Mobile County, Alabama

Mobile County is the second most-populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census, its population was 412,992. Its county seat is Mobile. The county is named in honor of the indigenous Maubila tribe.Mobile County comprises the Mobile, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.HistoryThis area was occupied for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. The historic Choctaw had occupied this area along what became called the Mobile River when encountered by early French traders and colonists, who founded Mobile in the early eighteenth century. The British took over the territory in 1763 (along with other French territories east of the Mississippi River) after defeating the French in the Seven Years' War. During the American Revolutionary War, it came under Spanish rule as part of Spanish Florida. Spain ceded the territory to the United States after the War of 1812.In the 1830s, the United States forced the removal of most of the Native Americans in the area under President Andrew Jackson's policy to relocate them to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Many of those who remained continued their culture; since the late 20th century, several tribes have reorganized and gained state recognition. Among those is the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, which was recognized as a tribe in 1979 by the state, but not federally; it occupies land along the border of Mobile and Washington counties.