Spanish, French, English, Spanish again, United States, and Confederate authority successively claimed or governed the territory now known as Simpson County. DeSoto passed through Mississippi in the mid-1500s, LaSalle claimed the territory for France in the early 1600's, and by 1732 both France and England claimed it, with England treating Georgia as extending to the Mississippi River. France ceded the territory to England in 1763 in the First Treaty of Paris ending the French and Indian War. Near the end of the Revolutionary War, Spain claimed territory to the 32nd parallel as part of West Florida, but in 1783 England ceded the area including present Simpson County to the United States in the Second Treaty of Paris. In 1795 the Treaty of San Lorenzo ended Spanish claims above the 31st parallel, so the 1810 Republic of West Florida did not include the area. Its Bonnie Blue Flag was later incorporated into the Magnolia Flag and became a prominent emblem of the Confederacy. Georgia continued to claim the territory until 1798, when Congress created the Territory of Mississippi, from which Mississippi and Alabama were formed. Mississippi entered the Union as the twentieth state on December 10, 1817. The Magnolia flag became the official flag of the Sovereign Republic of Mississippi on January 26, 1861, with the Bonnie Blue design in the upper left and a magnolia tree centered on a white field. The first Confederate flag, the Stars and Bars, was raised over Mississippi on March 27, 1861. After the Civil War, the Magnolia flag remained the state flag until 1894, when the present flag was adopted.