<P> The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years' War after France's defeat by Britain, resulted in France ceding its territories east of the Mississippi to Britain . Great Britain came into undisputed control of the region between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi rivers . The portion of Alabama below the 31st parallel became a part of British West Florida . The portion north of this line became a part of the "Illinois Country", set apart by the British Crown for use by Indians . In 1767, the province of West Florida was extended northward to 32 ° 28'N latitude . </P> <P> More than a decade later, during the American Revolutionary War, the British informally ceded this region to Spain . By the Treaty of Versailles, September 3, 1783, Great Britain ceded West Florida to Spain . By the Treaty of Paris (1783), signed the same day, Britain ceded to the newly established United States all of this province north of 31 ° N, thus laying the foundation for a long controversy . </P> <P> By the Treaty of Madrid in 1795, Spain ceded to the United States the lands east of the Mississippi between 31 ° N and 32 ° 28'N . Three years later, in 1798, Congress organized this district as the Mississippi Territory . A strip of land 12 or 14 miles wide near the present northern boundary of Alabama and Mississippi was claimed by South Carolina, as part of the eastern colonies' previous hopeful extensions to the west . In 1787, during constitutional negotiations, South Carolina ceded this claim to the federal government . Georgia likewise claimed all the lands between the 31st and 35th parallels from its present western boundary to the Mississippi River, and did not surrender its claim until 1802 . Two years later, the boundaries of Mississippi Territory were extended so as to include all of the Georgia cession . </P> <P> In 1812, Congress added the Mobile District of West Florida to the Mississippi Territory, claiming that it was included in the Louisiana Purchase . The following year, General James Wilkinson occupied the Mobile District with a military force . The Spanish did not resist . Thus the whole area of the present state of Alabama was taken under the jurisdiction of the United States . Several Native American tribes still occupied most of the land, with some formal ownership recognized by treaty with the United States . Five of the major tribes became known as the Five Civilized Tribes for their adoption of elements of European - American culture . </P>

Who owned alabama before it became a state