“Ummm ... the Spanish Cathedral and fort and other buildings are still standing there. Had it not been for Henry Flagler and the Florida East Coast Railroad and the ocean, it would probably be as Spanish a town today as Santa Fe, New Mexico.”
Don’t know why you’d want to debate this point. Did you notice the 400th anniversary celebrations at Jamestown, QE II’s visit and other ceremonies this past Spring? It was called America’s 400th anniversary.”
New Orleans has many French buildings, but it’s no longer French, and Alaska’s no longer Russian. Sante Fe is not a Spanish town. There were settlements by various nationalities in what is now the US, but the chain of the governing authority flowed from the English settlements, not from the Spanish or French or Russian settlements. The English settlers and descendants either defeated the others or bought them out.
All the towns are now American because the English became dominant in what is now the USA, and all the towns are subject to the US constitution and government which was established by the English settlers and descendants.
Well, its the 400th anniversary of English America. But that isn't the anniversary of the first continuously inhabited European settlement in America, or the first settlement of European ancestors of today's American population.
There were settlements by various nationalities in what is now the US, but the chain of the governing authority flowed from the English settlements, not from the Spanish or French or Russian settlements.
On the contrary, the governing law of Lousiana is French in origin (Napoleonic Code), and the charters of the cities and land title in all of these places flow from foreign colonial law grants and rulings, not reestablishment under English law after the granting of statehood.
The accession of these places to US rule does not wipe out their history.