What about the L’Anse aux Meadows site? It dates to approx. 1000 A.D.
Sorry, San Juan is in the US, in a freely-associated territory. I ask for a ruling in my favor from the bench and rest my case.
Well, you are denied. <lol> Actually, this is a VERY important distinction. It is why not every provision of the United States Constitution is applicable in Puerto Rico, which was not true of, say the New Mexico Territory before it became the states of Arizona and New Mexico. 
Jamestown was the first successful permanent English colony in what would become the continental United States. That’s why it’s more important to us than St. Augustine.
Marc
What do you mean by “us,” Paleface?
(I’m probably as melanin-deficiant as you. But, as a Texan, my definition of “American” is a bit looser.)
I can understand why the first English colony was suitable for a visit by the English Queen. Perhaps, if King Juan Carlos visits, he’ll drop by St Augustine.
After some research: Juan Carlos & his Queen were honored by a luncheon at the Western White House in Crawford, Texas. Couldn’t Bush at least have taken them to San Antonio?
Well, presumably Juan Carlos would have been much more interested in New Orleans, or perhaps Santa Fe. San Antonio’s history is much more tied to Mexico than to New Spain, I think. 
With all due respect to your lineage, I call utter b.s… A recent rather exhaustive article in National Geographic outlines the decade by decade political intercourse between the English and the Native Americans. far from wholesale slaughter, it was the English pushing hard to get food from the Natives- after taking over ( without any treaty or permission, of course ) enormous tracts of Native farmed and owned land, wrecking said land with abominable lack-of-land-management, then starving, then attacking Native Americans who refused to give them food.
It’s neat you are a direct descendant but that doesn’t give you license to pain such a thoroughly racist and innacurate image of the conflict at the time.
May, 2007 edition. " Jamestown, The True Story". Quite interesting and not at all what you have been told. For that matter, not at all what most of American children have been told in school.
Cartooniverse
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They brought malaria WITH them, and decimated the Native American population with it.
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They were not attacked upon landing with bows and arrows.
:rolleyes:
I have read the NG arrticle many times as well as studied whatever sources I could. I am no scholar on the subject but there were Indian killing raids on Jamewtown. The one that I mentioned about Chanco warning the settlers just before a devasting raid was mentioned briefly in the article. I can’t say what joy the Indians got out of it but it happened enough to support the claim that Indians tried to kill off Jamestown or at least individual groups of settlers on occasion. I don’t know why you that that is racist. It seems perfectly understandable to me.
My comment was that it was aming that the colony survived at all given the high proportion that died naturally while the rest faced other dire threats.
San Antonio was founded in 1718, almost a century before Mexico began its fight for independance.
My point: If Bush had wanted to impress Juan Carlos with something Texan–he could have picked a better place than Crawford!
I am not sure what the issue is. If you think that you are the enlightened one and everyone else thinks white man = good, Indians = bad then you have come to the wrong place. No one thinks that. I have no idea whatsoever what you are going on about unless you were appointed by Powhatan himself as an eternal PR person.
I can’t tell if you are denying that there were devastating Indian raids on Jamestown or if you are just spewing something or other.
How about March 22, 1662: The 9/11 of the Jamestown Colony:
“The morning of March 22, 1622, Virginia’s Powhatan Indian alliance executed a well-conceived and coordinated attack on English settlements spread more than fifty miles up and down the James River. Warriors from perhaps a dozen of the thirty-two affiliated tribes—Quiyoughcohannocks, Waraskoyacks, Weanocks, Appomatucks, Arrohatecks, and others—fell on men, women, and children in their homes and in their fields, burning houses and barns, killing livestock, mutilating the bodies of their victims. Planned by the Pamunkey headman Opechancanough, kinsman of the now-deceased paramount chieftain Powhatan, the offensive slew about 350 whites, a sixth of the total in the fifteen-year-old colony.”
According to PBS last night, current scholars theorize that the high mortality rate at Jamestown was likely due to poisoning.
I was distracted, but I think one theory was that a Catholic mercenary was sabotaging the (Protestant) colony.
Also there was a catastrophic drought at that time.
Here’s a link to the show I referred to:
Lest we decide the Indians were in all instances innocent babes destroyed by evil white men (which is more or less the tone of the National Geographic article), here’s more detail on the massacre of 1622:
The National Geographic glosses over this episode, as well as the Powhatan’s conquest of neighboring tribes which preceded the arrival of the English colonists. Indian vs. Indian violence was OK, I guess. It’s only when Europeans arrived and joined in the struggle for territory that it became a story of good versus evil.
The OP is asking for the first European settlement in the New World, not in the USA only. I still say San Juan wins. That is my story and I am sticking to it.
Shagnasty, we could be distantly related, because my direct ancestor was one of the men in charge of setting up the settlement. His father had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.
Apologies if it’s been mentioned before and I missed it, but I think Jamestown gets more attention than St. Augustine or Santa Fe because it was part of the original 13 colonies, while the other places were not. I’m not saying that means much, I just suspect that’s the reason.
Nope. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1498).
I saw that show last night, and I would say that it would be more accurate to say that one hypothesis was that it was due to poisoning-- a hypothesis pushed by one (or maybe a few) scholars, and it would be inaccurate to say that that is the most accepted explanation. What I found interesting is that the hypothesis includes the idea that it was part of the Protestant/Catholic power struggle taking place within Britain and Europe. Fascinating stuff. The show was “Secrets of the Dead” which is usually quite good-- it’s kind of a cross between “NOVA” and “CSI”.
You’re right - my language was sloppy.
hyperbole - extravagant exageration, used as a figure of speech.
Have you ever been to coastal VA, particularly in the spring and summer? Hot, humid, and bug infested describes it in a nutshell. My point was that I’m sure what the first people that settled my fair state thought they were getting, and what they actually found were miles and miles apart.