How might the needs of the Spanish treasury have heightened concerns about settlement by other European empires?
Spain was concerned about the establishment of settlements that could be used as havens for pirates attacking Spanish galleons carrying treasure to Spain throughout the colonial period. Various recommendations were addressed to King Charles II on the fortification of coastal communities in the West Indies against pirates. England’s early attempts to colonize began as bases to attack Spanish galleons. In the latter part of the 16th century, Juan de Oñate searched the Atlantic coastline for rumored English settlements and reported that England had not made inroads in Spanish Florida. In 1607, however, the Jamestown colony established an English foothold on the Chesapeake. By the 1660s, England had further extended into the Carolinas and in 1732 granted a charter for the establishment of the Georgia colony as a buffer to protect the Carolinas. Spain protested English encroachment in a 1742 document offering historical proof of Spanish title to Georgia.
