Old Mobile Parts 1 & 2 History of Mobile. Colonial Race in America: 1607 English in Jamestown.

Old Mobile Parts 1 & 2

History of Mobile

Colonial Race in America: 1607 English in Jamestown

1608: French in Canada

Any Colonial Activity in the Northern Gulf Coast?

•NO.

•Until one man entered the picture

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

1682

Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV of France.

1684: La Salle’s Second Voyage

• His two objectives:

Wreck of La Salle’s ship La Belle

Cofferdam Built Around the Wreck

• Unfortunately…

If you were the king of Spain, how would you react to the French poking around on the northern Gulf Coast?

Spain makes plans to move men to Pensacola Bay

• Louis XIV

• What do you think Louis XIV would do with the lands claimed for France by La Salle?

France’s Policy in the New World:

Hem in the British

One Big Problem for French…

Jérôme Phélypeaux de Maurepas, Comte de Ponchartrain

• You can call him Ponchartrain.

• Why is he important?.

• Also, where on the Gulf Coast do you see his name?

• Spy reports

• Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville

Interesting, but Unimportant Facts

• Family history:

• Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville

Where else have you seen his name?

• Jean Baptiste de Bienville,

Oh So Close

Biloxi Bay and Fort Maurepas.

Isle Massacre

Iberville’s Second Voyage: Spring 1700

• Fort de La Boulaye on the lower Mississippi River Bienville put in charge of the fort.

• Where was a better location?

• Mobile’s advantage:

Why was access to the rivers so important?

Mobilians, Alabama, and Grand and Little Tomeh.

Why were these villages so important?

These villages could be used as a buffer to the English moving down from Carolina and the Spanish from Florida.

Iberville’s Third Voyage

When? Fall 1701

His orders.

• a. transfer….

• b. along Mobile River, …

Why Would Iberville Chose Mobile?

• First,... • Second, even though

Mississippi River was important,….

Why were Alabama Tombigbee Rivers so important:

• This river system was of closer proximity to the English advance.

• the Choctaw,

• the Chickasaw

• and the Alabama

Why Would the French Need these Tribes?

Think Population

Which colonial

power had the

largest

population?

The Native American tribes could become allies in the fight to hem in

the British.