(upbeat patriotic music) [Narrator] How did a British royal decree make most of modern day Alabama off limits to colonial Americans?

After Britain won the French and Indian War, it claimed French land in North America and Spanish owned Florida.

Colonists were excited to move to these new lands, but just a few months later, King George III instated the Proclamation of 1763.

This made all land west of the Appalachian mountains off limits to settlers.

Britain feared another expensive war and didn't want to antagonize Native Americans ready to defend their tribal land.

With settlers, war veterans, and fortune seeking land speculators furious, it became one of the first major disputes between Britain and Colonial America, fanning the flames of discontent and rebellion.

Alabama wouldn't be open to mass settlement until after the Creek War when the Creek Nation ceded what is now largely present day Alabama.