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Who builds the First U.S. town?
It was Spain who built the population and who began the exploration and colonization of the U.S, almost 100 years before the arrival of the first English and their first colony.
+ Hispanic Roots
Although practically unknown to Americans, the Spanish were also in the lands of the current State of Delaware. A complete Spanish expedition, with settlers, missionaries and soldiers explored the area looking for a suitable place to build a population. For the Crown of Spain, according to their explorations, the lands further north were not of interest, due to their harsh climate and their few resources. Comparing with the rest of the lands of America, they had no special interest. For this reason they reached Delaware and went down the Atlantic coast, until they found a place that they believed was suitable to settle.
Year 1526, in the middle of an ice age, the first Hispanic settlement is attempted, with all kinds of difficulties
Ruins of a former Spanish colony and mission
The colonization of the U.S.A. began almost 100 years before the arrival of the English. The first colonies of Spain in the later 13 colonies were in the current States of Georgia and Carolina
Huge difficulties
Only the 4th part of the settlers survive
It is forgotten that the Spanish were long before the English
They traveled from the current state of Delaware to the Florida peninsula, in areas of the first 13 English colonies. Spain called American Florida, generically, a whole set of territories on the North American continent, which ranged from the Florida Peninsula itself, to Newfoundland in present-day Canada.
First European settlement
The northernmost area of the Florida Peninsula was explored. Based on the previous explorations, the area is crossed looking for the ideal place to establish a colony, where they could cultivate the land
Discovered the remains
Remains of the Spanish colony have been found in Georgia, not in North Carolina or Virginia as previously believed.
Atlantic coast of the U.S with the first English colonies
80 years later the English made their first settlement in the area. And little by little they would spread south.
Ayllón sends an expedition
Knowing the chronicles of Diego de Miruelo that the year 1516 leaving Cuba arrived by the winds of a storm in that area and was amazed by the reception. But it was an area that was not precisely known where he was.
Wanting to collect information on those lands, Ayllón sent two ships, as an advance party, to study the terrain, contact the natives and see if it was possible to negotiate with them. It is not known with certainty if it was these ships or others that went through the area, but what they did was disastrous for future Spanish expeditions to the territory.
Disobedience of Captain Gordillo and Quexo
After touring the area, these captains decided to make the trip profitable, and skip the laws of the Indies in force. They contacted indigenous people who, scared to see men with beards and arriving in large ships, who had never seen and who did not even have a name to describe them, fled to the forests. The Spanish managed to capture two of them. To the surprise of the natives, they dressed them in sailors’ clothes and let them go. This, amazed by those he had seen on the ships, they told the others. They soon arrived with gifts and sent guides to see the area. In all places they were greeted with food and gifts. These naive natives did not suspect what awaited them. The Spanish invited a hundred natives to visit their ships. They confidently boarded the ships and when they were in them, the anchors were raised and the ships began to sail. The natives were introduced into the wineries with the intention of selling them as slaves. During the trip to the Island of Hispaniola, to Santo Domingo, one of the ships sank.
Upon learning of what had happened to the Indians, the Governor and Viceroy of the Indies became enraged because the Spanish captains had disobeyed the King and the Laws of the Indies in relation to the defense of the natives. (The laws of the Indies did not allow to enslave the natives). The defender of the natives, Fray Antonio de Montesino, managed to release them. He even ordered himself to take them back to their places of origin. He ordered that due to the cost of the expedition, it was not fulfilled. In a short time, most of these indigenous people, due to diseases and their lives, wandering through Santo Domingo.
Ayllón feared that authorization for his expeditions to North America would be denied. He traveled to Spain accompanied by one of the indigenous people who had survived, had been educated by the Jesuits and had learned the Spanish language. Before Carlos V, this indigenous man told a story of great wealth, great possibilities, and people wanting to trade. Although few believed this story, the king authorized an expedition led by Ayllón, named Adelantado. The most suspected that Luis Chicora, this native named by the Jesuits, only wanted to return to his land.
Upon returning to Santo Domingo, Ayllón prepared a large expedition of 5 ships and 600 people, with everything necessary to carry out a settlement. With the data provided by the previous expeditions, the geographers have already made a map of the assigned area, and called Tierra de Ayllón in North America, just below the so-called lands of Esteban Gómez that covered up to Canada, today known as Nova Scotia.
Fray Antonio Montesinos indigenous defender
In addition to colonists, both men and women, soldiers and missionaries participated in the expedition. At the head of these missionaries was Fray Antonio Montesinos, to ensure that the Laws of the Indies for the defense of the natives were complied with.
Exploration and settlement begins in North America (US)
Your goal the northern lands
Scan with no results
From the stories he considered that the lands described by Diego de Miruelo were the best to settle because of the good relations of the Spanish with the indigenous people previously. He heads to the lands of today Delaware and Virginia, looking for a suitable place for a successful settlement.
Although they went up to territories of the current State of Delaware, when contemplating the harsh climate and lands of the area, they do not consider the ideal places to settle. They begin to travel the territory to the South, continuing to search for a place.
They ride from Delaware to Georgia
Directed by Vázquez de Ayllón
An expedition of 5 ships and 600 people, including sailors, soldiers, missionaries, settlers, etc. departs from the Island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. After touring the Delaware Bay, they reach the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, which they call Santa María Bay. They make the first map of the area.
They disembark in Winyah Bay (Georgetown) South Carolina, but they do not consider the place suitable to settle.
They lose a ship in a storm
They build another ship
The difficulties of navigation in the area, storms, fogs, sandbanks, cause one of the ships to wreck. They build a new ship to replace the one they have lost. Between the failed explorations to find a suitable place and the construction of a new ship they waste a lot of time. The construction of a new ship was necessary since there were 600 people, a large expedition for the time and the remaining ships could not transport them all.
They cruise the coast from Delaware
Then they settle in Georgia
Vázquez de Ayllón carries out an extensive exploration along the entire North American coast where they lost a ship in the Cape of Fear (Cape Fear), in North Carolina due to sand bars and fog. He toured Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia.
Unfortunately they possibly arrive in the area, or near where Captains Gordillo and Quexo, had captured natives, a few years before. All the indigenous people of those lands were aware of the events that occurred.
After the long journey and the past difficulties, with the difficult life on the ships, where they were crowded, they decide to settle on land, in the best possible place. Food is being consumed and more is needed sooner. Winter is approaching and the cold is very much. That winter was one of the worst.
San Miguel de Gualdape
Only survived a few months
They create the San Miguel de Gualdape neighborhood. The discovered remains are in the State of Georgia, currently St. Catherines Island.
When they find a place to settle, it is not the growing season and supplies begin to run low. Diseases begin to appear and an epidemic spreads among them. At this time there is an ice age, the cold is enormous. The temperatures paralyze people who lived in the Caribbean or from Spain.
Almost everything happened to them
They are established in bad times, diseases, attacks etc.
The territory of the current United States was difficult to colonize, climate, diseases, indigenous people, etc. The cold, with very low temperatures, made it difficult to carry out construction and cultivation tasks. For all this, the Crown of Spain saw no reason to settle beyond Delaware and much less on the border with Canada.
The colony is abandoned
Only 150 people survive. The hunger, the cold, the diseases and the attacks of the indigenous people make it fail
Supplies consumed in the long winter with cold, hunger, disease. Among the dead is Vázquez de Ayllón, head of the expedition. When spring arrives, there are only a quarter of those who arrived. Even Ayllón himself has died, poor diet, disease, cold and exhaustion from getting food has killed many. There was no harvest, as they arrived in the area too late, outside of the right season.
The environment and the indigenous people do not help. The indigenous people do not want to trade and cannot get food. There are many, hundreds of people and it is very difficult to survive. All of them would pay what a few Spaniards did years before, with the natives.
The Indians at odds with them continually attack them. An added difficulty and for which they were not responsible, occurred due to the events that occurred in another previous Spanish expedition to the area. It was not surprising since the natives still remembered the forays of the Spanish explorers Gordillo and Quexo sent by Ayllón a few years before, to explore the area.
These skipping orders, enslaved a hundred Indians. They were taken to the Hispaniola Island specifically to Santo Domingo. Despite the fact that these captains were condemned for it, the indigenous people could not return to their territory due to the cost of a new trip and the organization of a new expedition.
Spain tries again and succeeds
The first European colony failed
Held 80 years before the English at Jamestown (1607)
After so many calamities of the 600 Spaniards, there are only 150 of them left and many sick. Fortunately, the Spanish expedition had the means and ships to return to Cuba. The survivors leave the town and return to Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola
The English Roanoke disaster
In 1585 the settlement disappeared without a trace
The 110 people in the settlement survived at the cost of many hardships. The disappearance of a silver cup from the colony caused the disaster. Indigenous people from a nearby town were blamed for the disappearance and the town was attacked and burned in retaliation. With this they achieved the permanent enmity of the indigenous people of the area. The first indigenous attack on the English town was repulsed. Ships set out for help and supplies,
When ships arrived a year later with more reinforcements and supplies, they found no one. None of the members of the settlement showed signs of life. For this reason it is known as La Colonia Perdida.
English Triumph (1609): Cannibalism at Jamestown
The remains of a devoured young woman
Worse it was for the English in Jamestown
An even worse situation, the English lived when settling in Jamestown 81 years later. In addition to the attacks by the indigenous people, their food reserves were only for 50 people. The hunger reached the extreme of causing cases of cannibalism among them, as has been documented. There are accounts of at least 6 people, who recognized or saw the practice of cannibalism in the English colony. The appearance of human remains among the remains of horses and squirrels, found at the bottom of a basement of one of the houses of the time, attracted attention. It surprised everyone when the DNA showed that it was a young English woman who had been eaten by the English colonists as well.
Recently, remains of human bodies from that time were found. In the remains of the body of a 14-year-old girl, researchers discovered signs of cannibalism. The girl was eaten by her companions. Clear cuts in her skull and her leg, to tear her apart. Cut marks on her jaw, evidence that her muscles were cut. In the organic remains found, there were abundant proteins. Which suggests that she either belonged to an accommodating class with good nutrition or a she was a servant who shared food. It is believed that she must have been orphaned or the people who accompanied her had died shortly before. She is most likely a domestic servant. If she did not get to be alone, her murder probably would not have occurred.
To recreate her image, she has been given the most common hair color in southern England, where she came from and that corresponds to her skin. She has been assigned a light brown hair corlo.
The remains found from the English settlement coincide with the written testimonies of the time, which mention it. Even some English settler was sentenced to death, for the murder and preservation in salt of part of the remains of his wife, to eat it later.
The conditions of hunger, cold and despair of the English colonists, forced them to do things that they would not have imagined, despite being immigrants from the poorest areas of England. The way in which they made the cuts of the body and the bones in the remains found demonstrate it. A model has even been made with the appearance of the girl who was devoured.
The English expedition before the Winter of 1609-10, was made up of 300 people. After this infernal Winter that they endured, only 60 people survived in the Spring. It is the first case of cannibalism demonstrated with physical remains found in European settlements in the world.
Spanish triumph (1565) when returning years later
Spain was the one who began the colonization of the USA almost 100 years before the arrival of the English. And he would later found San Agustín in this Florida Peninsula in the year 1565. This city would be the first Spanish settlement on American soil that has maintained a constant population. St. Augustine would be an important point in Florida.
Resume
Although it is a fact little commented on by many of the Anglo-Saxon historians. During the 100 years that elapse since the discovery of America and the arrival of the first English settlers, there were already colonies of Spain in the current territory of the United States.
