USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Florida was under colonial rule by Spain from the 16th century to the 19th century, and briefly by Great Britain during the 18th century (1763–1783) before becoming a territory of the United States in 1821. Two decades later, on March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union as the 27th U.S. state.

Detailed explanation-2: -Florida officially became a Spanish colony. The Spanish established missions throughout the colony to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. Missions in northern Florida, such as those at St. Augustine and Apalachee (present-day Tallahassee), survived for many years.

Detailed explanation-3: -Spain’s effective claim to Florida began with Juan Ponce de León’s discovery and naming of the flowery peninsula in 1513. Ponce de León led the first European expedition to the Dry Tortugas, today commemorated at Fort Jefferson National Monument.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1819, after years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which officially put Florida into U.S. hands at no cost beyond the U.S. assumption of some $5 million of claims by U.S. citizens against Spain.

Detailed explanation-5: -Most of the war took place far north of Florida, but Florida suffered occasional raids. In 1779, Spain took advantage of Britain’s preoccupation with the colonies and invaded West Florida. By 1781, Britain had lost West Florida to Spain. At the end of the American Revolution, Spain regained the rest of Florida.