How did the eventual home of Disney World become our 27th State? Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. But the French were also interested in the territory, and they built Fort Caroline near the mouth of the St. Johns River 1564. A year later, to maintain its control over the territory, Spain destroyed Fort Caroline, and Leon founded our country's oldest continuously settled city in St. Augustine.
England wanted to expand its colonies and began to threaten Florida in the 1700s, attacking St. Augustine many times. England, France and Spain were all fighting with each other in several parts of the world in the pursuit of growing their colonies. This conflict was known as both the Seven Years War and the French and Indian Wars.
In 1763 the Treaty of Paris was signed by England, France and Spain and it resulted in England gaining the Florida Territory. But when England formally recognized the colonies' independence (as the United States) in 1783, the Florida Territory was returned to Spain without clear definition of its boundaries. When we made the Louisiana Purchase from France, Florida was still without clear boundaries!
With numerous boundary disputes, Spain's claim to Florida grew shaky. American settlers moved in and began to resist Spanish control. After years of border arguments, Spain finally agreed to cede the Florida Territory to the U.S. in 1819 by signing the Adams-Onis Treaty, signed by Spanish minister Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. More settlers arrived and Tallahassee became the capital. Florida was admitted to the Union in 1845.
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