Alonso Alvarez de Piñeda, a Spanish explorer, sailed into Mobile Bay in 1519. In 1528, an expedition led by Panfilo de Narvaez passed through Alabama coastal waters. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the first European to cross North America, was a member of this expedition. Hernando de Soto, another Spaniard, led an expedition into the Alabama region from the northeast in 1540. He became the first white person to explore the interior. De Soto (also called Soto) and the Indians fought a bloody battle at Mabila, north of present-day Mobile. De Soto's forces defeated Chief Tuskalusa and his warriors, and burned their village.
In 1559, Tristán de Luna, a Spanish adventurer from Mexico, searched for gold in the Alabama region. He organized small settlements on Mobile Bay and at the present site of Claiborne. In 1561, he was removed from his command and forced to return to Mexico.
The first permanent group of white settlers in the Alabama region were French. In 1699, two French-Canadian brothers, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'lberville, and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, sailed to Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay. In 1702, they founded Fort Louis nearby along the Mobile River. Fort Louis became the capital of the French colony known as Louisiana. In 1711, river floods forced the French to move 27 miles (43 km) south to the present site of Mobile. This settlement, also called Fort Louis, became the first permanent white settlement in Alabama. It was renamed Fort Condé in 1720. The settlement was the capital of French Louisiana until 1722, when New Orleans became the capital.
In 1763, the French gave most of their colony of Louisiana to Britain in the Treaty of Paris. This treaty ended the French and Indian War. The Mobile area became part of West Florida, under British control. Northern Alabama was included in the Illinois country, a region in what is now the central United States.
In 1779, Spain declared war on Britain. In 1780, Bernardo de Gálvez captured Mobile from the British. In the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783, Britain gave the Mobile region to Spain.
In 1795, Thomas Pinckney, a U.S. statesman, negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo. This treaty, also called the Pinckney Treaty, fixed the southern boundary of the United Sates along the 31st parallel of north latitude. All of present-day Alabama except the Mobile area lay north of the line and became part of the United States. In 1798, the Alabama region, except the Mobile area, became part of the Mississippi Territory organized by the U. S. Congress.
During the War of 1812 against Britain, the United States seized the Mobile area from Spain. On April 15, 1813, the Stars and Stripes flew over the entire Alabama region for the first time. Also in 1813, the Creek Indians massacred several hundred pioneers at Fort Mims near Tensaw. In 1814, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The Creek then surrendered their land to the United States. William Weatherford, a half-breed Creek chief also known as Red Eagle, led the tribe in its bitter fight against Jackson's troops.
In 1817, the Alabama Territory was organized. St. Stephens, on the Tombigbee River, was the capital.
A constitutional convention met in Huntsville in 1819 and drew up the territory's first constitution. On Dec. 14, 1819, Alabama entered the Union as the 22nd state. Huntsville served as the capital of Alabama for a little more than a year. William Wyatt Bibb, who had been governor of the Alabama Territory, became the new state's first governor. Cahaba became the capital in 1820. In 1825, floods from the Alabama River caused great damage to Cahaba. Because of the floods, the capital was moved to Tuscaloosa in 1826.
In 1838, federal troops marched into the remaining Indian territory of Alabama, in the northeast section of the state. They demanded that all the Indians move to the west. By 1840, all but a few scattered tribes had moved west beyond the Mississippi River.
Alabama suffered severe financial troubles during the 1840's and 1850's. The state bank, created during the 1820's, was poorly managed. The bank issued too much money and, as a result, the money decreased in value. The bank also loaned large amounts of money for political reasons. In 1837, a financial panic and depression swept across the United States. The Alabama state bank could not afford to pay back the money it owed to its depositors. For this reason, Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick began to liquidate (close) the bank during the early 1840's. Many Alabamians lost all their savings. The state also suffered from a drought that ruined crops, and from several epidemics of yellow fever.
During the 1840's, many people in the North wanted the federal government to outlaw slavery in the nation's western territories. In 1848, a Democratic state convention in Alabama adopted the "Alabama Platform" supported by William L. Yancy, a prominent statesman. This platform declared that the federal government did not have the right to bar slaves from the territories.
Disagreements over slavery continue during the 1850's. Economic rivalries between the agricultural South and the industrial North and disagreements about the right of states also created conflicts. These conflicts deepened after Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. Alabama seceded (withdrew) from the Union on Jan. 11, 1861, and declared itself the Republic of Alabama. The Alabama secession convention invited other Southern States to send delegates to Montgomery. On February 8, the convention established the Confederate States of America, with Montgomery as its capital. For this reason Montgomery is known as the Cradle of the Confederacy. The capital of the Confederate States was moved to Richmond, Va., in May 1861.
The most important Civil War action in the state was the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, won by Union forces under Rear Admiral David G. Farragut. Union forces also made several raids into Alabama during the war. In 1863, Confederate forces led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest captured a much larger group of Union raiders at Cedar Bluffs. In 1865, Union General James H. Wilson led the largest raid into Alabama and won victories at Selma and Montgomery.
Most of Alabama escaped the ruin that spread across the South during the Civil War. However, Florence, Huntsville, Montgomery, Selma, and other cities in the northern and central parts of the state suffered destruction and looting.
Alabama faced mounting financial problems during the Reconstruction period that followed the war. The state debt increased from $8 million to more that $32 million from 1866 to 1873. The state government came under the control of former Northerners called carpet-baggers and Southerners called scalawags. On June 25, 1868, Alabama was readmitted to the Union. In 1874, conservative Democrats succeeded in electing most state officials. The state government was reformed, and a new constitution was adopted in 1875.
State prosperity followed the Reconstruction period. During the 1870's, several railroads were completed. Also during the 1870's, Alabamians proved they could make iron by burning iron ore with coke, rather than with charcoal. This was important because north-central Alabama had large deposits of coal, from which coke is made. The same region also had vast supplies of iron ore and limestone, the two other minerals needed to make iron and steel. In 1880, Alabama's first blast furnace, Alice No. 1, began operating in Birmingham. Within a few years, Birmingham became a great iron and steel center. Important iron and steel works were also built in Anniston, Bessemer, Decatur, Russellville, and Talladega. By 1890, iron and steel making had become Alabama's most important manufacturing industry. The lumber industry and textile industry also grew rapidly in the late 1800's.
Alabama's industry and commerce grew after the United States entered World War I in 1917. Shipbuilding became an important industry in Mobile. Alabama farmers increased production of cotton and food to meet the demands of the war effort. In the mid-1920's, the Alabama State Docks agency built new port facilities at Mobile. Alabama's trade with other countries increased greatly as a result. In 1929, the Alabama-Tombigbee river system flooded large areas in southern Alabama, causing about $6 million damage.
Many Alabamians suffered financial setbacks during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Between 1929 and 1931, more than 60 Alabama banks failed, with a loss of more than $16 million. During the early 1930's, Alabama passed a state income tax law and the Budget Control Act to help save the state from bankruptcy.
In 1933, the federal government created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was given the responsibility of building flood-control and electric-power projects on the Tennessee River. The TVA took over Wilson Dam and two nitrate plants at Muscle Shoals. The dam and plant had been built by the government during World War I and the 1920's. The TVA later built Wheeler and Guntersville dams on the Tennessee River. The Alabama Power Company, a private firm, also built dams and hydroelectric plants during the 1930's. These plants provided inexpensive power for Alabama factories, and so boosted the state's industrial growth.
During World War II (1939-1945), Alabama's agricultural and industrial production expanded greatly. The government established the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville in 1941. The arsenal developed the rocket, satellites, and spacecraft that launched the United States into the space age.
After the war, Alabama became an important producer of chemicals, minerals, rubber products, and textiles. Alabama's industrial growth slowed down during the 1950's, and many Alabamians left the state to find jobs in the North and West. Iron ore production in Alabama dropped sharply during the 1950's. By the early 1960's, most of Alabama's iron ore mines had closed.
During the 1950's and 1960's, Alabama farmers became less dependent on cotton. Farm income came increasingly from broiler chickens, cattle, hogs, peanuts, and soybeans. As agricultural methods and products changed, fewer farmworkers were needed. Many moved to the cities, and Alabama became mainly an urban state.
Like many other states, Alabama faced serious racial problems in the 1950's and 1960's. In 1955 and 1956, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. directed the Montgomery bus boycott. Many blacks refused to ride in public buses in Montgomery because the law required them to sit in the rear. In 1956, a federal court ordered Montgomery to desegregate its buses.
In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that compulsory segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. But in 1963, Governor George C. Wallace personally tried to halt the integration of Alabama's public schools. In June, he stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and refused to admit two blacks. President John F. Kennedy called the National Guard to active duty, and the troops enforced the law. In September, Wallace tried to prevent the integration of public elementary and secondary schools in several cities. President Kennedy again called in the National Guard, and the black students were admitted.
Since 1963, Alabama has gradually integrated most of its public schools. In March 1965, King led a five-day march from Selma to Montgomery to protest discrimination in voter registration. In August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which made thousands of Alabama blacks eligible to vote.
Republicans gained increasing success in Alabama, a traditionally Democratic state. In 1965, Barry M. Goldwater became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Alabama since 1872.
In 1960, the government established the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville. The Saturn 5 rocket system, which powered the first missions that landed astronauts on the moon, was developed at Huntsville during the 1960's.
Alabama, like other states, faced financial problems in the 1980's and early 1990's. The state government sought ways to provide sufficient funds for such services as state-supported nursing homes and public education. In 1980, the state legislature increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to increase funds for government services
The rising costs of petroleum and natural gas have led to increased use of coal. This action has spurred further development of Alabama's coal deposits.
Industry continues to grow in the state, and the population has been rising steadily. Blacks are playing an increasingly important role in local and state politics. Republicans have also been gaining strength in local and state governments. In 1986, Guy Hunt became the first Republican to be elected governor of Alabama since Reconstruction. But he was removed from office in 1993, following his conviction for felony ethics violations. Hunt appealed the conviction.
To call a constitutional convention, a majority of the House, Senate, and voters must approve the action. An amendment proposed in this case must then be approved by a majority of the people voting on the issue in an election.
You can see Alabama's unamended Constitution from the Alabama Department of Archives and History's website. The document is quite extensive; in fact, it is the longest in the nation. For a printed copy, you may contact the Secretary of State's office via e-mail or by calling/writing: The Honorable Jim Bennett, Secretary of State, P.O. Box 304650, Montgomery, AL 36130-4650, 334-242-7224.
The Legislature hold a regular session each year, which must not last longer than 105 days; and the Legislature must not meet as a whole on more than 30 of these days. During the first year of the legislative term, the session begins in January; in the second and third year, in February; and in the fourth year, in April.
You can also take a look at AlaWeb's Legislature Page, or the Alabama Department of Archives and History Legislature Page. For Alabama United States Congressmen, please refer to AlaWeb's Tools of Democracy page.
If you would like to see how a bill become law, please look at the Department of Archives and History's How a Bill Becomes Law page.
You can look at the Alabama Judicial System's website, ALALINC, for online information about our state's system.
Alabama has 67 counties. Each is governed by a board of commissioners. The boards are known officially as county commissions. In most counties, the chief official is the probate judge. The probate judge is elected to a six-year term. Other top county officials include the sheriff, district attorney, superintendent of education, engineer, tax assessor, and tax collector.
Most major types of city government can be found in Alabama. Several cities operate under a commission form of government. Some have the city-manager plan. Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa have mayor-council governments. Most small cities and towns also operate under the mayor-council plan.
Taxation provides about 60 percent of Alabama's general revenue (income). Most of the rest comes from federal grants and interest earned on public accounts. The main sources of tax revenue are personal and corporate income taxes, and general sales and use taxes. Other major sources of tax revenue, in order of importance, include taxes on motor fuels, public utilities, insurance premiums, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco products.
As in other Southern States, most candidates elected to national, state, and local offices in Alabama have been Democrats. Most of Alabama's major state and local political battles are waged in primary elections for the Democratic nomination. But Alabamians have elected some Republican candidates to local offices and to the Congress of the United States. In 1986, Guy Hunt became the first Republican to be elected governor of Alabama since the early 1870's.
Until the 1960's, Alabama voters usually supported Democratic presidential candidates. But in 1964, the state voted for Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, the Republican candidate. It was the first time since 1872 that the state of Alabama supported a Republican presidential candidate. Since 1980, the Republican candidate has won Alabama's electoral votes in each presidential election.
