9781422286128

11

Mid-Atlantic: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland

in honor of the queen of Sweden. They also built an earthen fort in her name. Fort Christina became the first per- manent European settlement in the Delaware Valley. It later became known as Wilmington. The Dutch were not pleased by Sweden’s claim. In 1651 they built Fort Casimir a few miles to the south of Fort Christina. A few years later, in 1655, the Dutch gained control of the region. They made Delaware a part of the growing colony they called New Netherland. By the mid 1600s the Dutch colony of New Netherland

to the site, he found the settlement had been destroyed by Native American tribes. All of the colonists were killed. About 25 years later, in 1659, the Dutch would return to area and refortify the old settlement. The resulting village would later be known as Lewes. Another European country estab- lishing colonies in the Delaware region was Sweden. In 1638 as a rep- resentative of the Swedish govern- ment, Peter Minuet dropped anchor in the Delaware River near Christina Creek, which the colonists had named

Replica of a settlers’ log cabin at Fort Christina, located in what today is Wilmington. This Swedish colony, established in 1638, was named for the queen of Sweden. The Dutch took con- trol of the colony in 1655. In 1664, control over the colony passed to English, which had gained all Dutch territories in North America.