Why go
A fort, a wetland and a resort district represent different chapters of Florida's development. This overview gives those visits a shared frame: changes in power, movement of people and changing uses of land. It also places European settlement within a much longer Indigenous history rather than treating the colonial period as the beginning.
The full story
People inhabited the Florida peninsula long before Europeans arrived. Archaeological evidence records communities adapting to changing coastlines and water supplies over thousands of years. Spanish and French settlement in the sixteenth century brought the region into European colonial competition, with St. Augustine becoming an enduring Spanish foothold. Later arrivals included Native groups moving from elsewhere in the South, free Black people and people escaping slavery. Black Seminole communities formed part of this history. Spain and Britain both ruled Florida before its transfer to the United States in 1821; statehood followed in 1845. Florida's economy also changed the landscape. Logging, fishing, farming, cattle ranching and citrus production preceded the expansion of tourism and real estate. Migration from Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia contributed to its population and culture. These overlapping histories help explain the contrast between colonial St. Augustine, agricultural interiors and coastal cities shaped by newcomers and visitors.