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History of Florida

Continued

As the pace of settlements steadily increased, there was growing pressure on the US government to remove the Seminole Indians from the lands they had settled on in East Florida since they had been raiding white settlements in the state of Georgia to the north. There were also Black Seminoles that were the descendants of Africans, who had been granted their freedom, together with runaway slaves who had escaped from the rice plantations of South Carolina and Georgia. Together, they had fled into the Spanish Florida wilderness during the early to late 1600s. By the early 1800s, they had formed their own communities in the neighbourhood of the Seminole Indian settlements. Together, these two groups formed an alliance that was both multi-ethnic and involving both races.

This alliance further inflamed the Georgia landowners with the result that clashes intensified between the white settlers and the Indians. As new settlers appeared, the position further deteriorated.    

In 1823, in accordance with the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, the Seminoles gave up any claims to land within the Florida Territory and, in return, they received a reservation in the middle of the Florida peninsula. However, by 1928, the movement to move all the Indians in the United States to west of the Mississippi River grew in intensity. 

In 1832, the US government finally agreed to sign the Treaty of Payne’s Landing with some of the Seminole chiefs. This treaty promised the Seminole Indians lands for settlement to the west of the Mississippi River on condition that they agreed to leave Florida of their own accord. Although many of the Seminoles accepted the terms of the treaty and agreed to leave, there were a number of prominent Seminole chiefs who had no intention of leaving and did not accept the treaty. In fact, they were quite prepared to defend their claims to the land which they had received in the 1823 treaty. As the position gradually deteriorated, pressure mounted on the government by the white settlers to remove all of the Indians from the area, and to use force, if necessary. Finally, in 1835, the US Army arrived and was directed to enforce the treaty.        

The “Dade Massacre” was an 1835 defeat for the United States Army which turned out to be the catalyst that started the Second Seminole War that lasted until 1842. On December 23, 1835, two U.S. contingents consisting of 110 men under the command of Major Francis L. Dade, left Fort Brooke (now called Tampa), on a mission to supply and reinforce Fort King (now called Ocala). They were ambushed by a surprise attack from a 180 Seminole Indian force, which left only one surviving trooper.      

For seven years after the start of the Second Seminole War, a force numbering some 900 to 1500 Seminole Indian warriors were very effective employing guerrilla hit and run probing actions against the US Army troops. Osceola was an influential leader of the Seminoles in Florida, and maintained much influence on Micanopy, the highest-ranking Seminole chief. In 1837, Osceola was arrested upon arrival in Fort Payton for what he understood were negotiations to find a truce, and was duly imprisoned. The deceitful way in which Osceola’s was captured created a national outcry. He died of malaria three months later whilst in prison. He came to epitomise the war and the struggle of the Seminoles.

Attractions – How To Succeed

Peter Radford writes Articles with Websites on a wide range of subjects. Attractions Articles cover: Florida as an Attraction (Urbanisation, Religion, Climate in Detail, 1920’s Property Boom, and History) and Human Attraction.

His Website contains a total of 146 Articles on various topics related to “Attraction”, written by others and carefully selected.

View his Website at: attractions-how-to-succeed.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/attractions-how-to-succeed-5-1653442.html

History of Florida

Archaeological research has uncovered the fact that that Florida had been inhabited for thousands of years, and long before any European settlements had been established. The largest known tribes to originally inhabit the region were known as the Ais (who ranged from present day Cape Canaveral to the St. Lucie Inlet, in the present Day counties), the Apalachee (an Indian tribe that lived in Apalachee Province), the Calusa (they were a Native American group that lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida’s southwest coast.), the Timucua (they were an American Indian people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia).

“Florida” is the oldest surviving region in the U.S whose name was established by early European settlers. A Spanish conquistador, known as Juan Ponce de León, discovered Florida on April 2, 1513. He decided to call it Pascua Florida, which was a Spanish term meaning the season of “Flowery Easter”, which was in harmony with the land’s appearance as a “flowered land”. From that date onwards, the area was given the designation of “La Florida.”

However, after 1630 and throughout the 1700s, Tegesta (after the name of the Tequesta tribe) was chosen as an alternate name for the Florida peninsula. For the next hundred years, both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, although not always with great success.  In 1559, the Spanish city of Pensacola (the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County) was duly designated as the very first settlement, by Europeans, in the United States. French Huguenots (who were associated with the Protestant Reformed Church of France) established Fort Caroline in 1564, a region now known as Jacksonville. However, the fort was subsequently conquered with troops from the new Spanish colony of St. Augustine the following year.

The region of Florida established by the Spanish slowly diminished in importance when the English and French both established colonies, the former to the north and the latter to the west.  As a means of redress, the Spanish made it attractive for slaves to leave the Carolinas, which were held by the English, and establish themselves in Florida. Their reward was their freedom once they had accepted Roman Catholicism. They set up a community north of St. Augustine which duly became the first black settlement in a region which would ultimately become the United States.

In 1763 by means of the treaty enunciated in the Peace of Paris, England subsequently secured control of Florida. As a result, St. Augustine was established as the capital of Eastern Florida, whilst Pensacola became the capital of Western Florida. In order to develop the two Floridas, the authorities encouraged the immigration of labour from wherever possible, including Minorca and Greece. However, this was doomed to failure.

In the end, however, Spain managed to regain the two Floridas after England was defeat by the forces of the American colonies. This led to the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 in which the division into East and West Florida was subsequently maintained. As an inducement, they offered grants for the purchase of land to anyone who agreed to settle in the colonies. This move turned out to be very successful, and many Americans took up the offer.

Reportedly at the instigation of the Spanish, Seminole Indians who resided in East Florida started to raid settlements in Georgia after attacks by the new settlers on Indian towns. In response to these attacks, the United States Army started a campaign of infiltration into Spanish territory. In particular, between 1817 and 1818, there was a campaign against the Seminole Indians. Subsequently, this became known as the First Seminole War. The result of this war was that the United States controlled East Florida in its entirety. Spanish interests in Florida were finally relinquished in 1819 when, according to the terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain handed over Florida to the United States and received a payment of $5 million. It was agreed that the United States would renounce any claims they had on Texas.

Attractions – How To Succeed

Peter Radford writes Articles with Websites on a wide range of subjects. Attractions Articles cover: Florida as an Attraction (Urbanisation, Religion, Climate in Detail, 1920’s Property Boom, and History) and Human Attraction.

His Website contains a total of 146 Articles on various topics related to “Attraction”, written by others and carefully selected.

View his Website at: attractions-how-to-succeed.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/attractions-how-to-succeed-4-1630646.html