The state we now call Georgia was once one of the most coveted territories in all the world. For nearly three hundred years prior to the establishment of Georgia in 1733, Great Britain, Spain, and France all vied for imperial control over Southeastern North America. It was this imperial struggle that ultimately led toward the establishment of Fort King George in the 1720s. Furthermore, through the diplomatic, economic, and military issues that grew from it, Fort King George served to precipitate the establishment of Georgia in 1733.

As early as the 1530s, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto explored the far reaches of modern Georgia in search of precious treasures to stake Spain’s claim to. In the 1560s, French explorer Jean Rebault sent colonists who settled Fort Caroline on the southeast coast. The settlers based there were subsequently slaughtered by Spanish troops under Pedro De Menendez. The French would never again stake a claim to the coast.

After expelling their French opponents for good, during the 1600s the Spanish operated a chain of missions all along the modern Georgia coast. Their aim was to Christianize Native Americans and teach them European style agriculture. For this reason Saint Augustine, established by the Spanish in 1565, became a thriving town during the colonial period and served as the Spanish base of operations in Southeastern North America.

However, early in the 1600s, the British began a feverish effort to colonize the entire east coast of North America, first beginning with the establishment of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. The seventeenth century brought many new British colonies and settlers to America, one of which, Carolina, was of great concern to the Spanish. Established in 1670, the colony of Carolina was authorized by King Charles II when he granted a charter to eight proprietors who aimed to colonize the area. The charter granted the proprietors lands that extended all the way from Virginia’s southern border, clear down to Saint Augustine, the town claimed by Spain. Such a bold move incited Spanish authorities, and as the colony of Carolina began to settle and expand, hostilities between Spain and Great Britain began to escalate. Several attacks and military operations occurred in the period from 1680 to 1720. So intensely strained did diplomatic relations become by 1720, that the colonists in Carolina began to demand a greater protection from their enemies lying along the southern borders of the colony.

The colonists concerns were rooted in several issues. The greatest concern resulted from a purported alliance that stood between Spain and France. It was believed that both aimed to encircle the colony of Carolina with enemy forts and settlements. This encirclement would result in Spain or France, or a combination of both, attacking and choking out settlements in Carolina. The fear over such an alliance should have been allayed in 1718 when French military forces invaded Spanish Pensacola and a brief war occurred between colonial forces of each nation. However, the French invasion only intensified Carolina colonists convictions that the French may be aiming to invade Carolina and destroy all British settlements. Another issue that concerned the Carolina colonists was the issue of Indian alliances. The colony of Carolina had barely withstood a heated war with the Yamasee Indians during 1712-1715. After the war, the Yamasee went on to settle near Saint Augustine and align themselves with Spanish forces. Furthermore, the Creek Indians to the west of Carolina, near modern Alabama, had proven to be a rather whimsical nation of many different tribes whose allegiances were heavily driven by the extreme vagaries of the European's power struggle. The colonists of Carolina were stricken by a lack of trust over what their neighboring Native American tribes might attempt, or worse yet, accomplish.

By summer of 1719, Carolina colonists and government officials began clamoring for greater protection along the southern frontiers of the colony. Colonel John “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell, a wealthy planter and military official in South Carolina, was sent in 1720 before the British Board of Trade to request that a fortified town to be built along the Altamaha River in the southern regions of South Carolina. Barnwell was successful and in 1721 Fort King George was built under his leadership.

Building the fort brought great trials for Barnwell. First, he asked for young robust regimental soldiers from England to man the fort. Instead, he got a company of one hundred invalids who were well past their prime. On the boat ride over to Charleston from London in early 1721, the entire company, known as His Majesty’s Independent Company of South Carolina, became very ill with scurvy. In took the company many months to recover, therefore, Barnwell was left only with a group of provincial scouts to help him build the fort. This they did, but not without internal conflict and constant problems. Barnwell did not fare well with the scouts. In his journal, he referred to them as drunken, lazy, “sots,” and they treated him with little respect. Still, by late 1721, the fort’s blockhouse and earthworks were complete. However, Barnwell nearly witnessed a mutiny from his scouts during the process.

Finally, sometime in early 1722 the Independent Company had recovered enough to begin their duty at the fort. However, the soldiers had no barracks to sleep in and much work still had to be done to the fort. Some indigenous huts had been erected as temporary quarters for the scouts, but they were not substantial enough to house the one hundred soldiers that made up the Independent Company. Barnwell wasn't about to risk another mutiny by sending the soldiers three miles up the Altamaha River and into the swamps to get more wood. Instead, he made arrangements for a barracks to be transplanted from Passage Fort located in Beaufort, South Carolina. The barracks was taken apart and shipped down via piragua to Fort King George. Once there, it was resurrected piece-by-piece much like putting together a very large puzzle.

The soldiers immediately set about clearing out much of the land adjacent to the fort. Each man was to be given fifty acres of land, cattle, farming tools, and even seed for growing crops. This indicates Fort King George was intended to be the first step in the process of establishing a permanent colonial town along the Atlamaha. As such, this represented a concerted effort on the part of South Carolina imperialists to extend the colony all the way down to the Altamaha River. This would have greatly aided to enrich commercial interests in the colony, due to the vast amount of natural resources and waterways that would have been included into the colony. Also, it would have worked to prevent any more Spanish encroachments into the area.

By late 1722 the fort was a very impressive frontier fortification and consisted of a blockhouse, an officers’ barracks, a guard house that doubled as a hospital, a blacksmith shop, a baking and brewing house, and several out buildings that were used for storage. Additionally, the fort was surrounded by a parapet that consisted of a palisade fence, earthworks made of sod and mud, firing walls, and firing steps. The fort’s layout was unique in that it only had one bastion as opposed to one on each corner of the fort. Due to the natural marsh lands that surrounded the fort, it was not necessary to build a bastion on each corner. There was no way an enemy could invade through these marshes. A very thorough scaled drawing of the fort was completed in 1722.

1725 proved to be an ominous year for the fort. In that year several Spanish emissaries visited Charlestown and demanded the immediate evacuation of the fort. The Spanish claimed it was within their domain. Carolina officials greeted them cordially, but no agreement was made among the two superpowers. For a brief period, it looked as though a war over the southern frontier would erupt between the two rivals. The Spanish mounted several diplomatic protests during the years of Fort King George’s brief existence. However, both were able to abate war repeatedly. Also, in 1725 the fort mysteriously burned. Though the cause is unknown, many speculate that it may have been started by the soldiers due to the toilsome trials they had suffered there.

The fort was rebuilt in early 1726, this time with thinner deal planking that was gotten from nearby cypress spreads. By the time it was rebuilt, the fort had lost well over one hundred officers and enlisted soldiers. Not a single one was the result of battle, but rather, the harmful diseases that abounded. Dysentery and malaria had decimated the troops and rendered them incapable of growing crops and tending cattle.

The following year South Carolina officials decided to evacuate the fort rather than gather up more doomed recruits to move into it. By that time, the fort consisted of only a few dozen soldiers and a couple of officers. If the fort was attacked, it would have been virtually indefensible. Writing his justification for evacuation in summer of 1727, Lieutenant Edward Massey described the fort as so ineffectual at defending the southern frontier that it "might as well have been placed in Japan" for such a purpose. The death toll was massive he explained, over one hundred and forty officers and soldiers. He cited the culprit for much of the hardships as being the unwholesome marshes that abounded and the constant dampness and flooding that plagued the fort.

It seems difficult to imagine that such a dismal operation like Fort King George could have had such a monumental role in Georgia History. However, one must look deeper in order to understand why this fort made Georgia’s eventual establishment plausible and necessary. First, Fort King George paved the way toward a greater understanding of the southern frontier’s resources and landscape. Many expeditions were made by the fort’s personnel to navigate, sound out, and map the vast river systems of the area. The barrier islands of Georgia, consisting of a maze of inlets, sand bars, and ever changing shoals, were better understood. Also, the fort helped to spawn a trade in deer skins along the Altamaha River. This would later serve as an important source of commerce and revenue for the colony of Georgia. Additionally, Fort King George represented the first British presence along the Altamaha, and the English would not be content for it to be the last. Therefore Fort King George was instrumental in helping to cement Great Britain’s claim to the area, or at least the country’s drive to do so. No sooner had the fort been abandoned that the British began maneuvering for an alternate strategy. The plan was implanted in 1733 under the leadership of the Trustees and General James Oglethorpe. Once Oglethorpe established Georgia, he made it a vital mission to fortify the Altamaha and all the many barrier islands that dot the coast of Georgia. Instead of invalid troops from England, Oglethorpe was wise enough to people the Altamaha River area in the winter of 1736 with rugged Scottish families that he had recruited from the Highlands of Scotland. Being that these first settlers were Scots, he knew they were accustomed to the harsh elements of nature and would not perish as easily as the Englishmen who has occupied Fort King George. Being that the Scots were made of families and not just soldiers, Oglethorpe knew they would make greater strides toward creating their own town in a new land. His plan worked. These Scots went on to be instrumental in permanently expelling the Spanish from the Southeast. Finally, it is an irony that the failure of Fort King George actually represented a success for the British. Had the fort thrived and grown into a settlement as originally intended, then the colony of South Carolina would have successfully extended into the southern frontier along the Altamaha. As such, there quite possible would have been no need for Georgia and therefore, no need for all the military resources that ultimately went into Oglethorpe’s colony. This very well might have been a death knell for the British in the southeast due to the fact that Oglethorpe, and his Scottish settlers, were such a vital key in the strategy to defeat and expel the Spanish threat. Oglethorpe was a master organizer, and he was able to develop a military, the 42nd regiment of foot, out of all the rag-tag human and military resources he had inherited. This may have been very difficult, if not impossible for South Carolina authorities to have done, given their limitations in resources and effective leadership. .

Therefore, Fort King George stands as the first step toward statehood for Georgia. Though an unsuccessful effort carried out by South Carolina officials, the fort nevertheless spawned several outcomes that made the colony of Georgia not only possible, but successful as well.