By the middle of the 17th century,
Sweden had reached its greatest territorial extent, encompassing
Finland and
Estonia, as well as parts of present-day
Russia,
Poland,
Germany,
Norway and
Latvia. It was one of the great powers of Europe during the
stormaktstiden ("Age of Greatness" or "Great Power Period"). At the same time, other European nations were establishing colonies in the
New World and building successful trading empires. Sweden sought to expand its own influence by creating a
tobacco plantation and fur-trading colony, aiming to bypass French, English and Dutch merchants. The
Swedish South Company (also known as the Company of New Sweden) was founded in 1626 with a mandate to establish colonies between
Florida and Newfoundland for the purposes of trade, particularly along the Delaware River. Its charter included Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders. The directors of the company included Flemish/Dutch merchant
Samuel Blommaert. The company sponsored 11 expeditions in 14 separate voyages to Delaware between 1638 and 1655; two were lost. The first Swedish expedition to America sailed from the
port of
Gothenburg in late 1637, organized and overseen by
Clas Larsson Fleming, a Swedish admiral from Finland. Blommaert assisted the fitting-out and appointed
Peter Minuit (the former Governor of
New Netherland) to lead the expedition. The expedition sailed into
Delaware Bay aboard the
Fogel Grip and
Kalmar Nyckel; territory that was claimed by the Dutch. They passed
Cape May and
Cape Henlopen in late March 1638 and anchored on March 29 at a rocky point on the Minquas Kill that is known today as
Swedes' Landing. They built a fort at the confluence of the
Christina River and
Brandywine Creek which they named
Fort Christina after their Queen. In the following years, the area was settled by roughly 600 Swedes and
Finns, a number of Dutchmen, a few Germans, a Dane, and at least one
Estonian. Minuit served as the first governor of the colony of New Sweden. He had been the third Director of New Netherland, and he knew that the Dutch claimed the area surrounding the Delaware River and its bay. The
Dutch West India Company, however, had withdrawn its settlers from the area in order to concentrate on the settlement on
Manhattan Island, leaving
Fort Nassau on the east side of the Delaware River as the only Dutch outpost on the Delaware River. Minuit landed on the west bank of the river and met with the
sachems of the
Lenape and
Susquehannock. They held a conclave in Minuit's cabin on the
Kalmar Nyckel, and he persuaded the Lenape to sign deeds which he had prepared to resolve any issue with the Dutch. The Swedes claimed that the purchase included land on both sides of the South (Delaware) River from the
Schuylkill River down to Delaware Bay in what is now Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Lenape sachem Mattahoon later claimed that the purchase only included as much land as was contained within an area marked by "six trees", and the rest of the land occupied by the Swedes was stolen. The Director of New Netherland,
Willem Kieft, objected to the Swedish presence, but Minuit ignored him since he knew that the Dutch were militarily weak at the moment. Minuit completed Fort Christina, then sailed for
Stockholm to bring a second group of settlers. He made a detour to the Caribbean to pick up a shipment of tobacco to sell in Europe in order to make the voyage profitable; however, he died on this voyage during a hurricane at
St. Christopher in the Caribbean. The official duties of the governor of New Sweden were carried out by Captain
Måns Nilsson Kling, until a new governor was selected and arrived from Sweden two years later. In the summer of 1655, Stuyvesant sailed from
New Amsterdam to Delaware Bay with 7 ships and 317 soldiers and quickly retook Fort Casimir (Fort Trinity). Stuyvesant then proceeded to besiege Fort Christina which surrendered on September 15, 1655. During the siege, the Dutch plundered houses and killed livestock in the vicinity of the fort. This lasted until the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664 at the beginning of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War. The conquest began on August 29, 1664, with the capture of New Amsterdam and ended with the capture of Fort Casimir in October. In 1669, New Sweden was under English rule, but most of the population was still Swedish. A man named Marcus Jacobsson, posing as a member of the Königsmarck family, attempted to instigate a rebellion against the English to return New Sweden to Swedish rule. The rebellion, known as the
Revolt of the Long Swede due to Jacobsson's height, failed. Jacobsson was sold into indentured servitude in
Barbados and the families that had supported him were fined for their participation in the revolt. New Sweden continued to exist unofficially, and some immigration and expansion continued. The first settlement at Wicaco began with a Swedish log blockhouse located on
Society Hill in Philadelphia in 1669. It was later used as a church until about 1700, when
Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church of Philadelphia was built on the site.
Hoarkill, New Amstel, and Upland in
Gibbstown, New Jersey, built in 1638 in New Sweden, is the oldest house in
New Jersey. On September 12, 1673, following the Dutch recapture of the Delaware region from the
Third Anglo-Dutch War,
Governor Anthony Colve's council erected three territorial courts—Hoarkill, New Amstel, and Upland—whose jurisdictions correspond to the modern counties of
Sussex,
New Castle and the extinct Upland (later partitioned between Pennsylvania and Delaware). The
Treaty of Westminster of 1674 ended the second period of Dutch control and required them to return all of New Netherland to the English on June 29, including the three counties which they created. After taking stock, the English declared on November 11 that settlements on the west side of the Delaware River and Delaware Bay were to be dependent on the
Province of New York, including the three Counties. This declaration was followed by a declaration that renamed New Amstel as New Castle. The other counties retained their Dutch names. This was followed by the partition of some Upland Counties to conform to the borders of Pennsylvania and Delaware, with most of the Delaware portion going to New Castle County on November 12, 1678. The remainder of Upland continued in place under the same name. On June 21, 1680, New Castle and Hoarkill Counties were partitioned to produce St. Jones County. On March 4, 1681, what had been the colony of New Sweden was formally partitioned into the colonies of Delaware and Pennsylvania. The border was established 12 miles north of New Castle, and the northern limit of Pennsylvania was set at
42 degrees north latitude. The eastern limit was the border with New Jersey at the Delaware River, while the western limit was undefined. In 1682, Upland ceased to exist as the result of the reorganization of the Colony of Pennsylvania, with the Upland government becoming the government of Chester County, Pennsylvania. On August 24, 1682, the Duke of York transferred the western Delaware River region to William Penn, including Delaware, thus transferring Deale County and St. Jones County from New York to Delaware. St. Jones County was renamed
Kent County, Deale County was renamed
Sussex County, and New Castle County retained its name. Swedish explorer and botanist
Pehr Kalm visited the descendants of the early Swedish immigrants to New Sweden in the mid-18th century and documented their experiences with the Native American Indians who resided in those parts, in a book entitled
Travels into North America. ==Significance and legacy==