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Miami is a major center and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media,
entertainment, the arts, and international trade.1112 In 2012, Miami was
classified as an Alpha- World City in the World Cities Study Group¡¯s
inventory.13 In 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of
finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other
sectors. It ranked thirty-third among global cities.14 In 2008, Forbes magazine
ranked Miami "America's Cleanest City", for its year-round good air quality,
vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling
programs.15 According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked
as the richest city in the United States, and the world's fifth-richest city in
terms of purchasing power.16 Miami is nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America",1
is the second largest U.S. city with a Spanish-speaking majority, and the
largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.17
Downtown Miami is home to the
largest concentration of international banks in the United States, and many
large national and international companies.1819 The Civic Center is a major
center for hospitals, research institutes, medical centers, and biotechnology
industries. For more than two decades, the Port of Miami, known as the "Cruise
Capital of the World," has been the number one cruise passenger port in the
world. It accommodates some of the world's largest cruise ships and operations,
and is the busiest port in both passenger traffic and cruise lines.
The Miami
area was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous cultures. The Tequestas
occupied the area for a thousand years before encountering Europeans. An Indian
village of hundreds of people dating to 500-600 B.C. was located at the mouth of
the Miami River.22
In 1566 the explorer, Pedro Men¨¦ndez de Avil¨¦s, claimed it
for Spain. A Spanish mission was constructed one year later in 1567. Spain and
Great Britain alternatively "controlled" Florida, and Spain ceded it to the
United States in 1821. In 1836, the US built Fort Dallas as part of its
development of the Florida Territory and attempt to suppress and remove the
Seminole. The Miami area subsequently became a site of fighting during the
Second Seminole War.
Miami is noted as "the only major city in the United
States conceived by a woman, Julia Tuttle",23 a local citrus grower and a
wealthy Cleveland native. The Miami area was better known as "Biscayne Bay
Country" in the early years of its growth. In the late 19th century, reports
described the area as a promising wilderness.24 The area was also characterized
as "one of the finest building sites in Florida."25 The Great Freeze of 1894¨C95
hastened Miami's growth, as the crops of the Miami area were the only ones in
Florida that survived. Julia Tuttle subsequently convinced Henry Flagler, a
railroad tycoon, to expand his Florida East Coast Railway to the region, for
which she became known as "the mother of Miami."26 Miami was officially
incorporated as a city on July 28, 1896 with a population of just over 300.27 It
was named for the nearby Miami River, derived from Mayaimi, the historic name of
Lake Okeechobee.28
During the early 20th century, northerners were attracted
to the city, and Miami prospered during the 1920s with an increase in population
and infrastructure. The collapse of the Florida land boom of the 1920s, the 1926
Miami Hurricane, and the Great Depression in the 1930s slowed development. When
World War II began, Miami, well-situated on the southern coast of Florida,
became a base for US defense against German submarines. The war brought an
increase in Miami's population; by 1940, 172,172 people lived in the city.
After Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba in 1959, many wealthy Cubans sought
refuge in Miami, further increasing the population. The city developed
businesses and cultural amenities as part of the New South. In the 1980s and
1990s, South Florida weathered social problems related to drug wars, immigration
from Haiti and Latin America, and the widespread destruction of Hurricane
Andrew. Racial and cultural tensions were sometimes sparked, but the city
developed in the latter half of the 20th century as a major international,
financial, and cultural center. It is the second-largest U.S. city (after El
Paso, Texas) with a Spanish-speaking majority, and the largest city with a
Cuban-American plurality.17
Miami and its metropolitan area grew from just
over one thousand residents to nearly five and a half million residents in just
110 years (1896¨C2006). The city's nickname, The Magic City, comes from this
rapid growth. Winter visitors remarked that the city grew so much from one year
to the next that it was like magic.
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