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Location:
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State of Florida, United States of America
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Status:
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Admission to Statehood: March 3, 1845
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Capital City:
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Tallahassee
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Main Cities:
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Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Saint Petersburg, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale
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Population:
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15,982,378; 4th, 12/00
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Area:
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65,758 sq.mi, 22th largest
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Currency:
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1 US dollar = 100 cents
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Languages:
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English, Spanish, and over 30 others
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Religions:
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Protestant, Roman Catholic, Judaism
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The flag of Florida: The flag of Florida consists of a red saltire (diagonal cross) on a white background, with the seal of Florida superimposed on the center. The design was approved by a popular referendum in 1900.
Chapter 15.012 of the Florida Statutes states that: "The State Flag shall conform with standard commercial sizes and be of the following portions and descriptions: The seal of the state, in diameter one-half the hoist, shall occupy the center of a white ground. Red bars, in width one-fifth the hoist, shall extend from each corner towards the center, to the outer rim of the seal."
From 1868 to 1900, the flag of Florida was simply the seal of Florida on a white background. In the late 1890s, Governor Francis P. Fleming suggested that a red cross be added so that it would not appear to be a white flag of truce when hanging still on a flagpole.
Some have claimed that the cross is intended to recall the blue saltire of the Confederate Battle Flag. However, this view is not universal and there is no significant opposition to the current design within the state (as there has been in Georgia and Mississippi over their Confederate-style flags). Historically, the first Spanish flag over Florida was a red saltire ragulée (knotted) with a white background (the Burgundian Saltire). The flag of Alabama is a plain red saltire, as is Saint Patrick's Flag, which is incorporated into the Union Flag of the United Kingdom.
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The flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used for signalling or identification. The design of a flag displayed in another form is also referred to as a flag. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used).
National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging or advertising, or for decorative purposes, though at this less formal end the distinction between a flag and a simple cloth banner is blurred. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
Although flag-like symbols have been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years, the origin of flags in the modern sense is a matter of dispute. Some believe flags originated in China, while others hold that the Roman Empire's vexillum was the first true flag. Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Scythia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards — our modern-day flag.
During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
Beginning in the 17th century, European knights were replaced by centralized armies, and flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became much more elaborate, and were seen as objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.
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