St. Augustine, Florida: Part One:

Day one in the first settlement of the United States went great. St. Augustine was first established in 1513 when Ponce de Leon landed and declared the land La Florida. However, he didn’t just claim the modern peninsula, but everything from Labrador, to California, to the Florida Keys. They planted the Spanish Flag, and then left. NO ONE was left behind. While this may sound great, but this was not really a good move for the Spanish. Soon after they left, the French came and claimed the land as their own.

One tiny problem: the Spanish were Catholic, and the French were Protestant.

Once the Spanish heard that there were Protestants in their land, they packed up and headed back to Florida. Upon arrival, the Spanish slaughtered every single French person they could find. After they finished, they dumped the bodies in “The Inlet”. Now, this water way didn’t really have a name until the massacre. When they dumped the bodies, the water stayed red for three days with the blood of the French. After the horrible event, the Spanish named the surrounding water ways, “Matanza.” This may sound nice, but it translates to ‘slaughter’ in Spanish… yeesh.

After the Spanish reconquered Florida, they established St. Augustine. After a while, Britain bought Florida from the Spanish. Britain changed most of the Spanish houses into two story colonial houses. During the British reign, the Revolutionary War was in full force, and all the loyalists fled to Florida and hoped the fight wouldn’t come south. There was even a “fantasy” book written by a loyalist about what would happen if the British lost the war. A few years later, look what happened!

That is a basic history up until the civil war. This post was mainly just background information so you could understand what the heck I’m talking about when I say stuff like, “during the Spanish period,” and stuff.

(Sorry, but we don't have any pictures of St. Augustine on our picture website yet, so these posts will not have any pictures!)