| Muscogee page |
| 10,000 BCE - 7000 BCE | Paleo-Indian culture of seminomadic hunter-foragers living in open countryside and in natural rock shelters (e.g. Russell Cave in Jackson County and the Stanfield-Worley bluff shelter in Colbert County). |
| 7000 BCE - 1000 BCE | Archaic Period of Native American hunter-gatherer culture as Indians build temporary dwellings, add shellfish to their diets, and fashion atlatls (spear throwers) to hunt small game. |
| 2500 BCE - 100 BCE | Gulf Formational Period of Indian culture with increasing sophistication in ceramic development with tempered pottery. |
| 300 BCE - 1000 | Woodland Period of permanent houses, embellished pottery, bows and arrows, and maize and squash cultivation. |
| 700- 1300 | Mississippian culture features ceremonial mounds (e.g. Moundville, in Hale County), ornate pottery, and sophisticated agriculture. |
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus, sailing from Spain in search of the Indies, discovers the Americas. |
| 1519 | Alonzo Alvarez de Piñeda of Spain explores Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Mexico, including Mobile Bay. |
| 1528 .. 1536 | Spaniard Pánfilo de Narváez fails in Florida Gulf Coast colonization attempt. |
| 1539 .. 1541 | Hernando de Soto explores Southeast, meeting Chief Tuskaloosa (Tascaluza) in Battle of Maubila (October 1540). |
| 1559 .. 1561 | Don Tristán de Luna fails to establish permanent Spanish colony on Alabama-Florida coast. |
| Ca. 1600 | Beginning of the rise of the historic tribes of Alabama: Muskogean-speaking Indian groups, remnants of the Mississippian chiefdoms, coalesce into the Creek Confederacy. Similar developments take place among the other heirs to the Mississippian tradition, creating the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes. |
| 1607 | First permanent English colony in North America established at Jamestown, Virginia. |
| 1620 | Pilgrims establish Plymouth Colony. |
| 1682 | Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle navigates the Mississippi River, claiming area of Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV, king of France. |
| 1685 | Henry Woodward of Carolina establishes trading and diplomatic relations between the Creek Indians and the English by visiting major Creek villages. |
| 1702 | Le Moyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, establish French fort and settlement at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff; settlement and fort moved downriver to Mobile site, 1712. |
| 1717 | Fort Toulouse on the Coosa River constructed to trade with the Indians and offset influence of British; farthest eastward penetration of the French. |
| 1720 | French Louisiana capital moved from Mobile west to Biloxi; then to New Orleans (1722). |
| 1721 | Africane sails into Mobile harbor with cargo of over 100 slaves. |
| 1724 | French Code Noir extended from French West Indies to North American colonies, institutionalizing slavery in Mobile area. |
| 1756.. 1763 | Seven Years War (French and Indian War) won by Great Britain. France ceded territorial claims east of the Mississippi River to Britain and those west of the River (including New Orleans) to Spain; Great Britain returned war-captured Cuba to Spain for Florida, which was divided into West Florida (including Mobile) and East Florida (the peninsula). |
| 1775.. 1783 | American Revolution creates United States of America governed by the Articles of Confederation. |
| 1780 | Spanish capture Mobile during American Revolution and retain the West and East Floridas as part of war-ending treaty. |
| 1787 | United States Constitution written. |
| 1790 | Creek Indians, led by Alexander McGillivray, negotiate the Treaty of New York with the U.S. government. The treaty ceded Creek territory in Georgia to the new nation, and acknowledged Indian rights in western Georgia and Alabama. |
| 1793 | Eli Whitney invents cotton gin. |
| 1797.. 1799 | Andrew Ellicott's survey established U.S. claims for its southern boundary at the 31st parallel. |
| 1798 | Mississippi Territory organized from Georgia's western land claims, including Alabama |
| 1802 | Georgia formally cedes western claims for its southern boundary at the 31st parallel. |
| 1803 | Louisiana Purchase from France (which had secured it from Spain) gives U.S. immense new territory and port of New Orleans. |
| 1803.. 1811 | Federal Road conceived and built connecting Milledgeville, Georgia to Fort Stoddert, American outpost north of Mobile. |
| 1805.. 1806 | Indian cessions opened up to white settlement large portions of western and northern (Chickasaw and Cherokee) Alabama. |
| 1810 | West Florida, from Pearl River to the Mississippi, annexed by U.S. from Spain. |
| 1811.. 1812 | Schools established in Mobile (Washington Academy 1811) and Huntsville (Green Academy 1812). |
| 1811.. 1816 | Newspapers established in Mobile to the south (Sentinel 1811; Gazette 1812) and Huntsville to the north (Alabama Republican 1816). |
| 1812.. 1815 | War of 1812 between U.S. and Great Britain. |
| 1813.. 1814 | Creek Indian War: July 1813- Battle of Burnt Corn Creek; August 1813- Fort Mims Massacre; December 1813- Battle of Holy Ground; March 1814- Battle of Horseshoe Bend |
| April 1813 | U.S. annexed West Florida, from the Pearl River to the Perdido River, from Spain; Spanish surrender Mobile to American forces. |
| August 1814 | Treaty of Fort Jackson. Creek Indians forced to cede lands to U.S.) comprising nearly half of the state. U.S. represented by General Andrew Jackson. |
| September 1814 | British attack on Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point fails, prompting them to abandon plans to capture Mobile and turn towards New Orleans. |
| February 1815 | British forces take Fort Bowyer on return from defeat at New Orleans, then abandon upon learning that the war is over. |
| 1817 | Alabama territory created, with temporary capital at St. Stephens, when Mississippi becomes a state. |
| 1818 |
The Alabama, the area's first steamboat, constructed in St.
Stephens. Cedar Creek Furnace, the state's first blast furnace and commerical pig-iron producer, established in (now) Franklin County. |
| 1819 |
March 2, 1819
President Monroe signs the Alabama enabling act. July 1819 Constitutional Convention meets in Huntsville. Constitution adopted with Cahaba settled as capital. October 25 - December 17, 1819 General Assembly meets in Huntsville until the Cahaba capital is constructed. December 14, 1819 Alabama enters Union as 22nd state. |
| 1820 |
State population= 127,901. 1820 Federal Census: White population=85,461; African-American population=42,450. Slave population=41,879; free black population=571. Urban population=3,194; rural population=306,333. November 6 - December 21, 1819 Cahaba hosts second session of General Assembly. |
| 1825 | French general and American Revolution-hero, the Marquis de Lafayette, toured Alabama at Governor Israel Picken's invitation. |
| 1830 |
Tuscumbia Railway Company chartered by General Assembly;
first two miles of track link Tuscumbia and Sheffield (1832). State's population=309,527. 1830 Federal Census: White population=190,406; African-American population=119,121. Slave population=117,549; free black population=1,572. Urban population=3,194; rural population=306,333. |
| 1830 | Indian Removal Bill approved by U.S. Congress. |
| 1831 | University of Alabama opened doors to students (incorporated by General Assembly 1819). |
| 1831 | Nat Turner slave insurrection in Virginia. |
| 1832 | Bell Factory (Madison County), state's first textile mill, chartered by General Assembly. |
| 1833 |
"Stars fell on Alabama" with spectacular meteor shower
(November 13). Daniel Pratt established cotton gin factory north of Montgomery; his company town, Prattville (founded 1839), became a manufacturing center in the antebellum South. |
| 1835 | Dr. James Marion Sims, "the Father of Modern Gynecology," established a medical practice in Mt. Meigs, then in nearby Montgomery (1840), before moving on to New York in 1853 to found the renowned Woman's Hospital. |
| 1835.. 1836 | Alabama gold rush, concentrated in east-central hill country. |
| 1836 | Texas War for Independence from Mexico. |
| 1836-1837 | Second Creek War (Seminole War). Battle of Hobdy's Bridge last Indian battle in Alabama (1837). |
| 1840 |
State population=590,756. 1840 Federal Census: White population=335,185; African-American population=255,571. Slave population=253,532; free black population=2,039. Urban population=12,672; rural population=578,084. |
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