Montgomery is the capital city of the U. The population was , at the census. The Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area 's population in was ,; it is the fourth largest in the state and nd among United States metropolitan areas. The city was incorporated in as a merger of two towns situated along the Alabama River. It replaced Tuscaloosa as the state capital in , representing the shift of power to the south-central area of Alabama with the growth of cotton as a commodity crop of the Black Belt and the rise of Mobile as a mercantile port on the Gulf Coast.
In February , Montgomery was chosen the first capital of the Confederate States of America , which it remained until the Confederate seat of government moved to Richmond, Virginia , in May of that year. In the middle of the 20th century, Montgomery was a major center of events and protests in the Civil Rights Movement , [ 10 ] including the Montgomery bus boycott and the Selma to Montgomery marches. In addition to housing many Alabama government agencies, Montgomery has a large military presence, due to Maxwell Air Force Base.
Montgomery has also been recognized nationally for its downtown revitalization and new urbanism projects. It was one of the first cities in the nation to implement SmartCode Zoning. Prior to European colonization, the east bank of the Alabama River was inhabited by the Alibamu tribe of Native Americans. The Alibamu and the Coushatta , who lived on the west side of the river, were descended from the Mississippian culture.
This civilization had numerous chiefdoms throughout the Midwest and South along the Mississippi and its tributaries, and had built massive earthwork mounds as part of their society about β AD. Its largest location was at Cahokia , in present-day Illinois east of St. The historic tribes spoke mutually intelligible Muskogean languages , which were closely related.
Present-day Montgomery is built on the site of two Alibamu towns: Ikanatchati Ekanchattee or Ecunchatty or Econachatee , meaning "red earth;" and Towassa , built on a bluff called Chunnaanaauga Chatty. The next recorded European encounter occurred more than a century later, when an English expedition from Carolina went down the Alabama River in The first permanent European settler in the Montgomery area was James McQueen , a Scots trader who settled there in Their mixed-race children were considered Muskogean, as both tribes had a matrilineal system of property and descent.
