MAPPING AND GEOGRAPHICAL WORLD

Don Juan Ponce de Leon, was the first European to see the North American continent on Easter Sunday, 1513. Between 1513 and 1563 the Spanish government launched 6 unsuccessful expeditions to settle Florida. The French succeeded in establishing a Colony on the Saint John’s River in 1564, and in doing so, threatened Spain’s fleets, which sailed along Florida’s shoreline. King Phillip II named Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles as governor of Florida to colonize the territory, and drive out any settlers from other nations. On August 28, 1565, the feast of Saint Augustine, he arrived off the coast of Florida and, with 600 soldiers, came ashore at the site of the Timucuan Indian village of Seloy. The village was fortified by the soldiers and named Saint Augustine. The city was actually founded 42 years before the English Colony of Jamestown, Virginia and 55 years before the pilgrims arrived on Plymouth Rock.