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Philip wanted him to destroy the French colony before France could send military forces to Florida to protect it. Spanish Colonists, Outnumbered, Get Lucky Spain’s King Philip II wanted the French threat eliminated, particularly because the settlers were Protestants and to Philip, a Catholic, that made them intolerable. A French base in Florida posed a potential threat not just to Spanish territorial claims, but also to the Spanish treasure fleet that sailed from South America and Mexico along the Florida coast before heading across the Atlantic to Spain.

The previous year, the French had established an outpost at Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville. Instead, Menéndez’s primary mission was simple: Get rid of French Huguenot colonists who were trying to usurp the Spanish claim. And unlike other colonizers, he wasn’t out to find gold or set up a trading network with the Native tribes. Menéndez’s expedition wasn’t the first group of Spanish explorers who tried to start a colony in Florida, which Juan Ponce de León had claimed for Spain back in 1513. History Lists: Explorers Not Named Columbus