Looking at Eugene White Lessons from the Great American Real Estate Bubble: Florida 1926, I see that White points out the dramatic transformation of Florida from a complete backwater to one of the big US states. Back in 1850, shortly after Florida became a state in 1845, all of Florida had a population of 87,000 or only 0.37% of the US population of 23.2 million (and close to half of the Florida population were slaves), while today Florida has 18,200,000 inhabitants, or 6% of the US population. The US population (with territorial expansion) has risen 13 fold, while Florida's population has risen 210 fold, a factor of 16 more. (census)
As a side note, there could be an undercount of Indians in 1850, due to the incomplete removal of Seminoles west of the Mississippi after the Second Seminole War. But I suspect the undercount is at most few hundred or and more likely less. The US Army appears to believe there are only about 400 Seminoles left in Florida by 1847. Numbers fell further after the Third Seminole War, but I suspect that fluid -- but not that fluid? -- racial boundaries with African-Americans allowed Seminoles to disappear from official sight. Tribal recognition occurred in the 1960s, after repeated failed attempts to settle the remaining Seminoles during the first half of the 20th century. And it might be more appropriate to see the Seminole Wars as anti-slave rebellion counterinsurgencies that Indian Wars.
For comparison, Connecticut had a population of 370,000 in 1850, NY of 3.7 million, and Massachusetts of 1 million. Only NY is in the same category as Florida for land area, though still smaller by a bit.
Part of the slow development of Florida was that it only got its first East Coast railway down to Miami in the 1890s, much later than other parts of the Eastern, Southern and Central US, with a second East Coast line only showing up during the real estate boom of the 1920s. Which raises the issue of why Florida was so late...railway engineering costs and problems, or drainage cost and engineering problems for the land development associated with railway building (which is how you pay for the railway and make money)? Or just the fact that Florida started off as such low population density backwater? Or something else?
[Sorry for the lack of links, I'm writing few days after having researched, if that is the right word, this post. And yes, my memory may be playing a few tricks on my already.]
Update #1: Tropical diseases and their 20th century conquest may play a big role as well...
Update #2: another puzzle: why is there no good university in Miami? The University of Miami was founded in 1925 during the big Florida boom, but it is not at the level one would expect for a city like Miami.
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