New Sweden in the context of "Wilmington, Delaware"

Sweden controlled a small number of colonies outside Europe between 1638 and 1878, most of which were short-lived.

In the Americas, Sweden founded the colony of New Sweden (1638–1655) along the Delaware River, and briefly controlled Esequibo (1732–1739) and Tobago (1733). Sweden also governed the island of Saint Barthélemy for nearly a century (1784–1878). Sweden made Saint Barthélemy a free port and it served as a hub in the Atlantic slave trade. The island of Guadeloupe was a personal possession of King Charles XIV John from 1813 to 1814.

Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio and the Ohio River to its west, Lake Erie and New York to its north, the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east, and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest via Lake Erie. Pennsylvania's most populous city is Philadelphia. The state capital is Harrisburg. Among all states, Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous with over 13 million residents as of the 2020 United States census, the ninth-highest by population density, and the 33rd-largest by land area. The largest metropolitan statistical area is the southeastern Philadelphia metropolitan area, centered on Philadelphia, the state's most populous and nation's sixth-most populous city. The second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Pittsburgh, is centered in and around Pittsburgh, the state's second-largest city.

Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 through a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of the state's namesake. Before that, between 1638 and 1655, a southeast portion of the state was part of New Sweden, a Swedish colony. Established as a haven for religious and political tolerance, the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania was known for its relatively peaceful relations with native tribes, innovative government system, and religious pluralism. Pennsylvania played a vital and historic role in the American Revolution and the ultimately successful quest for independence from the British Empire, hosting the First and Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, the latter of which formed the Continental Army commanded by George Washington in 1775, during the American Revolutionary War, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence the following year. On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania was the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, right after Delaware.

The Susquehannock, also known as the Conestoga, Minquas, and Andaste, were an Iroquoian people who lived in the lower Susquehanna River watershed in what is now Pennsylvania. Their name means “people of the muddy river.”

The Susquehannock were first described by John Smith, who explored the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608. The Susquehannocks were active in the fur trade and established close trading relationships with Virginia, New Sweden, and New Netherland. They were in conflict with Maryland until a treaty was negotiated in 1652, and were the target of intermittent attacks by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).

William Penn (24 October [O.S. 14 October] 1644 – 10 August [O.S. 30 July] 1718) was an English writer, theologian, religious thinker, and influential Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during British colonial rule. An advocate of democracy and religious freedom, Penn was known for his amicable relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians who had resided in present-day Pennsylvania prior to European colonization there.

In 1681, King Charles II granted an area of land corresponding to the present-day U.S. states of Pennsylvania and Delaware to Penn to offset debts he owed Penn's father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. The following year, Penn left England and sailed up Delaware Bay and the Delaware River, where he founded Philadelphia on the river's western bank. Penn's Quaker government was not viewed favourably by the Dutch, Swedish and English settlers in what is now Delaware, and the land was also claimed by the Calverts, proprietors of the neighbouring Province of Maryland. In 1704, the three southernmost counties of provincial Pennsylvania were granted permission to form a new, semi-autonomous Delaware Colony.

The Swedish Empire or the Great Power era (Swedish: stormaktstiden) was the period in Swedish history spanning much of the 17th and early 18th centuries during which Sweden was a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic region. During this period it also held territories on the North Sea and some overseas colonies, including New Sweden. The beginning of the period is usually taken as the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, who ascended the throne in 1611, and its end as the loss of territories in 1721 following the Great Northern War.

After the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, the empire was controlled for lengthy periods by part of the high nobility, such as the Oxenstierna family, acting as regents for under-aged monarchs.

New Netherland (Dutch: Nieuw Nederland) was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

The colony was originally conceived by the Dutch West India Company in 1621 to capitalize on the North American fur trade. Settlement initially stalled because of policy mismanagement by the company and conflicts with Native Americans. The settlement of New Sweden by the Swedish South Company encroached on its southern flank, while its eastern border was redrawn to accommodate the English colonies of an expanding New England Confederation.

The Lower Counties on the Delaware, was a semi-autonomous region of the proprietary Province of Pennsylvania and a de facto British colony in North America. Although not royally sanctioned, Delaware consisted of the three counties on the west bank of the Delaware River Bay.

In the early 17th century, the area was inhabited by Lenape and possibly Assateague Indian tribes. The first European settlers were Swedes, who established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, in 1638. The Dutch captured the colony in 1655 and annexed it to New Netherland to the north. England subsequently took control of it from the Dutch in 1664. In 1682, William Penn, the Quaker proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania to the north leased the three lower counties on the Delaware River from James, the Duke of York, who went on to become King James II.

The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the early 16th century until the unifying of the Thirteen British Colonies and creation of the United States in 1776, during the Revolutionary War. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization expeditions in North America. The death rate was very high among early settlers, and some disappeared in early attempts altogether, such as the ones in the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. Nevertheless, successful European colonies were established within several decades.

European settlers in the Thirteen Colonies came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, and a very few from the aristocracy. Settlers included the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the Virginian Cavaliers, the English Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists of the Province of Maryland, the "worthy poor" of the Province of Georgia, the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots of the Appalachian Mountains. These groups all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Parts of what had been New France were incorporated during the American Revolution and soon after. Parts of New Spain were incorporated in several stages, and Russian America was also incorporated into the United States at a later time. The diverse colonists from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style.