Swedish colony

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.

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. 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.

At the time (until 1809) Finland and a large part of Norway were part of the powerful Kingdom of Sweden, and some of the settlers of Sweden's colonies came from present-day Finland or were Finnish-speaking. The Swedes and Finns brought their log house design to America, where it became the typical log cabin of pioneers. The Swedes, leveraging trading relations with the powerful inland Susquehannock peoples, allied themselves to the Susquehannock and supported the natives in their declared war with the English colony of Lord Baltimore, Province of Maryland.

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