The Castillo de San Marco in St. Augustine, Florida. (Photo: Roman Eugeniusz via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
The United States is a relatively new nation in the grand scheme of human history. Built from conquest and settlement, the nation’s history is critical to learn in order to build a better present. Many believe the American permanent settlement began with Jamestown or the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. In reality, the popular emphasis on these moments in history has obscured the founding of the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in what is now the United States. In fact, this surprising location is St. Augustine, Florida.
Spain had tried several times to start a permanent settlement in the New World, but had found success. However, Spaniard Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles would change that fate. In 1565, he arrived at the head of a fleet of galleons on the eastern coast of what is now the state of Florida.
He followed in the wake of Spanish explorers who had previously poked around the coast of America, but the 1565 mission was larger and dedicated to establishing a permanent settlement. The Spanish settlers met (and forced out) French forces to lay claim to the region. Among their numbers were both free and enslaved African people. They displaced the indigenous inhabitants of a settlement called Seloy, upon which they built the beginnings of St. Augustine.
The settlement remained and grew. Eventually, a fortress called the Castillo de San Marcos was built in the late 17th century. Visitors can still explore the fortification and learn about its history, from imprisoning members of the Apache tribe in the 19th century to being passed back and forth from Spanish to British forces in the 18th century.
While the modern city and waterfront now surround the fort, it and the city plan itself are reminders of its extensive history. Older than the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the founding of Jamestown in 1607, St. Augustine is a lesser-discussed yet important piece of our national story, critical to understanding the modern society we live in.
The oldest continually-occupied city in the United States is St. Augustine, Florida.
h/t: [IFL Science, Smithsonian Magazine]
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