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Nickname

Sunshine State

 

#    Entered Union   Year Settled

27th       Mar. 3, 1845        1565

 

Rank      Population

4th          18,328,340

 

Rank      Square Miles

22nd      65,755

 

State Bird

Northern Mockingbird

 

State Flower

Orange Blossom

 

State Tree

Sabal Palmetto

 

State Motto

In God We Trust

 

Called the "Sunshine State," Florida is known for its balmy, sunny weather and beautiful beaches. Ponce de Leon, in search of the elusive fountain of youth, was the first European to explore Florida. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, is the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States.

 

Statehood for Florida came in 1845. Florida's state flower is the orange blossom, which is particularly fitting because oranges are a main export of the state. Because of its shape and location, a long peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, Florida attracts millions of visitors each year to its many seaside resort areas. Its capital is Tallahassee.

 

How did the eventual home of Disney World become our 27th State? Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. But the French were also interested in the territory, and they built Fort Caroline near the mouth of the St. Johns River 1564. A year later, to maintain its control over the territory, Spain destroyed Fort Caroline, and Leon founded our country's oldest continuously settled city in St. Augustine.

 

Do you know what other country's peoples arrived in Florida after that and what they did?

 

England wanted to expand its colonies and began to threaten Florida in the 1700s, attacking St. Augustine many times. England, France and Spain were all fighting with each other in several parts of the world in the pursuit of growing their colonies. This conflict was known as both the Seven Years War and the French and Indian Wars.

 

In 1763 the Treaty of Paris was signed by England, France and Spain and it resulted in England gaining the Florida Territory. But when England formally recognized the colonies' independence (as the United States) in 1783, the Florida Territory was returned to Spain without clear definition of its boundaries. When we made the Louisiana Purchase from France, Florida was still without clear boundaries! How did our government finally get Florida and make it our 27th state?

 

With numerous boundary disputes, Spain's claim to Florida grew shaky. American settlers moved in and began to resist Spanish control. After years of border arguments, Spain finally agreed to cede the Florida Territory to the U.S. in 1819 by signing the Adams-Onis Treaty, signed by Spanish minister Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. More settlers arrived and Tallahassee became the capital. Florida was admitted to the Union in 1845. Have you ever been to Florida or Disney World?

 

Osceola in Florida

The story of Osceola, a Seminole Indian, may not be well known, but his brave attempts to remain in Florida and fight the U.S. government are well documented. Osceola was one of the leaders of the Seminole Indians during the Second Seminole War with the United States in the 1830s.

 

Although originally from Alabama, Osceola and his Creek Indian mother moved to Florida, which was the homeland of the Seminole Indians. When white settlers began moving into the state, they wanted the Seminoles to move to Indian territories west of the Mississippi River. Osceola led a group of Seminoles opposed to relocation. Other Seminoles, however, chose to move rather than fight.

 

By using tactics unfamiliar to the white settlers and by hiding in the Everglades, Osceola and some of the Seminoles were successfully able to resist the United States government's attempts to remove them from Florida for a time. It was not until the capture of Osceola and his death in 1838 at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina that the Seminoles were forced from their homeland.