Did you know that for ever person that lives in Florida, four more people visit the state every year? Tourism makes up eighty-one percent of Florida’s gross state product. Also, “no trip is complete without tasting a fresh-picked orange or a slice of Key lime pie” (Heinrichs 11). The excellent weather and awesome beaches in Florida are irresistible to tourists. Florida’s early history, geography, climate, wildlife, and economy will be explained thoroughly in this paper.
Florida was first settled over 12,000 years ago when people from Asia migrated to the Americas over the Bering Land Bridge. The first European to set foot on the North American continent was the Spaniard Juan Ponce de León. In Spain, there were rumors of a spring bubbling with the magical waters of youth (Heinrichs 15). He set out determined to uncover many rumors about the New World. On March 27th, 1513, he went ashore near present-day St. Augustine and called the area La Florida for one of two reasons. It was either because it was Easter time (Pascua Florida in Spanish) or because of all the flowers he found there (Florida is Spanish for “flowery”). Unfortunately, León was killed by an Indian attack on his second expedition of the area in 1521. The next explorer to try his luck in Florida was Pánfilo de Narváez. Gold was the object of his voyage to Florida, but he found none when he went ashore in Tampa Bay in 1528.
The first actual settlement in Florida and North America as well was Fort Caroline. It was built by French Protestants who needed refuge from persecution. The fort was built at the mouth of the St. John’s River. When King Philip II of Spain heard about the French colony, he sent Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to eliminate the fort. He set up a fort where León originally landed and called it San Augustin (St. Augustine). This became the first European settlement in North America that still exists today. The Spanish colony thrived with 140 Franciscan missions and...