Part of European colonization of the Americas
Sweden
established
colonies in the Americas
in the mid-17th century, including the colony of
New Sweden
(1638?1655) on the
Delaware River
in what is now
Delaware
,
New Jersey
,
Pennsylvania
, and
Maryland
, as well as two possessions in the
Caribbean
during the 18th and 19th centuries.
North America
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The colony of
New Sweden
was founded in 1638 by the first expedition of
Swedish South Company
, a consortium of Swedish, Dutch and German business interests formed in 1637.
[1]
[2]
The colony was located along the
Delaware River
with settlements in modern
Delaware
(e.g.,
Wilmington
),
Pennsylvania
(e.g.,
Philadelphia
) and
New Jersey
(e.g.,
New Stockholm
and
Swedesboro
) along locations where Swedish and Dutch traders had been visiting for decades.
[3]
At the time (until 1809)
Finland
was part of the
Kingdom of Sweden
, and some of the settlers of Sweden's colonies came from present-day Finland or were
Finnish
-speaking.
[4]
The Swedes and Finns brought their
log house
design to America,
[1]
where it became the typical
log cabin
of pioneers. The Swedish colonists established a trading relationship with the
Susquehannock
, and supported them in their successful war against
Maryland
colonists.
[3]
[5]
While a
Baltic
naval power, the international power of the Swedish Empire was rooted in land-based military power, and when another general war engulfed northern Europe, the
Royal Swedish Navy
was incapable of protecting the colony. Subsequently, the young colony was eventually annexed by the
Dutch
, who perceived the presence of Swedish
colonists
in North America as a threat to their interests in the
New Netherland
colony.
Caribbean
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The
Swedish colony of Saint Barthelemy
(1784?1878) was operated as a
porto franco
(
free port
). The capital city of
Gustavia
retains its Swedish name.
Guadeloupe
(1813?1814) came into Swedish possession as a consequence of the
Napoleonic Wars
. It gave rise to the
Guadeloupe Fund
.
[6]
Other settlements
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Swedish emigrants continued to go to the Americas to settle within other countries or colonies. The mid-19th and early 20th centuries saw a large
Swedish emigration to the United States
. In 1841, a group composed of former Upsala University students and a couple of relatives established the first Swedish colony west of the Allegheny Mountains on the east shore of Pine Lake 30 miles west of Milwaukee and named their settlement, New Upsala. Approximately 1.3 million Swedes subsequently settled in the
U.S.
, and there are currently about four million
Swedish-Americans
, as of 2008.
[7]
Dom
Pedro II
, the second Emperor of
Brazil
, encouraged immigration, resulting in a sizeable number of Swedes entering Brazil, settling mainly in the cities of
Joinville
and
Ijui
. In the late 19th century,
Misiones Province
in
Argentina
was a major centre for Swedish immigration, and laid the foundations of a population of
Swedish-Argentines
.
[8]
See also
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References
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]
Other sources
[
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]
- Barton, H. Arnold
(1994)
A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish Americans, 1840?1940.
(Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis).
- Benson, Adolph B.
and Naboth Hedin, eds. (1938)
Swedes in America, 1638?1938
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press)
ISBN
978-0-8383-0326-9
- Johnson, Amandus
(1927)
The Swedes on the Delaware
(International Printing Company, Philadelphia)
Related reading
[
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]
- Jameson, J. Franklin
(1887)
Willem Usselinx: Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies
(G.P. Putnam's Sons)
External links
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]