The name Mobile, Alabama, is derived from its first settlers, the Mobila Indians. It was colonized by the French in 1702, followed by the British and then the Spanish before seized by the United States during the War of 1812. Mobile’s prosperity has risen and fallen based on the health of its cotton, ship building and paper industries. These trades leveraged the city’s position on the Mobile River where their Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center now stands.
