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'''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,
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'''.
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=== 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.
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In the Caribbean, piracy had been a major issue since the late 16th century but from 1660 to 1750 the quantity and success of pirates in the Caribbean dramatically increased (this period is also known as the Golden Age of Piracy). This increase in piracy can be attributed to many factors including growing populations of in Western Europe, lack of major wars leading to less jobs for sailors, profitability of smuggling operations and a proliferation of "unpoliced" areas in the Caribbean and along the gulf of Mexico that served as pirate ports.
The majority of pirates at this time were Anglo, Anglo-Colonial or Dutch in origin and had bases across the Caribbean including the Bahamas, Jamaica, Virginia, Florida, Tejas & Yucatan. During the pirate clearing of the Bahamas in 1718 many pirates in Nassau and other area fled to the tip of Florida and founded the settlements of Freeport, New Nassau (now Cuevas) and Jacobstown (now Santa Cruz).
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=== 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
=== 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
=== The Everglades War and Floridian Independence ===
[[File:RTL Florida Independence War.png|thumb|444x444px|The Floridan Independence War]]
Since the [[2nd Dutch-Spanish War|2nd Dutch-Spanish War (1850)]], class and ethnic tensions had been growing in Spanish Florida, with western Floridians feeling increasingly marginalized by the consolidated economic and political power with in the hands of the criollo and mixed race elites of San Agustin. In addition the system of sharecropping in western and central Florida created a poor quality of life for many low class Floridians.
The origins of the Floridian war for independence lays in the European Economic Crisis (1922-1928) whereas many Floridian elites lost small fortunes in European financial markets and had to sell their land holdings (and the sharecropping contracts that went with it) to wealthy northeastern North American businessmen in New Netherland and New England who in turn demanded increased cash crop production and a decrease in production of locally consumed staple crops (in order to increase profits on their investments). This, combined with decreased global prices for cotton and increased food import prices, led to a sharp increase in local food prices and a growing political discontent amongst the poor. This discontent came to a head after 25 western Floridians were killed in a bread riot in Tahensa, which in turn led to a rebellion in the city against Spanish and Dominion forces. This rebellion quickly spread into the countryside of western Florida where sharecroppers threw down their tools and took up arms against the Spanish and Dominion forces equally. In the town of Conecuh, leaders of rebellion came together on June 5th, 1923 to organize themselves and come up with a list of demands. The rebels named themselves ''Comité de los Campesinos Pobres'' and listed their demands as:
# Land reform in western and central Florida
# Create a government subsisted market for staple food
# Rewrite the constitution to insure every Floridian had the right to vote
# Stop cruel labor practices and establish a labor rights law
It is notable that at this point Floridan rebels weren't actively republican, but instead were focused on improving their quality of life and with issues of economics and labor relations. The Dominion government in San Agustin completely rejected these demands. In fact, Floridian governor Fernando Macías stated "If they are hungry let them eat lead". The Floridian Dominion forces struck back at the rebels with increasing hostility which in turn led to further discontentment against Dominion rule and by the winter of 1923 the rebellion spread to central Florida and the peninsula. Fearing that the Dominion didn't have the ability to effectively deal with the rebels, the Spanish crown sent in troops to help suppress the rebellion and on Dec 27th 1923 they retook the city of Tahensa from rebel forces.
[[File:A typical Amerikeaner soldier during the Quasi war.jpg|thumb|A Amerikeaner volunteer fighting in the Everglades war ]]
During the next year of fighting the rebels became increasingly a guerilla force that sought to wage a protracted war of attrition using hit and run tactics, their popularity with the countryfolk and knowledge of the local terrain to great effect. During the summer of 1924, the recently formed Mexican Republic (along with [[South Tussenland]]) started to build ties with the rebels and push them towards ideological republicanism. In January of 1925, the government of [[New Netherland]] declared support for the Dominion government (fearing a Mexican puppet state in Florida) and started to give support in form of aerial scouting (using newly invented aircraft) and economic funding to the Dominion war effort. The aerial scouting missions during the war garnered massive interest in the American northeast due to the use of aircraft and stories of the pilots (along with special forces and Amerikaener mercenaries) were widely publicized. The battle of Amarillo in the Floridan everglades was in fact so widely publicized for it's stories of daring aircraft pilots and Amerikaener and Spanish forces fighting guerillas side by side that in most of the western world the war instead is known as "The Everglades War" even though most of the war took place outside the everglades in western Florida. Additionally fame during this battle led to the rise of New Netherland's longest serving House of Burgher member Timmothy "Ace" Warwyck party.
In the last year of the war from 1926 to 1927, the Spanish economy was on a downturn and public attitudes in New Netherland lost interest in the war with it being seen more of a distraction than anything to commit regular troops to. On March 9th 1927 after the historic port city of Santa Cruz fell to the rebels, the government of New Netherland turned against the war and pressured the Spanish to organize a peace summit. After weeks of negotiation on April 12st 1927, the Spanish withdrew from Florida and the Republic of Florida was declared. This peace deal was controversial and after 2 years of political deadlock, including a period of time where two separate rival legislatures declared themselves to be the official government of the nation, the constitution was rewritten on August 1st 1929.
== See also ==
* [[Spain]]
{{Nations of the World}}
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