New Sweden

New Sweden was a Swedish settlement along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. It was centered at Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, and included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Along with Swedes and Finns, a number of the settlers were Dutch.

The members of the expedition, aboard the ships Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel, sailed into Delaware Bay and anchored at what is known today as Swedes' Landing on March 29, 1638. They built a fort on the present site of the city of Wilmington, which they named Fort Christina, after Queen Christina of Sweden.

In the nearly twenty years of this colony, 600 Swedish and Finnish settlers enjoyed a degree of local autonomy, having their own militia, religion, court, and lands. The descendants of the original colonists maintained spoken Swedish until the late 18th century.

Traces of New Sweden persist in the Delaware Valley to this day, including Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia, and Trinity Episcopal Church in Swedesboro, New Jersey, all commonly known as "Old Swedes' Church."

Major Swedish immigration to the United States did not occur until the late 19th century. From 1870-1910, over one million Swedes arrived. With the exceptions of Germany, Ireland and Norway, no other European country has had a higher percentage of its population move to North America. Today, nearly 4 million persons claimed Swedish as their ethnic identity on the 2000 US Census.