History of Pennsylvania - Dutch and Swedish Influence

Dutch and Swedish Influence

Before the 1700s, the area known as present-day Pennsylvania was mapped by the Spanish and labeled L'arcadia, or "wooded coast", during Giovanni da Verrazzano's voyage in 1524 . The British claimed the Delaware River watershed based on the explorations of John Cabot in 1497, Captain John Smith and others. They named it for Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, the Governor of Virginia from 1610 until 1618. At that time the area was nominally part of the Colony of Virginia.

The Dutch thought they also had a claim, based on the 1609 explorations of Henry Hudson, and, under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company, were the first Europeans to occupy the land. They established trading posts in 1624 at Burlington Island, opposite present-day Bristol, Pennsylvania, and then in 1626 at Fort Nassau, now Gloucester City, New Jersey. Peter Minuit was the Dutch Director-General during this period. He likely spent some time at the Burlington Island post, although his chief responsibilities were in New Netherland (Manhattan).

Minuit had a falling out with the directors of the Dutch West India Company, and was recalled from New Netherland. He volunteered his services to friends in Sweden, then a major power in European politics. They established a New Sweden Company and, following much negotiation, Minuit led a group under the flag of Sweden to the Delaware River in 1638. They established a trading post at Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware. By 1644 Swedish and Finnish settlers were living along the western side of Delaware River from Fort Christina north to the Schuylkill River. In 1655 the Dutch seized the Swedish communities and reincorporated the area back into New Netherland. In 1664, the British defeated the Dutch to take control over all the Dutch possessions in North America, and established the Duke of York as the proprietary authority in the whole area.