The history of Miami starts with 10,000 years ago with the Tequesta Indians, whose territory ran from the Florida Keys to all the way up Broward County, with the largest villages on the north bank of the Miami River and on Key Biscayne.
250 years after the influx of the Spanish and English, the Tequestas had virtually vanished, like most of Florida’s other native inhabitants.
Spain sold Florida to the United States in 1821 for five million dollars. A year later Florida became a territory, marking the beginning of its road to statehood.
The Seminole wars, beginning in 1818 and ending in 1858, were the bloodiest Indian wars in American history. The Seminoles, members of the Creek nation in Georgia, were fighting to maintain their home, as the United States wanted to relocate the natives from Miami to Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Fort Dallas was established during the wars. Miami's civilian population dwindled during the fighting.
In between the second and third wars, the nephew of an earlier setter, William English, rebuilt his uncle's plantation and established the village of Miami on the south bank of the Miami River.
Although by the late 1890's most of the natives had been killed or relocated, Miami was not seen as a safe place to settle. At the beginning of the 20th century the village of Miami consisted of only about a thousand people.
Slowly, though, small homesteading communities were springing up along Biscayne Bay. Families like the Tuttles, the Brickells and men like Henry Flagler helped make Miami what it is today. Flagler brought the railroad to Miami and laid the design and foundations for what would become the city of Miami. Flagler built the city's deep-water channel, the canal, which drained parts of the Everglades, and widened the Miami River. He also built the city's then finest hotel, the Royal Palm Hotel. Interestingly, Flagler ran his rail line all the way to Key West, which he later planned to link up in the Bahamas!
Miami became incorporated as a city in 1896. By from 1905 to 1915 city had grown from 1,681 residents to nearly 6,000, and the people just kept coming. The early economy was driven by tourism and agriculture.
Miami eventually attracted moneyed tourists, Many of whom, like Everest Sewell, James Deering, and presidential candidate and public speaker, William Jennings Bryan, began to build extravagant vacation homes along beautiful Brickell Avenue, creating a "Millionaire’s Row."
In 1925 the city annexed Coconut Grove and several other historic communities and neighborhoods which over doubled the city's area from 13 to 43 square miles, and tripled it's population from 30, 000 to over 100,000.
Today Miami is a city of almost 400,000, a quarter of the population being Hispanic. It is a United States city with a Latin American feel, due primarily to the influence of the large Hispanic population and the fact that many signs are bilingual.
South Beach, across the causeway from the city, is like stepping back in time to the era of art deco, with its neon and pasteled buildings.
Thousands of tourists come to cosmopolitan Miami every year for its beaches, restaurants, festivals and ample local flavor. Miami, always sunny and beautiful, and unlike any other place on earth.
The history of Miami starts with 10,000 years ago with the Tequesta Indians, whose territory ran from the Florida Keys to all the way up Broward County, with the largest villages on the north bank of the Miami River and on Key Biscayne. 
