25 percent of the world supply, with about 95 percent used for agriculture (90 percent for fertilizer and 5 percent for livestock feed supplements) and 5 percent used for other products.[73]
Since the arrival of the NASA Merritt Island launch sites on Cape Canaveral (most notably Kennedy Space Center) in 1962, Florida has developed a sizable aerospace industry.
In addition, the state has seen a recent boom in medical and bio-tech industries throughout its major metropolitan areas. Orlando was recently chosen as the official site for the new headquarters of the Burnham Institute, a major bio-tech and medical research company.
The state was one of the few states to not have a state minimum wage law until 2004, when voters passed a constitutional amendment establishing a state minimum wage and (unique among minimum wage laws) mandating that it be adjusted for inflation every six months. Currently, the minimum wage in the state of Florida is $7.21 as of January 1, 2009.[74]
Historically, Florida's economy was based upon cattle farming and agriculture (especially sugarcane, citrus, tomatoes, and strawberries). In the early 1900, land speculators discovered Florida, and businessmen such as Henry Plant and Henry Flagler developed railroad systems, which led people to move in, drawn by the weather and local economies. From then on, tourism boomed, fueling a cycle of development that overwhelmed a great deal of farmland.
Florida is one of the nine states that do not impose a personal income tax (list of others). The state had imposed a tax on "intangible personal property" (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money market funds, etc.), but this tax was abolished after 2006. The state sales tax rate is 6%.[75] Local governments may levy an additional local option sales tax of up to 1.5%. A locale's use tax rate is the same as its sales tax rate, including local options, if any. Use taxes are payable for purchases made out of state and brought into Florida within six months of the purchase date. Documentary stamps are required on deed transfers and mortgages. Other taxes include corporate income, communication services, unemployment, solid waste, insurance premium, pollutants, and various fuel taxes.
At the end of the third quarter in 2008, Florida had the highest mortgage delinquency rate in the country, with 7.8% of mortgages delinquent at least 60 days.[76] The state also had the second-highest credit card delinquency rate, with 1.45% of cardholders in the state more than 90 days delinquent on one or more credit cards.[76] A 2009 list of national housing markets that were hard hit in the real estate crash included a disproportionate number in Florida.[77] The early 2000s building boom left Florida with 300,000 vacant homes in 2009, according to state figures.[78] In 2009, the US Census Bureau estimated that Floridians spent an average 49.1% of personal income on housing-related costs, the third highest percentage in the country.[79]
Another major economic engine in Florida is the United States Military. There are currently 24 military bases in the state, housing three Unified Combatant Commands; United States Central Command in Tampa, United States Southern Command in Doral, and United States Special Operations Command in Tampa. There are 109,390 U.S. military personnel currently stationed in Florida,[80] contributing, directly and indirectly, $52 billion a year to the state's economy.[81]
Florida's public primary and secondary schools are administered by the Florida Department of Education.
The State University System of Florida is a university system that was founded in 1905, and is currently governed by the Florida Board of Governors. During the 2008 academic year there was a total of 301,570 students who attended one of these member institutions.
The Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida is an association of 28 private, educational institutions in the state of Florida.[82]
Florida has many large and small private institutions. The "Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida", serves the interests of the private universities in Florida. This Association reported that their member institutions served over 121,000 students in the fall of 2006.[83]
Additionally, there are 20 colleges and universities that are not affiliated with the ICUF, but are fully-accredited universities in the state of Florida.
The Florida College System manages and funds Florida's twenty-eight public colleges.
Florida's interstates, state highways and U.S. Highways are maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. Florida's interstate highway system contains 1,473 miles (2,371 km) of highway, and there are 9,934 miles (15,987 km) of non-interstate highway in the state, such as Florida state highways and U.S. Highways.
Florida's primary interstate routes include:
I-4, which bisects the state, connecting Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando, and Daytona Beach, connecting with I-95 in Daytona Beach and I-75 in Tampa.
I-10, which traverses the panhandle, connecting Jacksonville, Lake City, Tallahassee and Pensacola, with junctions with I-95 in Jacksonville and I-75 in Lake City.
I-75, which enters the state near Lake City (45 miles west of Jacksonville) and continues southward through Gainesville, Ocala, Tampa's eastern suburbs, Bradenton, Sarasota, Fort Myers and Naples, where it crosses the "Alligator Alley" as a toll road to Fort Lauderdale before turning southward and terminating in Hialeah/Miami Lakes having junctions with I-10 in Lake City and I-4 in Tampa.
I-95, which enters the state near Jacksonville and continues along the Atlantic Coast through Daytona Beach Melbourne/Titusville, Palm Bay, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Port Saint Lucie, Stuart, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale before terminating in Downtown Miami, with junctions with I-10 in Jacksonville and I-4 in Daytona Beach.
Prior to the construction of routes under the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, Florida began construction of a long cross-state toll road, Florida's Turnpike. The first section, from Fort Pierce south to the Golden Glades Interchange was completed in 1957. After a second section north through Orlando to Wildwood (near present-day The Villages), and a southward extension around Miami to Homestead, it was finished in 1974.
State highways are numbered according to a specific convention. The first digits of state highways, with some exceptions (such as State Road 112 connecting Interstate 95 to the Miami International Airport), are numbered with the first digit indicating what area of the state the road is in, from 1 in the north and east to 9 in the south and west. Major north-south state roads generally have one- or two-digit odd route numbers that increase from east to west, while major east-west state roads generally have one- or two-digit even route numbers that increase from north to south. Roads of secondary importance usually have three-digit route numbers. The first digit x of their route number is the same as the first digit of the road with two-digit number x0 to the immediate north. The three-digit route numbers also increase from north to south for even numbers and east to west for odd numbers.
Following this convention, State Road 907, or Alton Rd. on Miami Beach, is farther east than State Road 997, which is Krome Ave, or the farthest west north-south road in Miami-Dade County. One notable exception to the convention is State Road 826, or the Palmetto Expressway (pictured at the right heading north) which, although even numbered, is signed north-south. State roads can have anywhere from one to four digits depending on the importance and location of the road.[84] County roads often follow this same system.
Florida is served by Amtrak: Sanford, in Greater Orlando, is the southern terminus of the Amtrak Auto Train, which originates at Lorton, Virginia, south of Washington, DC. Orlando is also the eastern terminus of the Sunset Limited, which travels across the southern United States via New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio to its western terminus of Los Angeles. Florida is served by two additional Amtrak trains (the Silver Star and the Silver Meteor), which operate between New York City and Miami.
Major international airports in Florida which processed more than 15 million passengers each in 2006 are Orlando International Airport (34,128,048), Miami International Airport (32,533,974), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport(21,369,577) and Tampa International Airport (18,867,541).
Secondary airports, with annual passenger traffic exceeding 5 million each in 2006, include Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers) (7,643,217), Palm Beach International Airport (West Palm Beach) (7,014,237),[85] and Jacksonville International Airport (5,946,188).
Regional Airports which processed over one million passengers each in 2006 are Pensacola (1,620,198) and Sarasota-Bradenton (1,423,113). Sanford, which is primarily served by international charter airlines processed 1,649,565 passengers in 2006.[86]
Most Major League Baseball's spring training, and nearly 2/3 of all MLB teams have a spring training presence in the state. Yet Florida did not have a permanent major-league-level professional sports team until the American Football League added the Miami Dolphins in 1966. The state now has three NFL teams, two MLB teams, two NBA teams, and two NHL teams.
Two of the Arena Football League's teams are in Florida.
Golf, tennis, and auto racing are popular.
Minor league baseball, football, basketball, ice hockey, soccer and indoor football teams are based in Florida. Florida's universities have a number of collegiate sport teams.
| Club | League | Venue | Championships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami Dolphins | National Football League | LandShark Stadium (Miami) | 2 (1972, 1973) |
| Miami Heat | National Basketball Association | American Airlines Arena (Miami) | 1 (2006) |
| Florida Marlins | Major League Baseball | LandShark Stadium (Miami) | 2 (1997, 2003) |
| Florida Panthers | National Hockey League | BankAtlantic Center (Sunrise) | 0 |
| Miami FC | USL First Division (Soccer) | Tropical Park Stadium (Miami) | 0 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | National Football League | Raymond James Stadium (Tampa) | 1 (2003) |
| Tampa Bay Rays | Major League Baseball | Tropicana Field (St. Petersburg) | 0 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | National Hockey League | St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa) | 1 (2004) |
| Tampa Bay Storm | Arena Football League | St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa) | 5 (1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2003) |
| Orlando Magic | National Basketball Association | Amway Arena (Orlando) | 0 |
| Orlando Predators | Arena Football League | Amway Arena (Orlando) | 2 (1998, 2000) |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | National Football League | Jacksonville Municipal Stadium | 0 |
Florida is the traditional home for Major League Baseball spring training, with teams informally organized into the "Grapefruit League." For 2009, Florida will host the following major league teams for spring training:
Note: The Cincinnati Reds will be moving to Goodyear, Arizona for 2010.
| Sister jurisdiction | Country | Year[87] |
|---|---|---|
| Kyonggi |  South Korea |
2000 |
| Languedoc-Roussillon |  France |
1989 |
| Nueva Esparta |  Venezuela |
1999 |
| Taiwan Province |  Taiwan, R.O.C. |
1992 |
| Wakayama Prefecture |  Japan |
1995 |
| Western Cape |  South Africa |
1995 |
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Learning resources from WikiversityCoordinates: 28°8′0″N 81°37′54″W / 28.133333°N 81.63167°W
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Alabama | Georgia | |
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| Gulf of Mexico |  |
Atlantic Ocean The Bahamas |
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 Florida  |
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| Straits of Florida Cuba |
| Preceded by Michigan |
List of U.S. states by date of statehood Admitted on March 3, 1845 (27th) |
Succeeded by Texas |
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| Translations: Florida |
Français (French)
n. - Floride
Português (Portuguese)
n. - Flórida
Español (Spanish)
n. - Florida
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
佛罗里达州
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 佛羅里達州
한국어 (Korean)
플로리다 (미국 대서양 해안 동남쪽 끝에 있는 주; 수도 Tallahassee; (약) Fla., Flor., FL; 별칭 Alligator State, Everglade State)
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