Peach Tree War - Background

Background

In March 1638, Swedish colonists led by Peter Minuit landed in what is today Wilmington, Delaware, proclaiming the west bank of the Delaware River to be "New Sweden". The area had previously been claimed by both the English and the Dutch but, in part because of their inability to come to terms with the dominant power in the area, the Susquehannock, neither had managed more than marginal occupation. As a dismissed Director of the Dutch West India Company's New Netherland colony, Minuit was familiar with the terrain and local custom and quickly "purchased" the land (really, the right to settle) from the Susquehannock. The Susquehannock were mistrustful of the Dutch due to their close alliance with the Susquehannocks' rivals the Iroquois Confederation. They had lost their English trading partner when the new colony of Maryland had forced out William Claiborne's trading network centered on Kent Island. The Susquehannock quickly became New Sweden's main supplier of furs and pelts and customers for European manufactured goods. In the process, New Sweden became a protectorate and tributory of the Susquehannock nation, which was perhaps the leading power on the Eastern seaboard at the time.

The English and the Dutch both rejected Sweden's right to their colony, but the Dutch had greater reason for concern since they had already discovered that the Delaware River began above the 42nd parallel north and the extent of their North American claim. In 1651 they attempted to consolidate power by combining forces previously stationed at the factorijs at Fort Beversreede and Fort Nassau. They relocated the latter structure 6.5 mi (10.5 km) downstream of the Swedish Fort Christina, naming it Fort Casimir. On Trinity Sunday in 1654, Johan Risingh, Commissary and Councilor to New Sweden Governor Lt. Col. Johan Printz began his attempt to expel the Dutch from the Delaware Valley. Fort Casimir was assaulted, surrendered, and renamed Fort Trefaldighet (English: Fort Trinity), leaving Swedes in complete possession of their colony. On June 21, 1654, the Indians met with the Swedes to reaffirm their agreements. Soon after Sweden opened the Second Northern War in the Baltic by attacking the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Dutch moved to take advantage, and between September 11–15, 1655 an armed squadron of ships under the direction of Director-General Peter Stuyvesant seized New Sweden. A few days later, the Susquehannock retaliated.