Page 6 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Alabama
Montgomery, the capital city of Alabama
Incorporated December 3, 1819 Elevation 240 ft (73 m) Population 205,764
Metro 373,141
Montgomery, on the banks of the Alabama River in the Gulf Coastal Plain, was named for Richard Montgomery. It is the second-largest city in Alabama, after Birmingham, and the 103rd largest in the United States.
Before the arrival of Europeans, the site of Montgomery was the home of the Alibamu and the Coushatta. Their heritage was part of the Mississippi people, who specialized in mound building.
The first Europeans to come through central Alabama belonged to Hernando de Soto’s Spanish expedition. They camped near here in 1540.
The first permanent European settler in the Montgomery area was James McQueen, who married a Native American princess. He was a Scottish trader who came to the area in 1716. But this was part of North America claimed by the French as the colony of Louisiana, and in 1717 the French built Fort Toulouse to the northeast of the future Montgomery. The French used their colonies for trading with the Native Americans, rather than for farming, as there were too few settlers in this vast area. So the fort was really a trading post.
After the French and Indian war, this area
came under British control. In 1767, Alabama’s
area was divided between the Indian Reserve and British West Florida. The northern portion later became the U.S. State of Georgia. Part of West Florida, including the southern half of Montgomery, became part of the Mississippi Territory in 1797. Georgia’s western territory was integrated into Mississippi in 1804.
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