Editing Dutch Conquest of New Sweden (section)

== Surrender of Fort Christina ==

The siege of Fort Christina was brief and one-sided. Stuyvesant landed his troops and surrounded the fort, cutting off any possibility of escape or relief. The Swedish garrison, numbering perhaps thirty men, faced the prospect of assault by a force ten times their number. Governor Rising recognized that resistance was hopeless and that continued defiance would only result in unnecessary bloodshed. After a siege lasting less than two weeks, Rising agreed to surrender the fort and with it the entire colony of New Sweden. The articles of capitulation were signed on September 15, 1655, ending Swedish colonial government in the Delaware Valley after seventeen years.<ref name="johnson"/>

The terms of surrender were relatively generous to the Swedish colonists, reflecting Dutch pragmatism rather than vindictiveness. Colonists who wished to remain on their lands could do so, retaining their property and personal belongings under Dutch rule. Those who wished to leave were free to return to Sweden, and Governor Rising himself eventually made his way back to the homeland. The Dutch needed settlers to populate their colonial territories and saw no advantage in expelling a population that had already cleared land and established farms. Most Swedish and Finnish colonists chose to stay, accepting Dutch authority while maintaining their distinctive language, religion, and customs.<ref name="ward"/>