| New Netherland series |
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| Exploration |
| Fortifications: |
| Settlements: |
| The Patroon System |
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| People of New Netherland |
| Flushing Remonstrance |
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Fort Casimir or Fort Trinity was a Dutch fort in the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland. It was located on a no-longer existing barrier island at the end of Chestnut Street in what is now New Castle, Delaware. [1]
The Dutch called the Delaware River the Zuyd Rivier, or South River, and considered the lands along it banks and those of its bay to be the southern flank of its colony of New Netherland. In 1638, the Delaware Valley began to be settled by Swedes, Finns, Dutch, and Walloons and became the colony of New Sweden, though this was not officially recognized by the Dutch Empire.
The fort changed hands several times.
Shortly after his arrival to take up his position as up as Director-General of New Netherland in 1647, Peter Stuyvesant, attempted to re-assert control of the region and its lucrative trade. In his initial attempt at control, he effected the construction of Fort Beversreede near the terminus of the Great Minquas Path, at the mouth of the Schuylkill. [2] The location of earlier-built Fort Nassau on the east bank (now New Jersey) of the river, had proved disadvantageous since the richest fur-trapping area of the native Susquehannock and Lenape populations was inland to the west. In 1651, Stuyvesant had the fort dismantled and relocated to the western bank downstream from Fort Christina, the first and one of the larger Swedish settlements. He named it Fort Casimir. [3] Fort Beversreede was abandoned and the Dutch presence was consolidated.
On Trinity Sunday in 1654, Johan Risingh, Commissary and Councilor to New Sweden Governor Lt. Col. Johan Printz, officially assumed his duties and his attempts to expel the Dutch from the Delaware Valley. Fort Casimir surrendered to the Swedes and was renamed Fort Trinity (in Swedish Fort Trefaldighet). On June 21, 1654, the native peoples met with the Swedes to reaffirm their alliance.
Stuyvesant led a Dutch force which retook the fort on September 11, 1655, renaming it New Amstel (in Dutch Nieuw Amstel). Fort Christina, located 6.5 mi (10.5 km) to the north fell on September 15, 1655. Fort Nya Elfsborg, on the east bank, was abandoned and set afire by departing Swedish forces. New Sweden came under the control of the Dutch. John Paul Jacquet was immediately appointed vice director, making New Amstel a regional stronghold of the Dutch colony, [4] [5] subordinate to New Amsterdam. It has been suggested that the Peach War attack was a retaliation, as the indigenous population considered the treaty with the Swedes to include a defence alliance. [6]
In 1664, the Dutch surrendered control of Fort Amsterdam, and thereafter all of New Netherland fell to the English. Proceeding south the English peacefully took Fort Altena. Some resistance was offered at Fort Casimir, but the fort quickly succumbed. [7] In 1673–1674 it came under Dutch control again, but reverted to the English after the signing of the Treaty of Westminster. [4]
The fort was abandoned around 1675 and the site was used for several different commercial purposes. Low laying areas around the old fort site were filled with ash. It is believed that presently a parking lot and several houses are located above the remains of the fort. A preliminary archeological survey of the area was conducted in 1986. [1]
Casimir was the name of several Polish kings known for success in battle, as well as the contemporary John Casimir when the fort was named by Petrus Stuyvesant. [8] Historian Joseph Wytrwal found that one of Stuyvesant's confidantes and trusted burghers was Daniel Liczko, a Pole, and Stuyvesant encouraged Polish tradesmen and soldiers to settle in New Netherland. [9] [10]
It has also been suggested that the fort was named for Ernst Casimir of Nassau-Dietz who was also Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, but there is no documentary evidence to support this idea. [11] [12]
New Sweden was a colony of the Swedish Empire along the lower reaches of the Delaware River between 1638 and 1655 in present-day Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in the United States. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great power, New Sweden formed part of the Swedish efforts to colonize the Americas.
Fort Christina was the first Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Queen Christina of Sweden, it was located approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) east of the present-day downtown Wilmington, Delaware, at the confluence of the Brandywine River and the Christina River, approximately 2 mi (3 km) upstream from the mouth of the Christina on the Delaware River.
West Jersey and East Jersey were two distinct parts of the Province of New Jersey. The political division existed for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often a matter of dispute.
Delaware Colony in the North American Middle Colonies consisted of land on the west bank of the Delaware River Bay. In the early 17th century, the area was inhabited by Lenape and possibly Assateague Native American 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. Great Britain 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.
Johan Classon Risingh was the last governor of the Swedish colony of New Sweden.
The Peach Tree War, also known as the Peach War, was a large-scale attack on September 15, 1655 by the Susquehannock Indians and allied tribes on several New Netherland settlements along the North River.
Fort Nya Elfsborg was a fortification and settlement established as a part of New Sweden. Built in 1643 and named after the Älvsborg Fortress off Gothenburg, Fort Nya Elfsborg was located on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, between present day Salem and Alloway Creek.
Swedes' Landing is the warehouse road found along the Minquas Kill in Wilmington, Delaware that is close to the Delaware River. This was the site where the initial Swedish landing took place and marks the spot where the New Sweden colony began. The first Swedish expedition to North America, under the command of Peter Minuit, embarked from the port of Gothenburg in late 1637. The members of the expedition, aboard the ships Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel, sailed into Delaware Bay, which lay within the territory claimed by the Dutch West India Company and anchored at a rocky point on Swedes' Landing on March 29, 1638. They built a fort on the site which they named Fort Christina after Queen Christina of Sweden. Today Swedes Landing Road is a short stretch from 4th Street to 7th Street and ends at a long two-story mural depicting the area from the time before the Swedes came through the modern Wilmington waterfront. At the far end of the mural is the entrance to Fort Christina National Historical Site, a part of the First State National Historical Park System.
Swedish overseas colonies consisted of the overseas colonies controlled by Sweden. Sweden possessed overseas colonies from 1638 to 1663, in 1733 and from 1784 to 1878. Sweden possessed five colonies, four of which were short lived. The colonies spanned three continents: Africa, Asia and North America.
The history of Delaware as a political entity dates back to the early colonization of North America by European settlers. Delaware is made up of three counties established in 1638, before the time of William Penn. Each county had its own settlement history. The state's early colonists tended to identify more closely with their county than Delaware as a whole. Large parts of southern and western Delaware were thought to have been in Maryland until 1767. The state has existed in the wide economic and political circle of the nearby Pennsylvanian city of Philadelphia.
The Block House is a historic building located off Naamans Road in Claymont, Delaware. The Block House is believed to be the only structure remaining of original settlement on Naamans Creek.
Fort Nassau was a factorij in New Netherland between 1627–1651 located at the mouth of Big Timber Creek at its confluence with the Delaware River. It was the first known permanent European-built structure in what would become the state of New Jersey. The creek name is a derived from the Dutch language Timmer Kill as recorded by David Pietersen de Vries in his memoirs of his journey of 1630–1633. The Delaware Valley and its bay was called the "South River" ; the "North River" of the colony was the Hudson River. The factorij was established for the fur trade, mostly in beaver pelts, with the indigenous populations of Susquehannock, who spoke an Iroquoian language, and the Lenape, whose language was of the Algonquian family. They also wanted to retain a physical claim to the territory.
Fort Beversreede was a Dutch-built palisaded factorij located near the confluence of the Schuylkill River and the Delaware River. It was an outpost of the colony of New Netherland, which was centered on its capital, New Amsterdam (Manhattan), on the North River.
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th century colony of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America. The claimed territory included southern Cape Cod to parts of the Delmarva Peninsula. Settled areas are now part of the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Its capital, New Amsterdam, was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan on Upper New York Bay.
Olof Persson Stille (1610–1684) was a pioneer settler of New Sweden, a colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in North America claimed by Sweden from 1638 to 1655. Stille served as the first chief justice of the Upland Court, the governing body of the New Sweden colony following Dutch West India Company annexation from Swedish colonial rule.
Great Minquas Path was a 17th-century trade route that ran through southeastern Pennsylvania from the Susquehanna River, near Conestoga, to the Schuylkill River, opposite Philadelphia. The 80-mile (130 km) east-west trail was the primary route for fur trading with the Minquas people. Dutch, Swedish and English settlers fought one another for control of it.
Armegot Printz (1625–1695) was a Swedish noble. She was the daughter of Johan Björnsson Printz, governor of New Sweden, and she married her father's successor, governor Johan Papegoja. She is the most well documented and known woman of New Sweden.
The conquest of New Netherland occurred in 1664 as an English expedition led by Richard Nicolls that arrived in New York Harbor effected a peaceful capture of New Amsterdam, Fort Amsterdam and the Articles of Surrender of New Netherland were agreed. The conquest was mostly peaceful in the rest of the colony as well, except for some fighting in New Amstel.
Hans Månsson (1612–1691) was a Swedish soldier and a convicted criminal who was sent to New Sweden along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States in 1641. After serving six years on a tobacco plantation, he was freed and became a respected leader in Dutch New Netherland, serving as a spokesman for the settlers, and as commanding officer of the militia at Wicaco. He purchased land and was one of the first European settlers in what is now New Jersey.
After the start of the Second Northern War, the Dutch seized New Sweden and soon absorbed it into New Netherlands.