Florida is the largest peninsula of the USA. Its peculiar shape yields a coastline of well over 2000 km. This
and an agreeable subtropical climate explains why the Sunshine State is so popular among tourists and retirees, despite
the occasional hurricane barreling down.
The landscape is mainly flat and most of it lies at about sealevel. Typical floridian animals
living in the Everglades Park are alligator, crocodile, manatee and the very rare Florida panther.
Paleo-Indians have lived in Florida since 13000
BC, first Europeans explored the area as early as 1500 AD, as shown on the Cantino Map.
Spain established at foothold in
1513 and ruled, (with a small Brittish interruption) till 1821 when they ceded the territory to the United States.
In 1845 Florida
became the USA's 27th state.
The
Seminole Wars ended in 1858 with the deportation of the few remaining Indians.
In the Civil
War Florida was one of the founders of the Confederacy.
Its location relatively close to the equator made
Cape Canaveral the preferred
launch site for the US manned space program. Since 2011 there have been no manned launches from here.