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The city of Orlando is a major city in central Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. A 2006 U.S. Census populus estimate gave the city populus as 220,186 , making it the sixth largest city in Florida. It is also the principal city of Greater Orlando. The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA is Florida`s third-largest metropolitan area, behind Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. Orlando is also home to the University of Central Florida, which is the second largest university in Florida in student enrollment and has the 6th largest enrollment in the nation.

The city is best known for the many tourist attractions in the area, in particular the nearby Walt Disney World Resort, which is located in Lake Buena Vista about 20 miles (32 km) south of Orlando city limits via Interstate 4. Other notable area attractions include SeaWorld and Universal Orlando Resort. The region sees an estimated 52 1,000,000 tourists a year. Orlando has the second largest number of hotel rooms in the country (after Las Vegas, Nevada), and is one of the busiest US cities for conferences and conventions with the Orange County Convention Center, the country`s second largest in square footage. It is also known for its wide array of golf courses, with numerous courses available for any level of golfer. Despite being several miles away from the main tourist attractions, downtown Orlando is undergoing major redevelopment with a number of residential and commercial towers.

Some historians date Orlando`s name to around 1837 when a soldier named Orlando Reeves allegedly died in the area, during the war against the Seminole Indian tribe. It seems, however, that Orlando Reeves (sometimes Rees) operated a sugar mill and plantation about 30 miles (50 km) to the N at Spring Garden in Volusia County, and pioneer settlers simply found his name carved into a tree and assumed it was a marker for his grave site. They then referred to the area as "Orlando`s grave" and later simply "Orlando."

During the Second Seminole War, the U.S. Army established an outpost at Fort Gatlin, a few miles south of the modern downtown, in 1838. But it was rapidly left when the war came to an end.

Orlando remained a rural backwater during the US Civil War, and suffered greatly during the Union blockade. The Reconstruction Era brought a populus explosion, which led to the city`s incorporation in 1875.

The period from 1875 to 1895 is remembered as Orlando`s "Gilded Era," when it became the hub of Florida`s citrus industry. But a great freeze in 1894-1895 forced many owners to give up their independent groves, thus consolidating holdings in the hands of a few "citrus barons" which shifted operations south, primarily around Lake Wales in Polk County.