Page "Delaware" Paragraph 16

The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in present-day Delaware in the Middle region by establishing a trading post at Zwaanendael, near the site of Lewes in 1631.

Within a year all the settlers were killed in a dispute with area Indian tribes.

In 1638 New Sweden, a Swedish trading post and colony, was established at Fort Christina ( now in Wilmington ) by Peter Minuit at the head of a group of Swedes, Finns and Dutch.

The colony of New Sweden lasted for 17 years.

In 1651, the Dutch, reinvigorated by the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant, established a fort at present-day New Castle, and in 1655 they conquered the New Sweden colony, annexing it into the Dutch New Netherland.