Bureaucrats, rtl-contributors, Administrators
1,646
edits
ElBortoTexas (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
Line 17:
}}
'''Florida''' (Spanish: ''La Florida'') also called '''the Republic of Florida''' is a nation located in southeastern North America. The country is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the west by [[South Tussenland]], to the north by [[Virginia]], to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of San Agustín. Santa Cruz, Mobile and San Miguel are other major urban areas in the nation.
Native Americans had been living in Florida for at least 14,000 years when the first European contact was made in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who called it ''la Florida'' or "the land of flowers" upon landing there. From the 16th to late 18th century Florida was a backwater of the Spanish Empire and faced countless raids by Pirates, Native Americans and the Dutch. In the 19th century the Floridian economy started to grow along with it's importance as an agricultural exporting colony and as a port-of-call in the Spanish Americas. In 1887 Florida became a royal dominion of Spain and gained popular sovereignty (or self governance on internal matters) but was ruled by a cliché of Criollo elites in and around San Agustin. In the 1930's during the bloody Floridian civil war Republican forces kicked out the Spanish empire and declared the '''Republic of Florida'''.
Line 35:
=== Period of Increased Settlement ===
Starting in the 1690's the Dutch started building forts on the mouth of the Mississippi river, and Dutch settlers and their native allies started encroaching on Spanish land claims. Between 1700 and 1730 the Dutch and the Spanish competed over land in the gulf coast and western Florida, with the two empires mostly using Indian allies as intermediaries. This period is usually referred to as [[the Gulf Wars]]. This led to a period of increased effort to settle the colony by the Spanish empire. Starting in 1708 the Spanish started to offer large grants to potential settlers and importing indentured servants and minor criminals from northern Spain (Galicia, Basque county, Asturias and Leon) as well as Cuba. These settlers mostly ending up in northeastern Florida surrounding San Agustín. Eventually the Spanish moved over 2000 Canary Islanders (locally known as Isleños) to settle the gulf coast of the Florida colony. In the later half of the 18th century, the Spanish imported Filipino fisherman and army deserters to the western border with [[Tussenland]]. During American theater of the Silesian war, the Spanish and Dutch empires came to an agreement over the borders of the gulf colonies.
=== Pirate Wars ===
Line 45:
=== Spanish Florida in the Early 19th Century ===
The turn of the century marked a lot of big changes in Floridian society with it's population and levels of economic development reaching catching up with many other European colonies and it's existence not being under constant threat of annexing by other power. Between 1800 and 1840 in parts of the north around San Agustin there was a rise in the number of sugar and cotton plantations much to the delight of the Spanish imperial authorities (whom previous thought Florida was more a money sink than anything and at one point before the [[Carolina#The Argentine Purchase|Argentine Purchase]] considered offering to sell Florida the British). In fact it was so well received that in 1819 the Spanish Empire changed the status of Florida to that of a captaincy general under direct control of the crown. In the early 19th century the Spanish undertook the last of the Muscogee or Creek wars to pacify the natives in the interior of the colony which led to the 1813 Treaty of San Agustin in which the Spanish gave the Muscogee & Creek rights to part of their historic land in the interior of the colony in exchange for becoming citizens and adopting Catholicism. During the Latin American Spring of Nations Florida managed to avoid any major uprising due to it's more rural population and lack of liberal agitation. In 1842 on the heels of the Puerto Rican & Mexican revolts as well as the Colombian war for independence the Spanish abolished the institution of slavery.
=== Dutch-Spanish War and the growth of Spanish Florida ===
In 1850 after years of tension between the Spanish and Dutch, the two empires went to war. This was ended in a humiliating defeat for the Dutch as they lost land
=== Spanish Florida during the Communard Wars ===
Between 1872-1878 western Europe was wracked by the devastating
After the deposition of the communard government in Spain and the
|