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Up until 1604 Spain claimed ALL of North America. They enforced their claims. Even after 1604 the only claim they'd clearly abandoned was to Canada North of the Great Lakes and the St. lawrence. That'd been assigned to the King's relatives in France.

The English began moving in almost immediately imagining that the King of Spain had said it was OK ~ the Eastern Seaboard had clearly been reserved for European Protestants ~ King Philippe' II/III s idea of how to resolve the problem of Catholic/Protestant conflict in Europe.

If you've ever got the chance visit almost any Virginia county library to visit "The Virginia Room". You'll find copies of all the historic documents with relevance to Virginia. Look for the names of the earliest Jamestown Settlers (in the Booke of the Livinge and the Deade). They are a broad selection of not just English and Scottish names, they come from all over Europe.

Tell you what it's like ~ when you visit the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial and you see those names, that is what it was like FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.

This is a very special place. King Philippe II/III probably didn't imagine what it would come to, but he did attract the better sort willing to put their lives on the line to tame an unruly chunk of North America.

I didn’t realize there was a spanish settlement - learn something every day :-

The half brother of Chief Powhatan was legendarily sired by a priest at that fort. He led the Massacre of 1622 against the settlers of Jamestowne, and while so engaged fathered a female ancestor of mine, purportedly via rape. Her name was Mary Sizemore.