==History==
[[File:Col-fla.jpg|thumb|300px|Spain and Britain controlled Florida before 1819, but sent few settlers]]
see [[History of Florida]]
Florida was first settled by Europeans in 1513, when Spaniard [[Juan Ponce de Leon]] landed near where St. Augustine stands today. For some time, Spain and France ran competing colonies in Florida, with the Spanish eventually expelling the French. Spain never had effective control and sold Florida to the United States in 1819. Florida seceded from the Union in 1861 and joined the [[Confederate States of America]]; there was little military action in the remote state.