Three thousand miles from the European courts, a struggle for control of Florida and the Indies played out near the mouth of what is today the St. Johns River.

Spain and France both established settlements and fortifications in an effort to control territory and shipping lanes in the Americas. In the 1560s, France attempted to establish a colony named La Caroline or Land of Charles (after Charles the IX) that included a small fort at the mouth of the St. Johns River as a tenuous but threatening outpost to the Spanish shipping lanes.

French expeditions to Florida under command of Jean Ribault and Rene Laudonniere not only sought a foot-hold in the Spanish Indies, they also spread the intense religious conflict between French Protestants and Spanish Catholics as well.

Situated on the south bank of the St. Johns River, a short distance from the sea, the fortification was triangular with bastions at each corner and surrounded by a moat. When news of the French intrusion reached Spain's King Philip II, two fleets under the command of Pedro Menendez de Aviles were dispatched to Florida to establish permanent settlements. As Menendez arrived, the starving French were abandoning their failed fort.

In a complicated series of events, the fate of the French was sealed by a hurricane that sank three of their vessels south of St. Augustine. Menendez's forces destroyed the small garrison remaining in Fort Caroline.

A few years later, the French retook the fort but gave up on efforts to establish a French colony and left. The region was again in Spanish hands, Fort Caroline was rebuilt and renamed San Mateo, and Menendez moved on to establish additional settlements from South Carolina to southwest Florida.

Information provided by the Florida Division of Historical Resources.