Early History & Statehood

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In 1519 Spanish explorers arrived at Mobile Bay and the territory was visited in 1519 by explorer Hernando De Soto. The French founded the first permanent European settlement at Fort Louis de la Mobile in 1702. In 1763 the British gained control of the area in the Treaty of Paris but later had to cede almost the entire Alabama region to Spain and the U.S. after the American Revolution.

The Territory of Mississippi, which included parts of what is now Alabama, was set up in 1798, but the land was mostly wilderness with a considerable fur trade (centered at Saint Stephens) and only the beginnings of cotton cultivation.

The fur trade and cotton production were interrupted by the War of 1812. The victory at Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814 resulted in a period of heavy settlement with most of the new settlers coming from Tennessee and Georgia. Many wealthy newcomers settled in the fertile bottomlands and established large plantations based on slave labor producing cotton for the markets of Southern ports. Other settlers settled in the less fertile uplands. The population grew so much that the Territory of Alabama was set up in 1817 and two years later it became a state.

Next Page: Civil War & Reconstruction

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• Early History & Statehood
• Civil War & Reconstruction
• Industrialization
• Integration & Present-day Alabama