Saint Augustine's Discovery Of Florida

a Spanish fortress located in Florida that was erected in 1565. Officially recognized as the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the future United States

In 1497, John Cabot sailed to the Florida peninsula. Sixteen years later, Juan Ponce de Leon of Spain traveled to North America and more specifically, Florida’s east coast. He claimed the land for Spain and named it “La Florida.” Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto went on a mission to acquire riches such as silver and gold. They were told by an Indian tribe in the Tampa Bay, Florida area that they could find what they were looking for in Tallahassee. Hernando de Soto took his men to Tallahassee, Florida and did not

Juan Ponce de Leon was born in Spain in 1460. Looking for fame and fortune, he started his career as an explorer by assisting in Christopher Columbus’s second expedition. Later on, he started his own expeditions to search for gold. On his various expeditions, he is known for building settlements in Puerto Rico and finding Florida while on the search for the fountain of youth.

Juan Ponce had explored the idea of traveling to Puerto Rico when the natives, Taino Indians, of a neighboring island had told him that the island had contained much gold, treasures, and fertile lands. In 1508, Ponce de León had gained permission from Ferdinand II of Aragon to set sail to the island. Later

Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish conquistador who went on many expeditions to Florida around the late 15th century and early 16th century. Ponce de Leon started his exploration in joining Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas in 1493. They landed in Hispaniola and found a settlement to be destroyed and the sailors to be murdered. Columbus enforced a forced-labor policy and made the Natives rebuild the settlement and look for gold. In this voyage, Ponce de Leon learned many skills and tactics in which he would use in later voyages. In 1508, Ponce de Leon was sent to explore Puerto Rico and look for gold. He settled with 50 other soldiers in what is now San Juan and became the first governor of the eastern part of the country in 1509. He also discovered the Dry Tortugas, 10 small keys southwest of Key West. Ponce de Leon was governor for two years until he was replaced by the Columbus’s son. He then sailed north through the Bahamas in search of new

* In 1498, he discovered the mainland and went down the coast of South America.

Juan ponce de Leon was poor .But he eventually became a solider and fought against the moors and Granada .Juan built settlement in Hispaniola in the first decade of the 1500. Juan gave Florida its name and went on to become the first governor of Portico Rico. but hearing persistent reports of gold nearby portico rico in 1508 the spanish crown officially sent pounce de Leon to explore the area two years earlier.

As an adult he moved to Cadiz and became a Squire, he was taught to hunt and handle weapons such as swords and Spanish guns that looked like rifles. Because of this he was recruited to fight against the Moors in Granada from 1487 to 1492. Nevertheless he was considered of a person without importance when he took his first expedition in 1493 on Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the new world. This voyage started in the harbor of Cadiz and led to the Canary Islands, which is where the last touch of land was had before amassing the large body of water that is the Atlantic which eventually led to Espanola. This particular voyage took roughly twenty two days to cross the Atlantic. Aurelio Tio, a historian of the time from Puerto Rico describes Juan Ponce De Leon before he began his journey, “He [Juan Ponce] was a squire without a source of wealth, a veteran of the Conquest of Granada, in search of fame, honor, adventure, and fortune, like the

Florida’s history makes up a small part of the United States of America’s history and the world’s history because historians may see Florida’s events as minimal changes to history. This leads to Florida’s past to be overshadowed by other well-known events; however, the events that are reviewed by teachers placed in Florida have changed history for better or for worse. At the equivocal period, many of Florida’s events that altered history has been overlooked by historians for many years. A Florida event that has been overlooked by historians and many alike is the Caribbean Raid, specifically in Saint Augustine. The infamous raid that partook in St. Augustine is essential to history and should be better-known around the

In early 19th century America, there was a shared feeling of exceptionalism, often leading to egocentrism and prejudice towards foreigners. This egocentrism and prejudice belief system has been passed down, and ignorance towards reforming these beliefs is evident throughout history. Many Americans believe that the colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth were the first settlements in America, thus that the Europeans who traveled across the Atlantic were the first to inhabit the New World. In fact, St. Augustine was a Spanish settlement in Florida established in 1565, 42 years prior to the Jamestown settlement and 55 years prior to the Plymouth settlement. Historical accounts of the American nation tend to neglect this information, resulting in American citizens believing that people of Spanish and Mexican descent do not belong, when in reality, they settled America first. Furthermore, American history tends to neglect mentioning the resistance which Anglo-Americans met as they expanded westward into lands which Native Americans and Mexicans lived in. Accordingly, people of Mexican descent occupied present-day Texas when Anglo-Americans first arrived. Through brutal, immoral, and unjust conquering, Texas became a state separate from Mexico, disregarding the Tejanos of Mexican descent and forcing them to migrate elsewhere.

Jamestown was the very first settlement that was established in the United States. The colonists had trouble making and enriching Jamestown. The English Colonists constantly encountered Powhatan Native Americans and violence caused tensions between these two groups. On top of that, the Colonists suffered from disease and a low supply of food. They still overcame those challenges and all contributed in building the town in the winter of 1609. Jamestown was the start of a chain of events, that helped develop the United States as a country. People who inhabited Jamestown continued to progress and make new towns and

8 September 1565- First Spanish settlement in St. Augustine, Florida- The significance of St Augustine, Florida is that it is the oldest documented city located in the United States. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés arrived and founded the Presidio of San Agustin. In 1821 when Spain gave up the land to the US, the name was changed to St. Augustine, Florida. The city was going to be used to help build the Spanish Empire protecting the trade route to Europe. The Spanish had control of the land for 256 years followed by the British for 20 years. The significance of the land is not only that it was the oldest documented city, but it also

Menendez was born in 1519 and ran away from home to be a sailor at age of 14. He became an officer in the Spanish Navy and in 1549 was commissioned to fight pirates off the coast of Spain. He excelled so much that Phillip II granted him permission to begin a colony in Florida and drive out the French. Menendez shortly thereafter set sail to the New World with 11 ships, over 2,000 sailors and soldiers with their families. When the fleet arrived, Menendez set up camp just south of the French’s Fort Caroline. With the help of the Timucuan Indians, Menendez and his men built a fort there. On September 8, 1565 Menendez named the fort St. Augustine. This became the first permanent settlement in the United States. He then claimed all of Florida

Saint Augustine, The City of God,tr. J.W. Leedom; reprinted in C. Warren Hollister et al., eds,

People are weird. A lot of this is because there are so many, 7.4 billion Homo Sapiens cram themselves onto a damp rock swinging around a star and hurtling through the galaxy. On this rock we are born, grow up, thrive, grow old, and die. In general, this cycle of life has been consistent throughout history. Because of how common this cycle is, it has been subject to repeated attempts at improvement by philosophers and prophets of all time periods around the globe. One of the most important of these philosophers was a man named Augustine of Hippo, better known as Saint Augustine. Living in the fourth century CE, he constructed in his book On the Free Choice of the Will a philosophy where the mind is the dominant force that controls a person. Therefore, whatever rules the mind rules the person. The goal then is to have the mind ruled by reason and not by passions and desires. Someone who is ruled by passion and emotion will make illogical decisions, often leading to harm. There is also a Christian component to this. God’s creation is perfect, there is no evil in it. Humans make themselves a bit of an exception in creation because they have the free will. We can choose between being ruled by our passions and ruled by reason. In order to further explore this philosophy, we will take a look at two figures who live on opposite sides of history; the mythical and powerful Creon in the Sophocles play Antigone and the young and idealistic Chris McCandless in Jon Krakauer’s Into the