Editing Fort Christina (section)

== Founding Expedition ==

The expedition that founded Fort Christina was organized by the New Sweden Company, a joint venture of Swedish and Dutch investors chartered in 1637 to establish a colony in North America. The company recruited Peter Minuit, a former director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, to lead the enterprise. Minuit had extensive experience in colonial administration and North American conditions, having famously purchased Manhattan Island from the Lenape for the Dutch in 1626. His falling out with the Dutch West India Company made him available for Swedish service, and he brought valuable knowledge of the Delaware Valley region to the new venture.<ref name="ward">{{cite book |last=Ward |first=Christopher |title=The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware 1609-64 |year=1930 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>

Minuit departed from Gothenburg, Sweden, in late 1637 with two ships: the ''Kalmar Nyckel'' (Key of Kalmar) and the ''Fogel Grip'' (Bird Griffin). The expedition carried approximately fifty colonists and soldiers, primarily Swedish and Finnish, along with supplies for establishing a settlement. After a difficult winter crossing of the Atlantic, the ships entered the Delaware Bay in March 1638 and sailed up the river to a site Minuit had selected at the mouth of a tributary stream, which the Swedes named the Christina River after their young queen. The location offered fresh water, defensible terrain, and access to the fur trade with the [[Lenape people]] of the interior.<ref name="johnson">{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Amandus |title=The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638-1664 |year=1911 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>