Known as the "Isle of 8 Flags", Amelia Island has had the flags of the following nations flown over it: France, Spain, Great Britain, Spain (again), the Republic of East Florida (1812), the Republic of the Floridas (1817), Mexico, the Confederate States of America, and the United States.

The town of Fernandina, which was about a mile from the present city, was named in honor of King Ferdinand VII of Spain by the governor of the Spanish province of East Florida, Enrique White.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans on what is now Amelia Island, Native Americans occupied the site of the original town of Fernandina.

[7] Native American bands associated with the Timucuan mound-building culture had settled on the island about 1000 CE, calling it Napoyca.

On January 1, 1811, Enrique White, governor of Spain's East Florida province, named the town of Fernandina, about a mile from the present city, in honor of King Ferdinand VII.

However, A Scottish soldier and adventurer named Gregor MacGregor with 55 musketeers seized Fort San Carlos in 1817, claiming the island on behalf of "the brethren of Mexico, Buenos Ayres, New Grenada and Venezuela",[11] and raised the Green Cross of Florida flag over the Spanish Fort San Carlos.

[11] Spanish soldiers forced MacGregor's withdrawal, but their attempt to regain complete control was foiled by American irregulars organized by Ruggles Hubbard and former Pennsylvania congressman Jared Irwin.

Hubbard and Irwin later joined forces with the French-born pirate Louis Aury, who laid claim to the island on behalf of the Republic of Mexico.

The Confederates erected batteries on the northern end of Amelia Island but lacked the resources to fortify Fort Clinch.

Robert E. Lee, who was commanding coastal defenses in the Deep South, ordered cannons and troops withdrawn in early 1862.

Union forces, consisting of 28 gunboats commanded by Commodore Samuel Dupont, occupied the island on March 3, 1862, and raised the American flag.

In January 1863, the first all-black regiment of former slaves recruited to fight for the Union was read Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation at Fernandina.

[citation needed] Three weeks later they set sail up the St. Marys River to engage the Confederate forces.

[13] In 1891, Harmon Murray, who had been the leader of a criminal gang operating out of Gainesville, arrived in Fernandina, where his sister lived.

Murray heard the officers getting into position, and shot and killed deputy sheriff Joseph W. Robinson.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.7 square miles (41 km2), all land.

Fernandina Beach has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with long, hot, and rainy summers and short, mild winters.

[29] The Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport is a general aviation airfield approximately three miles south of the city that serves Amelia Island.

Nassau County Public Library operates the Fernandina Beach Branch which is located at 25 N. 4th Street.