colony · North America and Oceania

French Florida

1562 CE – 1565 CE · capital Fort Caroline

A short-lived Huguenot colony on the St Johns River whose destruction by Spain in 1565 secured Florida for the Spanish crown.

Origins

Backed by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the Protestant captain Jean Ribault sailed to Florida in 1562 and left a small garrison at Charlesfort, on Parris Island in modern South Carolina, which was soon abandoned. In 1564 René Goulaine de Laudonnière brought a second expedition and built Fort Caroline near the mouth of the St Johns River.

Rule and society

The colony was a fortified outpost of a few hundred soldiers, artisans and Huguenot settlers rather than a governed territory. It depended on food from the Timucua chief Saturiwa and his neighbours, and hunger and mutiny troubled it. The artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues drew the Timucua, leaving some of the earliest European images of North America.

Decline and legacy

In 1565 Philip II sent Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who founded St Augustine, captured Fort Caroline and executed Ribault and his shipwrecked men at Matanzas Inlet. Dominique de Gourgues avenged them in 1568, but France did not return, leaving Spanish Florida in control.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). French Florida. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-florida
MLA
“French Florida.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-florida. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “French Florida.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-florida.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘French Florida’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-florida (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻