Swedish colonies in 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 AmericaEdit

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.<ref name=SwColSoc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Thompson2013">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=NewAmHerEncyl>See or copy American Heritage Book of Indian cites, Susquehannock peoples.</ref>

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.<ref name=Finns>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Swedes and Finns brought their log house design to America,<ref name=SwColSoc/> 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.<ref name=NewAmHerEncyl/><ref name=PofMaryland>See text and cites of Province of Maryland#Relations with the Susquehannock</ref>

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.

CaribbeanEdit

The Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy (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.<ref>St. Barts island history Template:Webarchive (St.Barths Online)</ref> In addition to these the Swedes briefly attempted to settle Tobago in 1733, but were driven away by native tribes, and Tobago was eventually claimed by the British.

EsequiboEdit

During the 18th century, the Swedes attempted to colonize the Essequibo region between the lower Orinoco and Barima rivers in Guyana's present-day Barima-Waini region.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Swedes, settled in the area in July 1732,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> were expelled in 1737 by forces led by Major Sergeant Carlos Francisco Francois Sucre y Pardo (grandfather of Venezuelan independence leader Antonio José de Sucre).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Other settlementsEdit

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 Ijuí. 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.<ref>Svenska Föreningen Historia Template:Webarchive (Svenska Föreningen)</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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Other sourcesEdit

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) Template:ISBN
Johnson, Amandus (1927) The Swedes on the Delaware (International Printing Company, Philadelphia)

External linksEdit

The New Sweden Centre, museum tours and reenactors.
Mémoire St Barth | History of St Barthélemy (archives & history of slavery, slave trade and their abolition), Comité de Liaison et d'Application des Sources Historiques.

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