Timeline of Florida's Spanish Colonial Heritage

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Re-enactment at Juan Ponce De Leon Landing Park, Melbourne Beach.

Photo Credit: Brevard County Historical Commission

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An artist rendering of a friar instructing Native Americans to place a cross at a mission site.

Photo Credit: Mission San Luis

A quick look of the Spanish Colonial era of Florida from 1513 to 1821.

Exploration

1513 – Ponce de León landing

1528 – Narváez expedition

1539 – de Soto Expedition

Permanent Settlement and Missionization

1565 – St. Augustine founded

1566 – Small forts established throughout Florida

1587 – All Florida forts abandoned except St. Augustine

1600 – Missions established north to present-day Georgia

1630 – Missions established west to Apalachee

1660 – British sponsored attacks on Spanish missions

1698 – Permanent Spanish settlement of Pensacola

1706 – End of the Spanish missions in Florida

Colonial Battlefield

1710 – Creeks migration to de-populated Spanish Florida

1718 – San Marcos de Apalache re-established

1733 – Coastal Georgia under British control

1740 – St. Augustine virtually destroyed in War of Jenkins Ear

British Period

1763 – British control Florida & split the territory into East and West Florida

1781 – Battle of Pensacola

Second Spanish Period

1783 – Spain regains control of Florida

1783-1821 – Influx of native groups and escaped African slaves

1810 & 1812 – Republics of West and East Florida

1814 & 1818 – U.S. military incursions into Florida

1821 – Spain relinquishes Florida to the U.S.