Editing Delaware Colony (section)

==Dutch and Swedish settlements==
{{Historical populations
|type= USA
|1670|700
|1680|1005
|1690|1482
|1700|2470
|1710|3645
|1720|5385
|1730|9170
|1740|19870
|1750|28704
|1760|33250
|1770|35496
|1774|37219
|1780|45385
|footnote=Source: 1670–1760;<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas L.|last=Purvis|editor-first=Richard|editor-last=Balkin|title=Colonial America to 1763|year=1999|place=New York|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing|Facts on File]]|isbn=978-0816025275|pages=[https://archive.org/details/colonialamericat00purv_0/page/128 128–129]|url=https://archive.org/details/colonialamericat00purv_0/page/128}}</ref> 1774<ref>{{cite book|last1=Purvis|first1=Thomas L.|editor-last=Balkin|editor-first=Richard|title=Revolutionary America 1763 to 1800|year=1995|place=New York|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing|Facts on File]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816025282/page/160 160]|isbn=978-0816025282|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816025282/page/180}}</ref> 1770–1780<ref name="Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics">{{cite web|title=Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|page=1168|url=https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/CT1970p2-13.pdf|access-date=May 11, 2020|archive-date=December 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229191314/https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/CT1970p2-13.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
}}

From the early [[Netherlands|Dutch]] settlement in 1631 to the colony's rule by Pennsylvania in 1682, the land that later became the U.S. state of Delaware changed hands many times. Because of this,  Delaware became a heterogeneous society made up of individuals who were diverse in country of origin and religion.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}

The first European exploration of what would become known as the [[Delaware Valley]] was made by the Dutch ship ''[[Halve Maen]]'' under the command of [[Henry Hudson]] in 1609. He was searching for what was believed to be a  [[Northwest Passage]] to Asia. Hudson sailed into what now is the [[Delaware Bay]]. He named it the South River, but this would later change after [[Samuel Argall]] came across the mouth of the river in 1610, after being blown off course. Argall later renamed this waterway as the [[Delaware River|river Delaware]], after [[Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr|Thomas West, Lord De La Warr]], the second governor of Virginia.<ref name="brief">[http://delaware.gov/facts/history/delhis State of Delaware (A Brief History)]{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. ''State of Delaware''. Accessed March 18, 2017.</ref> 

Follow-up expeditions by [[Cornelius Jacobsen May|Cornelius May]] in 1613 and [[Cornelius Hendrickson]] in 1614 mapped the shoreline of what would become the colony and state of Delaware for inclusion in the [[New Netherland]] colony. Initial Dutch settlement was centered up the Delaware River at [[Fort Nassau (South River)|Fort Nassau]] at [[Big Timber Creek]], south of what is now [[Gloucester City, New Jersey]].

Neither the Dutch nor the English showed any early interest in establishing settlement on this land. It was not until 1629 that agents of the [[Dutch West India Company]], [[Gillis Hossitt]] and [[Jacob Jansz]], arrived to negotiate with the Native Americans to purchase land for a colony. (The Dutch always purchased land from the Native Americans, rather than take it by force, but the peoples had differing concepts of property and use. The Native Americans often considered the Dutch "payments" to be gifts in keeping with their Native custom, and expected to share use of the common land.) Hossitt and Jansz secured a treaty granting the Dutch a parcel of land running along the shore eight Dutch miles long and half a Dutch mile deep (roughly 29 by just under 2 US miles). This nearly coincided with the length of the coast of modern Sussex and Kent counties in Delaware.

In 1631 the Dutch sent a group of twenty-eight men to build a fort inside Cape Henlopen on Lewes Creek to establish the [[Zwaanendael Colony]].<ref name="encyclopedia">Faragher, John Mack, ed. (1990) ''The Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America.'' New York: Sachem Publishing Associates, Inc., pp. 106–108.</ref>  This first colony was intended to take advantage of the large whale population in the bay and to produce whale oil. A cultural misunderstanding with the Native Americans resulted in their killing of these 28 colonists before a year had passed.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> [[Patroon]] [[David Pietersz. de Vries]] arrived shortly thereafter with an additional 50 settlers. Although he concluded a treaty with the Indians, de Vries, his partners in Holland, and the [[Dutch West India Company]] decided the location was too dangerous for immediate colonization. They took the additional settlers to [[New Amsterdam]] (New York) instead.

In March 1638, the Swedish colony of [[New Sweden]] was established as the first permanent European settlement in Delaware. The ''[[Kalmar Nyckel]]'' anchored at a rocky point on the Minquas Kill.<ref>'' A History of the Kalmar Nyckel and a New Look at New Sweden'' by John R.Henderson [http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/kalmar.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706034429/http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/kalmar.html|date=July 6, 2008}}</ref> Today this site is called [[Swedes' Landing]]; it is located in [[Wilmington, Delaware]].<ref name="encyclopedia"/> The expedition was led, and had been instigated by [[Peter Minuit]], the founding governor of [[New Netherland]]. He had been dismissed by the Dutch West India Company, which operated the colony as a concession. Minuit resented the company and was well aware that the Dutch had little settlement in the ''Zuyd'' (Delaware) river valley. New Sweden was a multicultural affair, with Finns, Dutch, Walloons (Belgians), and Germans, in addition to Swedes among the settlers.

The first outpost of the Swedish settlement was named [[Fort Christina]] (now Wilmington) after [[Queen Christina of Sweden]]. The Swedes introduced log cabin construction to the New World and the humble house form was later spread to the American backcountry by Scotch-Irish immigrants who entered the colony through the port of New Castle. Swedish colonial Governor [[Johan Björnsson Printz]] administered the colony of New Sweden from 1643 to 1653. He was succeeded by [[Johan Risingh|Johan Classon Risingh]], the last governor of New Sweden.<ref name="brief"/> The Dutch had never accepted the Swedish colony as legitimate, and the Dutch West India Company competed with the officials and backers of New Sweden. In 1651, New Netherland Governor [[Peter Stuyvesant]] had Fort Nassau dismantled and  reassembled downriver of Fort Christina as [[Fort Casimir]]. This meant that the Dutch effectively encircled the Swedish colony. The Swedes abandoned [[Fort Beversreede]], a short-lived attempt to establish a foothold at the end of the [[Great Minquas Path]] (in modern Philadelphia). 

Three years later, the New Sweden colony attacked and seized Fort Casimir, renaming it Fort Trinity. The struggle finally came to an end in September 1655. With the [[Second Great Northern War]] raging in Europe, Stuyvesant assembled an army and naval squadron sufficient to capture the Swedish forts, thus re-establishing control of the colony. The Dutch renamed Fort Casimir/Trinity as [[New Amstel]] (later translated to [[New Castle, Delaware|New Castle]]). It became their center for fur trading with Native Americans and the colony's administration headquarters.<ref name="brief"/> The area's European population grew rapidly.