page_title: History of Mobile, Alabama
section_title: 21st century: 2000 to present
hierarchical_section_title: History of Mobile, Alabama / Modern period / 21st century: 2000 to present
caption_attribution_description: Mobile, Alabama skyline as seen from Battleship Park.
context_page_description: Mobile was founded as the capital of colonial French Louisiana in 1702 and remained a part of New France for over 60 years. During 1720, when France warred with Spain, Mobile was on the battlefront, so the capital moved west to Biloxi. In 1763, Britain took control of the colony following their victory in the Seven Years War. Following the American Revolutionary War, Mobile did not become a part of the United States, as it was part of territory captured by Spain from Great Britain in 1780.
  Mobile first became a part of the United States in 1813, when it was captured by American forces and added to the Mississippi Territory, then later re-zoned into the Alabama Territory in August 1817. Finally on December 14, 1819, Mobile became part of the new 22nd state, Alabama, one of the earlier states of the U.S. Forty-one years later, Alabama left the Union and joined the Confederate States of America in 1861. It returned in 1865 after the American Civil War.
  Mobile had spent decades as French, then British, then Spanish, then American, spanning 160 years, up to the Civil War.
context_section_description: Mobile received moderate damage from Hurricane Ivan on 16 September 2004.  Mobile received damage again from Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005. A storm surge of 11.45 feet (3.49 m) damaged eastern sections of Mobile and caused extensive flooding downtown.  Mobilians elected their first African American mayor, Sam Jones, in September, 2005. Another landmark was added to Mobile's skyline in 2007 with the completion of the RSA Battle House Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the state.  In January, 2008, the city hired EDSA, an urban design firm, to create a new comprehensive master plan for the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods. The planning area is bordered on the east by the Mobile River, to the south by Interstate 10 and Duval Street, to the west by Houston Street and to the north by Three Mile Creek and the neighborhoods north of Martin Luther King Avenue.
caption: The Mobile skyline in 2007.
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