Swedish overseas colonies

Last updated

Swedish overseas colonies
Svenska kolonier (Swedish)
1638–1663
1733
17841878
Motto:  I Gud mitt hopp
"In God my hope"
Anthem:  Kungssången
"Song of the king"
SwedishColonialEmpire(FIX).png
Map of the Swedish Empire with all of the territories that it possessed (Purple)
Capital Stockholm
Common languagesOfficial language:
Swedish
Regional languages:
Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, German
Religion
Church of Sweden
Government Absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy
History 
 Established
1638
 Disestablished
1878
Population
 1650
2,200,000
Currency Riksdaler
ISO 3166 code SE

Swedish overseas colonies (Swedish : Svenska utomeuropeiska kolonier) 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.

Contents

List

The former Swedish colonies in Africa were:

The former Swedish colonies in the Americas:

The former Swedish colonies in Asia were:

Americas

New Sweden

Map of New Sweden ca. 1650 Kartskiss over Nya Sverige.png
Map of New Sweden ca. 1650
Seal of the Swedish governor of Saint Barthelemy, 1784-1878. Stampel for guvernor over den svenska kolonin S-t Barthelemy, Vastindien, 1784-1877 - Livrustkammaren - 102551.tif
Seal of the Swedish governor of Saint Barthélemy, 1784–1878.

By the middle of the 17th century, the Swedish Empire had reached its greatest territorial extent. The Swedes sought to extend their influence by creating an agricultural (tobacco) and fur trading colony to bypass French, English and Dutch merchants. The charter included Swedish, Dutch and German stockholders. Once they landed they established Fort Christina (now Wilmington, Delaware), named after Queen Christina of Sweden. Many of the settlers were Finnish, since until 1809 the area of modern Finland was the eastern third of the kingdom of Sweden.

The settlement was actually an invasion of New Netherland since it was Dutch territory. The founder and first governor, Peter Minuit, had been Director-General of New Netherland from 1626 to 1633. Disgruntled after being dismissed from his post, he led a Swedish expedition to a location which he knew to be strategic as well as a thorn in the side of his former employers. Minuit died on a return trip from Stockholm in a hurricane near the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. The colony would establish Fort Nya Elfsborg north of present-day Salem, New Jersey, in 1643.

In May 1654, the Dutch Fort Casimir, located in present-day New Castle, Delaware, was captured by New Sweden. As a reprisal, the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant sent an army to the Delaware River, which obtained the surrender of the Swedish forts.

Antillian possessions

Saint Barthélemy is the only Caribbean island to have been historically a Swedish colony for any significant length of time, Guadeloupe only having been one briefly, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

As a result of Sweden's support of France's enemies during the Napoleonic Wars, the island of Guadeloupe was ceded to king Charles XIV John personally, not to his Swedish state. However a year later the island was given to France by the Treaty of Paris. Sweden then forced a settlement with the British government because it had been guaranteed the island which was strategically close to its other Caribbean colony. This led to the Guadeloupe Fund which guaranteed Sweden 24 million francs. Because of how the money was used, Sweden was then given an additional 300,000 Riksdaler under the Riksdag of 1815 every year. The last installment was paid in 1983.

In addition to these the Swedes briefly attempted to settle Tobago in 1733, but were driven away by native tribes, and Tobago was eventually claimed by the British.[ citation needed ]

Saint Barthélemy

During the time of Sweden's colonisation of Africa's Gold Coast, the small Swedish slave trade began. However, after the fall of New Sweden to the Dutch, the slave trade ended. It would later be rejuvenated in 1784, when Sweden's monarch, Gustav III, began negotiations with France with a view to creating a new alliance between the two countries. Gustav offered Gothenburg as an entrepôt to the French, in exchange for the Caribbean colony of Saint Barthélemy, in addition to subsidies. Although Sweden was successful in acquiring the island in 1784, the population of the colony was less than 1000 people, and neither were particularly propitious trading ports—sugar and cotton only provided four shiploads a year, and many of the other resources were only produced in large enough quantities to provide subsistence for the inhabitants. [1]

However, the islands were close to the British and French trading posts of the Leeward and Windward islands. A new town was also constructed, Gustavia (named after the king), and this facilitated trade. Within a year, the population had doubled and the king saw fit to form the Swedish West India Company. The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) benefitted trade, as did the opening of free trade with Sweden in 1806; the population had continued to increase, reaching approximately 5000 by 1800. With the exception of a brief period of British occupation from 1801 to 1802, the colonies continued to grow. In 1811, 1800 ships visited Saint Barthélemy; and from October 1813 to September 1814, 20% of the U.S.'s exports passed through the island. [1]

The island was notable for its liberalism, particularly in regards to religious toleration. In Sweden, Lutheranism was strictly adhered to; people were obligated to attend a number of church services a year, and adherence to other religions or denominations was against the law (conversion to Catholicism, for example, often led to people being exiled). However, these two islands were inhabited by such a diverse group of people from European backgrounds, that French and English were also accepted official languages. On Saint Barthélemy, in 1787, only 21 Lutherans resided there, compared to over 500 Catholics, as well as several hundred people from different Protestant denominations. The government did not seek to suppress this: indeed, they ordered Saint Barthélemy's governor, Rosenstein, to salary a Catholic priest to come from Saint Martin twice a month. [1]

Africa

The Swedish are invited by the Akan King of Futu to erect a "stony house" for the purpose of trade. Muller Fetu 1648 B002.jpg
The Swedish are invited by the Akan King of Futu to erect a "stony house" for the purpose of trade.

Sweden temporarily controlled several settlements on the Gold Coast (present Ghana) since 22 April 1650, but lost the last when on 20 April 1663 Fort Carlsborg and the capital Fort Christiansborg were seized by Denmark.

Cape Coast

In 1652, the Swedes took Cape Coast (in modern Ghana) which had previously been under the control of the Dutch and before that the Portuguese. Cape Coast was centered on the Carolusburg Castle which was built in 1653 and named after King Charles X Gustav of Sweden but is now known as the Cape Coast Castle.

India

The Swedish East India Company did not establish any permanent colonies in India, but they briefly possessed a factory in Porto Novo (today Parangipettai, Tamil Nadu). The fort was destroyed a month after its construction by French and British forces. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedish colonies in the Americas</span> Part of European colonization of the Americas

Sweden established colonies in the Americas in the mid-17th century, including the colony of New Sweden (1638–1655) on the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, as well as two possessions in the Caribbean during the 18th and 19th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesser Antilles</span> Archipelago in the Southeast Caribbean

The Lesser Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. They are distinguished from the large islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc which begins east of Puerto Rico and swings south through the Leeward and Windward Islands almost to South America and then turns west along the Venezuelan coast as far as Aruba. Barbados is isolated about 100 miles east of the Windwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeward Islands</span> Subgroup of islands in the West Indies

The Leeward Islands are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In English, the term Leeward Islands refers to the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. The more southerly part of this chain, starting with Dominica, is called the Windward Islands. Dominica was originally considered a part of the Leeward Islands, but was transferred from the British Leeward Islands to the British Windward Islands in 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French West Indies</span> French territories in the Caribbean

The French West Indies or French Antilles are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Possessions of Sweden</span>

This is a list of possessions of Sweden held outside of Sweden proper during the early modern period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedish slave trade</span> Trading of slaves in Sweden

The Swedish slave trade mainly occurred in the early history of Sweden when the trade of thralls was one of the pillars of the Norse economy. During the raids, the Vikings often captured and enslaved militarily weaker peoples they encountered, but took the most slaves in raids of the British Isles, and Slavs in Eastern Europe. This slave trade lasted from the 8th through the 11th centuries. Slavery itself was abolished in Sweden in 1335.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish overseas colonies</span> 1536–1953 colonies of Denmark–Norway and Denmark

Danish overseas colonies and Dano-Norwegian colonies were the colonies that Denmark–Norway possessed from 1536 until 1953. At its apex, the colonies spanned four continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curonian colonization of the Americas</span>

The Curonian colonization of the Americas was performed by the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which was the second-smallest state to colonise the Americas, after the Knights of Malta. It had a colony on the island of Tobago from 1654 to 1659 and intermittently from 1660 to 1689.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial empire</span> Overseas possessions of a nation-state

A colonial empire is a collective of territories, either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the population of a certain state and governed by that state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish Gold Coast</span> Danish colony in Africa from 1658 to 1850

The Danish Gold Coast comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast, which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was colonized by the Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under indirect rule by the Danish West India Company, later as a crown colony of the kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The area under Danish influence was over 10,000 square kilometres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedish Gold Coast</span> Swedish colony in present-day Ghana

The Swedish Gold Coast was a colony of the Swedish Africa Company founded in 1650 by Hendrik Carloff on the Gulf of Guinea in present-day Ghana in Africa. Under foreign occupation for much of its existence, it disappeared for good in April 1663 when it became part of the Dutch Gold Coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy</span> Largest city in Saint Barthélemy

Gustavia is the main town and capital of the island of Saint Barthélemy. Originally called Le Carénage, it was renamed in honor of King Gustav III of Sweden.

Nordic colonialism is a subdivision within broader colonial studies that discusses the role of Nordic nations in achieving economic benefits from outside of their own cultural sphere. The field ranges from studying the Sámi in relation to the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish states, to activities of the Danish Colonial Empire and Swedish Empire in Africa, New Sweden, and on Caribbean islands such as St. Thomas and Saint-Barthélemy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Territorial evolution of the Caribbean</span>

This is a timeline of the territorial evolution of the Caribbean and nearby areas of North, Central, and South America, listing each change to the internal and external borders of the various countries that make up the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean campaign of 1803–1810</span>

The Caribbean campaign of 1803–1810 was a series of military contests mainly in the West Indies spanning the Napoleonic Wars involving European powers Napoleonic France, the Batavian Republic, Spain, the Kingdom of Portugal and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Eventually British naval forces dominated the seas and by 1810 every French, Dutch and Danish colony was firmly under allied control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Barthélemy</span> French island in the Caribbean

Saint Barthélemy, officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, also known as St. Barts (English) or St. Barth (French), is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. The island lies about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southeast of the island of Saint Martin; it is northeast of the Dutch islands of Saba and Sint Eustatius, as well as north of the independent country of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dano-Dutch War</span> War between the Dutch and Danish, 1661–1665

The Dano-Dutch War was a colonial conflict between the Danes and Dutch over the control of European fortifications on the Gold Coast. Denmark-Norway, assisted by England, defeated the Dutch in various places, although Michiel de Ruyter retaliated against the English by recapturing all forts but Cape Coast. This forced the Royal African Company into bankruptcy, which started the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kent, Neil (12 June 2008). A Concise History of Sweden. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 134–138. ISBN   978-0-521-01227-0.
  2. Lindqvist, Herman. Våra kolonier : de vi hade och de som aldrig blev av. Sweden: Albert Bonniers förlag. pp. 170–172. ISBN   9789174333077.

Sources

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Swedish colonial empire at Wikimedia Commons