This, along with the news of Johnston's surrender negotiations with Sherman, led General Richard Taylor to seek a meeting with his Union counterpart, Maj. ĭuring the American Civil War, the city surrendered to Federal forces on April 12, 1865, after Union victories at two forts protecting the city. Mobile became a part of the United States in 1813, with the annexation by President James Madison of West Florida from Spain. During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony of France, then Great Britain, and lastly Spain. Mobile was founded in 1702 by the French as the first capital of Louisiana. Mobile is the largest city in the Mobile– Daphne− Fairhope Combined Statistical Area, with a total population of 661,964, the second largest such area fully in the state. This region of 430,197 residents is composed of Mobile and Washington counties it is the third-largest metropolitan statistical area in the state. Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area.

The Port of Mobile has always played a key role in the economic health of the city, beginning with the settlement as an important trading center between the French colonists and Native Americans, down to its current role as the 12th-largest port in the United States. Īlabama's only saltwater port, Mobile is located on the Mobile River at the head of Mobile Bay on the north-central Gulf Coast.

It is now the second-most-populous city in Alabama, after Huntsville. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobile's population increased to 204,689 residents. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. Mobile ( / m oʊ ˈ b iː l/ moh- BEEL, French: ⓘ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States.

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