Editing Mobile Bay (section)

=== European exploration into the region ===
[[Image:Battle of Mobile Bay map.jpg|thumb|right|Mobile Bay during the [[American Civil War]].]]
Hernando de Soto explored the area of Mobile Bay and beyond in 1540, finding the area inhabited by indigenous [[Mississippian culture]] people. During this expedition his forces destroyed the fortified town of [[Mabila|Mauvila]], also spelled Maubila, from which the name Mobile was later derived.<ref name="maubilianind">{{cite web|title=The Old Mobile Project Newsletter|publisher=University of South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies|url=http://www.usouthal.edu/archaeology/pdf/issue-17.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.usouthal.edu/archaeology/pdf/issue-17.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|access-date=2007-11-19}}</ref> It was a town of the paramount [[Chief Tuscaloosa]], located in inland Alabama, well to the north of the current site of Mobile. The next large expedition was that of [[Tristán de Luna y Arellano]], in his unsuccessful attempt to establish a permanent colony for Spain nearby at [[Pensacola]] in 1559.<ref name="conquest"/>

Although Spain's presence in the area had been sporadic, in 1702 [[France|French]] colonists created a deep-sea port at [[Dauphin Island]] and founded French [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]]'s capital at [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], a few miles north of Mobile Bay on the [[Mobile River]]. Following a series of floods, the original settlement of ''Fort Louis de la Mobile'' was relocated in 1711 to the head of Mobile Bay.<ref name=MoMfort>{{cite web
  | title=''Historic Fort Conde''
  | work=MuseumOfMobile.com
  | url=http://www.museumofmobile.com/html/other_museums.php
  | access-date=2007-05-06}}</ref>