Lakeland is a city in Polk County, along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. The westernmost city in Polk County, it is part of the Tampa Bay Area. According to the 2018 U. S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 110,516. Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area. Native Americans lived in the area from soon after the end of the last ice age until the end of the Second Seminole War. European-American settlers arrived in Lakeland from South Carolina in the 1870s; the city expanded in the 1880s with the arrival of rail service, with the first freedmen railway workers settling here in 1883. They and European immigrants came because of new jobs in the large phosphate industry that developed. Lakeland is home to the 1,267-acre Circle B Bar Reserve; the first Paleo-Indians reached the central Florida area near the end of the last ice age, as they followed big game south. As the ice melted and sea levels rose, these Native Americans ended up staying and thrived on the peninsula for thousands of years.

By the time the first Spanish conquistadors arrived, an estimated 350,000 Native Americans were living in what is now the state of Florida. Some of these first early tribes were the Tocobago and Calusa. In 1527, a Spanish map showed a settlement near the Rio de la Paz; the arrival of the Spanish turned out to be disastrous to these Native American tribes. Within 150 years, the majority of the pre-Columbian Native American peoples of Florida had been wiped out; those who had not succumbed to diseases such as smallpox or yellow fever were either killed or enslaved. Little is left of these first Native Americans cultures in Polk County except for scant archaeological records, including a few personal artifacts and shell mounds; the remnants of these tribes merged with the Creek Indians who had arrived from the north and became the Seminole Indian tribe. In the 18th century Native Americans groups, collectively called "Seminoles", moved into the areas left vacant. In 1823 the United States and the various "tribes" in Florida signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, which created a reservation in central Florida that included what is now Polk County.

Starting in 1832 the United States government tried to move the Seminoles in Florida west to the Indian Territory. Most of the Seminoles resisted, resulting in the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842. By the end of that war, most of the Seminoles had been sent west, with a few remnants pushed well south of what is now Polk County. Florida became a state in 1845, Polk County was established in 1861. After the American Civil War, the county seat was established southeast of Lakeland in Bartow. While most of Polk County's early history centered on the two cities of Bartow and Fort Meade people entered the areas in northern Polk County and began settling in the areas which became Lakeland. Lakeland was first settled in the 1870s and began to develop as the rail lines reached the area in 1884. Freedmen settled here in 1883, starting development of what became the African-American neighborhood of Moorehead. Lakeland was incorporated January 1, 1885; the town was founded by Abraham Munn, who purchased 80 acres of land in what is now downtown Lakeland in 1882 and platted the land for the town in 1884.

Lakeland was named for the many lakes near the town site. In April 1898, the Spanish -- American War started a crucial point in Lakeland's development. While the war ended and had little effect on most of the nation, the Florida peninsula was used as a launching point for military forces in the war; the small town of Lakeland housed over 9,000 troops. The Florida boom resulted in the construction of many significant structures in Lakeland, a number of which are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places; this list includes the Terrace Hotel, New Florida Hotel, Polk Theatre, Frances Langford Promenade, Polk Museum of Art, Park Trammell Building, others. The city has several historic districts that have many large buildings built during the 1920s and 1940s; the Cleveland Indians held spring training there from 1923 to 1927 at Henley Field Ball Park. Parks were developed surrounding Lake Mirror, including Barnett Children's Park, Hollis Gardens, the newest, Allen Kryger Park; the "boom" period went "bust" and years passed before the city recovered.

Part of the re-emergence was due to the arrival of the Detroit Tigers baseball team in 1934 for spring training. The Tigers still train at Lakeland's Joker Marchant Stadium and own the city's Class A Florida State League team, the Lakeland Flying Tigers. In the mid-1930s, the Works Progress Administration built the Lakeland Municipal Airport. In 1938, Florida Southern College President Ludd Spivey invited architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a "great education temple in Florida." Wright worked on the project for over 20 years as Spivey found ways to fund it and find construction workers during World War II. Wright's original plan called for 18 structures. Wright's textile block motif is used extensively on the campus; the concrete blocks he used are in need of restoration. Wright titled the project Child of the Sun, describing his Florida Southern buildings as being "out of the ground, into the light, a child of the sun." It is the largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world, attracts 30,000 visitors each year.

In 1975, the "Florida Southern Architectural District" was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2012, Wright's campus was designated as a National Historic Land

Alfred Zoff was an Austrian Post-Impressionist landscape painter. His father was a doctor who came from Carinthia, he decided to become an artist at an early age and, although he began by studying medicine, in 1869 he took classes at the State Drawing Academy in Graz with the landscape painter, Hermann von Königsbrunn. By 1880, he had decided on art as a career and was enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied with Eduard Peithner von Lichtenfels. After his father's death in 1882, his mother moved to Klagenfurt and he would visit there to paint, it remained a favorite location for the rest of his life. He made occasional trips to Italy and Belgium, he completed his studies in 1890 at the Academy of Fine Arts, with Gustav Schönleber, who acquainted him the Barbizon school of landscape painting. After that, he Krems an der Donau. From 1907, he was a Professor of landscape and still-life painting at the Academy in Graz, where he was an exponent of the Viennese style known as "Stimmungsimpressionismus".

He received numerous awards, including a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle. His memberships included the Hagenbund. In 1927, shortly before his death, he was granted citizenship by the city of Graz. Alfred Zoff: Monografie und Werke bei Galerie Suppan Fine Arts Winfred Skreiner, Alfred Zoff, 1852–1927. Ein österreichischer Stimmungsimpressionist. Edition Martin Suppan Verlag, 1991 ISBN 3-901255-06-0 ArtNet: More works by Zoff. Biographical notes @ the Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich

U. S. - Vietnam Trade Relations refer to the bilateral trade relationship between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1990s to 2012. After more than two decades of no economic relationship since the end of the Vietnam War, the two governments reestablished economic relationship during the 1990s; the bilateral trade between the U. S. and Vietnam grew afterwards, it has developed after the signing of the U. S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in December 2001. Total bilateral trade turnover has increased 1200% from $1.5 billion in 2001 to over $20 billion in 2011. The bilateral trade relations further developed after the U. S. granted Vietnam permanent normal trade relations status as part of Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2007. The U. S. and Vietnam came to a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement in 2007. Vietnam was the United States' 26th largest goods imports partner with $17.5 billion in 2011, was the 45th largest goods export market with $3.7 billion in 2010.

Vietnam with six other partners are now in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations with the U. S; the growth in bilateral trade has been accompanied by issues and problems, e.g. anti-dumping cases, worker’s rights, non-market economy, Intellectual Property Rights protection and Vietnam’s exchange rate policy. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the U. S. and Vietnam maintained no economic relation in more than two decades. Washington extended President Richard Nixon’s 1964 trade embargo to all of Vietnam and all bilateral trade activities were prohibited; the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush Administrations’ joint efforts to resolve the remains of U. S. servicemen missing in action had set the foundation for the normalization of bilateral trade relations between the two nations during the Clinton Administration. On February 3, 1994, President Bill Clinton ordered the lifting of the U. S. trade embargo on Vietnam. Three years in 1997, Pete Peterson was appointed as the first U. S. Ambassador to Vietnam since 1975.

The two governments signed the first bilateral trade agreement on July 13, 2000. U. S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement: The BTA went into force at a Blair House ceremony with Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Trade Minister Vu Khoan and U. S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on December 10, 2001; the BTA extended to Vietnam “conditional most favored nation trade status” known as “normal trade relations”. On December 29, 2006, President George W. Bush granted the permanent normal trade relations status to Vietnam, part of Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Bilateral trade relations have developed more since the signing of the BTA; the U. S. government has approved annual appropriations with the amount of $4–5 million to support Vietnam’s economic reforms. U. S. - Vietnam Trade and Investment Framework and Agreement: Vietnam’s accession to WTO as the 150th member accelerated the process of addressing economic and legal reform issues in the U. S.-Vietnam Trade and Investment Framework negotiations.

Two governments concluded TIFA in 2007. Since the U. S. and Vietnam’s representatives have met on a regular basis under the TIFA to discuss about the implementation process of Vietnam’s WTO commitments. Trans-Pacific Partnership: In 2010, together with six other partners, U. S. and Vietnam started the negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership regional free trade agreement. The U. S. seeks to “develop a high-standard, 21st-century regional trade agreement that will support the creation and retention of jobs in the United States and promote economic growth”. The goal of the TPP is to become a potential platform for “economic integration across the Asia-Pacific region that will advance United States’ and Vietnam’s economic interests". Awareness of TPP among Vietnamese political and business circles has been rising during Vietnam's economic turmoil, 2008-2013, leading to the Vietnamese government' stronger push for this membership. Table 1:U. S. Trade in goods with Vietnam U. S.-Vietnam trade figures have grown in pace with Vietnam’s per capita GDP The growth in bilateral trade between the U.

S. and Vietnam has been accompanied by many issues and problems. During Vietnam’s application to the U. S. Generalized System of Preferences program and negotiation of a Bilateral Investment Treaty with the U. S. U. S government has hesitated in concluding a BIT with Vietnam; the rapid increase in the imports of specific products from Vietnam have led to the creation of a controversial import monitoring program in the U. S. and to anti-dumping ruling against Vietnam. The 111th U. S. Congress has included “workers’ rights, the designation of Vietnam as a non-market economy, intellectual property rights protection, Vietnam’s exchange rate policy” as the most prominent economic issues which influence relations between the U. S. and Vietnam. Two governments is now seeking to resolve the preceding issues in recent meetings under the TIFA. United States-Vietnam relations Bilateral Trade Agreement to Normalize Trade Relations with Vietnam: Text of the Agreement International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce U.

S.-Vietnam Trade Council Embassy of the United States in Hanoi Vietnam Trade Office in the United States of America American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam