Mobile (pronounced /moʊˈbiːl/) is the third most populous city in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County.^[4] It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 198,915 during the 2000 census.^[2] Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 399,843 residents which is composed solely of Mobile County and is the second largest MSA in the state.^[3] Mobile is included in the Mobile-Daphne-Fairhope Combined Statistical Area with a total population of 540,258, the second largest combined statistical area in the state.^[5]

Mobile began as the first capital of colonial French Louisiana in 1702. The city gained its name from the Native American Mobilian tribe that the French colonists found in the area of Mobile Bay.^[6] During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony for France, then Britain, and lastly Spain. Mobile first became a part of the United States of America in 1813, left the United States with Alabama in 1861 to become a part of the Confederate States of America, and then returned to the United States in 1865.^[7]

Located at the junction of the Mobile River and Mobile Bay on the northern Gulf of Mexico, the city is the only seaport in Alabama.^[8] The Port of Mobile has always played a key role in the economic health of the city beginning with the city as a key trading center between the French and Native Americans^[9] down to its current role as the 10th largest port in the United States.^[10]

As one of the Gulf Coast's cultural centers, Mobile houses several art museums, a symphony orchestra, a professional opera, a professional ballet company, and a large concentration of historic architecture.^[11][12] Mobile is known for having the oldest organized Carnival celebrations in the United States, dating to the 1700s of its early colonial period. It was also host to the first formally organized Carnival mystic society or "krewe" in the United States, dating to 1830.^[13] People from Mobile are known as Mobilians.^[9]

History

Colonial

European settlement of Mobile, then known as Fort Louis de la Louisiane, started in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana. It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, establish control over France's Louisiana claims. Bienville was made governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobile’s Roman Catholic parish was established on 20 July 1703, by Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, Bishop of Quebec.^[14] The parish was the first established on the Gulf Coast of the United States.^[14] In 1704 the ship Pélican delivered 23 French women to the colony, along with yellow fever which passengers had contracted at a stop in Havana.^[15] Though most of the "Pélican girls" recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans died from the illness.^[15] This early period was also the occasion of the arrival of the first African slaves, transported aboard a French supply ship from Saint-Domingue.^[15] The population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet descending to 178 persons two years later due to disease.^[14]

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the French and Indian War. The treaty ceded Mobile and the surrounding territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain, and it was made a part of the expanded British West Florida colony.^[19] The British changed the name of Fort Condé to Fort Charlotte, after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, King George III's queen.^[20]

The British were eager not to lose any useful inhabitants and promised religious tolerance to the French colonists, ultimately 112 French Mobilians remained in the colony.^[21] The first permanent Jewish presence in Mobile began in 1763 as a result of the new religious tolerance. Jews had not been allowed to officially reside in colonial French Louisiana due to the Code Noir, a decree passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685 that forbade the exercise of any religion other than Roman Catholicism, and ordered all Jews out of France's colonies. Most of these colonial era Jews in Mobile were merchants and traders, and added to the commercial development of Mobile. ^[22] In 1766 the population was estimated to be 860, though the town's borders were smaller than they had been during the French colonial efforts.^[21] During the American Revolutionary War, West Florida and Mobile became a refuge for loyalists fleeing the other colonies.^[23]

The Spanish captured Mobile during the Battle of Fort Charlotte in 1780. They wished to eliminate any British threat to their Louisiana colony, which they had received from France in 1763s Treaty of Paris.^[23] Their actions were also condoned by the revolting American colonies due to the fact that West Florida, for the most part, remained loyal to the British Crown.^[23] The fort was renamed Fortaleza Carlota, with the Spanish holding Mobile as a part of Spanish West Florida until 1813, when it was seized by the U.S. General James Wilkinson during the War of 1812.^[24]

19th century

From the 1830s onward, Mobile expanded into a city of commerce with a primary focus on the cotton trade.^[25] The waterfront was developed with wharves, terminal facilities, and fireproof brick warehouses.^[25] The exports of cotton grew in proportion to the amounts being produced in the Black Belt; by 1840 Mobile was second only to New Orleans in cotton exports in the nation.^[25] With the economy so focused on one crop, Mobile's fortunes were always tied to those of cotton, and the city weathered many financial crises.^[25] Though Mobile had a relatively small slave-owning population compared to the inland plantation areas, it was the slave-trading center of the state until surpassed by Montgomery in the 1850s.^[26] By 1853, there were fifty Jewish families living in Mobile, including Philp Phillips,an attorney who was elected to the Alabama State Legislature and then to the United States Congress. ^[27] By 1860 Mobile's population within the city limits had reached 29,258 people; it was the 27th largest city in the United States and 4th largest in what would soon be the Confederate States of America.^[28] The free population in the whole of Mobile County, including the city, consisted of 29,754 citizens, of which only 1195 were black.^[29] Additionally, 1785 slave owners held 11,376 slaves, for a total county population of 41,130 people.^[29]

Federal Reconstruction in Mobile began after the Civil War and effectively ended in 1874 when the local Democrats gained control of the city government.^[33] The last quarter of the 19th century was a time of economic depression and municipal insolvency for Mobile. One example can be provided by the value of Mobile's exports during this period of depression. The value of exports leaving the city fell from $9 million in 1878 to $3 million in 1882.^[34]

20th century

The turn of the century brought the Progressive Era to Mobile and saw Mobile's economic structure evolve along with a significant increase in population.^[35] The population increased from around 40,000 in 1900 to 60,000 by 1920.^[35] During this time the city received $3 million in federal grants for harbor improvements to deepen the shipping channels in the harbor.^[35] During and after World War I, manufacturing became increasingly vital to Mobile's economic health, with shipbuilding and steel production being two of the most important.^[35] During this time, social justice and race relations in Mobile worsened, however.^[35] In 1902 the city government passed Mobile's first segregation ordinance, one that segregated the city streetcars. It legislated what had been informal practice, enforced by convention.^[35] Mobile's African-American population responded to this with a two-month boycott, but it did not change the law.^[35] After this, Mobile's de facto segregation was increasingly replaced with legislated segregation as whites imposed Jim Crow laws to maintain dominance.^[35]

The years after World War II brought about changes in Mobile's social structure and economy. Instead of shipbuilding being a primary economic force, the paper and chemical industries began to expand, and most of the old military bases were converted to civilian uses.

After World War II and their sacrifices in service, African Americans stepped up their efforts to achieve equal rights and social justice. Some residents of Mobile had considered the city to be tolerant and racially accommodating compared to other cities in the South, especially as the police force and one local college became integrated in the 1950s. Buses and lunch counters were voluntarily desegregated by the early 1960s. Mobile's African-American citizens were not as content with the status quo as such residents believed. In 1963 three African-American students brought a case against the Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to Murphy High School.^[37] The court ordered that the three students be admitted to Murphy for the 1964 school year, leading to the desegregation of Mobile County's school system.^[37] The Civil Rights Movement led to the end of legal racial segregation with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the late 1960s, Mobile's economy was dealt a blow with the closing of Brookley Air Force Base. This and other factors ushered in a period of economic depression that lasted through the 1970s. Beginning in the late 1980s, the new mayor, Mike Dow, and the city council began an effort termed the "String of Pearls Initiative" to make Mobile into a competitive city.^[38] The city initiated construction of numerous new facilities and projects, and the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes.^[38] Violent crime was reduced, and city and county leaders attracted new business ventures to the area.^[39] The effort continues into the present under the current mayor, Sam Jones, and city council.^[39] Shipbuilding began to make a major comeback in Mobile in 1999 with the founding of Austal USA.^[40]

Geography and climate

Geography

Mobile is located at 30°40'46" North, 88°6'12" West (30.679523, -88.103280)^[41], in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Alabama. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 412.9 km² (159.4 mi²). 305.4 km² (117.9 mi²) of it is land and 107.6 km² (41.5 mi²) of it is water.^[42] The elevation in Mobile ranges from 10 ft (3 m) on Water Street in downtown^[1] to 211 ft (64 m) at the Mobile Regional Airport.^[43]

Climate

Mobile's geographical location on the Gulf of Mexico provides a mild subtropical climate, with an average annual temperature of 67.5 °F (20 °C). Normal average January through December temperatures range from 40 °F (4 °C) minimum and 91 °F (33 °C) maximum.^[44] Mobile has hot, humid summers and mild, rainy winters. A 2007 study by WeatherBill, Inc. determined that Mobile is the wettest city in the contiguous 48 states, with 67 inches (170 cm) of average annual rainfall.^[45] Mobile averages 59 rainy days per year.^[45] Snow is rare in Mobile, with the last snowfall being on 18 December 1996.^[46]

Mobile is occasionally affected by major tropical storms and hurricanes.^[47] Mobile suffered a major natural disaster on the night of 12 September 1979 when Category 3 Hurricane Frederic passed over the heart of the city. The storm caused tremendous damage to Mobile and the surrounding area.^[48] Mobile had moderate damage from Hurricane Opal on 4 October 1995 and Hurricane Ivan on 16 September 2004.^[49] Mobile also suffered US$ millions in damage from Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005. A storm surge of 11.45 feet (3.49 m), topped by higher waves, damaged eastern sections of Mobile, with extensive flooding in downtown, Battleship Parkway,^[50] and the elevated Jubilee Parkway, destroying the electronic speed-limit fog-warning signals.