Florida And Civil War

Florida is our country’s 27th state. It has played a large role in several wars, particularly the American Civil War and World War II. Comparing the two, Florida has impacted WWII more than the Civil War because of the amount of troops trained and enlisted and the supplies and war machines sent to the front lines. The Civil War was also significant for Florida, but not as much as WWII.

Florida has had quite an eventful history. It’s first human inhabitants are believed to be several Native American tribes, including The Panzacola, Chatot, Apalachicola, Apalachee, Timucua, Calusa, and the Matecumbe. These tribes occupied land all over Florida.

Then, during the early 16th century, Juan Ponce de Leon, a spanish explorer, sailed to the peninsula searching for the Fountain of Youth. He never discovered it, but he did establish a new territory for Spain, naming it Florida, which translates to “Flowery Land”(Christian 21). Although Juan claimed new land for Spain, the task of building settlements was very difficult. He and many other Spanish explorers tried to build towns and cities in Florida, but were unsuccessful, due to harsh weather and violent Native Americans fighting for their land. It took the Spanish 52 years to finally establish a permanent colony in Florida. In 1565, Pedro Menedez de Aviles built the town of St. Augustine (Knotts 7). According to Sandra J. Christian’s book, Florida, it was “the first permanent European settlement in North America”. This city outlasted the others because of Pedro’s great skill with politics and combat. He agreed to give the neighboring Native Americans gold in exchange for food and supplies. He also had the ability to effectively defend his city against enemies(Knotts 8).

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...a had a greater impact on WWII compared to the Civil War. Florida set up air bases and trained thousands of troops to help fight against the Axis Powers. Over 250,000 Floridians were enlisted into the military during the second World War, compared to the 16,000 during the Civil War. Also, though Florida sent supplies to troops in both wars, Florida helped more in WWII because it sent both food and clothing to the front lines along with war ships, planes, and tanks to be used in battle. When comparing the effects of the wars on Florida, both of them resulted in a rise in population, but WWII helped Florida get out of an economic crisis, which is far more important. Despite playing a great role in both wars, Florida impacted WWII more because of the manufacturing of war machines and the training and enlisting a larger amount of soldiers compared to the Confederacy.