Saint Augustine, Florida

From the early ages during grade school, it was always taught that Jamestown was the first city in America. That had not been entirely true as Saint Augustine, is the oldest town in the contiguous United States. The Atlantic World played a role in the founding, development, and existence of this beautiful city. Saint Augustine has gone through a lot to be the city it is today. It had been involved in battles of the Indians, English, the French (known as the Francais), and the Spanish (known as the Espanoles). Saint Augustine, Florida had been largely affected by the Atlantic World. By using the Atlantic Ocean European countries could scout out this town, explore what this area offered, help modernize and Christianize the Natives living there,

and created several battles to see who would reign over this area.
A man named Juan Ponce de Leon made a discovery in 1513 and named it La Florida.

After Leaving Puerto Rico in early March 1513, he sailed northwest to eventually find land that he thought was an island. This island had been the discovery of Florida and then he landed in the vicinity of Saint Augustine. After landing near Saint Augustine, Ponce de Leon claimed the land for Spain. While in the region of Saint Augustine, he had encountered the natives that were living there. He had quickly realized that they were fierce and to settle there, they would need to bring in forces. After several expeditions ended with the death or some other disaster, King Philip II decided that colonizing Florida was not worth it. The king’s men had died from an attack from the Natives and diseases. Therefore, the explorations of Florida came to an end. Thus, the French swooped in and wanted to make Florida theirs, a man named Jean Ribault led the expedition to Florida. The French settled on St. Johns River and built Fort Caroline. The French had traded with the Saturiba tribe for food. When King Philip II found out about Ribault landing in Florida, he sent Pedro Menendez de Aviles, to get rid of the French and to settle there. Menendez docked at Saint Augustine, on August 28, 1565, and on September 6, 1565. However, to the Seloy tribe, it wasn’t a town called Saint Augustine; instead, it was called Seloy. After Menendez landed, the life of the Natives of Seloy was never the same

again.
Menendez received intelligence that the French built Fort Caroline on St.

Johns River and knew that Ribault was waiting for backup to arrive. Menendez wanted to move in before additional military personnel landed there. An encounter took place by the fort because the French fleets arrived sooner than expected. On the 8th of September, Menendez claimed Florida for the Spanish Catholics as the men brought the cross. Menendez marched his men to Fort Caroline, where he killed the men present at the fort and spared only women and children. The Indians near Saint Augustine found straggling Frenchmen hiding and brought them to the Spanish. Menendez took over the fort and renamed it, Fort San Mateo. Ribault’s men crashed and were on foot just south of Saint Augustine, and they had nowhere to turn, the men had surrendered. Menendez had them all killed, but a few weeks later more Frenchmen appeared, including Ribault at the inlet. Menendez had the men slaughtered, the inlet was given the name Matanzas, means to

slaughter.
After the French had been defeated by the Spanish, they still tried to seek revenge. Fort Mateo was rebuilt after it had burnt down from the French privateer, Dominique de Gourgues, and the Indians who came together to burn the fort down again. A third governor of Florida was Gonzalo Mendez de Canzo after the fires and hurricanes, it took out most of Saint Augustine, Mendez had to rebuild the town.
The Spanish tried to Christianize the Indians of this land. First Menendez had tried Christianizing the Native American’s. This did not go over smoothly because of the political issues in France and Spain at the time. The Jesuits mission to Christianize the Indians was never accomplished. “In both France and Spain, the Jesuits fell into disgrace, and the most rigorous measures of suppression and banishment were adopted against them.” After a few years passed, a new mission came up to Christianize the Natives. This mission was called the Nombre de Dios, it was led by a Christian Indian cacica, Dona Maria Melendez. Melendez was married to a Spanish soldier, along with being a ruler. To bring her district together with Spain, they launched the Nombre de Dios to convert the Guales into Christians in the late 1580s. After the Chiscas or also known as the Chichimecos, wandered into the Spanish territory in the late 1640s, the governor asked them to serve the Presidio as missionaries. The Chiscas came together with four Apalache chiefs, who were not Christian yet, and they killed the three friars and their families. Missionaries were placed at the borders and the only provinces to achieve this maturity was Guale, Timucua, and Apalache.