| c. 8,000 BC |
Native Americans settle in Florida.
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| c. 3,000 BC |
Native Americans manufacture large canoes capable of distant travel on rivers and oceans in production centers (such as one recently discovered near Gainsville).
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| 1513 |
Juan Ponce de Léon begins mapping and exploration of Florida coast, claiming La Florida for the Spanish.
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| 1528 |
Expedition under Pánfilo de Narváez (including Alvár Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca) lands on Florida's west coast and sets out to claim land for Spain on route to Mexico. Deteriorating relations with Native Americans force the Spanish survivors to retreat to the Gulf of Mexico, where they flee on barges. (Cabeza de Vaca will roam the Texas interior for five years before returning to Spain by way of Mexico City.)
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| 1537 |
From the landing point Tampa Bay, Hernando de Soto begins an expedition of the interior. The expedition reaches Texas (though De Soto dies on the way).
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| 1559 |
With 1,500 settlers from Mexico, Tristán de Luna establishes a Spanish colony at Pensacola, but destroyed by hurricane, the colony fails within a year.
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| 1564 |
The French establish Fort Caroline on the east coast of Forida on the St. Johns River.
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| 1565 |
The Spanish capture Fort Caroline, killing most of the Protestant French settlers, and establish San Augustin (St. Augustine), the oldest permanant European settlement in the modern United States. (The Spanish fort Castillo de San Marcos was completed in 1687 using African and Indian slave labor.)
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| 1698 |
The Spanish establish Pensacola and build a fort within a year to defend Spanish interests against France. (France captured Pensacola in 1719, but soon left it to the Spanish.)
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| 1704 |
James Moore (though his 1694 raid on San Augustin was unsuccessful) raided the Florida interior, burning missions and India villages. British attacks on San Augustin in 1740 and 1742 failed.
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| 1763 |
At the conclusion of the French and Indian War, Spain grants Florida to Great Britain, as British forces captured Havana, Cuba. (Spain required the port of Havana for its trade with Mexico and the Caribbean.) The British established large plantations in Florida.
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| 1781 |
With Spain and France siding with independence fighters against Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, Bernardo de Gálvez captured West Florida and its capitol, Pensacola.
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| 1781-1783 |
Spain regained control of East and West Florida after the Revolutionary War.
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| 1803 |
With the Louisiana Purchase, France transfers its vast claims in the Mississippi Valley and Great Plains to the United States.
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| 1812 |
During the War of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, British troops captured Pensicola, but were driven out in 1814 by General Andrew Jackson. Left in ruins to the Spanish, Pensacola was again invaded by the United States in 1817 by Andrew Jackson.
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| 1817-1818 |
Andrew Jackson's invasion marked the First Seminole War between United States and Seminole Nation. (The Seminoles harbored many escaped slaves who fought with them against the United States.)
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| 1821 |
Spain cedes its Florida Territories (including parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana) to the United States.
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| 1830 |
The U.S. Government implements its removal policy, forcing Indians to relocate west of the Mississippi. Seminoles who refuse to leave unite under English-Creek strategist Osceola.
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| 1835-1842 |
Second Seminole War between United States and Seminole Nation. Osceola was taken prisoner during peace talks in 1837, but Seminoles continued their resistance for five years.
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| 1845 |
Florida becomes the 27th state with 70,000 citizens (March 3). As a slave state, with cotton and sugar cane plantations, cattle ranches, and railroads, its population doubled to 140,000 by 1860.
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| 1855-1858 |
Third Seminole War between United States and Seminole Nation. By its conclusion, nearly all Seminoles are forced to live in the West, but some escaped into the Everglades where they remained until today.
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| 1861 |
Florida cecedes from the Union to join the Confederacy. Though Union troops occupied many of Florida's ports, only one major battle was fought on the state's soil, with Union forces retreating from Olustee to Jacksonville.
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| 1865 |
Following the Civil War, Florida rejoins the Union under the control of the Union army.
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| 1959 |
Fidel Castro overthrows Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. By 1979, more than 500,000 Cuban immigrants arrive in Florida, joined by Hatians and other refugees, as well as out-of-work Americans and retirees, ranking Florida near the top of the fastest growing state populations in the United States.
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| 1988 |
The state legislature make English the official language of state government.
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