User:Bronson Fotiadis1/sandbox
The military history of Key West encompasses a broad span of history of military involvment in the United States' southarnmost city of Key West, the most prelevant of wich being a substantial increase of naval operations and U.S. military installations during the American Civil War and Soviet-U.S. tensions of the Cuban Missle Crisis. As of 2024, U.S. Navy aircrafts operating within the Naval Air Station Key West conduct routine Joint task force missions with the U.S Coast Gaurd in the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean sea.
In 1766, British govenor of East Florida recommended the establishment of military post in Key West for the British Armed Forces to have increased control of it's surrounding areas. The post was never installed. In 1821, American buisnessman John W. Simonton lobbied Washington for the installment of a naval base on Key West upon purchasing the island from Juan Pablo Salas of St. Augustine. In 1822, U.S Naval officer, Matthew C. Perry, sailed into the Key West harbour and claimed the island on behalf of the U.S. government. While Florida had succeeded and joined the Confederate States of America in 1861, Key West remained a member of the U.S. Union due to control of it's naval base. Fort Zachary Taylor, constructed in 1845, had been a major military outpost in Key West during the Civil War. Key West served as an important point for military fortification and coastal defense installments including Fort Jefferson and the East and West Martello Towers. Key West later became a major center of refuge for migrant Cubans during the Ten Years' War from 1868–1878.