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.[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.
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.[6]
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 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.[8]