The Florida is a State of the south-east of the the United States, bordered in the west by the Gulf of Mexico, in north by the Alabama and the Georgia and in the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

History

Arrival of the Spaniards

Juan Ponce of León visited Florida in 1513. One often regards it as the first European to visit this area. He left to the head a forwarding to seek the Fountain of Youth. He was followed by Pánfilo de Narváez (1529) and Hernando de Soto (1539). The May 30th 1539, the installation of Spanish is confirmed, in the area of current the Pensacola.

Attempt at French colonization

The French Jean Ribault approaches the Eastern coast of Florida the April 30th 1562 and founds the “Fort Charlesfort”. The June 30th 1564 Rene de Laudonnière founds the colony of Fort Caroline (according to the name of the king de France Charles IX) close to the current Jacksonville. The September 8th 1565, the Spanish colony of Saint Augustine is set up. The September 20th Fort Caroline is taken by Spanish. Of French first once the September 29th and second once are massacred the October 12th: Ribaut finds death there. The survivors are off-set (one would have found the trace of some of them in Mexico).

The Spanish period

In 1580, the king of Spain proclaims the creation of two Floridas: Western Florida (current Alabama) and Eastern (current Florida). The colonial administration and the missionaries concentrate with Saint-Augustine. In 1634, one counts already 30  000 Indians converted with Catholicism. In 1656, the general revolt of the Amerindians is crushed in blood. Great Britain obtains the control of Florida by the Treaty of Paris (the castillo of San Marcos goes for the first time without never to be taken militarily). Great Britain tries to develop its new colony by migrant sending many, including Greeks but this project fails. Spain recovers Florida after the British defeat in the war of independence of the American colonies and the Treaty of Versailles which follows (1783).

Transfer in the United States

Finally in 1819, by the Treated of Adams-Onís, Spain yields Florida to the United States in exchange of a renunciation of the American complaints on the Texas.

Geography

Of a surface of 151  940 km ², Florida are a populated Péninsule 15  982  378 inhabitants (2000). With 105 meters with the top of the sea level, Britton Hill is more high-altitude of the state, but as opposed to what one imagines, Florida is not entirely " plate". Most of the interior of the state includes/understands hills whose intermediate size varies between 30 and 76 meters. The highest point of the peninsula is Sugarloaf Mountain (95 meters).

Florida is prolonged in the south by an archipelago of islands, the Keys (Key Largo, Key West, etc), which mark the site of the strait of Florida.

The capital of Florida east Tallahassee. The most populated city is Jacksonville, but the principal agglomeration is that of Miami.

Climate

The majority of the peninsula are in subtropical climate: only the southernmost end (and in particular the archipelago of the Keys) are in tropical climate. They are precipitations and not the temperatures which determine the seasons in Florida. The winters and the autumns hot and are sprinkled relatively little. The wet season arrives at spring with its flood of storms. The Gulf Stream has consequences on the climate of Florida. The cold waves are rather rare but can hard strike the area as in 1899, year of large the blizzard. It had also snowed in February 1978. The population is especially prepared to face the tropical cyclones, called hurricanes in the basin of the Atlantic , during the summer and the beginning of the autumn. There were of them four from August with September 2004, historical records. But the most destroying cyclone was undoubtedly Andrew in 1992.

Subdivisions

See also: Counties of the State of Florida

Florida is divided into 67 counties.

Main cities

Ecology

Fauna

The Alligator of America attends marshy fresh water but one also meets it in the rivers or the lakes. Moist environments shelter many species Aquacole S (Pélican S, eagle with white head, sinning Balbuzard, Chouette of the marshes, Gallinule violet of America) and of wader S (snow-covered brushes, ashy Héron and Grand héron, pink flamingos). The Lamantin S are large herbivorous watery mammals, alive out of not very deep littoral water, in the mouth of the rivers and the coastal marshes. The Panther of Florida, a very threatened species, is found in the drills and marshes of the south of the peninsula, in particular in the reserve of Big Cypress.

Demography

In 2005 Florida has a population estimated at 17  789  864 people, which represents an increase in 2,3  % (404  434 people) compared to the previous year, and of 11,3  % (1  807  040 people) since the census of 2000:

  • White (except the Hispanic ones) : 65,4  %

  • Hispanic/Latin-American: 16,8  %
  • Black: 14,6  %
  • Asian: 1,7  %
  • Amerindian: 0,3  %
  • Two races or more: 2,4  %

Policy

Florida is a preserving state which was held a long time by the democrats before rocking at the republicans during the Eighties and Nineties.

The basic structure, the duties, the function and the activities of the government of the State of Florida are defined by the Constitution of Florida, which establishes the law of the state and guarantees many rights and freedoms with the people. The government is separate in three branches: the executive one, the legislative one, and the legal one. The legislature is bicameral, with a senate of 40 members and a Room of the Representatives of 120 members.

A state coveted at the time of the presidential elections

The State of Florida east one of the States most snuffed at the time of the presidential elections with its big number of Great Electors. Of democratic tradition strongly of the end of the 19th century until the beginning of the Years 1970 (Herbert Hoover was the first republican to carry the State in 1928), the State rocked very clearly on the republican side of the S during the Années 1980. Since 1980, the State voted only once for a democratic candidate (Bill Clinton in 1996).

The election of 2000 was the object of an electoral and legal imbroglio without precedent between partisans of the democrat Al Gore and the republican George W. Bush, brother of the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. The election was played a few hundreds of voice for the benefit of George W. Bush thus giving him the victory at the national level, by interposed Supreme court of the United States. In 2004, George W. Bush was re-elected there with 52,10  % of the voices against 47,09  % with John Kerry.

A recent republican local domination

Since 2007 the governor of Florida is the republican Charlie Crist, elected governor with 52  % of the votes against 45  % with its democratic adversary Jim Davis the November 7th 2006. Crist succeeded the republican governor Jeb Bush, elected in 1998 and triumphantly re-elected in 2002. All the elected stations of the executive are held by republicans.

The rooms of the Legislature are dominated by the republicans. At the time of the session 2007-2008, the local Senate is dominated by 26 republicans against 14 democrats whereas the Lower House confirms an identical political tendency with 79 republican elected officials against 41 democrats.

Locally, the cities of the south of Florida are rather democratic (Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, the Keys) and those of the center rather republican (Pensacola). In Miami for example, the democratic liberals cotoient republican ultra-conservatives of cuban origin. Apart from the liberal counties of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, in the center of the electoral battle of 2000, the democratic party of Florida must manage a preserving social base collected by the Republican party. Tampa, formerly democratic stronghold, records today as many republicans as democrats on its electoral rolls.

A national representation dominated by the republicans

At the national level, for the session 2005-2006, the two senators de Floride with the federal Congress are the democrat Bill Nelson and the republican Mel Martinez whereas 18 of the 25 elected officials of Florida to the Chambre of the Representatives of the United States are republican.

Justice

Florida is one of the 38 states which apply the capital punishment and one of the five which has there more the recourse in practice. In 2005, according to the governor Jeb Bush, the rate of the delinquency in Florida had been on its low level for 34 years.

Since October 1st, 2005, a new legislation on the self-defense is coming into effect in the state. It authorizes the inhabitants estimating itself threatened to make use of a firearm or with very other mortal arms. Previously, the penal legislation of Florida required of a feeling individual threatened “to initially use all the means to avoid the danger”. From now on, with the new law, “a person who does not devote herself to any illegal activity, attacked in a place where it has the right to be, does not have the obligation to beat a retreat and can (...) answer the force by the force, including mortally if it reasonably estimates that it is necessary to prevent its death or a great physical injury, at itself or others, or to prevent a criminal effraction”.

The principle of the " stand your ground" , " defend your territoire" is thus extended outside the residence to this only exception; if the person considered threatening belongs to the police force.

Only the local supreme court whose majority of the judges was named by democratic governors escapes the republican domination. In 2000, Court of 7 judges (of which 6 democrats) had exceeded its capacities according to the federal Supreme court (itself dominated by republicans) by granting legislative powers in the field of the electoral code at the time of the presidential imbroglio opposing George W. Bush to Al Gore.

Economy

Florida saw especially Tourisme. Its assets are the subtropical climate and of the hundreds of kilometers of sand beaches end. The amusement parks Walt Disney World Arises and Universal also attracts tourists of the whole world. The natural parks of Dry Tortugas and the Everglades are also very visited places.

The beaches of Florida, like Hollywood Beach, are very accessible the winter. The sky is of azure thanks to dominant winds of north which sweep the clouds.

Florida has its Venice, located on the east coast at Fort Lauderdale: 5 km ² of channels and artificial small islands.

The hot climate of Florida authorizes the culture of the Agrume S. Nevertheless, the area undergoes sometimes cold waves which ruin harvests ( cold waves ).

Layers of Phosphate are also exploited and the production is exported by the port of Tampa. In the years 1960, the construction of the Kennedy Space Center attracted many aerospace and military industries in the area. Florida belongs to the Sun Belt, area dynamic of the south and which attracts the American engineers and business men.

Culture

Languages

In 2000, 76,9  % of the inhabitants of Florida the 5 years old and more speak only the English at the house, 16,5  % speak Spanish. The French is the third language of the state with 2,2  %, then the German with 0,6  % and the Italian with 0,4  %.

Article II, Section 9, of the Constitution of Florida establishes that l'" English is the official language of the State de Floride".

Religions

Florida is mainly Protestant, with a community Catholique in increase under the influence of immigration. The state accommodates also a Jewish community, but it is present almost exclusively in the south. The statistics are:

  • Christian: 82%

    • Protesting S: 54%
      • Baptist S: 19%
      • Méthodiste S: 6%
      • Presbytérien S: 4%
      • Episcopal: 3%
      • Lutheran S: 3 %
      • Pentecotistes : 3%
      • Other Protestants: 16% Catholic
    • S: 26%
    • Other Christians: 2%
  • Jewish S: 4%
  • Other religions: 1%
  • Without religion: 13%

Sports

Education

The primary and secondary public schools are managed by the Florida Department off Education . The State accommodates many famous institutions of which the University of Florida, the Université of Miami, Florida International University and the Université of State of Florida.

Universities and colleges

Twinnings

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