This comprehensive new history of Mobile celebrates the rich heritage
of Alabama's oldest city and commemorates the city's tricentennial from
1702 to the present.
Alabama's oldest city from the period of European settlement was founded
in 1702 by French naval officer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.
Bienville named the settlement after the nearby Maubila Indians and situated
it on the west side of the protected harbor now called Mobile Bay on the
Gulf of Mexico. During the colonial period, Mobile was occupied successively
by the French, British, and Spanish until it was seized by the Americans
in 1813. From this point on, the city quickly evolved from a trading post
into a prosperous river port, thanks to the cotton production of antebellum
Black Belt plantations.