| Charlesfort | |
| |
| Nation: | France |
|---|---|
| Region: | Florida |
| Info: | Unconquerable Port |
| Resources: | None |
| NPC Level: | Unknown |
French starting tutorial missions, level 1-5 missions including group mission Red Tide, the Map of Destiny series of missions begining with A Man of Wealth and Taste.
Historical Information[]
A mid-sixteenth century French outpost in Port Royal Sound, Charlesfort was the first French settlement in the present day United States. During the 1980s, archaeologists located its site on Parris Island.
In early 1562, Gaspard Coligny de Châtillon, the Admiral of France, dispatched the Norman mariner Jean Ribault to lead two royal ships and 150 men to survey the east coast of North America and locate a site for a future French colony. Landing near modern Jacksonville, Florida, Ribault established relations with a number of native peoples as he took his ships north to Port Royal Sound. Impressed by the apparent potential of this area for a colony, Ribault, before returning to France, left behind more than two dozen volunteers, who constructed a small wooden fort which they named after their king. From here they intended to explore the area while waiting for Ribault to return with supplies and more settlers.
However, civil war in France prevented Ribault from resupplying Charlesfort. Over the next fourteen months, mutiny, conflict with the local Indians, and shortages of food threatened the survival of the fort, and it was decided to abandon the area. Attempting an Atlantic crossing in an open boat, the survivors had been reduced to cannibalism by the time they were rescued by an English ship. A few months later, Coligny sponsored a second and larger French colonization attempt, on the St. John's River in Florida, which lasted a year before being captured by Spanish troops.
Source: Charlesfort
Alternate History[]
Despite Jean Ribault's arrest in England he was able to smuggle out a letter to his patron. Admiral Coligny sent supply ships along with reinforcements to Charlesfort in early 1563. The original garrison had shrunk considerably but France's claim on Florida was secured. With Ribault's victory over the Spanish in St. Augustine in 1565 Charlesfort becomes the regional capital of French Florida. By 1720 the city appears to be a quaint port transplanted from the Mediterranean coast rather than a rough frontier town like her colonial neighbors.