The colonization of the Americas tied in with the history of Spain. Rumours of vast riches of gold and silver induced the Spanish monarchy to support expeditions to the Americas for the purpose of exploration, conquest, settlement and political rule. In the 16th century there were plenty of desperate young men from the lower nobility to lead such expeditions, accompanied by administrators working for the Spanish King. More information can be found at museumoffloridahistory.com
One such nobleman was Hernando de Soto. Historians believe that in May 1539 he landed in Tampa Bay, on the west coast of Florida, accompanied by a King’s envoy, engineers and carpenters.
The local natives told De Soto that the riches he sought could be found in the Apalachee Region, in the north-west of present-day Florida. The exaggerated size and importance of the region to Europeans can be seen maps of the period.
De Soto travelled northwards to the principal Apalachee settlement at Anhaica, a community with 250 buildings, located just east of modern day central Tallahassee.
By March 1540 De Soto and his men had caused so much havoc in Anhaica that the Apalachee people had to abandon the site. Information about De Soto’s encampment can be found at nps.gov
Further information about two Spanish expeditions looking for silver can be found at museumoffloridahistory.com
More Spanish explorers arrived during the 1500-1600s. Missionaries accompanied the explorers and sought to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism while establishing a life with them in the missions. The missions were part of the Spanish strategy for the defence of Florida. Part of the role of the mission Indians was to serve as a militia to protect the colony from English incursions from the north. The missions formed a network for protection and agricultural provision and played an important role in the settlement of Spanish America
However, contact with Europeans and exposure to diseases for which the Apalachee and other indigenous populations had no immunity, led to epidemics and mass fatalities. This, coupled with continual threats from foreign attacks and loss of faith in the traditional customs and leadership engendered social collapse in the Apalachee communities. In 1607 Apalachee chieftains approached the Spanish to request the support of Spanish friars and in 1612, requested a mission. The Spanish did not grant this, but relied on the fertile and prosperous area of the Apalachee region for food to support the Mission of St Augustine.
Later, in 1633 Franciscan friars came to Anhaica to set up the Mission San Luis. This was located on one of the region’s highest hilltops. By 1675 Mission San Luis had more than 1,400 residents. For the next two centuries, Spanish settlers worked cattle ranches and farms built around more than 100 Franciscan mission towns that stretched from the Apalachicola River to St. Augustine. Mission San Luis became the western anchor of a network extending across northern Florida. Information about the Mission San Luis can be found at missionsanluis.org
British raiders and their Indian allies and further epidemics took their toll on the Apalachee Indians. After the local Indians had all but died out, Spanish authorities encouraged renegade Indians and runaway slaves from England’s North American colonies to move south. The Spanish were hoping that these traditional enemies of the English would prove effective in holding off English expansion.
Finally, in 1819, Spain gave up its colonial ambitions in Florida.
