🔄From the archive: Step aside Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth — St. Augustine is technically the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States. Here's the history of this place.
Thus begins the story of the northeast Florida settlement that outlasted the rest to become the oldest continuously inhabited city in the continental U.S. Before the British — and later the independent states — overran their newfound landmass, the Spanish carved out a corner for themselves in a bid to guard their Caribbean interests. Historians of this abiding and stunningly diverse community lament that nowadays it’s a mere side note in the American saga.
Menendez wasted no time. In an overland ambush just days after they arrived, his men marched through 40 miles of swamp and routed the fort’s defenders. Meanwhile, the French naval officerhad sailed south to confront the Spanish at St. Augustine, but a storm blew the fleet off course and shipwrecked them near what is now Daytona Beach.
Though the Spanish offered to spare any Catholics, all but 10 proclaimed their Protestantism. The other 250 or so were duly executed, and to this day the inlet and its estuary bear the nameThe first Jamestownians wouldn't land ashore for another few decades, and the oldest soon-to-be Plymouth pilgrims weren’t yet 10 years old. But the textbooks are rich with their stories, not St. Augustine’s.
Though control of the Atlantic seaboard eventually fell to the English, for decades the most significant European settlement on the continent belonged to Spain. The location of St. Augustine was a strategic choice. From there, the Spanish could protect theiras it sailed to and from Veracruz, Havana and other Caribbean hubs — including San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was founded in 1521, making it the oldest European settlement in the United States including territories.
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