Hispanic America USA
Colonial America USA
Copyright (c) 1996-97 All Rights Reserved
Florida explored 1513 by Spain &
St.Augustine Founded 1565 by Spain
is also the Nations Oldes City
Florida was discovered by Don Juan Ponce de Leon, a former
governor of Puerto Rico. Ponce de Leon sighted the
eastern coast of Florida on Easter Sunday, March 27, 1513.
In the following half century, the government
of Spain
launched no less than six expeditions attempting to settle Florida.
King Philip II named Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Spain's
most experienced admiral, governor of Florida, and instructed
Mendendez to explore and to colonize the territory.
On September 8, 1565, 600 soldiers and settlers,
Mendendez
set foot on the shores of St. Augustine. In honor of the Saint
whose feast day it ws when Mendenez first sighted shore
(August 28), he named the town St. Augustine, and established
the first permanent colony.
This was almost a half century before the English
colonized
Jamestown and before the Pilgrams landed at Plymouth Rock.
St. Augustine was established as a permant
colony and remains
to this day the oldest permanent European settlement in the
continental United States.