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The peninsula was named by Juan Ponce de León, who landed on the coast on April 2, 1513, during Pascua Florida (Spanish for "Flowery Easter", referring to the Easter season). Pascua Florida Day, April 2, is a legal holiday in Florida.[1] Archaeological finds indicate that Florida had been inhabited for many thousands of years prior to any European settlements. Of the many indigenous people, the largest tribes were the Ais, Calusa, Tequesta, Timucua and the Tocobago tribes. Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish conquistador, named this new land in honor of his discovery of the land on April 2, 1513, during Pascua Florida, which is a Spanish term for the Easter season. From that date forward, the land became known as "La Florida." Over the following century, the Spanish and French both established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success. Spanish Pensacola was established by Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano as the first European settlement in the continental United States in 1559 but this settlement was aborted by 1561 and would not inhabited again until the 1690s. French Huguenots founded Fort Caroline in modern day Jacksonville in 1564, but it was conquered by forces from the new Spanish colony of St. Augustine the following year. When Huguenot leader Jean Ribault had learned of the new Spanish threat, he launched an expedition to sack their settlement. En route, however, severe storms at sea waylaid the expedition, which consisted of most of the colony's men, allowing St. Augustine founder Pedro Menéndez de Avilés time to march his men over land and conquer the poorly defended to Fort Caroline. Most of the Huguenots were slaughtered, and Menéndez de Avilés marched south and captured the survivors of the wrecked French fleet, ordering all but a few Catholics executed beside a river subsequently called Matanzas (Spanish for "killings"). St. Augustine came to serve as the capitals of the British and Spanish colonies of East and West Florida, respectively. The Spanish never had a firm hold on Florida and maintained a tenuous control of the region by converting the local tribes, briefly with Jesuits and later with Franciscan friars. The local leaders, or caciques, demonstrated their loyalty to the Spanish by converting to Catholicism and welcoming the Franciscan priests into their villages. The area of Florida diminished with the establishment of British colonies to the north and French colonies to the west. The English weakened Spanish power in the region by supplying their Creek Indian allies with firearms and urging them to raid the Timucuan and Apalachee client-tribes of the Spanish. The English also attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times, while the citizens hid behind the walls of the Castillo de San Marcos. The Spanish, meanwhile, encouraged slaves to flee the British-held Carolinas and come to Florida, where they were converted to Catholicism and given freedom. They settled in a buffer community north of St. Augustine called Gracie Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first completely black settlement in what would become the United States. Great Britain eventually gained control of Florida diplomatically in 1763 through the Peace of Paris (the Castillo de San Marcos surrendered for the first time, having never been taken militarily). England tried to develop Florida through the importation of immigrants for labor, including some from Minorca and Greece, but this ultimately failed. Spain regained Florida after England's defeat by the American colonies and the subsequent Treaty of Paris in 1783. Spain finally ceded Florida to the United States with the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819, in exchange for the U.S. renouncing any claims on Texas. On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America.
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