The Oldest Colonized Settlement in the United States

While I don’t believe in the “Names and Dates” approach to history, (It turns the amazing tapestry of our past into a boring list.) I do believe some dates should be known as important “markers.”  Two dates I do feel people should be familiar with is 1603 and 1607.

Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, and Jamestown was founded in 1607. These two dates are fairly easy to connect. Virginia was named for Elizabeth the “Virgin Queen,” and Jamestown was named for her successor, James I.

While the 1607 founding of Jamestown in undeniably important to American history. It is by no means the oldest European settlement in the modern United States. The obvious settlement to bring up was the failed 1585 Roanoke Colony. But truth be told, the English were rather late to the colonization game.

From Columbus sailing the “ocean blue” in 1492 to Jamestown in 1607 was 115 years. In those 115 years the Spanish, the Portuguese and even the French did most of the sailing and colonizing of the “New World.”  They spent the majority of their time in the Caribbean, Central and South America but there was a presence in what became the continental United State.

Jumping from the Caribbean, the Spanish came upon a swampy but incredibly lush land, they called this the “Flowery land,” or as it is better known today “Florida.”  A colony was established by the Spanish there in 1565 and the colony was named Saint Augustine.

Saint Augustine is a really neat little town and well worth a visit to see an important and often overlooked part of American History.  There are famous names associated with Saint Augustine and the beginnings of Spanish Florida, such as Juan Ponce de León- who gave Florida its name. While Ponce de León did not found Saint Augustine, he was the one that claimed Florida for Spain (in 1513). Another famous name connected with Saint Augustine is Sir Francis Drake, the English Privateer, who in 1586 sacked and burned the town but did not have the supplies needed to hold it; and the Spanish were able to keep control of their colony.

Even more overlooked is the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.  (I have written about Puerto Rico at length here.) Puerto Rico is part of the United States, so it deserves a mention.  Puerto Rico was “founded” by the Spanish in 1493 when it was “discovered” by Columbus on his second voyage. The Spanish first settled Puerto Rico in 1508, but a more permanent colony was set up in 1521, the city of San Juan.  The first governor of Puerto Rico was none other than Ponce de León, who used Puerto Rico as his springboard to explore Florida. Sir Francis Drake also attacked San Juan (in 1595), but the Spanish stronghold was too strong and repelled the attack.

Whether you consider Jamestown, St Augustine or San Juan the oldest “American” town in the U.S., they each have important, interesting and connected stories to tell.