Editing History of Alabama (section)

==European colonization==
[[File:Taskigi Mound Aerial HRoe 2020.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Artist's conception of the [[Taskigi Mound|Taskigi Site]], a fortified mound and village near Wetumpka, Alabama]]
The Spanish were the first Europeans to enter [[Alabama]], claiming land for their Crown. They named the region as [[Spanish Florida|La Florida]], which extended to the southeast peninsular state now bearing the name.

Although a member of [[Pánfilo de Narváez]]'s expedition of 1528 may have entered southern Alabama, the first fully documented visit was by explorer [[Hernando de Soto (explorer)|Hernando de Soto]]. In 1539 he made an arduous expedition along the [[Coosa River|Coosa]], [[Alabama River|Alabama]] and [[Tombigbee River|Tombigbee]] rivers.

The Alabama region at the period of European contact is best described as a collection of moderately sized native [[chiefdom]]s (such as the [[Coosa chiefdom]] on the upper [[Coosa River]] and the [[Tuskaloosa chiefdom]] on the lower Coosa, [[Tallapoosa River|Tallapoosa]], and [[Alabama River]]s), interspersed with completely autonomous villages and tribal groups. Many of the settlements de Soto encountered had [[platform mound]]s and villages fortified with defensive [[palisade]]s with [[bastion]]s for archers. The [[South Appalachian Mississippian culture]] ''Big Eddy phase'' has been tentatively identified as the [[protohistory|protohistoric]] ''Province of Tuskaloosa'' encountered by the de Soto expedition in 1540. The Big Eddy phase [[Taskigi Mound]] is a platform mound and fortified village site located at the confluence of the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Alabama Rivers near [[Wetumpka, Alabama]]. It is preserved as part of the [[Fort Toulouse|Fort Toulouse-Fort Jackson State Historic Site]] and is one of the locations included on the [[University of Alabama|University of Alabama Museums]] "Alabama Indigenous Mound Trail".<ref>{{Cite web | title = Mound at Fort Toulouse – Fort Jackson Park | url= https://alabamamoundtrail.org/mound-site/taskigi/ | publisher = [[University of Alabama]] }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | journal = Journal of Alabama Archaeology | volume= 62 |date = 2016|  title = Late Mississippian/Protohistoric Ceramic Chronology and Cultural Change in the Lower Tallapoosa and Alabama River Valleys | author1= Jenkins, Ned J.  | author2 = Sheldon, Craig T. | url= https://www.academia.edu/33924571 }}</ref>

The English also laid claims to the region north of the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. [[Charles II of England]] included most of the territory of modern Alabama in the [[Province of Carolina]], with land granted to certain of his favorites by the charters of 1663 and 1665. English traders from Carolina frequented the valley of the [[Alabama River]] as early as 1687 to trade for deerskins with the Native American peoples.

[[File:Mobile1725.jpg|thumb|right|270px|1725 map of [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], Alabama's first permanent European settlement]]
The French also colonized the region. In 1702 they founded a settlement on the [[Mobile River]] near its mouth, constructing ''[[Old Mobile Site|Fort Louis]].''  For the next nine years this was the French seat of government of New France, or ''La Louisiane'' ([[Louisiana]]). In 1711, they abandoned Fort Louis because of repeated flooding. Settlers rebuilt a fort on higher ground known as ''[[Fort Conde]]''. This was the start of what developed as present-day [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], the first permanent European settlement in Alabama. [[Biloxi, Mississippi|Biloxi]] was another early French settlement on the Gulf Coast, to the west in what is now Mississippi.

The French and the English contested the region, each attempting to forge strong alliances with Indian tribes. To strengthen their position, defend their Indian allies, and draw other tribes to them, the French established the military posts of ''[[Fort Toulouse]]'', near the junction of the Coosa and [[Tallapoosa River|Tallapoosa]] rivers, and ''[[Fort Tombecbe]]'' on the Tombigbee River.

The French and the English engaged in competition for Indian trade in what is now the state of Alabama between roughly the 1690s and the 1750s, at which point the [[French and Indian War]] broke out. It was the North American front of the Seven Years' War between these two nations in Europe.  Though the French claimed the territory as their own and attempted to rule it from [[Fort Toulouse]], so as to engage in trade with the Indians, English traders based out of the Carolinas infiltrated the region, also engaging in trade. The Chickasaw frequently favored the English in this contest. {{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Overall, during this time the English proved to be the better traders and colonizers. They operated independently, while the French government was more directly involved in its colonies. On this note [[Edmund Burke]] would later note that English colonists in America would owe their freedom more "to [the Crown's] carelessness than to its design". This was a policy referred to as "salutary neglect". The distance between the colonies and the home countries meant they could always operate with some freedom.<ref>William Garrott Brown, Albert James Pickett, ''A History of Alabama, for Use in Schools: Based as to Its Earlier Parts on the Work of Albert J. Pickett'', University Publishing Company, 1900, p. 56</ref>{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} <!-- Surely a better source can be found than a 1900 pro-British one -->

The English Crown's grant of [[Province of Georgia|Georgia]] to [[James Oglethorpe|Oglethorpe]] and his associates in 1732 included a portion of what is now northern Alabama. In 1739, Oglethorpe visited the [[Creek Indians]] west of the [[Chattahoochee River]] and made a [[treaty]] with them.

The [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|1763 Treaty of Paris]], which ended the [[Seven Years' War]] after France's defeat by Britain, resulted in France ceding its territories east of the Mississippi to Britain. [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] came into undisputed control of the region between the [[Chattahoochee River|Chattahoochee]] and the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] rivers, in terms of other European powers. Of course it had not consulted with any of the numerous indigenous peoples whom it nominally "ruled." The portion of Alabama below the [[31st parallel north|31st parallel]] was considered a part of British [[West Florida]]. The British Crown defined the portion north of this line as part of the "[[Illinois Country]]"; the area west of the Appalachian Mountains was to be reserved for use by Native American tribes. European-American settlers were not supposed to encroach in that territory, but they soon did. In 1767, Britain expanded the province of West Florida northward to 32°28'N latitude.

More than a decade later, during the [[American Revolutionary War]], the British informally ceded this West Florida region to Spain. By the [[Treaty of Versailles (1783)|Treaty of Versailles]], September 3, 1783, Great Britain formally ceded West Florida to Spain. By the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)]], signed the same day, Britain ceded to the newly established United States all of this province north of 31°N, thus laying the foundation for a long controversy.

[[File:Mississippi Territory dark.gif|270px|thumb|[[Mississippi Territory]] changes 1798–1817.]]
By the [[Treaty of Madrid (1795)|Treaty of Madrid]] in 1795, Spain ceded to the United States the lands east of the Mississippi between 31°N and 32°28'N. Three years later, in 1798, Congress organized this district as the [[Mississippi Territory]]. A strip of land 12 or 14 miles wide near the present northern boundary of Alabama and Mississippi was claimed by [[South Carolina]], as part of the eastern colonies' previous hopeful extensions to the west. In 1787, during constitutional negotiations, South Carolina ceded this claim to the federal government. Georgia likewise claimed all the lands between the 31st and [[35th parallel north|35th parallels]] from its present western boundary to the Mississippi River, and did not surrender its claim until 1802. Two years later, the boundaries of Mississippi Territory were extended so as to include all of the Georgia cession.

In 1812, Congress added the [[Mobile District]] of West Florida to the Mississippi Territory, claiming that it was included in the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. The following year, General [[James Wilkinson]] occupied the Mobile District with a military force. The Spanish did not resist. Thus the whole area of the present state of Alabama was taken under the jurisdiction of the United States. Several powerful Native American tribes still occupied most of the land, with some formal ownership recognized by treaty with the United States. Five of the major tribes became known as the [[Five Civilized Tribes]], as they had highly complex cultures and adopted some elements of European-American culture.

In 1817, the Mississippi Territory was divided. The western portion, which had attracted population more quickly, became the state of [[Mississippi]]. The eastern portion became the [[Alabama Territory]], with [[St. Stephens, Alabama|St. Stephens]] on the [[Tombigbee River]] as its temporary seat of government.

Conflict between the various tribes in Alabama and American settlers increased rapidly in the early 19th century because the Americans kept encroaching on Native American territories. The great [[Shawnee]] chief [[Tecumseh]] visited the region in 1811, seeking to forge an Indian alliance among these tribes to join his resistance in the Great Lakes area. With the outbreak of the [[War of 1812]], Britain encouraged Tecumseh's resistance movement, in the hope of expelling American settlers from west of the Appalachians. Several tribes were divided in opinion.

The Creek tribe fell to [[Creek war|civil war]] (1813–1814). Violence between Creeks and Americans escalated, culminating in the [[Fort Mims massacre]]. Full-scale war between the United States and the "Red Stick" Creeks began; they were the more traditional members of their society who resisted US encroachment. The Chickasaw, Choctaw, [[Cherokee Nation (19th century)|Cherokee Nation]] and other Creek factions remained neutral to or allied with the United States during the war; they were highly decentralized in bands' alliances. Some warriors from among the bands served with American troops. Volunteer militias from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee marched into Alabama, fighting the Red Sticks.

Later, federal troops became the main fighting force for the United States. General [[Andrew Jackson]] was the commander of the American forces during the Creek War and in the continuing effort against the British in the War of 1812. His leadership and military success during the wars made him a national hero. The [[Treaty of Fort Jackson]] (August 9, 1814) ended the Creek War. By the terms of the treaty, the Creek, Red Sticks and neutrals alike, ceded about one-half of the present state of Alabama to the United States. Due to later cessions by the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw in 1816, they retained only about one-quarter of their former territories in Alabama.