The Forgotten Colony: America’s Swedish Settlement
Few Americans know that Sweden once attempted to colonize the land that would become the United States, establishing New Sweden along the Delaware River in the 1600s.
In the early seventeenth century, as European powers scrambled for control of North America, Sweden—a rising power then—looked across the Atlantic for opportunity. Seeking a foothold in the lucrative New World trade and driven by the ambitions of Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, the kingdom dispatched an expedition in 1637. It sailed under the command of Peter Minuit, a figure better known for his earlier role in purchasing Manhattan for the Dutch. The destination was the wooded coastline along the Delaware River, territory then claimed by both the Dutch and the English but little occupied by Europeans.
In spring 1638, Minuit’s ships—the Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip—arrived in what is today Wilmington, Delaware. There, the Swedes reached an agreement with local Lenape and Susquehannock peoples, exchanging goods for land on which to build a fortification. They called it Fort Christina, honoring Sweden’s young queen.
The small, hardy group began carving out a new home in difficult, forested terrain. Swedish and Finnish settlers soon followed, bringing techniques of log-house construction unfamiliar in North America. These log cabins, simple and sturdy, would become a hallmark of the American frontier centuries later—a small but enduring legacy of New Sweden.
Despite its tiny population, never exceeding a few hundred settlers, New Sweden made a mark. The colony introduced rye and created the first Lutheran church in America. Its trade with Native Americans flourished, particularly in furs and tobacco. Importantly, the Swedes maintained relatively good relations with local tribes, facilitating years of peace and cooperation at a time when other European settlements were often riven with conflict.
New Sweden, however, existed on a fault line between larger rivals. From the outset, Dutch authorities in nearby New Netherland—present-day New York and New Jersey—resented the perceived encroachment. After a series of tense but bloodless confrontations, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant led an expedition south in 1655 and seized control. The colony, after just seventeen years, officially ended, becoming part of the Dutch, and later English, holdings in America.
But the Swedish influence did not disappear. Many settlers stayed, their language and culture blending with those of the region’s later arrivals. For generations, Delaware and surrounding areas maintained Swedish-speaking communities, churches, and traditions lingering into the eighteenth and, in isolated cases, even the nineteenth century.
To this day, echoes of New Sweden can be found around the Delaware Valley: street names, churches, and even the practice of building log cabins that pioneers would carry westward. Few Americans realize that one of their earliest colonial experiments came not from Britain, Spain, or France, but from distant, frozen Sweden—a short-lived chapter that quietly shaped the new world.
###END###
