n.
City (pop., 2000: 201,568), capital of Alabama, U.S. The site was inhabited by Indian mound builders in prehistoric times.
In 1715 the French built Fort Toulouse on the river above the present site of Montgomery. The city was founded in 1819 and named for Gen. Richard Montgomery; it became the state capital in 1847. In 1861, during the American Civil War , it served briefly as the capital of the Confederacy; it was captured by Union troops in 1865. It was a centre of the civil rights movement , notably the protests organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. Located southeast of Birmingham , it serves as the commercial centre of an agricultural region, trading in cotton and livestock and producing fertilizer. It is the seat of Alabama State University and several colleges.