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Florida - 2.Version - Referat
1) 1 Cover
2) 2 Table of contents
3) 3.1Citzen
3.2 Geography and Climate
3.2.1 Size
3.2.3 Nature
3.2.4Climate
3.3 Location
4) 4.1 History
4.2 Economy
5) 5 Sight seeing
5.1 Everglades
5.2 Fun parks
5.2.1 Walt Disney World
5.2.1.1 Magic Kingdom
5.2.1.2 Epcot Center
5.2.1.3 Disney- MGM Studios
5.2.1.4 Disney’s Animal Kingdom
5.2.2 Universal Studios
5.2.3 Sea World Adventure Park
5.2.4 Interesting Cities
5.2.4.1 Daytona Beach
5.2.4.2 Miami
5.2.4.3 The Florida Keys / Key West
5.2.5 More interesting sights
5.2.5.1 Cape Canaveral / The Kennedy Space Center
6) 6 Big Events
6.1 Hurricanes
6.2 “I Dream of Jeannie” / “Bezaubernde Jeannie”
7) 7 Bibliography
3.1 Citizen
In Florida there live about sixteen million people. It is the biggest state of the USA
- after California, Texas and New York.
3.2 Geography and Climate
3.2.1 Size
With the size of 170.000km² Florida is about half as big as Germany. Among the fifty American States it is on position 22.
3.2.3 Nature
Florida has a lot of inland water. The biggest one is the giant
Lake Okeechobee.
The biggest rivers are the St. Johns River and Suwanna River. Nearly 20% of the state consists of water.
Florida is very even. The highest mountain is the Britton Hill which is just 105m high. But Florida provides big forests, long sandy beaches and a lot of swamps.
3.2.4Climate
In Florida the different climate zones come together. Therefore, the weather is more extreme and uncountable. What you always can say is that it is more sunny than in Mid Europe.
3.3 Location
Florida is the very Southern State of the continental USA. Earlier Florida was called the “Southernmost State”, but since since the island of Hawaii has joined the USA Florida now has changed its name to “Sunshine State”.
Besides the Southern location the characteristics of Florida is maintained trough the surrounding ocean on three borders. The length of the coast is 2000 km.
4.1 History
You can`t say for sure when people came to Florida first. Probably the first persons arrived after the end of the ice age in America from Asia about ten thousand years ago.
They were hunters, fishermen and collectors and mainly settled on the coast. The most interresting tracks those early Indians left behind are the so-called “mounds”. “Mounds” are little mountains which were founded because of different reasons.
They could be houses, graveyards or just hills which waste. There even are a lot of “mounds” in Florida today.
Just a few of Indian aborigines survived after the European settlers fell into their country in the 16th century. They either died in fights or by diseases which the White Men brought into their region.
The first European man who came to Florida on 2nd April 1513 was Juan Ponce de Leon from Spain. He gave Florida its name. The reason for this name could either be related to the date the Spanish word “florido” which means “blooming” or the Easter season when the Spanish man arrived (pascua florida = Easter).
The first fortress was on 8th September, 1565 and it was the first complete city of Northern America and an important harbour.
After several wars between Spanish, French, Indian and British people in the end Florida remaind with Spain, but was sold in 1821 for 5 Million Dollars to the USA.
After long lasting negotiations finally Florida became the 27. State of the USA in 1845.
In those days almost half of people of Northern Florida were slaves.
In the year 1861 the Southern states left the USA and the Civil War began. Besides South Carolina and Mississippi Florida was one of the main states which was involved in the war. Florida had a big role in the war as provider of food and because of the Civil War slavery was forbidde in Florida and 1868Black men could vote the first time.
Around the 19th century the short distance between the Caribean island Cuba and Florida was of politicians of Cuba fled to Florida.
When after the first World War the Prohibition started, which prohibited to produce, transport and sell alcohol, the police had a hard job to control the boarders between Florida and Cuba. After 1920 tourism began in Florida, in 1925 Miami already had 56 hotels with 4 000 rooms.
During the 2.World War Florida became the most important training area of the American military. 70 000 hotel rooms were filled with soldiers.
After the end of the war many of those soldiers returned to the sunny state Florida – some for vacation, other for ever.
4.2 Economy
Florida`s economy has been very good for the last years. They unemployment rate is below 4 % and tourism is growing year to year. The most important fields of economy are tourism and agriculture. But also technology is getting a bigger role. Computer companies went to the Southern coast, therefore it is called “Silicon Beach”. Many banks settled in Miami, the most important place for financial transactions between North and South America. Entertainment industry also is a big business in Miami and Orlando.
Sugar – cane and cotton are produced in masses and Florida exports them to North America and Europe. There exist giant lemon and orange plantations, too. Florida sells fruits and fruit juices in big amounts.
Because of the warm climate it is possible to plant vegetables all year. So, you can buy tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, sellery, avocados and cole slaw also in the winter season. Florida sells those vegetables to the North for high prices. Solaries in agriculture are very low.
Tourism is the major field of economy in Florida. Over 40 millions of tourists bring billions of dollars to the state every year. Half of all working people are employed in service already.
Tourists come to Florida, because of the beatiful beaches and the warm climate. But also night life of “Miami Beach” is very attractive. Very interesting are the many amusement parks. When 1971 the “Magic Kingdom” a new chapter in history of tourism began. Inbetween of a few years Orlando became one of the most popular traveling places of the world. A lot of motels and restaurants were opened through the years and Disney opened one attraction after the other. Also other amusement parks opened e.g.: Busch Gardens, Sea World and Universal Studios. So, tourism plays the central role in Florida.
5 Sight seeing
5.1 Everglades
About 70 kilometers Southwest of Miami there are the Everglades which cover 5.700 km² (square kilom.) of Florida. It`s a giant swamp land, a green water country with saw grass and a few small hills, where hammocks grow. The water comes from Lake Okeechobee which is located 100 kilometers North and flows to Florida Bay in the South. In the mixed zone between fresh and salt water you find mangrove forests. It`s not a spectacular area like the ones in other national parks in the USA but it`s special anyway. For visitors it is attractive to watch the animals (alligators, crocodiles and birds) and plants, to hike as well as doing tours by canoes. You also can visit alligator farms and see how alligators grow.
The bad thing is that there are many moscitos all year and you should protect yourself when going there.
The Everglades are wellknown for its air boats although it is prohibited to drive with them directly in the park because of the ecological environment. You can drive with them only on the border of the park and will hardly see animals because the air boats drive so fast. With heavy noisethey rush over the grass felds and scare away all birds.
5.2 Fun parks
5.2.1 Walt Disney World
Nearby Orlando you find Disney World. Every year 50 millions of American and international people travel to this theme park.
5.2.1.1 Magic Kingdom
It was opened on 1.October 1971 and is the most popular of the four parks. About 50.000 people visit the park every day, the record was 92.000 visitors.
The main attractions are: Space Mountain, the big roller coaster in darkness, Peter Pan`s Flight over London by night, the Liberty Belle Riverboat, The Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Carribbeans.
5.2.1.2 Epcot Center
It was opened in 1982 and “Epcot” is the abbreviation of:
“Experimental prototype community of tomorrow”.
It should show the city of the future and in comparison with the just entertaining Magic Kingdom the Epcot Center is also a place to learn about technology and progress.
5.2.1.3 Disney- MGM Studios
In teamwork with Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Disney opened this theme park in 1989. There you can look behind the scenes of movie. It`s a combination of fun park and real film studios. Tarzan, Indiana Jones, Alien or Casablanca become here alive. In “The Making of ...” stunts and tricks of movie production are shown.
5.2.1.4 Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The youngest Disney Theme Park celebrated its five-years-birthday in 2003. It’s a mixture between zoo and fun park.
5.2.2 Universal Studios
Since 1991 the movie park “Universal Studios” has competed with Disney-MGM Studios. There you can see Jaws, King Kong or Jurassic Park. The main attractions are further “Earthquake”, the “Wild Wild West Stunt Show” and the “Men in Black – Alien Attack”-Ride.
5.2.3 Sea World Adventure Park
Besides the Universal Studios Sea World is the biggest competitor to Disney World in Florida.It started in the 70ies with a few aquariums, sea animals in pools, the popular killer whales and dolphins.
5.2.4 Interesting Cities
5.2.4.1 Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach is an area with pretty beaches. College students meet there in spring time. It’s a loud and busy place. You even can drive on the beach with cars. Right next to this beach you find the famous “Daytona International Speedway”. It is – after Indianapolis – the most popular racing place in the USA.
5.2.4.2 Miami
Miami is the biggest city of Florida because of good economy, cultural life and its image. Many people travel to Miami just because of its beautiful beach and the warm climate.
For sightseeing the “Art Deco” district is a pretty place to visit. This style is very colorful and exotic.
5.2.4.3 The Florida Keys / Key West
The Florida Keys have its name from the word “cayo” which means “a small, even island” in the American Spanish. Spanish people discovered this part of Southern Florida in the early 16th century.
Countless islands build a line from Miami to the Southwest until disappearing in the Gulf of Mexico. They build the most southern point of the USA. The sun is shining more intensive than anywhere else in the States and the colors are brighter. The ocean sometimes is turquoise, sometimes green and now and then dark blue.
Earlier those islands just could be visited by ships but in 1905 the Americans started to build the first bridge, not for cars but for the train. In 1935 the different railroad bridges were flooded and destroyed heavily by a hurricane and afterwards the first road for cars was built.
Visitors come to the keys because of its wonderful nature, for snorkling and divingon the coral-reefs or just for sun bathing.
Key West is the oldest city on the Keys. Today people there mainly live by tourism.
5.2.5 More interesting sights
5.2.5.1 Cape Canaveral / The Kennedy Space Center
In 1969 first people started off to the moon from the “Kennedy Space Center”. It is a real must for Florida travelers to go there and also interesting for persons who usually don’t care for techniques and sciences.
In the open-air exhibition, called “Rocket Garden” you can see different rocket models as for example: Space Shuttle Explorer, the German V2 and the giant Saturn V.
You can do a bus tour over a part of the real NASA area. There you can see how rockets are built, where they launch and where the countdown runs.
In the IMAX cinema they show fantasic movies, e.g. “A Dream is Alive”, “Mission to Mir” or “L-5: First City in Space”.
6 Big Events
6.1 Hurricanes
Every year between June and November people of Florida are scared by several hurricanes. Those storms are accompanied by intensive rainfalls and floods. They sometimes cause immense damages like e.g. “Hurricane Andrew” in 1992 which was followed by reparation costs of about 30 billions $. 52 persons died during the storm and mire then 300.000 had to be evacuated.
Last year the most awful hurricanes were “Frances”, “Ivan” and “Jeanne”.
6.2 “I Dream of Jeannie” / “Bezaubernde Jeannie”
7 miles South of Cape Canaveral the tv series “I Dream of Jeannie” took place in “Cocoa Beach”. The astronaut, Tony Nelson (actor: Larry Hagman, known as J.R. in “Dallas”), found a water bottle on the beach with a ghoast Jeannie.
Dieses Referat wurde eingesandt vom User: Hanne09
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