St. Augustine is the nation's oldest continually occupied European settlement. This means that while not the first settlement in North America it was the first successful settlement. The History of St. Augustine is a rich and long one. It Starts with Juan Ponce de Leon the Spanish Explorer who claimed Florida for Spain. That legend has it was searching for the Fountain of Youth. What ever he was here for doesn't matter but what does is that after his discovery of Florida, Spain started to try and colonize the area.
After many failed attempts the king of Spain Philip II, discovered that the French under the leadership of Rene de Laudonniere had started a settlement of Lutherans. The king chartered Pedro Menéndez de Aviles to go to Florida Destroy the French settlement and set up a colony for Spain. Menéndez landed in Florida on September 8th 1565 the feast day of Saint Augustine, he named the colony in honor of the saint.
After landing Menéndez and his soldiers marched north to the French settlement Fort Caroline. near present day Jacksonville the small wood fort was conquered, but a French reinforcement fleet was due to arrive soon. Luckily for Menéndez a hurricane caused the fleet to wreak at a site south of St. Augustine the Spanish moved quickly captured the French survivors and forced them to convert to Catholicism or die. Only two of the French converted the rest were slaughtered, the bay was then after called the Matanzas bay.
The colony of St. Augustine was originally in the center of an Indian village called Seloy's. The Spanish made little attempt to befriend the natives and tempers flared often. After one year the settlement was burned by the Indians the colony was then moved across the river to Anastasia Island where it was located for six years, until erosion forced them back to the mainland.
1574 was the year that Pedro Menéndez de Aviles died leaving his family in charge of the city. By 1576 the city was made a crown colony of Spain because of the poor management by the family and Menéndez's nephew, Pedro Menéndez Marquez was made governor by the king. In 1577 an Indian attack burned the town to the ground. By the time the Marquez reported find stone the fort protecting the city had been destroyed by the Indians five times. The next time St. Augustine would be attacked was in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake on his trip around the world, he also burned the city to the ground.
